Crossing the Boundaries of Life: Günter Blobel and the Origins of Molecular Cell Biology, by Karl S. Matlin

• Vaishnavi Sridhar ^[1]
  1. [1] Tata Institute of Fundamental Research National Centre for Biological Sciences Bangalore India
• Localización: Nuncius: annali di storia della scienza, ISSN 0394-7394, Vol. 40, Nº. 1 (Número especial: La constitució del lloc d'observació científica (segles 15-18): llocs ideals, reals), 2025, págs. 312-314
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • One of the key concepts in cell biology that students are introduced to at an early stage is the notion that cells are the fundamental units of life. What one does not learn, however, is how the study of cells was pushed into obscurity by the ascendance of the study of molecules. The mid to late twentieth century saw a reconciliation of the two and the birth of a new discipline—molecular cell biology. In Crossing the Boundaries of Life: Günter Blobel and the Origins of Molecular Cell Biology, Karl Matlin—a cell biologist turned historian of science—tells this story of the cell using the example of Günter Blobel, a molecular cell biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999 for his discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localisation in the cell. But while Matlin gives us an insider’s view of Blobel’s life, having worked in a lab opposite his, one shouldn’t confuse this book for a biography of him. It is anything but that. The main characters of the story are cells and cell biology, whereas all the scientists featured in the book, including Blobel, are but supporting characters that help the main character reinvent and reclaim importance