Professional Documents
Culture Documents
genomes becomes quicker and cheaper. behaviors of society at large. It is therefore not surprising that
Such ethical issues have as much to do with politics, eco- until recently, women and certain minorities have faced huge
nomics, and cultural values as with science and technology. obstacles in their pursuit to become professional scientists in
All citizensnot only professional scientistshave a respon- many countries around the world. Over the past 50 years,
sibility to be informed about how science works and about changing attitudes about career choices have increased the pro-
the potential benefits and risks of technology. The relation- portion of women in biology and some other sciences, so that
ship between science, technology, and society increases the now women constitute roughly half of undergraduate biology
significance and value of any biology course. majors and biology Ph.D. students. The pace has been slow at
higher levels in the profession, however, and women and
many racial and ethnic groups are still significantly underrepre-
The Value of Diverse Viewpoints in Science
sented in many branches of science. This lack of diversity ham-
Many of the technological innovations with the most pro- pers the progress of science. The more voices that are heard at
found impact on human society originated in settlements the table, the more robust, valuable, and productive the scien-
along trade routes, where a rich mix of different cultures ig- tific interchange will be. The authors of this textbook welcome
nited new ideas. For example, the printing press, which all students to the community of biologists, wishing you the
helped spread knowledge to all social classes and ultimately joys and satisfactions of this very exciting and satisfying field of
led to the book in your hands, was invented by the German sciencebiology.
Johannes Gutenberg around 1440. This invention relied on
several innovations from China, including paper and ink.
CONCEPT CHECK 1.4
Paper traveled along trade routes from China to Baghdad, 1. How does science differ from technology?
where technology was developed for its mass production. This 2. WHAT IF? The gene that causes sickle-cell disease
technology then migrated to Europe, as did water-based ink is present in a higher percentage of residents of sub-
from China, which was modified by Gutenberg to become oil- Saharan Africa than it is among those of African de-
based ink. We have the cross-fertilization of diverse cultures to scent living in the United States. The presence of this
thank for the printing press, and the same can be said for gene provides some protection from malaria, a serious
other important inventions. disease that is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Discuss
Along similar lines, science stands to gain much from em- an evolutionary process that could account for the dif-
bracing a diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints among its ferent percentages among residents of the two regions.
practitioners. But just how diverse a population are scientists For suggested answers, see Appendix A.
in relation to gender, race, ethnicity, and other attributes?
1 CHAPTER REVIEW
Theme: Organisms interact with
SUMMARY OF KEY CONCEPTS other organisms and the physical
environment
CONCEPT 1.1 Cycling
of
Plants take up nutrients from the soil
and chemicals from the air and use en-
chemical
The themes of this book make connections across different nutrients ergy from the sun. Interactions between
areas of biology (pp. 211) plants and other organisms result in cy-
cling of chemical nutrients within an
Theme: New properties emerge at
ecosystem. One harmful outcome of
each level in the biological hierarchy
human interactions with the environment has been global cli-
The hierarchy of life unfolds as follows:
mate change, caused by burning of fossil fuels and increasing
biosphere ! ecosystem ! community !
atmospheric CO2.
population ! organism ! organ system !
organ ! tissue ! cell ! organelle ! mol- Sunlight Heat
ecule ! atom. With each step upward from Theme: Life requires
atoms, new properties emerge as a result energy transfer and
of interactions among components at the lower levels. In an ap- Chemical transformation
proach called reductionism, complex systems are broken down energy Energy flows through an
to simpler components that are more manageable to study. In ecosystem. All organisms
systems biology, scientists attempt to model the dynamic must perform work, which
behavior of whole biological systems based on a study of the requires energy. Energy
interactions among the systems parts. from sunlight is converted to chemical energy by producers,
which is then passed on to consumers.