What Is Life? A Guide to Biology with Physiology

About this book

- What is the most common reason that DNA analyses overturn incorrect criminal convictions?
- What genetically modified foods do most people in the United States consume (usually without knowing it)?

In his popular classes and bestselling textbooks, Jay Phelan uses questions like these as a way of introducing both the practical impact and awe-inspiring wonder of biological research. Phelan knows how to captivate nonmajors with stories of how scientists investigate life. He is also a master at using the study of biology as a context for developing the critical thinking skills and scientific literacy students can draw on through college and beyond.

Phelan's dynamic approach to teaching biology is the driving force behind What Is Life? A Guide to Biology with Physiology – the most successful new non-majors biology textbook of the millennium. The rigorously updated new edition brings forward the features that made A Guide to Biology with Physiology a classroom favorite (chapters anchored to intriguing questions about life, spectacular original illustrations, innovative learning tools) with a more focused and flexible presentation and enhanced art.

And more than ever, this edition is a seamless text/media source, with its dedicated version of LaunchPad, Macmillan's breakthrough online course space which integrates an interactive e-Book, all student media, a wide range of assessment and course management features.

Contents

Part 1. The Facts of Life
1 Scientific thinking
2 The chemistry of biology
3 Molecules of life
4 A tour of the cell
5 Energy

Part 2. Genetics, Evolution, and Behavior
6 DNA and the expression of genes
7 Genomics and biotechnology
8 Chromosomes and cell division
9 Genes and inheritance

Part 3. Evolution and the Diversity of Life
10 Evolution and natural selection
11 Evolution and behavior
12 The origin and diversification of life on earth
13 Animal diversification
14 Plant and Fungi diversity
15 Evolution and diversity among the microbes

Part 4. Ecology and the Environment
16 Population ecology
17 Ecosystems, communities, and species interactions
18 Conservation biology

Part 5. Plant Life
19 Plant structure and nutrient transport
20 Growth, development, and environmental responses in plants

Part 6. Health and Physiology
21 Introduction to animal physiology
22 Circulation and respiration
23 Nutrition and digestion
24 Nervous and motor systems
25 Hormones
26 Reproduction and development
27 Immunity and health

Customer Reviews

Biography

Jay Phelan teaches biology at UCLA, where he has taught introductory biology in large lectures for majors and non-majors for fifteen years. He received his PhD in evolutionary biology from Harvard in 1995, and his master's and bachelor's degrees from Yale and UCLA. His primary area of research is evolutionary genetics, and his original research has been published in Evolution, Experimental Gerontology, and the Journal of Integrative and Comparative Biology, among others. His research has been featured on Nightline, CNN, the BBC, and NPR; in Science Times and Elle; and in more than a hundred newspapers.