About the Cover: The cover shows two paintings of horse heart cytochrome c. The upper painting, which was drawn by Irving Geis in collaboration with Richard Dickerson, was designed to show the influence of amino acid side chains on the protein’s three-dimensional folding pattern. The lower painting, also drawn by Geis, shows cytochrome c illuminated by its single iron atom in which its hydrophobic side chains are drawn in green. These paintings were made in the 1970s, when only a handful of protein structures were known (approximately 70,000 are now known) and the personal computers that we presently use to visualize them were many years in the future. It reminds us that biochemistry is a process driven by the creativity of the human mind. Our visualization tools have developed from pen, ink, and colored pencils to sophisticated computers and software. Without creativity, however, these tools have little use.

About the Cover: The cover shows two paintings of horse heart cytochrome c. The upper painting, which was drawn by Irving Geis in collaboration with Richard Dickerson, was designed to show the influence of amino acid side chains on the protein’s three-dimensional folding pattern. The lower painting, also drawn by Geis, shows cytochrome c illuminated by its single iron atom in which its hydrophobic side chains are drawn in green. These paintings were made in the 1970s, when only a handful of protein structures were known (approximately 70,000 are now known) and the personal computers that we presently use to visualize them were many years in the future. It reminds us that biochemistry is a process driven by the creativity of the human mind. Our visualization tools have developed from pen, ink, and colored pencils to sophisticated computers and software. Without creativity, however, these tools have little use.