The Default Library
Paths / Path 38

Biology

How life works, from molecules to cells to bodies to ecosystems, and how evolution ties it all together.

For: anyone starting the degree, anyone heading for medicine, anyone who has wondered how a seed knows to become a tree.

Shaped by Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (AAAS and NSF, 2011: evolution; structure and function; information flow; energy and matter; systems), MIT's Course 7 and Cambridge's Natural Sciences.

17readings
3.5 hoursof reading
4stages
17 reads
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Stage 1

Year 1 · Life's chemistry and cells

4 readings · 48 min
  1. 01ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    General Chemistry: Electrons Decide Everything

    Atoms and bonds come first.
  2. 02ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min

    Organic Chemistry: Structure & Mechanism

    Life is carbon chemistry.
  3. 03ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Cell Biology: The Smallest Unit That Is Alive

    The cell: life's smallest whole unit.
  4. 04ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Probability & Statistics: Reasoning with Uncertainty

    Biology is a science of variation and statistics.
Stage 2

Year 2 · Information

4 readings · 51 min
  1. 05ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Biochemistry: The Chemistry That Keeps Itself Going

    Enzymes, energy and the molecules of life.
  2. 06ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Molecular Biology: How a Sequence Becomes a Cell

    DNA to RNA to protein, and how it's controlled.
  3. 07ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min

    Genetics: Inheritance, Chance and What Genes Can't Tell You

    Inheritance, from Mendel to genomes.
  4. 08ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Evolution: The Idea That Makes Sense of Biology

    The idea that makes sense of all of biology.
Stage 3

Year 3 · Organisms and systems

4 readings · 53 min
  1. 09ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Physiology: How Bodies Keep Themselves Alive

    How bodies keep themselves alive.
  2. 10ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Microbiology: The Invisible Majority

    Bacteria, viruses and the invisible majority of life.
  3. 11ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Developmental Biology: How One Cell Becomes a Body

    How one cell becomes a body.
  4. 12ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min

    Plant Biology: Sunlight, Water and the Food We Eat

    Photosynthesis, plants and the food we eat.
Stage 4

Year 4 · Populations and data

5 readings · 1 hours
  1. 13ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Ecology: Why Populations Boom, Crash and Balance

    Populations, communities and ecosystems.
  2. 14ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Bioinformatics & Genomics: Biology as Data

    Biology as data: sequences, genomes and trees.
  3. 15ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min

    Programming Fundamentals: Instructions, State and Taking Things Apart

    Biologists now program.
  4. 16ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Game Theory: When Your Best Move Depends on Mine

    Evolutionary game theory: why cooperation evolves.
  5. 17ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Biological Psychology: The Wet Machine Behind the Mind

    The nervous system, from the psychology side.
When you finish

the free Biology 2e textbook from OpenStax; HHMI BioInteractive, free; the textbooks named at the end of each subject. See also the library's 01 Nervous System & Body.

Next path →

Medicine

How the body works, how it fails, how doctors reason, and what medicine can and can't do.