書籍分類
Essentials of the Living World 6/e
作者：George Johnson
原價：NT$ 1,300
內容介紹 本書特色 目錄 作者介紹
- Description
George Johnson has written this non-majors textbook from the ground up to be an engaging and accessible learning tool with an emphasis on "how things work and why things happen the way they do." Essentials of The Living World focuses on concepts rather than terminology and technical information, and features a straightforward, clear writing style and a wide variety of media assets to enhance the content of the textbook.
- New to This Edition
Editing Your Genes. The most exciting advances since this text's last edition have been applications of a new, easy-to-use tool called CRISPR that allows researchers to edit genes. As described in Section 11.4 on pages 198-200, the gene -editing tool CRISPR is being used to treat human disease on many fronts, including developing a potential cure for AIDS, facilitating organ transplants from pigs (!), correcting disease-causing mutations such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell disease, and genetically modifying a patient's own cells to fight leukemia.
Can CRISPR Eliminate Malaria? Researchers have begun to test the possibility of incorporating CRISPR in a so-called gene drive. As described in Section 11.5 on pages 201 -202, the approach allows a CRISPR-modified gene to spread through entire populations of malaria-bearing mosquitos, carrying a gene alteration that makes the mosquitos sterile. This approach has the potential to eliminate malaria in one stroke!
Geoengineering to Combat Global Warming. With atmospheric CO2 levels at a 2 million-year high and efforts to reduce emissions faltering, attempts to engineer the earth's climate offer what may be our best hope of combating global warming. A so-called geoengineering approach, described in the Chapter 6 opening essay on pages 104- 105, removes CO? from the atmosphere by fertilizing earth's oceans to induce massive photosynthesis. Earth's oceans are rich in marine algae, their growth limited primarily by lack of iron (Fe is a key component of chlorophyll). In the lab, every pound of iron added to ocean water could remove as much as 100,000 pounds of carbon from the air! Very controversial small scale tests indicate that algal blooms are indeed produced by Fe fertilization and that the blooms sink to the ocean bottom, the carbon effectively returned to where it came from. But there are potentially serious problems with this approach, so it needs much more work before its real promise can be evaluated.
Ebola Outbreak. In 2014-2015, an outbreak of Ebola virus in three densely populated countries of West Africa infected over 24,000 people, killing half of them. Described in Section 16.3 on page 302, never has an Ebola outbreak affected so many people in so many different places. New outbreaks in 2017 and 2018 have failed to spread as far, at least partially due to the development of an effective vaccine, but the potential for future epidemics remains a very real threat.
The Search for Life on Other Planets. For over 20 years, astronomers have been detecting planets orbiting distant stars. As described in Section 16.1 on pages 296-297, over 10,000 had been identified. Might any of them be enough like earth to harbor life? In 2016, astronomers found a candidate planet 1,400 light-years from Earth. Labeled Kepler 45 2b, it orbits a star very much like our sun. In the last two years, they have reported finding several other "Goldilocks" exoplanets much closer to earth. One is only 4 lightyears away, practically a neighbor.
Role of Volcanoes in Mass Extinctions. A large asteroid slammed into earth 66 million years ago (recent, more accurate dating has revised the old "65 million years ago" date), the same time dinosaurs went extinct. Cause and effect? Perhaps not. Other mass extinctions are not correlated with similar impacts, while almost all ARE correlated with huge volcanic eruptions, as described in Section 18.7 on page 363. This was even true 66 million years ago. Perhaps in this instance, the asteroid impact triggered volcanic eruptions, like setting off a bear trap with a nudge.
Meet the Denisovans. When DNA was recovered from an ancient fingerbone found in Siberia, and its entire genome was sequenced, the sequence proved to be human, but was unlike either Neanderthals or modern humans. It was a new species of human. Now called the Denisovans (after the name of the cave where the fingerbone was found), this ancient species of human, described in the Chapter 18 opening essay on pages 336-337, has been shown in the last few years to have interbred with both Neanderthals and modern humans. Indeed, a recently discovered fossil from the cave has proven to be the offspring of a Neanderthal-Denisovan mating!
A Sense of Where You Are. How is LeBron James able to sink a jump shot without looking at the basket? Seeking an answer to this question, explored in Section 28.8 on pages 554-555, has led to two recent Nobel prizes and a lot of rat races through mazes. Researchers were able to show that your brain keeps a "map" of where you are in three dimensions and constantly updates it as you move through space.
- Table of Contents
0 Studying Biology
Part 1 The Study of Life
1 The Science of Biology
Part 2 The Living Cell
2 The Chemistry of Life
3 Molecules of Life
4 Cells
5 Energy and Life
6 Photosynthesis: Acquiring Energy from the Sun
7 How Cells Harvest Energy from Food
Part 3 The Continuity of Life
8 Mitosis
9 Meiosis
10 Foundations of Genetics
11 DNA: The Genetic Material
12 How Genes Work
13 The New Biology
Part 4 The Evolution and Diversity of Life
14 Evolution and Natural Selection
15 Exploring Biological Diversity
16 Evolution of Microbial Life
17 Evolution of Plants
18 Evolution of Animals
Part 5 The Living Environment
19 Populations and Communities
20 Ecosystems
21 Behavior and the Environment
22 How Humans Influence the Living World
Part 6 Animal Life
23 The Animal Body and How It Moves
24 Circulation
25 Respiration
26 The Path of Food Through the Animal Body
27 Maintaining the Internal Environment
28 How the Animal Body Defends Itself
29 The Nervous System
30 Chemical Signaling Within the Animal Body
31 Reproduction and Development
Part 7 Plant Life
32 Plant Form and Function
33 Plant Reproduction and Growth
- George Johnson
Dr. George B. Johnson is a researcher, educator, and author. Born in 1942 in Virginia, he went to college in New Hampshire (Dartmouth), attended graduate school in California (Stanford), and is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he has taught freshman biology and genetics to undergraduates for over 35 years. Also Professor of Genetics at Washington University’s School of Medicine, Dr. Johnson is a student of population genetics and evolution, authoring more than 50 scientific journal publications. His laboratory work is renowned for pioneering the study of previously undisclosed genetic variability. His field research has centered on alpine butterflies and flowers, much of it carried out in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. Other ecosystems he has explored in recent years include Brazilian and Costa Rican rain forests, the Florida Everglades, the seacoast of Maine, coral reefs off Belize, the ice fields and mountains of Patagonia, and, delightfully, vineyards in Tuscany.
A prolific writer and educator, Dr. Johnson is the author of seven nationally recognized college texts for McGraw-Hill, including the hugely successful majors texts Biology (with botanist Peter Raven) and three nonmajors’ texts: Understanding Biology, Essentials of The Living World, and The Living World. He has also authored two widely used high school biology textbooks, Holt Biology and Biology: Visualizing Life. In the 30 years he has been authoring biology texts, over 3 million students have been taught from textbooks Dr. Johnson has written
