Introduction: -- About this book -- Conventions used in this book -- Foolish assumptions -- Icons used in this book -- Where to go from here -- Exploring The Living World: -- Living things: why biologists study them, what defines them -- Meet your neighbors: looking at life on earth: -- Unsung heroes: bacteria -- Bacteria impersonators: archaeans -- Taste of the familiar: eukaryotes -- Classifying living things -- Organizing life into smaller and smaller groups: taxonomy -- Biodiversity: our differences make us stronger: -- Valuing biodiversity -- Surveying the threats posed by human actions -- Exploring the extinction of species: -- Keystone species -- Indicator species -- Protecting biodiversity -- Making sense of the world through observations -- Chemistry Of Life: -- Exploring why matter matters -- Differences among atoms, elements, and isotopes: -- Tiny, mighty atoms -- Elements of elements -- I so dig isotopes -- Molecules, compounds, and bonds -- Acids and bases: -- "Ph"iguring out the PH scale -- Buffing up on buffers -- Carbon-based molecules: the basis for all life: -- Providing energy: carbohydrates: -- Making and breaking sugars -- Converting glucose for storage purposes -- Making life possible: proteins: -- Building blocks of proteins -- Main functions of proteins -- Drawing the cellular road map: nucleic acids: -- Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) -- Ribonucleic acid (RNA) -- Supplying structure, energy, and more: lipids -- Living Cell: -- Overview of cells -- Peeking at prokaryotic cells -- Examining the structure of eukaryotic cells -- Cells and the organelles: -- Holding it all together: Plasma membrane: -- Deciphering the fluid-mosaic model -- Transporting materials through the plasma membrane -- Supporting the cell: the cytoskeleton -- Nucleus controls the show -- Creating proteins: ribosomes -- Serving as the cell's factory: endoplasmic reticulum -- Preparing products for distribution: golgi apparatus -- Cleaning up the trash: lysosomes -- Destroying toxins: peroxisomes -- Providing energy, ATP-style: mitochondria -- Converting energy: chloroplasts -- Presenting enzymes, the jump-starters: -- Staying the same while lowering activation energy -- Getting some help from cofactors and coenzymes -- Controlling enzymes through feedback inhibition -- Energy And Organisms: -- What's energy got to do with it?: -- Looking at the rules regarding energy -- Metabolizing molecules -- Transferring energy with ATP -- Consuming food for matter and energy -- Finding food versus producing your own -- Building cells through photosynthesis: -- Transforming energy from the ultimate energy source -- Putting matter and energy together -- Cellular respiration: using oxygen to break down food: -- Breaking down food -- Transferring energy to ATP -- Energy and your body -- Reproducing Cells: -- Reproduction: Keep on keepin' on -- How DNA replication works -- Cell division: Out with the old, in with the new: -- Interphase: getting organized -- Mitosis: one for you, and one for you: -- Four phases of mitosis -- Daughter nuclei go their own way: Cytokinesis -- Meiosis: it's all about sex, baby -- Meiosis I -- Meiosis II -- How sexual reproduction creates genetic variation: -- Mutations -- Crossing-over -- Independent assortment -- Fertilization -- Nondisjunction -- Pink and blue chromosomes -- This budding's for you: asexual reproduction --
DNA And Proteins: Life Partners: -- Proteins make traits happen, and DNA makes the proteins -- Moving from DNA to RNA to protein: -- Rewriting DNA's message: transcription: -- Finding out what else is involved -- Walking through the process -- Putting on the finishing touches: -- RNA processing -- Converting the code to the right language: -- Translation: -- Making sense of codons and anticodons -- Breaking down the translation process -- Mistakes happen: the consequences of mutation -- Giving cells some control: gene regulation: -- Adapting to environmental changes -- Becoming specialist through differentiation -- Ecosystems And Populations: -- Ecosystems bring it all together: -- Biomes: communities of life -- Interactions among species -- Studying populations: -- Basics of population ecology: -- Population density -- Dispersion -- Population dynamics -- Survivorship -- How populations grow: -- Factors affecting population growth -- Reaching carrying capacity -- Taking a closer look at the human population -- Moving energy and matter around within ecosystems: -- Going with the (energy) flow -- Energy principles -- Energy pyramid -- Cycling matter through ecosystems: -- Hydrologic cycle -- Carbon cycle -- Phosphorus cycle -- Nitrogen cycle -- Understanding Genetics: -- Heritable traits and the factors affecting them -- Mendel's laws of inheritance: -- Pure breeding the parentals -- Analyzing the F1 and F2 generations -- Reviewing Mendel's results -- Defining key genetics terms -- Bearing genetic crosses -- Genetic engineering: -- Understanding what's involved in DNA technology: -- Cutting DNA with restrictions enzymes -- Combining DNA from different sources -- Genetically modified organisms: -- Why GMOs are beneficial -- Why GMOs cause concern -- Reading a gene with DNA sequencing -- Mapping the genes of humanity -- Biological Evolution: -- What people used to believe -- Charles Darwin: challenging age-old beliefs: -- Owing it all to the birds -- Darwin's theory of biological evolution -- Idea of natural selection: -- Natural selection versus artificial selection -- Four types of natural selection -- Evidence of biological evolution: -- Biochemistry -- Comparative anatomy -- Geographic distribution of species -- Molecular biology -- Fossil record -- Observable data -- Radioisotope dating -- Evolution versus creationism -- Ten Great Biology Discoveries: -- Seeing the unseen -- Creating the first antibiotic -- Protecting people from smallpox -- Defining DNA structure -- Finding and fighting defective genes -- Discovering modern genetic principles -- Evolving the theory of natural selection -- Formulating cell theory -- Moving energy through the Krebs cycle -- Amplifying DNA with PCR -- Index.
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