Practical Botany

This class is for nonscience majors, and it is important not to overwhelm students with facts and obscure the larger picture. Science is a vital and important part of our world. Not everyone needs to be a science major, but I do think everyone should be comfortable with science―understanding how to think critically and evaluate new ideas and products, understanding how science is changing our understanding of our world. Reading about and paying attention to science news in the newspaper and through online news sources helps you be an informed consumer, voter, and citizen. This book cannot cover everything, nor does my class. I have focused on that part of science in which I was trained: botany, the study of plants. I have chosen to focus on the plants that humans have domesticated and used as food, chemicals, and medicine. My intent is to teach you how science thinks and evaluates information, as well as to show you some science that is relevant to you no matter what your background or career path―science that will matter and be useful to you when you leave my class and when you leave the university. Science is all around us, and it affects us more and 
more every day. Global climate change, stem cell research, cloning, genetically modified foods, the latest diet-cleansing fad; all of these and more are topics that are important to everyone. You must educate yourself and make informed decisions about these topics and more. That is the purpose of this book and class. I cannot cover every topic, but I can show you the path to keep you literate in science, which is a foundation of a healthy democracy.