Book Description
The laboratory exercises in this manual are coordinated with Inquiry into Life. The text emphasizes how we can apply biological knowledge to our own lives and to our relationships with other organisms. Although each laboratory is referenced to the appropriate chapter in Inquiry into Life, this manual may be used in coordination with other general biology texts. This manual can be adapted to a variety of course orientations and designs. There are a sufficient number of laboratories to permit a choice of activities over the length of the course. Many activities may be performed as demonstrations rather than as student activities, thereby shortening the time required to cover a particular concept.
Customer Reviews:
Lab Manual.......2007-03-14
The book was in tact but I found out later that some pages in the index were missing. Good book overall.
Book Description
Learning is much more than reading a textbook. That's why the 10th edition of Inquiry into Life is integrated closely with an Online Learning Center where students and professors alike will benefit. The OLC provides animations, virtual labs, online quizzing, Power Point lecture outlines, and other tools that will help make teaching a little easier and learning a lot more fun.
Inquiry into Life covers the whole field of basic biology, and emphasizes the application of this knowledge to human concerns. Along with this approach, concepts and principles are stressed, rather than detailed, high-level scientific data and terminology.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, informative source.......1997-11-11
As a Grade 12 student in Canada, I have found this book to be excellent, informative, and concise. This book lays a solid foundation of introductory biology. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in biology. I believe you will find this book to be useful and helpful.
Book Description
From the unique delivery of biology content, to the time tested art program, to the complete integration of the text with technology, Dr. Sylvia Mader has formed a teaching system that will both motivate and enable your students to understand and appreciate the wonders of all areas of biology.
Inquiry into Life, 11e emphasizes the application of all areas of biology to knowledge of human concerns, what the students are able to relate to. This distinctive text was developed to stand apart from all other non-majors texts with a unique approach, unparalleled art, and a straightforward, succinct writing style that has been acclaimed by both users and reviewers.
Customer Reviews:
Not bad..........2007-03-16
I am using this book as part of an online class so the book is my teacher as well. It is a pretty good book. Although at times it explains things a little too complicated for my taste, it wouldn't be bad if you have a teacher to help explain things to you.
Book Description
Basic biological concepts and processes with a human emphasis.
From the unique delivery of biology content, to the time tested art program, to the complete integration of the text with technology, Dr. Sylvia Mader has formed a teaching system that will both motivate and enable your students to understand and appreciate the wonders of all areas of biology. Inquiry into Life, 12/e emphasizes the application of all areas of biology to knowledge of human concerns, what the students are able to relate to. This distinctive text was developed to stand apart from all other non-majors texts with a unique approach, unparalleled art, and a straightforward, succinct writing style that has been acclaimed by both users and reviewers.
Amazon.com
Arguably one of the most profoundly important essays ever written on the nature and significance of "quality" and definitely a necessary anodyne to the consequences of a modern world pathologically obsessed with quantity. Although set as a story of a cross-country trip on a motorcycle by a father and son, it is more nearly a journey through 2,000 years of Western philosophy. For some people, this has been a truly life-changing book.
Book Description
This lyrical, evocative, thought-provoking journal of a man's quest for truth -- and for himself -- has touched and changed an entire generation.At its heart, the story is all too simple: a man and his son take a lengthy motorcycle trip through America.But this is not a simple trip at all, for around every corner, through mountain and desert, wind and rain, and searing heat and biting cold, their pilgrimage leads them to new vistas of self-discovery and renewal.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an elemental work that had helped to shape and define the past twenty-five years of American culture.This special audio edition presents this adventure in an exciting new way -- for the millions who have already taken this journey and want to travel these roads again, and for the many more who will discover for the first time the wonders and challenges of a journey that will change the way they think and feel about their lives.
Customer Reviews:
Giving 'Quality' a new depth........2007-10-15
I read this book first when I was interested in the Quality movement in the early 1990's, and then again much later when I was more interested in philosophy. And that gave my feelings about quality a depth that I reckon has influenced greatly my approach to performance measurement today.
Plus I like motorcycles, even if only the off-road kind, and have spent many hours grazing my knuckles and bruising my shins as I've maintained them too (this will make more sense when you've read the part in the book that introduces Gumption Traps)!
Read under the author's name. . . .......2007-09-24
I had heard of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig long before I read it. But when someone compared some of my emails on Postfix mail servers to this book, I had to read it. I am glad I did.
The one mistake people make with this book is thinking it has to deal with zen and motorcycle maintenance. It has little to do with either, but under the author's name, in the sub title, the truth is exposed.
Pirsig's work is not some giant philosophical leap forward. In fact, there are many earlier works that cover the same material as Pirsig's with far more detail and accuracy! But where they fail to make things digestible to a layman, Pirsig succeeds.
That is perhaps the one bad thing in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." He has made some mistaken quotes by simple mis-remembering, and hands them out as accurate information. But even this is not terrible when you look at the overall goal of the book, to inspire people to examine quality in their lives.
I think that this book should be required reading in every high school. There is a lot in there that people coming of age need to learn, and so rarely do. The allegorical examination of quality through the tools of Zen and Motorcycles is very wonderfully written. And with a teacher to correct the few misquotes, even the down side can be eliminated.
Now while I feel that Pirsig's viewpoint is somewhat polarized, I do not find that hinders the learning process or enjoyment involved in reading this book.
So please, read this book, even if you are interested in philosophy, zen, motorcycles, or quality. You may be surprised about the other parts of your life that it touches on.
How..... Zen........2007-09-01
This is one of those books I always thought I should read and when I finally got around to it I was blown away. I am reminded of catcher in the rye and one... cuckoos nest. This book was not what I expected. It is not about motorcycles or philosophy, it is about people. The story is skillfully woven between these elements. This is not a book you read once. This is not a book though, to escape from thinking. If that's what you need try Matthew Riley.
Quality without six sigma.......2007-08-24
I have probably purchased over 25 copies if Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for friends, family and customers. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) is about finding quality through "being the job" instead of 25 pages of process documentation for a 55 second operation.
Implied in this is identifying yourself with the job and finding satisfaction in a job well done. Being the job.
Like it.......2007-07-28
I love it that I can find used books at a great price, fair shipping price, plus they show up in a timely manner in wonderful shape! Thanks!
Customer Reviews:
A classic.......1999-12-05
Bought this book in 1967. Have referred to it often over the last thirty years. It's a keeper.
A classic.......1999-12-05
Bought this book in 1967. Have referred to it often over the last thirty years. It's a keeper.
Customer Reviews:
a GIANT SLEEPER in the world of science.......2005-05-05
For those people who like to read and do a lot of reading, this is one of those books that you find quite by accident and wonder why you never read it in high school or college. The overall argument of the book lends profound insight into the study of animal behavior (ethology i believe) and answered so many questions I had about my personal daily observations. This book also attempts to make a link between animal behavior and human behavior. Those who believe that humans are not animals, but higher than animals may want to skip this title if you don't have the courage. Keep in mind however that it was Carl Sagan who called for an alliance between religion and science and Pope John Paul II who said "Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish...Such bridging ministries must be nurtured and encouraged."
Lastly, it's worth would be justified merely by the bibliography of books it provides throughout its pages. No doubt, this is a dying field of science (mostly thanks to religion's inability to adapt to the facts) in a country that is mentally decaying itself. That should not, however, diminish the importance of ardrey's work and his wonderful writing style. 5 stars, no doubt.
"If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if they citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us." -Carl Sagan
-B
Ardrey's book is an eye-opener for those willing to see.......2001-01-24
My book is the 1966 edition by Atheneum. The theme is devoted to the right of an animal to its territory, and expresses the interesting fact that the possessor is usually the victor if and when confronted with an intruder. After reading Ardrey's work, I have watched with interest my 17 pound bundle of fluff, chase a much larger dog from our property. It was no contest. Just as the one knows his rights and the bounds within which they can be excercised, so too, does the other realize that, as an intruder, he has no right to contest that right. One needs to keep in mind that man is no less an animal than those studied by Ardrey who, although his writing is good, tends to be a bit tedious until he gets to the point of his discussion; namely, that man is no less territorial than lesser beasts. Within certain social groups this truth is more revelent than in others. Immigrants to the U.S. stake out their "turf," as they say, and woe be to the trespasser, not a few of whom have been killed. Readers who take seriously what Ardrey reveals should be able to point to areas on earth where his thesis is in full bloom, and is the cause of considerable consternation and death. I would rate the book five-star were it not that it takes awhile for the casual reader to appreicate what is being written. It is a work which every Secretary of State should read and discuss with the President and membes of his cabinet before allowing the United States to become actively involved in national affairs, which is not to suggest that the U.S. should remain aloof from affairs that deal with decency and terrirotial righteousness.
Clarifying and driven by examples. An overlooked classic!.......2000-07-28
I spent many a long hour reading philosophy on the nature of property, possession and place. Also, I have spent many an hour reading the history and politics of nations for their respective histories of territorial aspirations. The mystery and problems of the human connection to particular places still eluded me.
I picked up this book at a flea market and began reading. I learned more and gained more insight into the nature of Nature's territorial inhabitants than all my previous reading. Through carefully observed case studies of animals, conservative conclusions are drawn. Light on theory, and heavy on examples of particular territorial behaviours of our fellow creatures, `The Territorial Imperative' is must read for any person interested in the way of Nature and ourselves.
The Territorial Imperative.......2000-01-26
When I first read this book after being graduated from Boston University as a science major, I was stunned by the depth and perception of observation by the author. It, the book, has made a profound impact on my life and scientific beliefs.
"A worm, a god!".......1997-01-27
Who are human beings? What they are? How do we deal with the reality of what human beings are? Anyone who has ever put these and similar questions will read the book by Robert Ardrey with great interest.
People are both biological and social beings, and these two natures are ineradicable in them. While human social life has become the subject of studies in the social sciences, human biology has become, to great degree, exclusively the subject of medicine. R.Ardrey's aim was to draw a bridge over the "no man's land" between the natural and social sciences, since in his own words, "no man or other animal lives as other as a whole thing."
Attachment to a certain territory, which Ardrey has defined as the "territorial imperative", is a most deeply rooted feature of all living beings, from a worm to a human. R.Ardrey begins his book with the definition of this central notion: "A territory is an area of space, whether of water or earth or air, which an animal or group of animals defends as an exclusive preserve. The word is also used to describe the inward compulsion in animate beings to possess and defend such a space." Of course, the most inventive of animals - the human species - have extended their "territories" far beyond their appartments or garden plots to spheres of influence in business and politics, empoyment, etc. In the book by R.Ardrey a reader will find answers and clues to the question: "Why do things happen in human everyday life and history as they happen and not according to the precepts of the most enlightened minds?" His answers are more informative than many volumes of writings about "man and society".
A human being is not good or bad, all of its features are products of nature and these features have strong and rooted biological foundations regardless of the value judgements, lamentations and appraisals of moralists. It is not possible either to understand the driving forces of an individual or a society, nor to put them into a more friendly shape unless first, these obvious things are taken into account. Thirty years have passed from the first publication of Ardrey's book, and these years have provided more evidence to support his basic assertions.
Those readers who fear that this may be yet another unintelligible scientific book, laden with indecipherable jargon, may put their fears aside. Ardrey's book serves to show that it is possible to speak clearly and convincingly of human nature, that most profound and intricate thing.
Customer Reviews:
a good Christian book on vocations.......2000-02-27
I liked this book. We have to read it for our class on career counseling and it gives a good primer on the theology of work--really the history of the theology of work. From the ancients to the reformers of Calvin and Luther. Chapter four details the modern thinkers on work and management. A good read overall.
Book Description
-- Choice
Why are living things alive? As a theoretical biologist, Robert Rosen saw this as the most fundamental of all questions-and yet it had never been answered satisfactorily by science. The answers to this question would allow humanity to make an enormous leap forward in our understanding of the principles at work in our world.
For centuries, it was believed that the only scientific approach to the question "What is life?" must proceed from the Cartesian metaphor (organism as machine). Classical approaches in science, which also borrow heavily from Newtonian mechanics, are based on a process called "reductionism." The thinking was that we can better learn about an intricate, complicated system (like an organism) if we take it apart, study the components, and then reconstruct the system-thereby gaining an understanding of the whole.
However, Rosen argues that reductionism does not work in biology and ignores the complexity of organisms. Life Itself, a landmark work, represents the scientific and intellectual journey that led Rosen to question reductionism and develop new scientific approaches to understanding the nature of life. Ultimately, Rosen proposes an answer to the original question about the causal basis of life in organisms. He asserts that renouncing the mechanistic and reductionistic paradigm does not mean abandoning science. Instead, Rosen offers an alternate paradigm for science that takes into account the relational impacts of organization in natural systems and is based on organized matter rather than on particulate matter alone.
Central to Rosen's work is the idea of a "complex system," defined as any system that cannot be fully understood by reducing it to its parts. In this sense, complexity refers to the causal impact of organization on the system as a whole. Since both the atom and the organism can be seen to fit that description, Rosen asserts that complex organization is a general feature not just of the biosphere on Earth-but of the universe itself.
Customer Reviews:
A review of Life Itself.......2007-05-01
While it is possible to write a short journal article while citing
only half a dozen to a dozen references Rosen attempted to write
a whole book on a huge topic and half the references are to his
own works! Rosen believes in a clean distinction between semantics
and syntax and that whereas machines can only involve syntax living
things involve semantics. I disagree. I would refer the reader to
Margaret Boden's "escaping from the chinese room" (The Philosophy of
Artificial Intelligence, Oxford Univ. Press, 1990). In abstracting
away from our observations of the world we never fully free ourselves.
We never create pure syntax, fully free of semantic content. Even our
math is an idealization of and abstraction away from observation.
I also believe that some of Rosen's terminology is at least nonstandard
(if not out and out erroneous). Again, we need those references.
THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN YEARS.......2006-07-03
Although many influential scientists (Steven Weinberg, Francis Crick, and Richard Dawkins, for example) claim - and most members of general public believe - that all of reality can "in principle" can be expressed as the dynamics of its constitutive elements (atoms, genes, neurons), some have intuitively felt that this reductive tenet is wrong, that life and the human mind are more complex phenomena. Critics of reductionism have pointed to Kurt Goedel's 1931 "incompleteness theorem" (which shows that in any axiomatic formulation of, say, number theory there will be true theorems that cannot be established) as a contrary example, but this paradigm-shattering result has been largely ignored the scientific community, which has blithely persisted in its reductive beliefs.
How is one to understand this curious situation? In Kuhnian terms, it seems that reductionism persists because this old paradigm has not yet fallen out of favor. Leaders in physics have not yet taken the public stance required by Goedel's theorem and assertions in their textbooks have not changed. Why not? Perhaps because Goedel's theorem relates to mathematics rather than reality, or perhaps because recognizing its import diminishes the status of physics as the primary science.
With the publication of Robert Rosen's LIFE ITSELF, the other shoe has dropped. In a carefully constructed exposition developed over eleven reader-friendly chapters, Rosen shows how something akin to Goedel's theorem applies to the natural world, and in particular to biology. Thus Rosen shows that all dynamical systems can be divided into two broad classes: "simple systems" for which the reductive paradigm holds and "complex systems" for which it does not hold. Note, however, that by the term "complex system" Rosen means something more specific than the way that the same term is used in chaos theory. Low-dimensional dynamical systems that exhibit chaos are "simple" to Rosen, whereas the term "complex" is reserved for those systems that cannot be simulated. Thus a Turing machine is "simple" as is the weather system proposed by Edward Lorenz as a model weather system that exhibits "irregular" (i.e., chaotic) solutions and the well-known "butterfly effect." "Complex systems" - Rosen proves in the sense that mathematicians use the term "prove" - comprise natural systems that cannot be simulated.
As a physicalist whose intuition has long suggested that reductive perspectives are too narrow to encompass living organisms and human consciousness (see my STAIRWAY TO THE MIND), the discovery of this book has been an illuminating experience for me. Having just read it word for word over three increasingly exciting days, I strongly recommend LIFE ITSELF to all who would understand the limits of science as it is currently practiced and preview the ways that linguistics, biology, cognitive science, and the social sciences (psychology and cultural anthropology) can be expected to develop in the present century.
Alwyn Scott
[...]
One of the most important science books of the 20th century.......2002-10-03
The other reviewers have already described the contents of Rosen's work sufficiently well that I will not bother to restate it all.
Instead, I want to stress that this book and his "Essays on Life Itself" are so profound and intelligently argued that anyone interested in any of the physical sciences, not just theoretical biology, will gain a great deal of insight and appreciation for the limitations of the current state of physics, upon which so much science is now based, as well as offering insights into ways of enriching physics, and the sciences in general.
The use of category theory and similar math should not deter any astute layperson, for although the math supports the arguments brilliantly, the arguments are well-described. What will be more difficult, in fact, is successfully grasping the results of the arguments in their full profundity.
This book rightfully deserves to have as widespread paradigm-shattering impact on physical science as Godel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems" had on mathematics.
Rosen showed that, in fact, biology is not merely a trivial subcategory of physics; but instead that biology displays physical systems that are beyond the limited scope of current physics. And that enriching physics to encompass biological systems would enhance all of physics in very profound ways.
Sadly, I can only assume that it was (and still is) the ideological view of biology as a mere curiosity of physics that has allowed so many in science to fail to read Rosen's work.
Groundbreaking..........2002-04-24
It is hard to believe this book is not better known considering the nature of its views. At least, one wonders why so few who are "experts" in the area seem unaware of it since it appears to stand unrefuted. But then again, we are talking about a book that points out the serious limitations inherent in our whole scientific framework that has become today's religion.
Rosen starts by discussing concepts of life: what is it? He then runs through the reasons why it is considered a "hard" problem with the present Newtonian-based framework. He covers the difference between syntax and semantics, Godel, causality and complexity in a very informative yet also accessible manner.
He then gets to the meat of his thesis, the discussion of the fundamental axioms inherent in our present scientific viewpoint. This section has enough of an overview that I believe most people will grasp what he is driving at. That is, the concepts of modeling and entailment that are to be formally dissected in later chapters are very well explained so that there limitations may be understood.
It is the true nature of our models and their methods of encoding the world that Rosen is primarily exposing. Rosen goes back to Taylor's Theorem and demonstrates how Newton's "Laws of Nature" built in fundamental constraints on the nature of the whole scientific enterprise. Unfortunately I suspect the math here may be beyond some people although it really is only slightly more advanced that what is typically learned in high school - this is, in fact, the way it should be taught in the first place.
After laying this groundwork Rosen returns to his discussion of why the type of entailment specified through Newton's fundamental constraints limits any applicability to the "real" world. He introduces Rashevsky's ideas and then develops excellent methods of notation in order to delve more deeply into relational biology.
Then he moves to Analytic and Synthetic models which are compared and contrasted. The uses these ideas to introduce the concept of a machine (loosely based on Turing's ideas). And finally he delves into the relational limits of machines. All this work leads to:
"The picture we have painted looks bleak indeed, if we insist on identifying science with mechanism. But we must recall that there is no basis for such an identification."
And there we have it - just what many have been saying for quite a while just without the full technical details provided by Rosen.
There probably is enough evidence to finally convince the die-hards that this view is correct now that we have the spectacular failure of the genome-mapping project (well, it isn't a failure in some ways but it is for those fanatics of Dawkins and Crick) and the even more spectacular failure of the new priests of complexity. It should be more obvious that we need a new framework, not more shaky models built on axioms that are the problems in the first place.
Let us hope more people read this book so that some of the arrogance may be dispelled...
Deep and complex, like the topic.......2001-05-26
This is an deep and complex book. Rosen addresses what he considers to be the core theme of biology, "What is Life?" from a relational biology perspective. Although the book requires close reading and intense concentration, the journey is highly rewarding. Rosen's work is intricately constructed and addresses core foundations regarding modeling and the representation of living systems.
Written from a biological perspective with a fair amount of mathematics in the form of category theory, Rosen builds up the concepts of formalism, semantics, models and modeling relations, the concept of state, entailment, relational biology, simulations and machines. Rosen discusses the historical notion of recursive state in Newtonian science and the concept of functions entailing functions (and closed systems of entailment) in living systems.
Despite the biological perspective, this is intriguing stuff for systems researchers and systems theorists as well. Although the material relies heavily on mathematics, I'm no mathematician so there is hope for those who are merely comfortable with mathematical expression. Rosen does proceed very carefully through these topics, giving the non-mathematician a chance to keep up, although I suspect that a previous familiarity with abstract algebra, topology, set theory, or category theory would make the journy all the easier.
So, overall it is a challenging read. I have never really read anything quite like it. The exposition is tightly controlled and not a moment is wasted. My hardbound is well broken in and many a valuable nugget has been extracted on numerous successive readings of the material.
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Books Index
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General
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
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| Books
Inquiry Into Life
Inquiry into Life
The Living World, 4th Edition
Student Study Guide t/a Inquiry Into Life
Biology: Life on Earth (7th Edition)
