spine=.7680” Science/Life Sciences/Biology ™ Making Everything Easier! 2nd Edition The fast and easy way 2nd Edition to understand biology Open the book and find: From molecules to animals, cells to ecosystems, this friendly • Plain-English explanations of how guide answers all your questions about how living things living matter works work. Written in plain English and packed with helpful • The parts and functions of cells Biology illustrations, tables, and diagrams, it cuts right to the chase with easy-to-absorb explanations of the life processes • How food works as a source of energy Biology common to all organisms. • The 411 on reproduction and • Biology 101 — get the lowdown on how life is studied and open a genetics window on the world’s organisms • Fascinating facts about DNA • Jump into the gene pool — discover how cell reproduction technology and genetics work, from making sense of Mendel’s Law of Segregation to dealing with DNA • The biology of bacteria and viruses • Explore the living world — find out how ecology and evolution • How humans affect the circle of life are the glue that holds everything together • An overview of human anatomy • Let’s get physical — peruse the principles of physiology to get a handle on animal structure and function • Innate human defenses (and adaptive ones, too!) • Go green — take a look at the life of plants and understand how they acquire energy, reproduce, and so much more Learn to: • Identify and dissect the many structures Go to Dummies.com® and functions of plants and animals for videos, step-by-step examples, how-to articles, or to shop! • Grasp the latest discoveries in evolutionary, reproductive, and ecological biology • Think like a biologist and use scientific methods $19.99 US / $23.99 CN / £14.99 UK Rene Fester Kratz, PhD, is a Biology Instructor at Everett Community ISBN 978-0-470-59875-7 Rene Fester Kratz, PhD College and a member of the North Cascades and Olympic Science Author of Molecular and Cell Biology Partnership. Donna Rae Siegfried has been published in Prevention, For Dummies Runner’s World, Men’s Health, and Organic Gardening. Kratz Donna Rae Siegfried Siegfried Writer and former college professor spine=.7680” Get More and Do More at Dummies.com® 2nd Edition Start with FREE Cheat Sheets 2nd Edition Cheat Sheets include • Checklists • Charts • Common Instructions • And Other Good Stuff! Mobile Apps To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/biology Get Smart at Dummies.com Dummies.com makes your life easier with 1,000s of answers on everything from removing wallpaper to using the latest version of Windows. Check out our • Videos • Illustrated Articles There’s a Dummies App for This and That • Step-by-Step Instructions With more than 200 million books in print and over 1,600 unique Plus, each month you can win valuable prizes by entering titles, Dummies is a global leader in how-to information. 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Biology FOR DUMmIES‰ 2ND EDITION by Rene Fester Kratz, PhD, and Donna Rae Siegfried 01_598757-ffirs.indd i 5/7/10 11:40 PM Biology For Dummies®, 2nd Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http:// www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/ or its affi liates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010926846 ISBN: 978-0-470-59875-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_598757-ffirs.indd ii 5/7/10 11:40 PM About the Authors Rene Fester Kratz, PhD, teaches cellular biology and microbiology. She is a member of the North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership, where she helped create inquiry-based science courses for future teachers. Kratz is also the author of Molecular and Cell Biology For Dummies and Microbiology The Easy Way. Donna Rae Siegfried has written about pharmaceutical and medical topics for 15 years in publications including Prevention, Runner’s World, Men’s Health, and Organic Gardening. She has taught anatomy and physiology at the college level. She is also the author of Anatomy & Physiology For Dummies. 01_598757-ffirs.indd iii 5/7/10 11:40 PM 01_598757-ffirs.indd iv 5/7/10 11:40 PM Dedication To the memory of Cindy Fuller Kratz Berdan, RN. Thanks for all of your encouragement over the years. —Rene Kratz Author’s Acknowledgments Thanks to Matt Wagner, of Fresh Books, Inc., for helping me (Rene) fi nd the opportunity to work on the second edition of this book. And thanks to all the great people at Wiley who made it happen: editors Tim Gallan and Jennifer Tebbe, acquisitions editor Erin Calligan Mooney, art coordinator Alicia South, and technical reviewers Michael Pratt and Medhane Cumbay. Thanks also to Sheree Montgomery, the project coordinator in Composition, and Kathryn Born, who worked on the art. On the home front, thanks to my husband, Dan, and my sons, Hueston and Dashiel, for all of their love and support. —Rene Kratz 01_598757-ffirs.indd v 5/7/10 11:40 PM Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Composition Services Development Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery Senior Project Editor: Tim Gallan Illustrator: Kathryn Born Acquisitions Editor: Lindsay Lefevere Layout and Graphics: Ashley Chamberlain Copy Editor: Jennifer Tebbe Proofreaders: Laura Bowman, Lindsay Littrell Senior Editorial Assistant: David Lutton Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC Technical Editors: Medhane G.