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With its first edition, Principles of Life provided a textbook well aligned with the recommendations proposed in BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists and Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.

Now Principles of Life returns in a thoroughly updated new edition that exemplifies the reform that is remaking the modern biology classroom. See what's in the LaunchPad

David M. Hillis is the Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor in Integrative Biology and the Director of the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also has directed the School of Biological Sciences. Dr. Hillis has taught courses in introductory biology, genetics, evolution, systematics, and biodiversity. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, and has served as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution and of the Society of Systematic Biologists. He served on the National Research Council committee that wrote the report BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education for Research Biologists. His research interests span much of evolutionary biology, including experimental studies of evolving viruses, empirical studies of natural molecular evolution, applications of phylogenetics, analyses of biodiversity, and evolutionary modeling. He is particularly interested in teaching and research about the practical applications of evolutionary biology.

David E. Sadava is the Pritzker Family Foundation Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at the Keck Science Center of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps, three of The Claremont Colleges. In addition, he is Adjunct Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at the City of Hope Medical Center. Twice winner of the Huntoon Award for superior teaching, Dr. Sadava has taught courses on introductory biology, biotechnology, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, plant biology, and cancer biology. In addition to Life: The Science of Biology, he is the author or coauthor of books on cell biology and on plants, genes, and crop biotechnology. His research has resulted in many papers coauthored with his students, on topics ranging from plant biochemistry to pharmacology of narcotic analgesics to human genetic diseases. For the past 15 years, he has investigated multi-drug resistance in human small-cell lung carcinoma cells with a view to understanding and overcoming this clinical challenge. At the City of Hope, his current work focuses on new anti-cancer agents from plants.

H. Craig Heller is the Lorry I. Lokey/Business Wire Professor in Biological Sciences and Human Biology at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at Yale University in 1970. Dr. Heller has taught in the core biology courses at Stanford since 1972 and served as Director of the Program in Human Biology, Chairman of the Biological Sciences Department, and Associate Dean of Research. Dr. Heller is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching. His research is on the neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms, mammalian hibernation, the regulation of body temperature, the physiology of human performance, and the neurobiology of learning. Dr. Heller has done research on a huge variety of animals and physiological problems ranging from sleeping kangaroo rats, diving seals, hibernating bears, photoperiodic hamsters, and exercising athletes. Dr. Heller has extended his enthusiasm for promoting active learning through the development of a two-year curriculum in human biology for the middle grades, and at the college level he directed the production of Virtual labsâ$e"interactive computer-based modules to teach physiology.

Mary V. Price is Professor of Biology, Emerita, at the University of California Riverside and Adjunct Professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona. In "retirement," she continues to teach and study, having learned the joy and art of scientific discovery as an undergraduate student at Vassar College and doctoral student at the University of Arizona. Dr. Price has mentored and published with independent-research students and has developed and taught general biology and ecology courses from introductory (majors and nonmajors) to graduate levels. She has particularly enjoyed leading field classes in the arid regions of North America and Australia, and the tropical forests of Central America, Africa, and Madagascar. Dr. Price's research focuses on understanding the ecology of North American deserts and mountains. She has asked why so many desert rodents can coexist, how best to conserve endangered kangaroo rat species, how pollinators and herbivores influence floral evolution and plant population dynamics, and how climate change affects ecological systems.

PART 1: CELLS

1. Introduction

2. The Chemistry and Energy of Life

3. Nucleic Acids, Proteins, and Enzymes

4. Cells: The Working Units of Life

5. Cell Membranes and Signaling

6. Pathways that Harvest and Store Chemical Energy

 

PART 2: GENETICS

7. The Cell Cycle and Cell Division

8. Inheritance, Genes, and Chromosomes

9. DNA and Its Role in Heredity

10. From DNA to Protein: Gene Expression

11. Regulation of Gene Expression

12. Genomes

13. Biotechnology

14. Genes, Development, and Evolution

 

PART 3: EVOLUTION

15. Processes of Evolution

16. Reconstructing and Using Phylogenies

17. Speciation

18. The History of Life on Earth

 

PART 4: DIVERSITY

19. Bacteria, Archaea, and Viruses

20. The Origin and Diversification of Eukaryotes

21. The Evolution of Plants

22. The Evolution and Diversity of Fungi

23. Animal Origins and Diversity

 

PART 5: PLANT FORM AND FUNCTION

24. The Plant Body

25. Plant Nutrition and Transport

26. Plant Growth and Development

27. Reproduction of Flowering Plants

28. Plants in the Environment

 

PART 6: ANIMAL FORM AND FUNCTION

29. Fundamentals of Animal Function

30. Nutrition and Digestion

31. Breathing

32. Circulation

33. Muscle and Movement

34. Neurons, Sense Organs, and Nervous Systems

35. Nervous and Endocrine Control

36. Water and Salts: Excretion

37. Animal Reproduction

38. Animal Development

39. Immunology: Animal Defense Systems

40. Animal Behavior

 

PART 7: ECOLOGY

41. The Distribution of Earths Ecological Systems

42. Populations

43. Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Interactions within and among Species

44. Ecological Communities

45. The Global Ecosystem