Exploring Life

All students who are interested in biology, but who have been intimidated by the mysteries of science, will find it possible to learn the principles of biology by following the themes as presented in this book. Science is seen in its proper context; a process carried out by all too human scientists. It tries to show how the work of these men and women reveals a little more each day about how life works.

You and I

Now I know the grade is important; you must get your grade, I understand that. But if you get your grade without having learned something, we will both have failed, and I hate failure. That is why I wrote this book, and why I wrote it the way I did. I want you to get your grade, and also take away something extra; an understanding of how life works.

So let us begin with the book.

Pictures and Words

Words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters are placed mercilessly under the microscope, and subjected to revision, comment and error elimination. Bundles of manuscript are returned to the author covered in so much red ink that the author feels that nothing of the original is left intact. An author's ego takes a terrible bashing, but, at the end of it all, the author and the team of reviewers can shake hands and agree that the manuscript is now as good as compromise can produce. At this point, and only at this point, will most publishers begin to discuss the art program.

Since few authors are also talented artists, the pictures in a text book are not only produced by someone else, but are interpreted by someone else, and their creation is separated and independent from the creation of the words in the manuscript. No matter how dedicated and clever the artist or the art director, the final book often looks like the work of two different people, and the student may be forgiven some confusion when the two sets of information, pictures and words, don't match.

As a teacher, I always found this most frustrating. So, I was very lucky in finding Wm.C. Brown as the publisher of this book. Not only was I allowed to work very closely with the artist, the development of the art program ran along side the writing of the words. Consequently there is a relationship between the text and the pictures in this book that is probably unique. Instead of thinking of the words first, and then trying to find pictures to fit them, I would often have an idea for an image, work on the image itself and the words to go with that image, all at the same time! Art and words work together in this book in a way that is additive, not independent.

Such an art program is expensive. It requires close collaboration between the frustrated author and the very patient artist, who was often asked to modify or even re-draw an image over and over again until it fitted exactly into its context. Most of the time images went through a progressive simplification (always the hardest thing to do), but occasionally a dramatic twist was needed and a drawing grew until its message was unavoidable. In just one or two places a touch of humor escapes, like Redi's flies on page 10, all to help change the pace and enhance the ability of the book to transfer knowledge.

Now Read On

In this book I try to do much the same thing. At the beginning of each chapter is a short piece of text that sets up an image. Chapter Three, for example, starts with a detective story, which leads us into a discussion of how life got started on this planet (we think!). Chapter Seven, on Biological Energy, begins with a sugar cane plant and the molecule sucrose, which we follow through this and the next chapter. In each case, a story is told.

These stories link together the facts presented in the chapter. By reading each chapter from beginning to end (even if you don't understand all the science yet), you will detect a theme. Hold onto that theme. Now go back and read the chapter again, this time concentrating more on the details. With the second reading the details will begin to hang on the story and the whole will make more sense than the sum of the parts.

Of course you will have to learn many of these details for the examination. That is what some exams are all about. But you will find learning the individual facts a lot more easy and a lot more pleasurable if it is done within the context of the story or theme.

There are a lot of new words in this book. Scientists make up new words all the time, and scientific jargon is one of the biggest barriers the non-scientist faces when opening any piece of scientific literature. To help you understand and learn the jargon, this book not only has a traditional glossary at the back, but also has a series of word explanations in the margins of each chapter. Read these definitions. Also, if you get stuck, there will be a growing section within these Web pages to help you understand the words of science.

The Last Word

What ever you do, try to understand the underlying principle first, then grab the facts to memorize. For example, in Chapter Eight, the principle is simple; electrons carry energy. Of course there is more to it than that, but grasping that first principle is an important first step.

This book is all about these principles. Find each of them as you read, learn and understand them first, and then make sure you get enough of the detail to pass the examination. At the end of the course, this book will have helped you get your grade and (hopefully) helped you understand what life is all about.