This pioneering text combines research-focused storytelling with the Socratic method to get readers to think like practicing scientists. Each page of the book is designed in the spirit of active learning, asking readers to apply critical thinking skills as they learn key concepts. Accounts of real researchers designing and analyzing real experiments, carefully punctuated by thoughtful questions and exercises, train introductory readers in the process of DOING biology. Biology and the Tree of Life, Water and Carbon: The Chemical Basis of Life, Protein Structure and Function, Nucleic Acids and the RNA World, An Introduction to Carbohydrates, Lipids, Membranes, and the First Cells, Inside the Cell, Cell-Cell Interactions, Cellular Respiration and Fermentation, Photosynthesis, The Cell Cycle, Meiosis, Mendel and the Gene, DNA and the Gene: Synthesis and Repair, How Genes Work, Transcription and Translation, Control of Gene Expression in Bacteria, Control of Gene Expression in Eukaryotes, Analyzing and Engineering Genes, Genomics, Principles of Development, An Introduction to Animal Development, An Introduction to Plant Development. MARKET: For all readers interested in biological science.