Synopsis
For sample chapters, a video interview with David Hillis, and more information, visit www.whfreeman.com/hillispreview.
Sinauer Associates and W.H. Freeman are proud to introduce Principles of Life. Written in the spirit of the reform movement that is reinvigorating the introductory majors course, Principles of Life cuts through the thicket of excessive detail and factual minutiae to focus on what matters most in the study of biology today. Students explore the most essential biological ideas and information in the context of the field’s defining experiments, and are actively engaged in analyzing research data. The result is a textbook that is hundreds of pages shorter (and significantly less expensive) than the current majors introductory books.
About the Author
David M. Hillis is the Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor in Integrative Biology and the Director of the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also has directed the School of Biological Sciences. Dr. Hillis has taught courses in introductory biology, genetics, evolution, systematics, and biodiversity. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, and has served as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution and of the Society of Systematic Biologists. He served on the National Research Council committee that wrote the report BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education for Research Biologists. His research interests span much of evolutionary biology, including experimental studies of evolving viruses, empirical studies of natural molecular evolution, applications of phylogenetics, analyses of biodiversity, and evolutionary modeling. He is particularly interested in teaching and research about the practical applications of evolutionary biology.
David E. Sadava is the Pritzker Family Foundation Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at the Keck Science Center of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps, three of The Claremont Colleges. In addition, he is Adjunct Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at the City of Hope Medical Center. Twice winner of the Huntoon Award for superior teaching, Dr. Sadava has taught courses on introductory biology, biotechnology, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, plant biology, and cancer biology. In addition to Life: The Science of Biology, he is the author or coauthor of books on cell biology and on plants, genes, and crop biotechnology. His research has resulted in many papers coauthored with his students, on topics ranging from plant biochemistry to pharmacology of narcotic analgesics to human genetic diseases. For the past 15 years, he has investigated multi-drug resistance in human small-cell lung carcinoma cells with a view to understanding and overcoming this clinical challenge. At the City of Hope, his current work focuses on new anti-cancer agents from plants.
H. Craig Heller is the Lorry I. Lokey/Business Wire Professor in Biological Sciences and Human Biology at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at Yale University in 1970. Dr. Heller 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. His research is on the neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms, mammalian hibernation, the regulation of body temperature, the physiology of human performance, and the neurobiology of learning. Dr. Heller has done research on a huge variety of animals and physiological problems ranging from sleeping kangaroo rats, diving seals, hibernating bears, photoperiodic hamsters, and exercising athletes. Dr. Heller has extended his enthusiasm for promoting active learning through the development of a two-year curriculum in human biology for the middle grades, and at the college level he directed the production of Virtual labsâ$e"interactive computer-based modules to teach physiology.
Mary V. Price is Professor of Biology, Emerita, at the University of California Riverside and Adjunct Professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona. In "retirement," she continues to teach and study, having learned the joy and art of scientific discovery as an undergraduate student at Vassar College and doctoral student at the University of Arizona. Dr. Price has mentored and published with independent-research students and has developed and taught general biology and ecology courses from introductory (majors and nonmajors) to graduate levels. She has particularly enjoyed leading field classes in the arid regions of North America and Australia, and the tropical forests of Central America, Africa, and Madagascar. Dr. Price's research focuses on understanding the ecology of North American deserts and mountains. She has asked why so many desert rodents can coexist, how best to conserve endangered kangaroo rat species, how pollinators and herbivores influence floral evolution and plant population dynamics, and how climate change affects ecological systems.
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