This page introduces a series that discuss common errors in current textbooks of biochemistry.
These pages in this series are in the process of being updated to take account of
changes in textbooks since they were first prepared in 2000. I am very grateful
to Dr. Edward Behrman, Department of Biochemistry, Ohio State University, for his
help, without which the revision would not be possible. As it is not without interest to
check how textbooks have evolved in five years, the original pages will be left in place
with the same names as the new pages apart from addition of a zero at the end of the
name; for example, the old version of this page (howler.htm) is howler0.htm. As it will
not be practicable to complete all the revision at the same moment there will be a period
during which the two series are out of step and cross-references between them may
be wrong.
It is inevitable that textbooks contain mistakes, and in a subject as broad as modern biochemistry it is a brave author who can even contemplate the idea of writing a book of more than 1000 pages that is supposed to cover the whole field. No one can be expert in all of biochemistry, and even when expert reviewers check each section of a book there are bound to be a few mistakes that escape detection until after it is too late to correct them.
That said, it remains true that some mistakes seem to get copied from book to book and
from edition to edition, and publicizing them as Textbook errors
in
Trends in Biochemical Sciences or
Biochemical Education seems to have less effect than one might hope, or
at least a much more short-term effect. Certain errors do seem to get less frequent over the
years—thirty or forty years ago almost all textbook authors seemed to be confused about the
zwitterionic structure of amino acids, but now the majority have it more or less right—but others, such as the grossly poor drawing of the curve that is supposed to represent a
Michaelis–Menten dependence
of rate on substrate concentration improve depressingly slowly. So it seems to be worthwhile to create
a permanent listing of the commonest errors, noting which textbooks have it right.
The pages that discuss examples of errors in current textbooks are listed in the table. The letters in the column headings refer to the different textbooks: (C = Boyer; C = Campbell & Farrell; G = Garrett & Grisham; H = Horton et al.; L = Nelson & Cox (formerly Lehninger) Mc = McKee & McKee; Mt = Mathews et al.; Mt = Metzler; S = Berg et al.; (formerly Stryer); V = Voet & Voet), which are listed in full below.
The errors noted on these pages are certainly not the only ones that commonly occur in biochemistry textbooks, and there are probably others as important as or more important than these that I have not noted. I shall therefore be very glad to hear from readers who have suggestions for other entries (and can supply evidence that they are widespread in modern textbooks). If they concern points on which I feel competent to hold an opinion I shall add them. In other cases (most points regarding molecular biology, for example) it is probably better if people more expert than I am compile their own lists.
I have tried to confine this list to cases where the facts appear completely clear, with no room for multiple opinions. However, if any readers feel that some criticisms are unfair or exaggerated I shall be glad to hear from them.
The letter shown in brackets before each entry is the corresponding caption in the table above.
[B] Boyer, R. F. (2002) Concepts in Biochemistry
(2nd edn.) Wiley, New York
[C] Campbell, M. K. and Farrell, S. O. (2002) Biochemistry
(4th edn.) Brooks/Cole
[G] Garrett, R. H. and Grisham, C. M. (2004) Biochemistry
(3rd edn.) Brooks/Cole
[H] Horton, R. H., Moran, L. A., Ochs, R. S., Rawn, D. J. and Scrimgeour, K. G. (1996)
Principles of Biochemistry
(3rd edn.), Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
[L] Nelson, D. L. and Cox, M. M. (2004) Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry
(4th edn.) Freeman, New York
[M] McKee,T. and McKee, J. R. (2002) Biochemistry: the Molecular Basis of Life
(3rd edn.), McGraw-Hill
[Mt] Mathews, C. K., van Holde, K. E. and Ahern, K. G. (1999) Biochemistry
(3rd edn.), Addison Wesley Longman, San Francisco
[Me] Metzler, D. E. (2003) Biochemistry
(2nd edn.), Academic Press
[S] Berg, J. M., Tymoczko, J. L. and Stryer, L. (2002) Biochemistry
(5th edn.) Freeman, New York
(parially corrected reprint of the edition published in 1993)
A textbook was eligible for inclusion in the list as it was updated in 2005 if it satisfied the following criteria:
