The underlying theme of evolution is throughout the book and unifies the theme. Weballosteric inhibition. To submit a correction, 1. However, the image shows the reversesubstrate-level phosphorylation of ATP, in which the third phosphate is attached to ADP from some substrate. Clear subtitles and logically arranged chapters. This textbook provides an excellent discourse on the many foundational ideas of Biology. I did not find any grammar / proofreading errors. 'L}|Cv~^Uw|azPobk`byO!`*Sw4vn\eSe{#u1LA1t1&l8$)a"=W4j]lk\gx ay)&~g88 a^WuF+W;lQ*aRtuz.'WrNfr65I| One thing I would say is that, because the book relies on images/media that are in the public domain, the images had a more heterogeneous feel and style than those I find in commercial textbooks. I've found all the terminology to be consistent. This is an excellent textbook for a majors general biology course. This text book follows the usual pattern of chapters in covering the subject of general biology. Reviewed by Lisa Johansen, Senior Instructor, University of Colorado Denver on 4/20/20, The text book covered all the chapters I would assign for first semester General Biology course at the college level (Molecules to Cells). I have no special comments for this metric. read more. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting and easy this book was to read. Compared to conventional textbooks, it is typically accurate and perhaps a little above average in freshness. ions neutrons neutral atoms isotopes 6. hydrophobic and Hydrophobic) were noted in the index. In a book of this size, I would expect there to be lots of mistakes, so I was pleased at how mistake-free this is. Definitions and examples for terminology are provided by several means; within the body of the text, key terms, tables, examples and through Link to Learning. Students can download this text for free, view it on their devices and print it out. The book is divided into topical subsections much like mainstream print books of its kind. In figure 7.9 (Citric Acid Cycle), this convention is jettisoned. The authors use a confusing 'straight line' terminology to try to explain monophyly. The OpenStax Biology book has units and chapters that cover all of the major topics that one would consider for a general or introductory Biology course. Definitely share, Im in that group. For example, the discussion of Lakes work would not be accessible to general biology students. Content is laid out in a clear and concise manner. Thanks for sharing the reading guides! There were also many resources for both the instructor and the students that make the use of this book ideal. Overall, this chapter was accurate, with concepts clearly described. I use Openstax Biology 2e as a textbook for my AP Bio and dual credit class. This is a fine textbook for my purposes (intro to chemistry and cell biology, as a foundation for an anatomy and physiology sequence). 18.1 too dark. I was going to also review it for "Animal Form and Function" but the quality was so poor I decided not to spend my time. For example, there is no reference to CRISPR-cas9 gene editing. Another advantage of online textbooks. 14. The Biology 2e text is comprehensive without being overwhelming and provides a similar organization and logical flow as the previous text. As mentioned above, changes in our understanding of biology are happening quickly, but those can be incorporated into the the framework of this textbook in a straightforward way. If I were to adopt this book I would need to pay close attention to connecting some themes, providing plenty of examples, and checking comprehension throughout. The book's grammar seems to be good. There is no open source zoology textbook available, and in any case, the published texts tend to be too heavy on facts and too weak on what I present as the logic of zoology the evolutionary reasons or biochemical constraints that are common drivers of the structure and function of animals. WebCh. I did not find references to other sections of the book, and these chapters could be used without the rest of the text. Yes, my other comments are as follows: A suggested and testable explanation for an event is called a ________. However, these errors are minimal for a 1500+ page text. (It might be worth mentioning here that Concepts of Biology also from OpenStax is meant to be used in non-majors biology courses.) Not having to worry about printing costs per page allows for more freedom and prevents "widowing and orphaning" of paragraphs that don't belong with the rest of the page content. The text uses the terms primitive and advanced for extant taxa. The text does an excellent job of focusing on the content and providing examples from around the world. The top menu bar has a My Highlights icon that brings up all notes and highlighted passages organized by chapter. The Review Questions and Critical Thinking questions were excellent and very useful to reinforce the content. Exception: Noted unnecessary use of ( ) on pg. Algae should have been discussed as a separated chapter (like fungi) and not lumped with seedless plants. The navigation bar is simplistic but does the job. The organization and flow are exactly what many introductory biology teachers would expect in terms of major topics/themes and their ordering if one is used to a number of the major commercial offerings: topics progress from molecules to cells to organisms to ecosystems. The links that I clicked to external sites all worked well. Topics such as biotechnology and conservation/ecology will, of course, have a quicker update cycle as new technology is developed and example animals are driven to extinction. These resources vary in quality, but links do work properly and redirect to functioning sites. However, the likelihood of an instructor assigning those subsections at random is very low, so I don't think it would be a problem. At times, it seems too little effort is devoted to explaining the relevance, context, or complexity of the concepts and principles. WebCh. Likewise, the inclusion of the Chapter Summaries and Key Word definitions were highly beneficial. The flow and organization is comparable to other texts in the market. I'ld like to see some deeper discussions into current topics such as CRISPR and other Biotechnology related concepts, although discussions around genomics was sufficient. Among the three domains, the archaea are not given adequate treatment. The book is comprehensive and suitable for use in a 2-semester (year long) college-level biology/science majors general biology sequence. 6. Many online books and journals offer this feature.. 1171-2 are covered with weakly explained equations and values in mm Hg. The section on temperate forests is actually inaccurate in spots, stating that deciduous trees are dominant in this biome, and omitting the fact that coniferous forest are also dominant in these forests. I found no problems with the accuracy of major concepts or with the more specific steps of cellular respiration. For a majors, there might be some supplemental material required, if the instructor wants to dig into particularly new technologies. I didn't notice any issues. The information in each unit is well organized and follows the levels of biological organization well. Again, I think this structure is typical for an introductory class. One aspect I really like of the text is all of the website links built right into the chapters. In other words, I am unfamiliar with open source, online texts. Should our understanding of cellular respiration or fermentation change, the chapter should be easy to update. I didn't find anything in the text that would turn off a particular ethnicity or other background. Content-wise, Biology -2e very closely aligns itself with most traditional introductory Biology text books. hi, i am a student and i have been using your reading guides to help me with my reading assignments for this book and they have been extremely helpful! In some cases this is good. A suggested and testable explanation for an event is called a ________. For example, figures 7.6-7.8 all label the steps of the reactions taking place, which I found useful. Lack references to previous text sections to review basic concepts, like meiosis. On page 808, the text states, We will consider hagfishes and lampreys together as jawless fishes, the agnathans, although emerging classification schemes separate them into chordate jawless fishes (the hagfishes) and vertebrate jawless fishes (the lampreys). This is incorrect and out-of-date. Furthermore, some of the links that take readers to additional multimedia features do not work. Reviewed by Aruna Kilaru, Associate Professor, East Tennessee State University on 4/13/20, This book will serve the purpose of introductory biology and could very well be used in place of the expensive textbooks. For my own purposes, I would have preferred a bit more discussion of evolution in the first section since it has relevance at every level of life. For example, section 17.3 discussion of next-generation sequencing needs to be updated. WebAnswer Both systems involve chemical messengers that must interact with receptors in order to have an effect. I wish that any textbooks would explain what actually happens to proteins when phosphorylated and dephosphorylated, rather than solely referring to changes in energy state. Overall, the non-technical vocabulary is appropriate for students entering introductory majors courses, but there are some exceptions. Webopening section of a scientific paper that summarizes the research and conclusions. Yes it is but a lack of internal referencing is evident. This book uses the Since first looking at this text a year ago, I have been very impressed with the quality and comprehensiveness. The smallest unit of biological structure that meets the functional requirements of living is the ________. We biologists study the diversity of life! It is provides a baseline for the essential content for a Biology course. However, as with any subject, certain topics in generally biology (e.g. The structure makes sense and is consistent with most presentations of this material. The chapters include QR codes and URLs that take the reader to animations and movies on the OpenStax website. Organization is appropriate and is adaptable for the specifics of individual course requirements. Figure 1.16 is one example where the display issues make the figure almost useless. WebBiology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. This terminology is out-of-date and reinforces student misconceptions of evolutionary change as goal-directed and progressive. The text could have certainly benefited from using the pictures of scientists to give a human face to the work presented. The figures are simplistic, which for some topics is helpful like meiosis, but in other cases I think more details in the figure would be helpful. The writing is well done, with minimal jargon. The textbook is broadly set-up to explain the subject of biology starting from broad (chemistry/building blocks of life) to specific (organ systems) and going from simple (cells) to complex (ecology) and therefore is structured in a way that inherently builds off of the concepts from previous chapters. For example, Cell Communication, Cell reproduction, Mendelian genetics and non-mendelian traits, DNA replication and repair and mitosis and meiosis I believe are covered adequately. The book overall was very accurate and descriptive. Very evident in Cellular respiration chapter The text covers all areas of biology appropriate for first year biology students. I have not read each chapter, but the few I did, I did not find errors. Most chapters lack the highly detailed summary images that most will be familiar with from commercial texts--for example, a summary image of cellular respiration or cladograms for major phylogenies. to "large-scale" scale Biology (evolution, ecology, etc.). Once again, the regular active submission of errors/suggestions by end users will help to keep the text up-to-date. Sections can be used individually. Im sure there are many more. In addition, students need to refer to some of the background on cell metabolism and cellular respiration (Ch 6 and Ch 7, respectively). There is adequate coverage of evolutionary processes and mechanisms of speciation in later chapters. However, I can't say for sure that one order is better than the other for student learning. Some videos were very good and modern, while some animations seemed overly simplistic. The contents list expands readily, and the names of the chapters mirrors those in the competitor texts. (Rosalind Franklin deserves a photo next to Crick and Watson.) Thats because, we at the Vending Service are there to extend a hand of help. Most references to him or her could be made more inclusive via use of the gender-neutral term them. Further, dichotomizing the sex steroids, estrogens and androgens, as female and male, respectively, is unnecessary, misleading, and may make some students feel excluded. I did not see any grammatical issues while skimming the text. WebTotal Pages Answer Key N/A. I think this book is comprehensive for a general biology textbook, but it lacks some depth and breath for Openstax does have chapter questions available, but I prefer to use reading guides which ask students to read the chapter, pausing to answer questions as they go. Links to online content varied in quality and ability to engage students in a dynamic way. An example is chromosomes in Figure 11.7. I found chapters and subheadings on nearly every topic that I expected to see in a biology text for majors. read more. The authors 'talk' to the students and the text feels welcoming and understandable. In the real world students will not have the luxury of being exposed to monolithic writing styles therefore what better place to prepare students for life than the introductory Biology textbook! I felt like there was too much detail on some processes, and too little detail on other topics. There are currently ongoing rapid changes in our understanding of some aspects of biology, such as whether the three domain model for life is correct. It is this reviewers opinion that the organization and flow of material is traditional and well served. The illustrations while generally very appropriate perhaps could be shown larger and in more visually appealing ways (e.g. read more. When jargon is used, it is well defined and the meaning is clear. Finally, some chapters have abstracts and other chapter dont. enzyme's specific region to which the substrate binds, inhibition by a binding event at a site different from the active site, which induces a conformational change and reduces the enzyme's affinity for its substrate, pathways that require an energy input to synthesize complex molecules from simpler ones, adenosine triphosphate, the cell's energy currency, study of energy flowing through living systems, catabolism), pathways in which complex molecules break down into simpler ones, potential energy in chemical bonds that releases when those bonds are broken, small organic molecule, such as a vitamin or its derivative, which is required to enhance an enzyme's activity, inorganic ion, such as iron and magnesium ions, required for optimal enzyme activity regulation, type of inhibition in which the inhibitor competes with the substrate molecule by binding to the enzyme's active site, process that changes a subtance's natural properties, describes chemical reactions that require energy input, measure of randomness or disorder within a system, describes chemical reactions that release free energy, a product's effect of a reaction sequence to decrease its further production by inhibiting the first enzyme's activity in the pathway that produces it, Gibbs free energy is the usable energy, or energy that is available to do work, energy transferred from one system to another that is not work (energy of the molecules' motion or particles), total bond energy of reactants or products in a chemical reaction, dynamic fit between the enzyme and its substrate, in which both components modify their structures to allow for ideal binding, energy type that takes place with objects or particles in motion, all the chemical reactions that take place inside cells, including anabolism and catabolism, bond that connects phosphates in an ATP molecule, energy type that has the potential to do work; stored energy, study of energy and energy transfer involving physical matter, high-energy, unstable state (an intermediate form between the substrate and the product) occurring during a chemical reaction, Biology 2E Chapter 7: Cellular Respiration |, Biology 2E Chapter 6: Metabolism | Chapter Re, OpenStax Biology 2e Chapter 8 Photosynthesis, OpenStax Biology 2e Chapter 7 Cellular Respir, OpenStax Biology 2e Chapter 5 Structure and F, OpenStax Biology 2e Chapter 4 Cell Structure, OpenStax Microbiology Chapter 1 An Invisible, OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology Chapter 28 De, OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology Chapter 27 Th, OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology Chapter 26 Fl, David N. 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