H. Craig Heller is the Lorry I. Lokey/Business Wire Professor in Biological Sciences and Human Biology at Stanford University. He has taught in the core biology courses at Stanford since 1972 and served as Director of the Program in Human Biology, Chairman of the Biological Sciences Department, and Associate Dean of Research. Dr. Heller is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching and the Kenneth Cuthberson Award for Exceptional Service to Stanford University.

Marta Laskowski is a Professor in the Biology Department at Oberlin College. Dr. Laskowski has mentored undergraduate students in research and has taught introductory biology, skills-based first year seminars (Feeding the World), plant physiology, and plant development. She heads an effort at Oberlin, funded by the HHMI Inclusive Excellence program, to enhance the climate for and success of a diverse student population in STEM. A scientific paper is very different from creative writing. Although creativity is required to design experiments, there are fixed guidelines when it comes to presenting scientific results. First, scientific writing must be brief, concise, and accurate. A scientific paper needs to be succinct but detailed enough to allow peers to reproduce the experiments.

Continuing in the tradition of Life, the 12th Edition Digital Update embraces an active learning approach that is seamlessly integrated throughout the text and media. Features are as follows:

H. Craig Heller is the Lorry I. Lokey/Business Wire Professor in Biological Sciences and Human Biology at Stanford University. He has taught in the core biology courses at Stanford since 1972 and served as Director of the Program in Human Biology, Chairman of the Biolo-gical Sciences Department, and Associate Dean of Research. Dr. Heller is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching and the Kenneth Cuthberson Award for Exceptional Service to Stanford University. 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 include: A new online, interactive version of the in-text Statistics Primer offers students the opportunity to actually perform statistical analysis and calculations. Intriguing Pop-Up questions in figure captions sharpen students’ skills in critical thinking about biology and subtly reinforce the process of doing science.Recaps for each Key Concept include Questions (all Bloom's levels 2-4) that test their mastery of the key concept. Engaging content helps students take the learning into their own hands. ‘Investigating Life’ narrative thread weaves through the chapter from the initial story at the beginning to the question sets at the end that reinforce the concepts and the synthesis and future directions. Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms. Modern biology is a vast and eclectic field composed of many specialized disciplines that study the structure, function, growth, distribution, evolution, or other features of living organisms. However, despite the broad scope of biology, there are certain general and unifying concepts that govern all study and research: The engaging and powerful simulations are now outfitted with quizzes that will report to the Instructor grade-book.

Inductive reasoning is a form of logical thinking that uses related observations to arrive at a general conclusion. This type of reasoning is common in descriptive science. A life scientist such as a biologist makes observations and records them. These data can be qualitative or quantitative, and one can supplement the raw data with drawings, pictures, photos, or videos. From many observations, the scientist can infer conclusions (inductions) based on evidence. Inductive reasoning involves formulating generalizations inferred from careful observation and analyzing a large amount of data. Brain studies provide an example. In this type of research, scientists observe many live brains while people are engaged in a specific activity, such as viewing images of food. The scientist then predicts the part of the brain that “lights up” during this activity to be the part controlling the response to the selected stimulus, in this case, images of food. Excess absorption of radioactive sugar derivatives by active areas of the brain causes the various areas to "light up". Scientists use a scanner to observe the resultant increase in radioactivity. Then, researchers can stimulate that part of the brain to see if similar responses result. One example of how basic and applied science can work together to solve practical problems occurred after the discovery of DNA structure led to an understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing DNA replication. DNA strands, unique in every human, are in our cells, where they provide the instructions necessary for life. When DNA replicates, it produces new copies of itself, shortly before a cell divides. Understanding DNA replication mechanisms enabled scientists to develop laboratory techniques that researchers now use to identify genetic diseases, pinpoint individuals who were at a crime scene, and determine paternity. Without basic science, it is unlikely that applied science could exist. Data in Depth offers students a more in-depth exploration of the in-text “Work with Data” feature via interactive modules that further enhance scientific literacy skills via a host of interactive enhancements: data visualizations, experimental design, graphing, and mathematical calculations.We lead by example by exposing students to many thoughtful questions throughout the body of the text, reinforcing the importance of asking questions in biology. A GREENER LIFEAnother 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 include:

New Podcast Interviews highlight current research areas and the diverse scientists involved in that research. These include reflection assignments to help students understand how the concepts they are learning are reflected in real world research. 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. All living organisms, regardless of their uniqueness, have certain biological, chemical, and physical characteristics in common. All, for example, are composed of basic units known as cells and of the same chemical substances, which, when analyzed, exhibit noteworthy similarities, even in such disparate organisms as bacteria and humans. Furthermore, since the action of any organism is determined by the manner in which its cells interact and since all cells interact in much the same way, the basic functioning of all organisms is also similar. The science of biology evolves. The science classroom and lab evolve. In this edition, as always, Life: The Science of Biology evolves with them, in innovative, authoritative, and captivating ways.The scope of biology is broad and therefore contains many branches and sub disciplines. Biologists may pursue one of those sub disciplines and work in a more focused field. For instance, molecular biology studies biological processes at the molecular level, including interactions among molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, as well as the way they are regulated. Microbiology is the study of the structure and function of microorganisms. It is quite a broad branch itself, and depending on the subject of study, there are also microbial physiologists, ecologists, and geneticists, among others.