Biology Essentials For Dummies

by Kratz, Rene Fester; Siegfried, Donna Rae

• ISBN13: 9781118072677
• ISBN10: 1118072677
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-07
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

A new series extension of the For Dummies brand, The Essentials For Dummies will appeal to the huge number of readers who seek out focused, short form consumer reference books at the $9.99 price point. Positioned for students (and parents) who just want the key concepts and a few examples - without the review, ramp-up, and anecdotal content - The Essentials For Dummies series is a perfect solution for exam-cramming, homework help, and reference.

Author Biography

Rene Fester Kratz, PhD and Donna Rae Siegfried are the authors of Biology For Dummies.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
About This Book	p. 1
Conventions Used in This Book	p. 2
Foolish Assumptions	p. 2
Icons Used in This Book	p. 2
Where to Go from Here	p. 3
Exploring the Living World	p. 5
Living Things: Why Biologists Study Them, What Defines Them	p. 5
Meet Your Neighbors: Looking at Life on Earth	p. 8
Unsung heroes: Bacteria	p. 8
Bacteria impersonators: Archaeans	p. 9
A taste of the familiar: Eukaryotes	p. 9
Classifying Living Things	p. 11
Organizing Life into Smaller and Smaller Groups: Taxonomy	p. 12
Biodiversity: Our Differences Make Us Strons	p. 14
Valuing biodiversity	p. 15
Surveying the threats posed by human actions	p. 16
Exploring the extinction of species	p. 17
Keystone species	p. 17
Indicator species	p. 18
Protecting biodiversity	p. 18
Making Sense of the World through Observations	p. 19
The Chemistry of Life	p. 23
Exploring Why Matter Matters	p. 23
The Differences among Atoms, Elements, and Isotopes	p. 24
Tiny, mighty atoms	p. 24
Elements of elements	p. 25
I so dig isotopes	p. 25
Molecules, Compounds, and Bonds	p. 26
Acids and Bases	p. 27
"Ph"iguring out the pH scale	p. 27
Buffing up on buffers	p. 28
Carbon-Based Molecules: The Basis for All Life	p. 28
Providing energy: Carbohydrates	p. 29
Making and breaking sugars	p. 31
Converting glucose for storage purposes	p. 31
Making life possible: Proteins	p. 32
The building blocks of proteins	p. 32
The main functions of proteins	p. 33
Drawing the cellular road map: Nucleic acids	p. 34
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)	p. 34
Ribonucleic acid (RNA)	p. 36
Supplying structure, energy, and more: Lipids	p. 36
The Living Cell	p. 39
An Overview of Cells	p. 39
Peeking at Prokaryotic Cells	p. 41
Examining the Structure of Eukaryotic Cells	p. 42
Cells and the Organelles	p. 44
Holding it all together: The plasma membrane	p. 44
Deciphering the fluid-mosaic model	p. 45
Transporting materials through the plasma membrane	p. 47
Supporting the cell: The cytoskeleton	p. 48
The nucleus controls the show	p. 49
Creating proteins: Ribosomes	p. 50
Serving as the cell's factory: The endoplasmic reticulum	p. 50
Preparing products for distribution: The Golgi apparatus	p. 51
Cleaning up the trash: Lysosomes	p. 51
Destroying toxins: Peroxisomes	p. 52
Providing energy, ATP-style: Mitochondria	p. 52
Converting energy: Chloroplasts	p. 53
Presenting Enzymes, the lump-Starters	p. 53
Staying the same	p. 54
While lowering activation energy	p. 55
Getting some help from cofactors and coenzymes	p. 56
Controlling enzymes through feedback inhibition	p. 56
Energy and Organisms	p. 59
What's Energy Got to Do with It?	p. 59
Looking at the rules regarding energy	p. 60
Metabolizing molecules	p. 61
Transferring energy with ATP	p. 61
Consuming food for matter and energy	p. 62
Finding food versus producing your own	p. 63
Building Cells through Photosynthesis	p. 65
Transforming energy from the ultimate energy source	p. 66
Putting matter and energy together	p. 67
Cellular Respiration: Using Oxygen to Break Down Food	p. 67
Breaking down food	p. 69
Transferring energy to ATP	p. 70
Energy and Your Body	p. 72
Reproducing Cells	p. 75
Reproduction: Keep On Keepin' On	p. 75
How DNA Replication Works	p. 77
Cell Division: Out with the Old, In with the New	p. 80
Interphase: Getting organized	p. 82
Mitosis: One for you, and one for you	p. 84
The four phases of mitosis	p. 84
Daughter nuclei go their own way: Cytokinesis	p. 85
Meiosis: It's all about sex, baby	p. 87
Meiosis I	p. 90
Meiosis II	p. 92
How Sexual Reproduction Creates Genetic Variation	p. 92
Mutations	p. 93
Crossing over	p. 93
Independent assortment	p. 93
Fertilization	p. 94
Nondisjunction	p. 94
Pink and blue chromosomes	p. 95
This Budding's for You: Asexual Reproduction	p. 96
DNA and Proteins: Life Partners	p. 97
Proteins Make Traits Happen, and DNA Makes the Proteins	p. 97
Moving from DNA to RNA to Protein	p. 98
Rewriting DNA's message: Transcription	p. 99
Finding out what else is involved	p. 102
Walking through the process	p. 102
Putting on the finishing touches: RNA processing	p. 103
Converting the code to the right language: Translation	p. 104
Making sense of codons and anticodons	p. 106
Breaking down the translation process	p. 107
Mistakes Happen: The Consequences of Mutation	p. 109
Giving Cells Some Control: Gene Regulation	p. 111
Adapting to environmental changes	p. 112
Becoming specialists through differentiation	p. 112
Ecosystems and Populations	p. 115
Ecosystems Bring It All Together	p. 115
Biomes: Communities of life	p. 117
Interactions among species	p. 118
Studying Populations	p. 118
The basics of population ecology	p. 119
Population density	p. 119
Dispersion	p. 119
Population dynamics	p. 120
Survivorship	p. 120
How populations grow	p. 122
Factors affecting population growth	p. 122
Reaching carrying capacity	p. 123
Taking a closer look at the human population	p. 123
Moving Energy and Matter around within Ecosystems	p. 125
Going with the (energy) flow	p. 126
Energy principles	p. 126
The energy pyramid	p. 127
Cycling matter through ecosystems	p. 128
The hydrologic cycle	p. 129
The carbon cycle	p. 129
The phosphorus cycle	p. 130
The nitrogen cycle	p. 131
Understanding Genetics133
Heritable Traits and the Factors Affecting Them	p. 133
Mendel's Laws of Inheritance	p. 134
Pure breeding the parentals	p. 135
Analyzing the F1 and F2 generations	p. 135
Reviewing Mendel's results	p. 136
Defining Key Genetics Terms	p. 137
Bearing Genetic Crosses	p. 138
Genetic Engineering	p. 140
Understanding what's involved in DNA technology	p. 141
Cutting DNA with restriction enzymes	p. 141
Combining DNA from different sources	p. 142
Genetically modifyied organisms	p. 143
Why GMOs are beneficial	p. 143
Why GMOs cause concern	p. 144
Reading a gene with DNA sequencing	p. 146
Mapping the genes of humanity	p. 147
Biological Evolution	p. 149
What People Used to Believe	p. 149
Charles Darwin: Challenging Age-Old Beliefs	p. 150
Owing it all to the birds	p. 151
Darwin's theory of biological evolution	p. 152
The idea of natural selection	p. 152
Natural selection versus artificial selection	p. 152
Four types of natural selection	p. 154
Evidence of Biological Evolution	p. 155
Biochemistry	p. 155
Comparative anatomy	p. 156
Geographic distribution of species	p. 157
Molecular biology	p. 157
Fossil record	p. 158
Observable data	p. 158
Radioisotope dating	p. 159
Evolution versus Creationism	p. 159
Ten Great Biology Discoveries	p. 161
Seeing the Unseen	p. 161
Creating the First Antibiotic	p. 161
Protecting People from Smallpox	p. 162
Defining DNA Structure	p. 162
Finding and Fighting Defective Genes	p. 162
Discovering Modern Genetic Principles	p. 163
Evolving the Theory of Natural Selection	p. 163
Formulating Cell Theory	p. 164
Moving Energy through the Krebs Cycle	p. 164
Amplifying DNA with PCR	p. 164
Index	p. 167
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