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The Crystalline Seed of Life: James B. Sumner
Paperback
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Publisher: Michael Webster
Published: Nov 28 2025
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.46
Height: 0.41 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
In the early 20th century, the catalysts of life-enzymes-were considered too mysterious and ephemeral to be mere chemical compounds. The scientific establishment was certain they could never be isolated or crystallized. Yet, one man, armed with unyielding conviction and a profound sense of purpose, dared to challenge this consensus.
This is the extraordinary story of James B. Sumner, the one-armed chemist of Cornell University. After a tragic accident cost him his left arm, Sumner channeled his singular focus into an obsessive, twenty-year quest. Using only simple equipment and painstaking precision, he pursued the impossible: isolating and crystallizing the enzyme urease from the humble jack bean.
His groundbreaking discovery in 1926 was met not with acclaim, but with two decades of bitter dismissal and scorn from the world's leading biochemists. The Crystalline Seed of Life chronicles Sumner's quiet war of attrition-his subsequent triumph with the crystallization of catalase, the personal turmoil of his family life, and the ultimate, long-awaited vindication of the 1946 Nobel Prize.
More than a scientific history, this is an intimate portrait of tenacity: the story of a scientist who overcame physical disability and intellectual authority to fundamentally redefine the chemical nature of life, laying the crystalline foundation for modern molecular biology. Approx.176 pages, 32700 word count
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