Nature's Robots

This is a history of protein science, from the origins of protein research in the 19th century, when the chemical constitution of "protein" was first studied, to when positions of individual atoms were first specified exactly and bonding between neighbouring atoms precisely defined.

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Proteins are amazingly versatile molecules. They make the chemical reactions happen that form the basis for life, they transmit signals in the body, they identify and kill foreign invaders, they form the engines that make us move, they record visual images. All of this is now common knowledge, but it was not so a hundred years ago. "Nature's Robots" is an authoritative history of protein science, from the origins of protein research in the 19th century, when the chemical constitution of "protein" was first studied and heatedly debated and when there was as yet no glimmer of the functional potential of substances in the "protein" category, to the determination of the first structures of individual proteins at atomic resolution - when positions of individual atoms were first specified exactly and bonding between neighbouring atoms precisely defined.