Chapter 1

• Biology is the scientific study of life.
• You are starting your study of biology during its most exciting era.
• The largest and best-equipped community of scientists in history is beginning to solve problems that once seemed unsolvable.
  • Biology is an ongoing inquiry about the nature of life.
• Biologists are moving closer to understanding:
  • How a single cell develops into an adult animal or plant.
  • How plants convert solar energy into the chemical energy of food.
  • How the human mind works.
  • How living things interact in biological communities.
  • How the diversity of life evolved from the first microbes.
• Research breakthroughs in genetics and cell biology are transforming medicine and agriculture.
  • Neuroscience and evolutionary biology are reshaping psychology and sociology.
  • Molecular biology is providing new tools for anthropology and criminology.
  • New models in ecology are helping society to evaluate environmental issues, such as the causes and biological consequences of global warming.
• Unifying themes pervade all of biology.

The illustration above most probably represents

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A) a computer simulation of the structure of a eukaryotic cell.
B) a map of a network of protein interactions within a eukaryotic cell.
C) an inventory of all the genes in a fruit fly.
D) an X-ray diffraction image of the nucleus and cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell.
E) a computer-generated map of the interaction of genes and cytoplasm in a prokaryotic cell.