The best reason for publishing a new general biology text is that it represents a departure from its predecessors. This text's major departure from the approach taken by the many others available is the presentation of material in what might he called an "expanded review" style. Material is presented from original journal sources as examples of some principles and concepts of biology. This approach emphasizes the ways biologists make observations and construct experiments, and it presents biology as an ongoing, controversial, self-correcting science. Current work is described with citations of the original literature sources, together with enough added description of the methods and materials used to permit the beginning student to understand what was done and why. Actual experimental data are given with a minimum of interpretation so the student is encouraged to form his own ideas of the significance of the data. Several current controversies that exhibit the tentative nature of facts are discussed, with reasons for the arguments.

Many students arrive in classes for the first time in biology expecting to learn about living things only to find themselves assaulted by a barrage of information about the nonliving world of chemistry and physics. Many students are greatly concerned with synthesiring and relating their newly gained knowledge, and frequently the chemistry and physics taught in beginning biology do not corrolate to anything in their experience of the living world. Consequently, they are disappointed and somewhat disillusioned before they are ever introduced to living material in the course.

This text begins with organismal biology. The first part, on plant function, reports in a simple narrative style how suhstances that control growth in plants have been isolated and, in some cases, purified and identified. No attempt is made to descrihe how the plant has synthesized the molecule nor what might be the chemistry hy which it exerts its control. By ignoring much of the chemistry, the essential part of the story is made stronger rather than weaker. The second part includes a similar treatment of animal function.

In Section I, students very quickly become acquainted with actual, current problems in biology. They see the problems, the hypotheses proposed, and the data derived from the experiments. Almost all the information needed for a good understanding of the procedure used in attacking the problems is presented as needed in the text.

At the same time the student (or instructor) is free to question data, and to form a personal idea of what new questions are presented by the data and how the new questions might be answered. This is, I think, the excitement, the fun, and the purpose of basic research. Only the long hours of patient routine work, the drudgery, and the many frustrations are lacking.

After the study of several problems by this method, students know without being told that there is a great need for knowledge of the physical sciences, of laboratory instrumentation, and of the literature in an approach to the understanding of living organisms. They are ready, motivated at this point, for the ideas of chemistry, cell structure, and cell function. With some knowledge of activity at the molecular and cellular levels, students are prepared to examine with high interest the questions of why living things are alike and why they are different - genetics, development, ecology, behavior, and evolution. The last section is a taxonomic reference section where students can find where organisms discussed fit into the general systematic pattern. Here are descriptions and, for the less familiar species, illustrations.

Many biology courses are composed of four elements:

1. The textbook
2. The laboratory
3. The lecture
4. Supplementary reading

This textbook is designed to fill only the first of the above niches. Most professors choose to lecture from sources other than the text. Unlike high school texts that are of necessity

all-things-to-all-students and attempt to cover all concepts and principles of biology, this text is a chosen sample of topics. Many favorite topics are omitted that more properly may be material for lectures or supplementary readings. Additional aspects of biology are better presented in the laboratory so a laboratory manual, Basic Demonstrations in Biology, is available to accompany the text.

The supplementary part of a biology course can utilize excellent sources such as the generally available Scientific American off-prints to cover topics not included here. A list of literature cited is provided at the end of each chapter and includes such journals as Science, Bioscience, The American Scientist, Ecology, Ecological Monographs, Journal of Wildlife Management, and Plant Physiology. Other sources are such excellent symposia volumes as Evolving Genes and Proteins and Plant Growth Regulation. Additional references are provided at the end of each section. One of the reasons for using original journal sources and citing them at the end of each chapter is the possibility of forming the habit in interested students of seeking answers to their questions in the original literature.

Advantage is also taken of the better high school courses, such as the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study series, now available, so that some of the traditional ways of handling topics have been changed. In evolution, for example, the emphasis is upon subcellular elements partly because of some of the excellent treatments of other aspects of evolution. Students with a good background will find that most topics in this text are carried much further, yet the text has proved understandable to students with no previous biological course background. In short, this is an introduction to biology, not an encyclopedia.

Since variety is assumed to be as valid in a textbook as it is in life, the presentation is not entirely uniform throughout the book. Some subjects begin with a historical background ; others are treated as modern research problems. Six of the nine sections include botanical and zoological examples and emphasize the similarities among organisms. The section on organismal biology departs from the general presentation of biology as an integrated plant and animal subject and discusses some of those activities characteristic of plants and then some of animals. Section VI is concerned with the comparatively new field of animal behavior studies from which may come a better understanding of ourselves and of methods of investigating our behavior.

Throughout the text, and particularly in the section on environmental biology, we discuss relevant applications to social and other problems of our times. For example, environmental pollution and overpopulation receive special attention.

The chemistry in Section II has been given special attention to provide a good foundation for the remainder of the text, for the laboratory work, and for the supplementary reading. A student with little or no chemical background will find this part of great value. Students with better backgrounds can read this part more rapidly. Instructors who wish to emphasize the research approach more strongly can omit much of the chemistry and still find the text understandable to students, for emphasis on the actual research approach requires far less of this background.

A text of this nature requires much assistance, and I am indebted to many anonymous reviewers who have immeasurably improved both coverage and content. A particular debt of gratitude is owed to Professor Richard C. Brown of Whitman College, who read the entire manuscript and made many suggestions of value, and to Professors Abraham D. Krikorian and Charles F. Wurster of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who were most helpful with suggestions on presentation of certain botanical and chemical aspects of the book.

To Mrs. Margaret Mulhauser, a most charming and talented friend, goes my special appreciation for a labor of love in editing and index preparation. To William D. Eastman, editor at Macmillan, my thanks are unlimited for his encouragement, patience, innumerable suggestions, and understanding. I am grateful also to Miss Nancy Phillips for her typing and writing of permission letters and to Ellen Phillips (Mrs. Dale) Litney for her work on glossaries, indexes, and references.

In conclusion, I would appreciate knowing of those errors or misinterpretations that may remain.

Claremont, California E.A.P.