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Life: The Science of Biology, Vol. I

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THE NEXT GREAT CHAPTER IN THE STORY OF LIFE The science of biology evolves. The science classroom and lab evolve. In this edition, as
always, The Science of Biology evolves with them, in innovative, authoritative, and
captivating ways.
From the first edition to the present, Life has set the standard for being the most balanced experimentally-based introductory biology text. Life has always presented how we know (the process of science through experiments) as well as what we know (facts derived from these experiments). The new edition builds on this legacy, again teaching fundamental concepts and the latest developments by taking students step by step through the research that revealed them. To achieve this, all of the Ninth Edition’s innovations—new authorship, new and reororganized chapters, new experimental content, enhanced features, reinvisioned art, and new media tools—are focused on giving students and instructors the best tools for bringing the best of biological research and applications into the introductory majors biology course.
Also avalable, Volume —paperbound in full color! Volume The Cell and Heredity (Chapters 1-20)
Volume Evolution, Diversity and Ecology (Chapters 1, 21-33, 54-59)
Volume Plants and Animals (Chapters 1, 34-53)

A GREENER LIFE Another first, the new edition of Life is printed on paper earning the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label, the “gold standard” in green paper products. Life paper includes 10% pre-consumer waste, 10% post-consumer waste, and is manufactured from wood from well-managed sustainable forests. Additionally, Life’s green initiatives
• 5% soy based ink
• Covers printed on stock with 10% post-consumer waste
• 100% recycled paper coverboards
• Digitized work flow to reduce paper waste
All of which also earn us Courier Printing Company’s Green Edition designation for reducing our environmental footprint. The environmental savings we have achieved on the first printing alone
• Number of trees 469
• Air emissions eliminated (GHG’s): 52,240 pounds
• Water 171,250 gallons
• Solid waste 28,335 pounds

389 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2006

3 people are currently reading
68 people want to read

About the author

David E. Sadava

129 books4 followers
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.

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Ted.
515 reviews736 followers
Currently reading
March 24, 2018
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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Profile Image for Ami Iida.
549 reviews310 followers
April 11, 2015
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.
Profile Image for Ami Iida.
549 reviews310 followers
March 17, 2017
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.
Profile Image for Alex.
116 reviews14 followers
March 4, 2015
such a great book! easy to understand and so much fun to read!
Profile Image for Tue Le.
371 reviews4 followers
December 11, 2024
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.
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