Biology Now

A balance of science and story, with a focus on the people doing biology now.

The perfect balance of science and storyBrief chapters are written like science news articles, combining compelling science with intriguing stories. The Second Edition features NEW stories on exciting topics such as CRISPR and the human microbiome, and expanded coverage of the course's most important content areas. Biology Now is written by an author team made up of a science writer and two experienced teachers. Expanded pedagogy in the book and online encourages students to think critically and engage with biology in the world around them.

"Biology Now is an introductory biology textbook for undergraduate nonmajors students. Brief chapters written like science news stories are paired with a powerful pedagogical structure to emphasize the scientific literacy skills non-majors students need to become informed citizens. Six new stories on exciting topics including vaccines, opioids, exercise, and climate change will spark students' curiosity about biology, motivating them to learn the science"--

Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the “disease model” of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery. The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease, based on evidence that brains change with drug use. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing. Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it’s supposed to do—seek pleasure and relief—in a world that’s not cooperating. Brains are designed to restructure themselves with normal learning and development, but this process is accelerated in addiction when highly attractive rewards are pursued repeatedly. Lewis shows why treatment based on the disease model so often fails, and how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery, given the realities of brain plasticity. Combining intimate human stories with clearly rendered scientific explanation, The Biology of Desire is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.

Cecie Starr is the most successful author in non-majors biology because of her clear and engaging writing, trend-setting art, and unparalleled student and instructor media. Now in her brief NEW text, Starr creates in fewer than 600 pages a friendly, issues-oriented book with enormous instructional power. Integrating visuals from the book and accompanying media, Starr supports student mastery throughout and encourages students to make judgments about biology-related issues just as they will as citizens, voters, parents, employees, and consumers. The pedagogical focal points of each chapter are "Read Me First!" diagrams that introduce concepts before students read the longer text discussions. These visual previews, featuring annotated art presented in clearly numbered steps, make the subsequent text discussions more accessible. To solidify understanding, a narrated animation of each diagram appears on the free Student CD-ROM. "The Big Picture" on every chapter-opening page is a visual overview of the chapter's key concepts and is enhanced by a fully narrated, "mini-lecture" movie on the CD-ROM. The free Student CD-ROM provides access to BiologyNow, a powerful diagnostic learning tool that helps students assess their unique study needs through pretests and personalized learning plans. An "Impacts and Issues" opens each chapter focusing students on a key biology-related societal issue. Revisited throughout the chapter, this unfolding case study illustrates the chapter's biological concepts. Each chapter's "How Would You Vote?" feature asks students to consider biology-related news topics, gather and evaluate pro/con information, apply knowledge, then cast a vote on the Web. Students can see how peers in their state and across the nation voted. For additional facts and perspectives on each side of the issue, instructors can assign readings from the online Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.

Single molecule techniques, including single molecule fluorescence, optical tweezers, and scanning probe microscopy, allow for the manipulation and measurement of single biological molecules within a live cell or in culture. These approaches, amongst the most exciting tools available in biology today, offer powerful new ways to elucidate biological function, both in terms of revealing mechanisms of action on a molecular level as well as tracking the behaviour of molecules in living cells. This book provides the first complete and authoritative treatment of this rapidly emerging field, explicitly from a biological perspective. The contents are organized by biological system or molecule. Each chapter discusses insights that have been revealed about their mechanism, structure or function by single molecule techniques. Among the topics covered are enzymes, motor proteins, membrane channels, DNA, ribozymes, cytoskeletal proteins, and other key molecules of current interest. An introduction by the editor provides a concise review of key principles and an historical overview. The last section discusses applications in molecular diagnostics and drug discovery. * Organized by biological system or molecule. * Each chapter discusses insights into mechanism of action, structure, and function * Covers enzymes, motor proteins, membrane channels, DNA, ribozymes, etc. * Includes an introduction to key principles and an historical overview. * Discusses applications in molecular diagnostics and drug discovery. * Provides an expert's perspective on future developments.

This book presents the hotly debated question of whether quantum mechanics plays a non-trivial role in biology. In a timely way, it sets out a distinct quantum biology agenda. The burgeoning fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum technology, and quantum information processing are now strongly converging. The acronym BINS, for Bio-Info-Nano-Systems, has been coined to describe the synergetic interface of these several disciplines. The living cell is an information replicating and processing system that is replete with naturally-evolved nanomachines, which at some level require a quantum mechanical description. As quantum engineering and nanotechnology meet, increasing use will be made of biological structures, or hybrids of biological and fabricated systems, for producing novel devices for information storage and processing and other tasks. An understanding of these systems at a quantum mechanical level will be indispensable. Contents:Foreword (Sir R Penrose)Emergence and Complexity:A Quantum Origin of Life? (P C W Davies)Quantum Mechanics and Emergence (S Lloyd)Quantum Mechanisms in Biology:Quantum Coherence and the Search for the First Replicator (J Al-Khalili & J McFadden)Ultrafast Quantum Dynamics in Photosynthesis (A O Castro, F F Olsen, C F Lee & N F Johnson)Modelling Quantum Decoherence in Biomolecules (J Bothma, J Gilmore & R H McKenzie)The Biological Evidence:Molecular Evolution: A Role for Quantum Mechanics in the Dynamics of Molecular Machines that Read and Write DNA (A Goel)Memory Depends on the Cytoskeleton, but is it Quantum? (A Mershin & D V Nanopoulos)Quantum Metabolism and Allometric Scaling Relations in Biology (L Demetrius)Spectroscopy of the Genetic Code (J D Bashford & P D Jarvis)Towards Understanding the Origin of Genetic Languages (A D Patel)Artificial Quantum Life:Can Arbitrary Quantum Systems Undergo Self-Replication? (A K Pati & S L Braunstein)A Semi-Quantum Version of the Game of Life (A P Flitney & D Abbott)Evolutionary Stability in Quantum Games (A Iqbal & T Cheon)Quantum Transmemetic Intelligence (E W Piotrowski & J S≈adkowski)The Debate:Dreams versus Reality: Plenary Debate Session on Quantum Computing (For Panel: C M Caves, D Lidar, H Brandt, A R Hamilton, Against Panel: D K Ferry, J Gea-Banacloche, S M Bezrukov, L B Kish, Debate Chair: C R Doering, Transcript Editor: D Abbott)Plenary Debate: Quantum Effects in Biology: Trivial or Not? (For Panel: P C W Davies, S Hameroff, A Zeilinger, D Abbott, Against Panel: J Eisert, H M Wiseman, S M Bezrukov, H Frauenfelder, Debate Chair: J Gea-Banacloche, Transcript Editor: D Abbott)Nontrivial Quantum Effects in Biology: A Skeptical Physicist's View (H Wiseman & J Eisert)That's Life! — The Geometry of π Electron Clouds (S Hameroff) Readership: Graduate students and researchers in quantum physics, biophysics, nanosciences, quantum chemistry, mathematical biology and complexity theory, as well as philosophers of science. Keywords:Quantum Biology;Quantum Computation;Quantum Mechanics;Biophysics;Nanotechnology;Quantum Technology;Quantum Information Processing;Bio-Info-Nano-Systems (BINS);Emergence;Complexity;Complex Systems;Cellular Automata;Game Theory;Biomolecules;Photosynthesis;DNA;Genetic Code;DecoherenceKey Features:Is structured in a debate style, where contributors argue opposing positionsBrings together some of the finest minds and latest developments in the fieldIs entirely unique and there are no competing titles

Now more than ever, biology has the potential to contribute practical solutions to many of the major challenges confronting the United States and the world. A New Biology for the 21st Century recommends that a "New Biology" approach-one that depends on greater integration within biology, and closer collaboration with physical, computational, and earth scientists, mathematicians and engineers-be used to find solutions to four key societal needs: sustainable food production, ecosystem restoration, optimized biofuel production, and improvement in human health. The approach calls for a coordinated effort to leverage resources across the federal, private, and academic sectors to help meet challenges and improve the return on life science research in general.