Front Matter Introduction
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Science is a Process
Size Matters
This is Your Brain on Caffeine
Finding Patterns
Getting Beyond the Buzz
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
The Search for Martian Life
Curious about Chemistry
Sam I Am
“My Favorite Earthlings”
Follow the Water
Wierd Life
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Bug Bullet
From Fungus to Pharmaceutical
Stockpiling the Antibiotic Arsenal
Crossing Enemy Lines
Your Inner Bacterium
Winning the Battle, Losing the War
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
Microscopic Clues
From Heresy to Orthodoxy
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
The Elephant in the Room
Life in the Village
Hidden Hunger
Emptying the Wards
Preventing Hunger?
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Energy Basics
Solar-Powered Cells
Capturing Energy: Photosynthesis
A Cheaper Strategy
From Sun to Fuel
Biofuel and Beyond
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
The Size of the Problem
Counting Calories
The French Paradox
Putting Food to Work
When Oxygen is Scarce
Curbing Culture
Chapter Summary
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Introduction
DNA as Evidence
Unreliable Evidence
Brown Gets a Break
Making more DNA
DNA from the Crime Scene
DNA Profiling: How it Works
DNA Profiling and the Law
Vindication
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Profile of a Protein
Got Milk?
Making Proteins, or How Genes are Expressed
The Advantages of “Pharming”
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Poison Pill
Witches’ Brew
“A Structure Only a Tree Would Make”
When Division Runs Amok: Cancer
The Politics of Supply and Demand
Fighting Cancer
Taxol and Beyond
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
“Hereditary Cancer”
Ethnic Groups and Genetic Disease
The Multi-Hit Model
Preventative Measures
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
How is CF Inherited?
Living with The Disease
New Research in The Pipeline
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Sex Determination
Sex-Linked Inheritance
Y-Chromosome Analysis
Incomplete Dominance
Codominance
Continuous Variation
Multifactorial Inheritance
Nondisjunction
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Engineering Organs
Regenerative Medicine
Turning Back The Clock
Building Organs in 3-D
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Staph the Microbe
Acquiring Resistance
An Evolving Enemy
Selecting for Superbugs
Mrsa in the Community
Stopping Superbugs
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
Journey to an Idea
In Darwin’s Shadow
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Sex and the City
Changing by Chance: Genetic Drift
The Daily Commute: Gene Flow
City Mouse, Country Mouse
Biodiversity on Broadway
Empire State of Mind
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Reading the Fossil Record
The Fossil Hunt
Setting the Stage for Life on Land
The Fish that Did Pushups
A Fin is a Paw is an Arm is a Wing
DNA and Descent
Filling in the Gaps
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Geology
Biochemistry
Paleontology
Biogeography
Convergent Evolution
Diversity and Taxonomy
Reading Phylogenetic Trees
Classification and Phylogen
Chapter Summary
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Introduction
Exploring the Deep
What are they?
Bounteous and (Mostly) Beneficial: Bacteria
Going to Extremes: Archaea
Lost City: Where Life Began?
Chapter Summary
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Introduction
A Green World
A Forest for Fishers (And More)
The Value of Diversity
Cycles of Life in the Rain Forest
A Microcosm in a Drop of Water
Protecting Diversity
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
The Evolution of Skin Color
Out of Africa
Becoming Human
Selection for Skin Color
An Evolving Explanation
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
In Nature’s Laboratory
Population Boom and Bust
Ecological Detectives
Too Close for Comfort?
Watching and Waiting
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
The Dance of Pollination
A Link in the Chain
A Swarm Of Problems
Honey Bee Forensic
Competing For Resources
Honey Bee in The Coal Mine?
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
To Everything a Season
Warming Planet, Diminishing Biodiversity
Arctic Meltdown
Follow the Carbon
No Time for Fatalism
Chapter Summary
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Introduction
Going Green
Platinum Rated
Green Like Us
It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Nor Any Drop To Drink
No Place Like Home
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
I Want My DDT
From Silent Spring To Noisy Summer
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Thermoregulation: The Body as Machine
The Physiology of Staying Warm
Into Thin Air
Sensors Working Overtime
No Fuel Left to Burn
Warning Signs
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Food Fix
Stomach Staple
Costs and Benefits of Surgery
No Cure for Obesity
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Chapter Introduction
Hunting Down a Mystery Chemical
A Rocky Start
Insulin and Diabetes
Reception and Controversy
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
A Silent Epidemic
Matters of the Heart
Under the Knife
A Series of Tubes
Under Pressure
Southern Discomfort
An Ounce of Prevention
Chapter Summary
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Introduction
Live High, Train Low
Boy in a Bubble
Every Breath You Take
Does It Work?
Picking up, Dropping off
High-Tech Doping?
Chapter Summary
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Introduction
Addiction and the Brain
Excitable Cells
The Anatomy of Addiction
Chemical Messengers
Too Much of a Good Thing
Born Addicts?
Kicking the Habit
Old Habits Die Hard
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Fertility and Infertility
Hormones and Pregnancy
The Many Causes of Infertility
The Problem of Multiples
Costly Care
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Silent Invader
A Microscopic Battleground
Innate Defenses
Viral Time Capsule
Immunological Memory
Building a Line of Defense
An Evolving Enemy
Preventing Pandemics
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Introduction
Plant Structure: How do plants stand up?
Why don’t plants bleed?
Plant Growth: What are tree rings?
Plant Nutrition: What do plants eat?
Can plants photo-synthesize at night?
Why do leaves change color in the fall?
Plant Reproduction: Do plants have sex?
What spins like a helicopter, shoots like a rocket, and contains its own parachute?
Plant Hormones: Can plants see?
Does one bad apple really spoil the bunch?
Can plants take hormones to improve their performance?
Plant Defenses: Why are some plants poisonous?
Chapter Summary
Test Your Knowledge
Glossary
Photo Credits