About the Author
David Krogh has been writing about science for 20 years in newspapers, magazines, books, and for educational institutions. He is the author of Smoking: The Artificial Passion, an account of the pharmacological and cultural motivations behind the use of tobacco, which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology. David has written on physics and on technology issues, but his primary interest has been in biology. He has written on the possible effect methane may be having on global warming; on early research into the role that growth factors may play in neural regeneration following injury; on the synthesis of naturally occurring neurotoxins and their possible use in heart disease; on the use of imported drugs to treat cancer; and on the relationship between alcohol and mood states in women. He has a particular interest in the history of biology and in the relationship between biological research and modern American culture. He holds bachelor's degrees in both journalism and history from the University of Missouri.
Table of Contents
1. Science as a Way of Learning: A Guide to the Natural World
UNIT 1. ESSENTIAL PARTS: ATOMS, MOLECULES, AND CELLS 2. The Fundamental Building Blocks: Chemistry and Life
3. Water, pH, and Biological Molecules
4. Life's Home: The Cell
5. Life's Border: The Plasma Membrane
UNIT 2. ENERGY AND ITS TRANSFORMATION 6. Life's Mainspring: An Introduction to Energy
7. Vital Harvest: Deriving Energy from Food
8. The Green World's Gift: Photosynthesis
UNIT 3. HOW LIFE GOES ON: GENETICS 9. Introduction to Genetics; Mitosis and Cytokinesis
10. Preparing for Sexual Reproduction: Meiosis
11. The First Geneticist: Mendel and His Discoveries
12. Chromosomes and Inheritance
13. DNA Structure and Replication
14. How Proteins Are Made: Genetic Transcription, Translation, and Regulation
15. The Future Isn't What It Used to Be: Biotechnology
UNIT 4. LIFE'S ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE: EVOLUTION AND THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE 16. An Introduction to Evolution: Charles Darwin, Evolutionary Thought, and the Evidence for Evolution
17. The Means of Evolution: Microevolution
18. The Outcomes of Evolution: Macroevolution
19. A Slow Unfolding: The History of Life on Earth