Preface

Welcome to Biology, an OpenStax resource. This textbook was written to increase student access to high-quality learning materials, maintaining highest standards of academic rigor at little to no cost.

About OpenStax

OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University, and it’s our mission to improve student access to education. Our first openly licensed college textbook was published in 2012, and our library has since scaled to over 20 books for college and AP courses used by hundreds of thousands of students. Our adaptive learning technology, designed to improve learning outcomes through personalized educational paths, is being piloted in college courses throughout the country. Through our partnerships with philanthropic foundations and our alliance with other educational resource organizations, OpenStax is breaking down the most common barriers to learning and empowering students and instructors to succeed.

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Customization

Biology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, which means that you can distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors.

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Errata

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Format

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About Biology

Biology is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

Coverage and Scope

In developing Biology, we listened to hundreds of General Biology instructors who readily provided feedback about their courses, students, challenges, and hopes for innovation. The expense of textbooks and related items did prove to be a barrier to learning. But more importantly, these teachers suggested improvements for the textbook, which would ultimately lead to more meaningful and memorable learning experiences for students.

The result is a book that addresses a core organizational reality of the course and its materials—the sheer breadth of the topical coverage. We provide a thorough treatment of biology’s foundational concepts while condensing selected topics in response to the market’s request for a textbook with a scope that is manageable for instructors and students alike. We also strive to make biology, as a discipline, interesting and accessible to students. In addition to a comprehensive coverage of core concepts and foundational research, we have incorporated features that draw learners into the discipline in meaningful ways.

The pedagogical choices, chapter arrangements, and learning objective fulfillment were developed and vetted with the feedback of another one hundred reviewers, who thoroughly read the material and offered detailed critical commentary.

• Unit 1: The Chemistry of Life. Our opening unit introduces students to the sciences, including the scientific method and the fundamental concepts of chemistry and physics that provide a framework within which learners comprehend biological processes.
• Unit 2: The Cell. Students will gain solid understanding of the structures, functions, and processes of the most basic unit of life: the cell.
• Unit 3: Genetics. Our comprehensive genetics unit takes learners from the earliest experiments that revealed the basis of genetics through the intricacies of DNA to current applications in the emerging studies of biotechnology and genomics.
• Unit 4: Evolutionary Processes. The core concepts of evolution are discussed in this unit with examples illustrating evolutionary processes. Additionally, the evolutionary basis of biology reappears throughout the textbook in general discussion and is reinforced through special call-out features highlighting specific evolution-based topics.
• Unit 5: Biological Diversity. The diversity of life is explored with detailed study of various organisms and discussion of emerging phylogenetic relationships. This unit moves from viruses to living organisms like bacteria, discusses the organisms formerly grouped as protists, and devotes multiple chapters to plant and animal life.
• Unit 6: Plant Structure and Function. Our plant unit thoroughly covers the fundamental knowledge of plant life essential to an introductory biology course.
• Unit 7: Animal Structure and Function. An introduction to the form and function of the animal body is followed by chapters on specific body systems and processes. This unit touches on the biology of all organisms while maintaining an engaging focus on human anatomy and physiology that helps students connect to the topics.
• Unit 8: Ecology. Ecological concepts are broadly covered in this unit, with features highlighting localized, real-world issues of conservation and biodiversity.

Pedagogical Foundation and Features

Biology is grounded in a solid scientific base, with features that engage the students in scientific inquiry, including:

• Evolution Connection features uphold the importance of evolution to all biological study through discussions like “The Evolution of Metabolic Pathways” and “Algae and Evolutionary Paths to Photosynthesis.”
• Scientific Method Connection call-outs walk students through actual or thought experiments that elucidate the steps of the scientific process as applied to the topic. Features include “Determining the Time Spent in Cell Cycle Stages” and “Testing the Hypothesis of Independent Assortment.”
• Career Connection features present information on a variety of careers in the biological sciences, introducing students to the educational requirements and day-to-day work life of a variety of professions, such as microbiologist, ecologist, neurologist, and forensic scientist.
• Everyday Connection features tie biological concepts to emerging issues and discuss science in terms of everyday life. Topics include “Chesapeake Bay” and “Can Snail Venom Be Used as a Pharmacological Pain Killer?”

Art and Animations That Engage

Our art program takes a straightforward approach designed to help students learn the concepts of biology through simple, effective illustrations, photos, and micrographs. Biology also incorporates links to relevant animations and interactive exercises that help bring biology to life for students.

• Art Connection features call out core figures in each chapter for student study. Questions about key figures, including clicker questions that can be used in the classroom, engage students’ critical thinking to ensure genuine understanding.
• Link to Learning features direct students to online interactive exercises and animations to add a fuller context to core content.

Additional Resources

Student and Instructor ResourcesWe've compiled additional resources for both students and instructors, including Getting Started Guides, an instructor solution manual, supplemental test items, and PowerPoint slides. Instructor resources require a verified instructor account, which can be requested on your openstax.org log-in. Take advantage of these resources to supplement your OpenStax book.

Partner ResourcesOpenStax Partners are our allies in the mission to make high-quality learning materials affordable and accessible to students and instructors everywhere. Their tools integrate seamlessly with our OpenStax titles at a low cost. To access the partner resources for your text, visit your book page on openstax.org.

About the Authors

Senior Contributing Authors

Yael Avissar (Cell Biology), Rhode Island College * * *

Jung Choi (Genetics), Georgia Institute of Technology * * *

Jean DeSaix (Evolution), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * * *

Vladimir Jurukovski (Animal Physiology), Suffolk County Community College * * *

Robert Wise (Plant Biology), University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh * * *

Connie Rye (General Content Lead), East Mississippi Community College

Contributing Authors and Reviewers

Julie Adams, Aurora University * * *

Summer Allen, Brown University * * *

James Bader, Case Western Reserve University* * *

David Bailey, St. Norbert College* * *

Mark Belk, Brigham Young University* * *

Nancy Boury, Iowa State University* * *

Lisa Bonneau, Metropolitan Community College – Blue River* * *

Graciela Brelles-Marino, California State University Pomona* * *

Mark Browning, Purdue University* * *

Sue Chaplin, University of St. Thomas* * *

George Cline, Jacksonville State University* * *

Deb Cook, Georgia Gwinnett College* * *

Diane Day, Clayton State University* * *

Frank Dirrigl, The University of Texas Pan American* * *

Waneene Dorsey, Grambling State University* * *

Nick Downey, University of Wisconsin La Crosse* * *

Rick Duhrkopf, Baylor University* * *

Kristy Duran, Adams State University * * *

Stan Eisen, Christian Brothers University * * *

Brent Ewers, University of Wyoming* * *

Myriam Feldman, Lake Washington Institute of Technology* * *

Michael Fine, Virginia Commonwealth University* * *

Linda Flora, Delaware County Community College* * *

Thomas Freeland, Walsh University* * *

David Grisé, Texas A & M University – Corpus Christi* * *

Andrea Hazard, SUNY Cortland* * *

Michael Hedrick, University of North Texas* * *

Linda Hensel, Mercer University* * *

Mark Kopeny, University of Virginia* * *

Norman Johnson, University of Massachusetts Amherst* * *

Grace Lasker, Lake Washington Institute of Technology; Walden University* * *

Sandy Latourelle, SUNY Plattsburgh* * *

Theo Light, Shippensburg University* * *

Clark Lindgren, Grinnell College* * *

James Malcolm, University of Redlands* * *

Mark Meade, Jacksonville State University* * *

Richard Merritt, Houston Community College* * *

James Mickle, North Carolina State University* * *

Jasleen Mishra, Houston Community College* * *

Dudley Moon, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences* * *

Shobhana Natarajan, Brookhaven College* * *

Jonas Okeagu, Fayetteville State University* * *

Diana Oliveras, University of Colorado Boulder* * *

John Peters, College of Charleston* * *

Joel Piperberg, Millersville University* * *

Johanna Porter-Kelley, Winston-Salem State University* * *

Robyn Puffenbarger, Bridgewater College* * *

Dennis Revie, California Lutheran University* * *

Ann Rushing, Baylor University* * *

Sangha Saha, City College of Chicago* * *

Edward Saiff, Ramapo College of New Jersey* * *

Brian Shmaefsky, Lone Star College System* * *

Robert Sizemore, Alcorn State University* * *

Marc Smith, Sinclair Community College* * *

Frederick Spiegel, University of Arkansas* * *

Frederick Sproull, La Roche College* * *

Bob Sullivan, Marist College* * *

Mark Sutherland, Hendrix College* * *

Toure Thompson, Alabama A&M University* * *

Scott Thomson, University of Wisconsin – Parkside* * *

Allison van de Meene, University of Melbourne* * *

Mary White, Southeastern Louisiana University* * *

Steven Wilt, Bellarmine University* * *

James Wise, Hampton University* * *

Renna Wolfe* * *

Virginia Young, Mercer University* * *

Leslie Zeman, University of Washington* * *

Daniel Zurek, Pittsburg State University* * *

Shobhana Natarajan, Alcon Laboratories, Inc.* * *

You can also download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@11.2

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