Editor and Contributor: Carol L. Moberg
Publisher: Rockefeller University Press – 499 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

The author Carol Moberg has to her credit ample knowledge and a good background in the history of science and scientific research, as she was one of the editors and contributors to an earlier book Launching the Antibiotic Era (1990, Rockefeller University Press) which contained personal accounts of scientists on the discovery and first use of antibiotics.

This new book – Entering an Unseen World – is a substantial volume that tells a well-researched, detailed story on the birth and growth of a new science – modern cell biology – shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. The place of birth was the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City and year was 1910, when scientists in its laboratories began studying cancer cells.

The largest reward for the more than six decades of painstaking work observing cells and recording findings was also the world’s most prestigious award, the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology / Medicine, which was bestowed upon three scientists who worked at the  laboratories of that institute.

Those pioneering researchers were: Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George Palade. They had made discoveries that linked structures inside cells to their functions. The Nobel citation stated that their discoveries were responsible for the founding of a new science called modern cell biology.

But the story behind that single event – their winning of that Nobel Prize in 1974 – is a much larger one that involved the collaborative efforts of many people. Carol Moberg points out that to have created the new science of modern cell biology involved “innumerable experiments by dozens of fellow scientists, many gradual steps, unusual collaborations and interdisciplinary skills.”

Why was the new science called “modern cell biology”? Because it followed the discoveries made during the 250+ years history of old cell biology, from 1660 to 1910.

That period began with the work of observing tiny living things by Anton von Leeuwenhoek, who has been called the “Father of Microbiology.” He is also known to some as the inventor of the microscope, but that has been put to doubt; he improved it, but others – Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen have received credit for inventing it.

The earliest and simplest optical microscope magnified objects more than 200 times what appeared to the unaided human eye; and it was used to observe single-cell organisms like amoeba and tiny creatures living in ponds.

The author points out that this book is neither a history of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research nor of all modern cell biology. It is rather a history of the laboratories where discoveries relating to cells were made by scientists; of experimental procedures; of adopting and adapting of various instruments for those discoveries and procedures; and of the standards established to create a new science: modern cell biology.

This history is based on materials received from 23 contributors, whose photos and other details are presented at the beginning the book. Right after this section, the author  presents “Milestones in Modern Cell Biology at Rockefeller, a sort of timeline with  micrographs, each one marked with the year of discovery.

This book has 14 chapters grouped together into Part 1, 2, 3, with each one based on a chronology of events:

Part 1 – Roots of a New Science, 1910-1949

Part 2 – New Worlds Inside the Cell, 1950-1960

Part 3 – Cytology Become Cell Biology, 1961-1974

Throughout the book are photographs of scientists who worked at that medical institute, sketches and photos of instruments and tools used, and micrographs of cells and cell parts.

Useful sections are found towards the end of the book, including Appendix A containing a roster of people who worked at the cell biology laboratories from 1923 to 1974, Appendix B, with a three-page long list of illustrations used in this book, and “Works Cited,” with more than 50 pages containing lists of books and other materials consulted for each chapter.

Carol L. Moberg is on the faculty of The Rockefeller University. She has a PhD from Columbia University in comparative literature. Her articles on science, science history and biomedical science have been published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Science, Scientific American and The Journal of Experimental Medicine. She is the author of Rene Dubois, Friend of the Good Earth, and co-editor and contributor to Launching the Antibiotic Era.

Additional information about this fantastic book can be found at the Rockfeller University Website.