Biology For Dummies, 3rd Edition (For Dummies (Lifestyle))

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Would you believe that the idea of inoculating people against diseases such as smallpox, measles, and mumps originated in ancient China? Healers there ground up scabs taken from a smallpox survivor into a powder and blew this dust into the nostrils of their patients. Gross as this may sound, these ancient healers were actually inoculating their patients to help prevent the spread of the disease. Man muss kein Vorwissen haben, um die Bücher die Dummies-Reihe zu lesen. So ist es auch bei "Biologie für Dummies". Alles wird ganz einfach erklärt und die Autoren verwenden oft plastische Beispiele oder Sinnbilder, sodass der Leser sich leichter merken kann, wie der beschriebene Vorgang funktioniert. Gibberellins promote both cell division and cell elongation, causing shoots to elongate so plants can grow taller and leaves can grow bigger. They also signal buds and seeds to begin growing in the spring. Scientists are working with cells, the smallest unit of life, to come up with new therapies to help people with organ failure and devastating injuries. Stem cells, which have the potential to become any kind of cell, have the most potential for this research. Scientists working on ways to coax cells to grow into new organs in the lab were recently able to get human cells to grow into an organized structure that looked like an immature heart and that started beating when they gave it some electricity.

This practice laid the foundation for the later work of Dr. Edward Jenner, who developed the first vaccine against smallpox, in 1796. The smallpox vaccine was so effective that doctors were able to totally eradicate this disease from the human population. Imagine that: a disease that killed millions of people completely gone. (And now, using the same strategy, we’re very close to eradicating polio!) Some people object to the idea of GMOs in their diets, but genetic modification of organisms has enabled some amazing health breakthroughs. If you know someone who takes insulin to treat diabetes, that insulin is made by bacteria that scientists engineered to contain the human gene for insulin. Organisms with the best-suited characteristics for their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.This is the heart of natural selection. If there’s competition for survival and not all the organisms are the same, then the ones with the advantageous traits are more likely to survive. If these traits can be inherited, then the next generation will show more of these advantageous traits. The nervous system consists of two main systems, the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system. The CNS is made up of the brain and spinal cord and sends out instructions. The peripheral nervous system contains the nerves that send the messages from the CNS to the rest of the body. Offspring must inherit some characteristics from their parents.During Darwin’s time, the laws of inheritance were just beginning to be figured out, so Darwin didn’t know exactly how parents passed on their traits. Modern scientists know that traits are inherited when parents pass genes on to their offspring.

Cytokinins stimulate cell division, promote leaf expansion, and slow down the aging of leaves. Florists actually use them to help make cut flowers last longer. The compound penicillin was purified from the mold and first used to treat infections in soldiers during World War II. Soon after the war, the “miracle drug” was used to treat infections in the general public, and the race to discover additional antibiotics was on.

Was ist eine Zelle und wofür ist sie überhaupt gut? Was passiert, wenn wir krank werden? Diese und weitere Fragen werden in diesem Buch beantwortet. Hier werden die Geheimnisse des Lebens gelüftet und ein spannendes Feld der Wissenschaft erläutert.

What should I know before starting biology?

In 1983, Kary Mullis discovered the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a process that allows scientists to make numerous copies of DNA molecules that they can then study. Today, PCR is used for Gregor Mendel, a mid-19th century Austrian monk, used pea plants to perform the fundamental studies of heredity that serve as the basis for genetic concepts to this day. Because pea plants have a number of readily observable traits — smooth peas versus wrinkled peas, tall plants versus short plants, and so on — Mendel was able to observe the results of cross-pollinating and growing various varieties of pea plants. If scientists can perfect these techniques, they could someday grow organs for people from their own stem cells, which means the patient wouldn’t reject the transplant. In another amazing experiment, scientists injected stem cells into the spine of a young man who was completely paralyzed, enabling him to regain the use of his arms and hands. People had very few tools to combat bacterial infections until Alexander Fleming discovered the antibacterial properties of penicillin in 1928. Fleming was studying a strain of staphylococcus bacteria when some of his petri dishes became contaminated with Penicillium mold. To Fleming’s surprise, wherever the Penicillium grew on the petri dish, the mold inhibited the growth of the staphylococcus bacteria. Ich habe dank diesem Buch sehr viel darüber gelernt, was in meinem Körper alles vor sich geht. Da wir in der Schule tatsächlich keinen Biologieunterricht hatten (!), fehlte mir dieses Wissen oder zumindest vieles davon. Nun habe ich ein neues Verständnis für die teilweise sehr komplexen Vorgänge in uns Lebewesen.

Through his experiments, Mendel was able to establish that genetic factors are passed from parents to offspring and remain unchanged in the offspring so that they can be passed on again to the next generation. Although his work was done before the discovery of DNA and chromosomes, the genetic principles of dominance, segregation, and independent assortment that Mendel originally defined are still used to this day.Digestion involves the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food molecules into their smallest subunits. Digestion begins in the mouth and continues in the stomach and small intestine. Glands are organs in the endocrine system that secrete hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers that can alter the behavior of target cells. Before 1675, people believed the only living things that existed were the ones they could see. That year, a Dutch cloth merchant named Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered the microbial world by peering through a homemade microscope. Van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to see bacteria, which he described as little animals that moved about here, there, and everywhere. His discovery of a previously unseen universe not only turned people’s worldviews inside out but also laid the foundation for the understanding that microbes cause disease.

These ancient energy reserves powered the Industrial Revolution, allowing people to grow their cities and develop new technologies for transportation, manufacturing, and communication. Unfortunately, these advances came with a cost that wasn’t fully recognized until recently.Homeostasis is the balance, or equilibrium, of the body. Regulation of all the body’s systems seeks to keep the body in homeostasis.