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BOOK REVIEW Genes, Proteins, and Cellular Aging. Edited by Robin Holliday. Benchmark Papers in Genetics Series. A Hutchinson Ross Publication. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986. $42.95. Philosophers of science tell us that testing theories is a crucial aspect of the scientific method. However, if one looks critically at the exponentially growing mass of publications in most research areas in biology, including aging, this is the aspect missing most often. One of the main reasons for this is the so-called publish-or-perish syndrome that promotes die publication of the slightest of empirical data without much emphasis on their contextual analysis. Although diese data are not useless, they can be contradictory, confusing, and misleading without helping guide one through the heap. In Genes, Proteins, and Cellular Aging, Robin Holliday has undertaken the difficult task of taking us through the last 2 decades of cytogerontology by selecting 30 papers that he thinks are the benchmark papers and by briefing us about them before we embark on reading diem independendy. It is in the very nature of such a selection that the editor's subjectivity cannot be eliminated. Dr. Holliday is known for his consistent support of the general error theory of aging that, unfortunately, has been repeatedly misunderstood, misinterpreted, and prematurely discarded by some. Therefore, it is not surprising that the majority of the papers included in this volume deal with theoretical and experimental aspects of mechanisms of aging, particularly those ". . . that are specifically concerned with testing tL· possibility that errors in proteins and DNA accumulate during aging . . ." (p. 5). For the same reason, almost half the papers in this book originate from Holliday's own group at Mill Hill, London. The selected papers are grouped in five parts each preceded by a short chapter by the editor introducing, evaluating, criticising, and discussing those and other related papers in a manner that I found very useful. For example, die first section, which deals witìi the concept of error accumulation, contains seven full papers and a short correction by Orgel to one of his earlier papers, and is introduced by the editor in the context ofboth the history ofdevelopment ofthe error theory and various approaches to manipulate the accuracy of protein synthesis. Similarly, part 2, which contains seven papers on the experimental and theoretical aspects of the cell biology of aging, has an excellent introduction and critique of different lines of thought emerging from these studies. Part 3 includes papers that deal with various attempts on testing die error dieory of aging using the Hayflick model of aging in vitro. The introduction to this section is most important in the sense chat it clearly points out the limitations, gaps, and errors ofjudgement in various papers. This section also evaluates the 154 I Book Review validity of die range of experimental evidence often quoted for or against the error dieory. The final section of the book deals with the changes at the DNA level. The papers included in this part address to the question of relationships between aging and maintenance of genetic stability, including those on measurements of mutation frequencies during aging. Further, one of the earliest papers on estimating levels of DNA methylation during aging is also included in this section; it is now becoming a popular area of research in gerontology. Holliday has coined the term epimutations for such epigenetic changes, and it appears that studying such changes will be of much value for understanding the molecular mechanisms of aging. No one claims that this book is a comprehensive survey of die whole field of cytogerontology. Nor is it an absolutely neutral and objective selection of the socalled benchmark papers. Rather, it is one man's attempt to bring together a set of papers in a definite context and with a view of linking them in a chain of the history of development of ideas in aging as he sees them. For a critical reader, this book can be a key to enter into not only thejungle ofliterature in the field of cellular aging but also into the mind of one of the most original, and therefore controversial, contributors in this area. For a young student, Holliday acts...

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