About this title: Essential Biology is a brief non-majors biology textbook that brings the authors' extraordinary reputation for biological accuracy and teaching innovation to bear upon four core biological topics: cells, genetics, evolution, and ecology. The authors use evolution as the thematic thread to tie all twenty chapters into a cohesive exploration of life ...
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Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company
ISBN-13:9780805373936ISBN:0805373934
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company
ISBN-13:9780805373936ISBN:0805373934
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Sorry, CD missing. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Sorry, CD missing. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. With CD! Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Sorry, CD missing. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780805373936ISBN:0805373934
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. lightly worn on edges and spine cover lightly rubbed. 490 p. Audience: General/trade. trade paperback no cd read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780805373936ISBN:0805373934
Description: Good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 490 p. Audience: General/trade. CD has been opened but is included. There is some highlighting on just a few pages. Highlighting limited to just a couple of pages. Shelf wear and scuff to the covers. The front cover has some edgewear. The front cover has a few fold marks. Back cover also has a fold mark. All in all, plenty of reasonable and useful text book with used covers. read more
Description: Good. With CD! Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 0536687889 Good condition, minor wear. Shelf wear along the edges of cover. No other major marks or damage. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Great customer service and a no problem, EZ return policy. Real people, real service, since 1981. Includes Essential Biology Place CD for Mac and PC. 0536687889. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780805373936ISBN:0805373934
Description: New. No dust jacket. perfect condition...lo price due to instructor complimentary ed...same content as student edition...cover differs slightly... Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 490 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Testbank Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"I read this textbook as part of a biology class this summer.
Overall, one could make an argument that it deserves more than two stars because it's not really worse than typical college textbooks. I don't buy that.
First, the good points: its introduction, scientific method coverage, population, community, and ecosystem ecology sections were very good. The scientific method coverage, in particular, took pains to define the scope of scientific discourse very precisely, and explicitly stated that other fields such as religion can also help us to know nature. I appreciated that.
The community and ecosystem sections, in particular, seemed well-written. They didn't just state ideas; they described the studies that supported them and actively encouraged critical thinking about those studies and their results. In my class, we read those sections first, so I had high hopes for the textbook as a whole.
The book covers a very broad set of topics, and some in surprisingly deep detail. It has a good index and glossary as well.
Unfortunately, most of the book follows this pattern:
Thing A performs function X. Thing B performs function Y. Thing C does Z. They fit together as A-B-C. See figure 8-23h.
(repeat over and over, with different values of ABC, XYZ.)
That is, very little explanation of why we believe this is the case, how we learned about it, how the scientific method was applied in the acquisition of this knowledge, or any disagreement among biologists as to the accuracy of the information. They did have very occasional sections on this, but entire chapters might be almost completely devoid of it. Almost never does the book cite its sources for facts either.
As I was reading the chapters on cells -- which have amazingly intricate chemical properties spelled out -- I kept wondering: when and how did we manage to figure THIS out? It was almost never explained. It would have been so fascinating if it had been.
Then there is the tendency to put out rather unsupportable statements, such as this little gem from page 595:
"Composed of up to 100 billion intricately organized neurons, with a much larger number of supporting cells, the human brain is more powerful than the most sophisticated computer." OK, thought-provoking, yes. But how can you scientifically evaluate the power of a computer and a brain on objective terms? I'm not sure I can evaluate the power of a computer on objective terms (the word "power" is just way too imprecise), let alone that of a brain. They cite no source of that, there is no discussion or background of it. It's just thrown out there, then discarded. I hate that. If you're going to say something that interesting, at least make a feeble attempt to back it up!
They also have a habit of saying things are "almost always" true, such as on p. 383, where they say "Solar energy powers nearly all ecosystems." But they rarely explain what the exceptions are, leaving you to wonder whether a given example is an exception or a rule. (OK, so it's more obvious here, but it happens elsewhere).
They do have a number of helpful figures in the book, though they've probably gone overboard on the photos of athletes and things. Yes, muscles make us run. I get it already.
This is an introductory textbook, so perhaps I am overly harsh here. But I've read other introductory textbooks that are more given to precise language, and don't have chapters that are just endless lists of definitions and functions, but explain how we got there. This book could have so easily been excellent."
"This book is a bit dry although the story line is fascinating. Ha Ha..... I'm not kidding though, this is the only book I have time to read anymore. School sucks."
"This book is fine, but i'd only recommend it for people taking this biology class. Cost was minimal compared to School bookstore, and I'll sell it for profit."
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