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« Faith and Flagella | Main | I get email »

Enzyme Man?

Category: Weirdness
Posted on: October 1, 2009 7:02 AM, by PZ Myers

J-pop culture is creeping in everywhere. How else to explain the Manga Guide to Molecular Biology?

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Comments

Posted by: Rorschach | October 1, 2009 7:35 AM

I'm not sure society is headed in the right direction at all....:-)

*Looks at Loeffler/Petrides 1000 page biochemistry bible for medical students that I studied with*

Posted by: Greginnd | October 1, 2009 7:47 AM

Well, it certainly doesn't do the chemistry any justice, but it is cute.

Posted by: SEF | October 1, 2009 7:48 AM

Public Service Post (for anyone else having difficulty even getting the TypeKey/typepad sign-in option to appear or who is getting the faulty MovableType URL):

Posted by: Roameo | October 1, 2009 7:57 AM

holy damn... they even have guides for electricity , calculus ... even databases.
where the hell were these 8 years ago? i get the feeling my little brothers are going to be getting some unsolicited gifts from their geeky older brother....

Posted by: NewEnglandBob | October 1, 2009 7:57 AM

Is it really necessary to teach molecular biology to 6 year olds?

Posted by: Richard Eis | October 1, 2009 8:02 AM

Biology meets MMPRangers. Just say no kids.

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 1, 2009 8:27 AM

I thought you said EneMan

Posted by: Wicked Lad | October 1, 2009 8:39 AM

Mark Chu-Carroll liked The Manga Guide to Statistics. What do you think of The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology, PZ?

Posted by: gillt | October 1, 2009 8:57 AM

Does anyone find this slightly ironic since some Asians lack the gene that makes Dehydrogenase?

#10

Posted by: gillt | October 1, 2009 9:02 AM

...er I mean Al D. Hydrogenase's ability to karate kick Drinkzilla. POW! ZWOK!

#11

Posted by: PZ Myers | October 1, 2009 9:06 AM

No, since asians do have alcohol dehydrogenase. They'd be dead otherwise.

#12

Posted by: gillt | October 1, 2009 9:11 AM

Is "Asian flush" caused from lack of a different enzyme?

#13

Posted by: gillt | October 1, 2009 9:30 AM

This population has a deficiency of aldehyde dehydrogenase caused by a missense mutation (lysine->glutamate) in the ALDH2K gene, "interfering with the catalytic activity of the enzyme and by increasing its turnover."

"The mutation in the mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) gene responsible for alcohol-induced flushing increases turnover of the enzyme tetramers in a dominant fashion."

#14

Posted by: Sili | October 1, 2009 11:58 AM

Is it really necessary to teach molecular biology to 6 year olds?

Yes.

And I think I'll get some of these, myself, actually.

(Damn, the new Opera has inbuilt spellcheck. Dunno if I can get used to that.)

#15

Posted by: masksoferis.wordpress.com | October 1, 2009 12:12 PM

Ding. (The sound of something added to one's wish list, that is.)

The Guide to Calculus was... frightening. I had to take a break when it had a particularly terrifying dream sequence in it. Definitely a good book, though, because it took a path unfamiliar (to ignorant me anyway) in both the mathematical approach and the presentation.

#16

Posted by: Creature of the Universe | October 1, 2009 12:30 PM

Thank you for the recommendation. I'm also looking for a Manga Guide to toe nail fungus.

I'm very fond of Japanese culture. Here's something else that's fairly Japanese.

http://www.tokyoflash.com/en/

#17

Posted by: sqlrob | October 1, 2009 2:23 PM

Is it really necessary to teach molecular biology to 6 year olds?

That's right folks, you heard it here first, Manga is for kids

I call godwin for this thread!

#18

Posted by: Wonko the Sane | October 1, 2009 2:59 PM

The Mangas look like fun reads, for another
graphic take on science don't forget the Larry Gonick
books. They really made my day as a biology student.

http://www.larrygonick.com/html/pub/pub.html

#19

Posted by: Montanto | October 1, 2009 3:03 PM

Well that's the beauty of manga, every genre is valid, including educational nonfiction.

#20

Posted by: stark | October 1, 2009 3:11 PM

manga guides for everything are very prevalent in japan. it's not uncommon to see people reading up on different subjects during train rides or downtime. yes these ones use/overuse cuteness to get the point across, but why not look at the actual information.

If the information is correct and valid, then recomend them. If not, then state where the problems is here and to the authors. I'm not a trained biologist/statistician/electrical engineer and I'm fuzzy when trying to remember calc' as well... if the data is good, why not add it to the general pool?

#21

Posted by: marie-annick | October 1, 2009 3:13 PM

Awesome. I just bought a copy for my immunologist wife.

#22

Posted by: Utakata | October 1, 2009 4:16 PM

Mmmmm...chibi biology...

That's the second book, along with Ariane Sherine's “The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas", I'm ask from my parent's Xmas wish list this year.

#23

Posted by: Rheinhard | October 1, 2009 4:44 PM

It gets better... I'm an anime fan, a science geek, and a history buff. There's this goofy little show running right now, based on a Japanese manga, called "Axis Powers Hetalia". The characters are all anthropomorphic representations of various countries The central character is WW2 era Italy; the show's name being a portmanteau of the Japanese word "Hetare" (stupid, useless), and "Italia". The original comic and 5-minute animated episodes poke fun at national stereotypes and various elements of history.

And it's INSANELY popular among the tweens and up crowd!

But the thing which really gets me about it is that to understand better what the show is poking fun at, it has teenagers...AMERICAN teenagers... voluntarily going out and looking up info on the Russo-Japanese War, Frederick the Great, the question of Greater vs. Lesser Germany and Otto von Bismarck, etc. I have seen a fan-art "stamp" saying "Hetalia made History class cool." Awesome! If this kind of thing gets the kids more actively interested in independent learning, then more power to them!