Synopses & Reviews
This brief and specialized book is designed for general non-major biology courses and includes, Unit 1 (Principles of Cellular Life), and Unit II (Principles of Inheritance) from BIOLOGY: THE UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF LIFE, Tenth Edition. The authors include characteristics of life, scientific methods, basic chemistry, cell biology, metabolism, mitosis and meiosis, classical genetics, human genetics, molecular genetics, recombinant DNA, and genetic engineering. Research has given us a better understanding of the interconnectedness of molecular biology, structure, function, and evolution. In this Tenth Edition, Starr and Taggart take that important connection out of the research realm and actually interweave these insights into the text. These unifying biological concepts encourage student understanding instead of memorization. For example, Chapter 1 includes a preview of life's unity and diversity with an evolutionary perspective. Similar sections in Chapters 3, 5, and 6, on the structure and function of enzymes and other molecules prepare students for chapters on cell structure and metabolism, genetics, evolution, anatomy, and physiology. The accompanying improvements in the media package meet the high standards instructors and students have come to expect from the Starr and Taggart media package. Students automatically receive a new version of the complimentary Interactive Concepts in Biology CD-ROM (featuring nearly 800 interactions to clarify and reinforce text concepts), and four months free access to InfoTrac College Edition (featuring full text articles from 4,000 periodicals). Also available is Engage Online, which provides a rich online version of the text, plus animations and learning resources for every chapter. The instructor package includes a Multimedia Manager presentation tool with art and graphics from the text, as well as CNN « Today video clips (294 in all)-now available digitally as well as on Video.
About the Author
For the past two decades, Cecie Starr has been known as one of the best-selling biology textbook authors. Her texts, appreciated for their clarity in both the written word and the visual representation of biological concepts, include multiple editions of BIOLOGY: THE UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF LIFE, BIOLOGY: CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS, and BIOLOGY TODAY AND TOMORROW. Her original dream was to become an architect. Instead of building houses, she now builds, with care and attention to detail, incredible texts based on this philosophy: "I invite students into a chapter through an intriguing story. Once inside, they get the great windows that biologists construct on the world of life. Biology is not just another house. It is a conceptual mansion. I hope to do it justice."
Table of Contents
Introduction. 1. Invitation to Biology. Unit 1: PRINCIPLES OF CELLULAR LIFE. 2. Life's Chemical Basis. 3. Molecules of Life. 4. Cell Structure and Function. 5. A Closer Look at Cell Membranes. 6. Ground Rules of Metabolism. 7. Where It Starts—Photosynthesis. 8. How Cells Release Chemical Energy. Unit II: PRINCIPLES OF INHERITANCE. 9. How Cells Reproduce. 10. Meiosis and Sexual Reproduction. 11. Observing Patterns in Inherited Traits. 12. Chromosomes and Human Inheritance. 13. DNA Structure and Function. 14. From DNA to Protein. 15. Controls Over Genes. 16. Studying and Manipulating Genomes.