Includes index

Contents : Introduction: ten themes in the study of life -- The chemical context of life -- Water and the fitness of the environment -- Carbon and the molecular diversity of life -- The structure and function of macromolecules -- An introduction to metabolism -- A tour of the cell -- Membrane structure and function -- Cellular respiration: harvesting chemical energy -- Photosynthesis -- Cell communication -- Meiosis and sexual life cycles -- Mendel and the gene idea -- The chromosomal basic of inheritance -- The molecular basic of inheritance -- From gene to protein -- Microbial models: the genetics of viruses and bacteria -- The organization and control of eukaryotic genomes -- DNA technology and genomics -- The genetic basic of development -- Descent with modification: a darwinian view of life -- The evolution of populations -- The origin of species -- Phylogeny and systematics -- Early early earth and the origin of life -- Prokaryotes and the origins of metabolism diversity -- The origins of eukaryotic diversity -- Plant diversity I: how plants colonized land -- Plant diversity II: the evolution of seed plants -- Fungi -- Introduction to animal evolution -- Invertebrates -- Vertebrate evolution and diversity -- Plant structure and growth -- Transport in plants -- Plant nutrition -- Plant reproduction and biotechnology -- Plant responses to internal and external signals -- An introduction to animal structure and function -- Animal nutrition -- Circulation and gas exchange -- The body's defenses -- Regulating the internal environment -- Chemical signals in animal -- Animal reproduction -- Animal development -- Nervous systems -- Sensory and motor mechanisms -- An introduction to ecology and the biosphere -- Population ecology -- Community ecology -- Ecosystems -- Conservation biology -- Appendix 1: the metric system -- 2: a comparison of the light microscope and the electron microscope -- 3: classification of life.