Harold Baum

The right reader -- be it a student or a professional scientist -- may find this work to be entertaining. It puts biochemical phenomena to the tune of popular songs of yesteryear. In 1982, when the book was published, the author was a Prof. of Biochemistry at University of London. For his department, he would write his biochemistry- based tunes while traveling on the bus, giving the results to his department secretary to transcribe. As the author relates in the book's preface, some of his songs found their way to Hans Krebs (of Krebs' Cycle fame), who offered his encouragement, and who wrote the forward to this songbook.

Among the included songs are the following: "Waltz Round the Cycle" (to the tune of Waltzing Matilda); "The Battle Hymn of the Aerobes" (to Battle Hymn of the Republic); "Protein Biosynthesis" (to My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean); "Photosynthesis" (to Auld Lang Syne) and others to tunes even less likely to be familiar to today's readers, at least outside of the England: "The Chemiosmotic Theory"; "Blood Sugar"; "The Glyoxylate Cycle"; and "We're Here Because Urea."

As an example, consider "Photosynthesis" (Auld Lang Syne):
When sunlight bathes the chloroplast, and photons are absorbed...
The energy's transduced so fast that food is quickly stored.

As another, there's "The Battle Hymn of the Aerobes":
Mine eyes have seen the glory of respiratory chains
In every mitochondrion, intrinsic to membranes...

Then there's beta- oxidation (to There's a Tavern in the Town):
There is a pathway in the cell (in the cell)
That metabolises awfully well (awfully well).. .

The songs are interspersed with musical scores (for those uncertain of the tunes), and in a feature ne'er before found in a songbook, with complex, line drawings of metabolic pathways.

This small book is uniquely amusing as well as audacious. Not one in 1000 will appreciate or understand it, but for those few members of its specialized audience, it's a book without compare. Perhaps that's a good thing.… (more)