The photograph on the cover of this book depicts a colorectal cancer cell (a cancer cell that started in the lower part of someone's intestines). Biology is the study of life, so I considered cover designs with beautiful flowers, and even one with a ladybug (a red beetle with black dots). The reason I chose the intriguingly gorgeous pink cell for this cover is because, for so many, biology is a pain in the butt! In the end, my hope is this book will go a long way toward rectifying the situation (no pun intended).
I have taken to heart all the constructive comments from the students I have taught in my classroom, and the many comments posted online from all over the world. Each year I sit down and incorporate these recommendations into the manuscript that will become the next edition of this book. For this reason, I thank you so much for the continual improvements that make this book better and better.
The best biology teachers, professors, and textbooks make biology clear and compelling. Others have a way of giving biology a bad name. For me, this is counterintuitive. Biology is about life, and for this reason, it is a topic everyone is naturally curious about, and learning about it should be pleasurable. My hope is this book will make your biology class more fun and easier, and in the process, it will help improve your grades.
These classes and books often force students to learn at the equivalent of the receiving end of a fire hose. We are all forced to learn so much, so fast.
When I was a student, I swore that the first chance I had, I would write a biology book that provided us, the students, what we repeatedly ask the professor to do. I would write a book with the material that has the greatest likelihood of being on the test. And I would leave the rest out. I would also be sure to understand what I was writing about, for it seems, this is not the case when it comes to so many biology teachers and textbook authors. I truly believe they aren't clear because often they don't know what they are talking or writing about. They are merely parroting something they read.
Promoting biological literacy is a noble task. The lion's share of what I write in this book was initially discovered by someone else. Once in a while I include my own innovations, though I never gave myself credit. For instance, the section on urban ecosystems comes from a chapter entitled “Urban Ecosystems” in another book I wrote (The Urban Naturalist). The concept was new then; now it's in many books. There are even journals now called “The Urban Naturalist,” “Urban Ecosystems,” and “Urban Ecology.” So yes, it is still possible to discover something new that ends up in biology books all around the world!
This book will teach what we are expected to learn about biology. This self-teaching biology book has been field-tested by tens of thousands of students, many of whom have provided comments that continually help me to improve this book, so biology is interesting, and completing homework is easier, and preparing for quizzes and tests goes more smoothly. Biology: A Self-Teaching Guide is the next best thing to me teaching you this material one-on-one.