Life: The Science of Biology, Volume 1 [with eText Access Card]

by David E. Sadava, H. Craig Heller, Gordon H. Orians

Authoritative, thorough, and engaging, Life: The Science of Biology achieves an optimal balance of scholarship and teachability, never losing sight of either the science or the student. The first introductory text to present biological concepts through the research that revealed them, Life covers the full range of topics with an integrated experimental focus that flows naturally from the narrative. This approach helps to bring the drama of classic and cutting-edge research to the classroom—but always in the context of reinforcing core ideas and the innovative scientific thinking behind them. Students will experience biology not just as a litany of facts or a highlight reel of experiments, but as a rich, coherent discipline.

The new edition builds on Life's enduring strengths by doing what this acclaimed text has always done: combine a contemporary view of the discipline with innovative teaching and learning features. New chapters and essays, an enhanced art program, and standard-setting media and supplements combine to make this edition the finest yet.

Genres: Textbooks, Biology, Science

Paperback

First published December 8, 2006

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Ted]

At the two-thirds mark, thought I'd do a little review of this project and book.



I can certainly highly recommend the book to anyone with enough interest in biology to read a textbook, and who has taken one or two previous courses in biology, either in high school or undergraduate school.


Reading Life is my attempt to learn biology for the first time.

I've found that it hasn't been as elucidating an experience as I'd hoped.

My wife's view is that this isn't surprising, since it is not written as an introductory book for high school biology.

Here's what the authors state in the Preface. The italic emphases are mine.

Although we and many of our colleagues had thought about the nature of biological education as individuals, it is only recently that biologists have come together to discuss these issues. Reports from the National Academy of Sciences, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the College Board AP Biology Program not only express concern about how best to instruct undergraduates in biology, but offer concrete suggestions about how to design the introductory biology course - and by extension, out book. We have followed these discussions closely and have especially impressed with the report "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education" (visionandchange.org). As participants in the educational enterprise, we have answered the report's call to action with this textbook and its associated ancillary materials.

(For non-U.S. readers, an "AP" program in a subject refers to a high school class designated for Advanced Placement in college. The way such classes work varies from state to state, primarily in the requirements for students to enroll in such a course. As for how a course allows a student to get "Advanced Placement" in college (that is, skip a normal freshman course in a subject the student is majoring in), that varies from college to college. Some colleges may only accept AP courses in some subjects but not others, and some accept them in NO subjects.) A key point here is that the high school grade that a student receives in an AP course has nothing to do with whether colleges even recognize that the student took an AP course. That is entirely a result of the student taking an official AP test in the subject and getting whatever score the individual college is looking for. AP tests are standardized, and cost money to take.

That, at least, is my understanding of AP courses, some of which my daughter took when she was in high school. The purpose of them, of course, is to allow students to skip courses in college which they don't really need, but would have to pay for and devote study time to take and complete.)

So, given all that, I have to agree that the book is likely not aimed at a student who has little knowledge, formal or otherwise, of elementary biology.

Even so, it is my journey, and I'm sticking to it.




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[Ami Iida · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a book that covers the basics of current molecular biology.

First volume is biology.
This book is a professional certificate.
and then it is required knowledge of basic terminology, but the book is full of
intriguing topics in biology.

Japanese version is separate volumes and I have already it.

[Ami Iida · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's acell biology core text then use instead of biology encyclopedia.
It's easy for the beginner to read but you mustlearn biotechnology terms.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a great book! easy to understand and so much fun to read!

[Tue Le · Rating 3 out of 5]

We had to use this as our official textbook for freshman biology. It was a fair, but by no means outstanding textbook. I did not feel particularly impressed or enlightened by reading it.