Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Modern biology is a vast and eclectic field, composed of many branches and subdisciplines. However, despite the broad scope of biology, there are certain general and unifying concepts within it that govern all study and research.

Unit I: 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 II: The Cell
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 III: Genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, heredity, and genetic variation in living organisms. 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 IV: Evolutionary Processes
Evolution is change in the heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organization, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules. In Unit 4, the core concepts of evolution are discussed in this unit with examples illustrating evolutionary processes.
Unit V: Biological Diversity
Biodiversity is the variety of different types of life found on the Earth and the variations within species and is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator.
Unit VI: Plant Structure and Function
Unit 6 covers the fundamental knowledge of plant life essential to an introductory biology course.
Unit VII: Animal Structure and Function
In Unit 7, 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 VIII: Ecology
Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms with their environment. One core goal of ecology is to understand the distribution and abundance of living things in the physical environment. Attainment of this goal requires the integration of scientific disciplines inside and outside of biology, such as biochemistry, physiology, evolution, biodiversity, molecular biology, geology, and climatology.
Back Matter
- Index
- Glossary