Symposium reports 



98. 



R.HARRIS, P.ALLIN, and D.VIZA, eds. 1972. CELL DIFFERENTIATION 

 Munksgaard, Copenhagen. X,350 pp., 131 figs., 5 pis., 54 tabs., 

 index to contributors. D.Kr.195.00 



This book contains the papers read during the First Interna- 

 tional Conference on Cell Differentiation (held in the summer of 

 1971 in Nice, France - this information is not to be found in 

 the book). It is unfortunate that the book bears the same title 

 as a multi-author treatise published in 1970 (Schjeide and De 

 Vellis, eds.). The Conference had a widely international atten- 

 dance. Its chief aims were "to define important questions and to 

 indicate the available experimental models and suggest new ones, 

 in a series of short presentations". 



Most of the papers are very short and avoid technical detail. 

 Most report on unpublished or very recently published work, 

 while some are reviews or are of a theoretical nature. The range 

 of cell systems and methods covered is astonishing. In the list 

 of speakers one encounters many of the "big names" one would ex- 

 pect, but the majority of the authors seem to belong to a young- 

 er generation, which is very refreshing. The book is fascinating 

 "browsing" material if one wishes to acquire a broad idea of 

 what is going on in the field at this very moment, and particu- 

 larly where new frontiers are being opened up and new interdis- 

 ciplinary approaches tried out. However, if one wants details 

 one would have to go back to the relevant journal articles. 

 Nevertheless, despite its heterogeneity (or perhaps just because 

 of it) the book may be expected to serve as an eye-opener to 

 many . 



No less than 65 papers are arranged (admittedly more or less 

 arbitrarily) in four sections as follows: Embryology (12 papers, 

 with relatively most of the "big names"); Immunology (9); Can- 

 cerology (18); Cell biology (26). The last section is concluded 

 by a brief synthesis of the final round table discussion on cell 

 biology and differentiation. The editing of the papers has been 

 minimal, resulting in a lack of editorial uniformity that is 

 sometimes irritating. 



The book is beautifully produced and illustrated, and not too 

 expensive for its value; the more the pity that it is disfigured 

 by numerous printing errors. There is no subject index. The so- 

 called author index is really an index to contributors; it is 

 not clear why only first authors are included. 



99. 



L.G.SILVESTRI, ed. 1972. CELL INTERACTIONS; Proceedings of the 



third Lepetit Colloquium 



North-Holland, Amsterdam. 324 pp., 79 figs., 46 tabs., subject 



index. D.fl. 45.00, ca. $ 18.00 (paper) 



This Symposium was held in London in November, 1971, and was 

 attended by an international group of experts. All the papers 

 describe very recent work, and although they vary in length and 

 some of them are little more than abstracts, most are highly in- 

 teresting particularly for those who want new information on 

 cell surface properties and intercellular messengers. We mention 

 only those papers which have a direct bearing on developmental 

 biology. 



In the section on cell interaction and differentiation (7 pa- 

 pers) there is first of all an important and stimulating paper by 



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