Find what you need to succeed.
Life: The Science of Biology
Twelfth Edition| ©2020New Edition Available David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; David E. Sadava
The new 12th edition of Life: The Science of Biology continues to be engaging, active, and focused on teaching the skills that students need to master the majors biology course.
New pedagogical features work in conjunction with powerful updates to the online suite of materials in
The new 12th edition of Life: The Science of Biology continues to be engaging, active, and focused on teaching the skills that students need to master the majors biology course.
New pedagogical features work in conjunction with powerful updates to the online suite of materials in Achieve to support the mission of Life by teaching students the skills and understanding of experimentation and data they need to succeed in introductory biology and ultimately in their future STEM careers.
Life’s potent combination of expertly crafted media, assessment, pedagogy and engagement makes this new edition the best resource yet for biology students.
ISBN:9781319364991
Access all your course tools in one place!
ISBN:9781319298227
Take notes, add highlights, and download our mobile-friendly e-books.
ISBN:9781319307059
Save money with our hole-punched, loose-leaf textbook.
ISBN:9781319017644
Read and study old-school with our bound texts.
ISBN:9781319406899
This package includes Achieve and Loose-Leaf.
ISBN:9781319340445
This package includes Achieve and Hardcover.
ISBN:9781319462956
This package includes Achieve and Achieve.
ISBN:9781319463298
This package includes Achieve and Achieve and Loose-Leaf.
ISBN:9781319463281
This package includes Achieve and Achieve.
ISBN:9781319418700
This package includes Achieve and Loose-Leaf and Paperback.
ISBN:9781319463304
This package includes Achieve and Achieve and Loose-Leaf.
ISBN:9781319418670
This package includes Achieve and Hardcover and Paperback.

LIFE 12E is engaging, active, and focused on skills
The new 12th edition of Life: The Science of Biology continues to be engaging, active, and focused on teaching the skills that students need to master the majors biology course.
New pedagogical features work in conjunction with powerful updates to the online suite of materials in Achieve to support the mission of Life by teaching students the skills and understanding of experimentation and data they need to succeed in introductory biology and ultimately in their future STEM careers.
Life’s potent combination of expertly crafted media, assessment, pedagogy and engagement makes this new edition the best resource yet for biology students.
Features
Continuing in the tradition of LIFE, the 12th Edition embraces an active learning approach that is seamlessly integrated throughout the text and media. Features are as follows:
SUPPORTED IN ACHIEVE
Achieve is the culmination of years of development work put toward creating the most powerful online learning tool for biology students. It houses all of our renowned assessments, multimedia assets, e-books, and instructor resources in a powerful new platform.
Achieve supports educators and students throughout the full range of instruction, including assets suitable for pre-class preparation, in-class active learning, and post-class study and assessment. The pairing of a powerful new platform with outstanding biology content provides an unrivalled learning experience.
Highlights include:
- A design guided by learning science research. Co-designed through extensive collaboration and testing by both students and faculty including two levels of Institutional Review Board approval for every study of Achieve
- A learning path of powerful content including pre-class, in-class, and post-class activities and assessments.
A detailed gradebook with insights for just-in-time teaching and reporting on student achievement by learning objective. - Easy integration and gradebook sync with iClicker classroom engagement solutions.
- Simple integration with your campus LMS and availability through Inclusive Access programs.
FOCUSED ON SKILLS
To support teaching and learning in biology through asking questions:
- Data in Depth offers students a more in-depth exploration of the in-text “Work with Data” feature via interactive modules that further enhance scientific literacy skills via a host of interactive enhancements: data visualizations, experimental design, graphing, and mathematical calculations.
- The engaging and powerful simulations are now outfitted with quizzes that will report to the Instructor grade-book.
- A new online, interactive version of the in-text Statistics Primer offers students the opportunity to actually perform statistical analysis and calculations.
- The Experiments and Work with the Data exercises highlight important research and instill the foundation of scientific investigation in students by always following the hypothesis–method–-results–conclusion framework.
- Students needing extra practice with data analysis can use the Online Companions to every Work with the Data exercise in the book.
- Questions in Recaps range from questions that support retention of content to questions that foster higher-order thinking.
- We lead by example by exposing students to many thoughtful questions throughout the body of the text, reinforcing the importance of asking questions in biology.
ENGAGING
To help students take learning into their own hands:
- The Investigating Life narrative thread weaves through the chapter to keep students engaged from the first page to the last. The opening story and question sets the stage for the narrative, a related Experiment and Work with the Data exercise helps reinforce the concepts, and the synthesis and future directions at the end helps wrap up the investigation.
- Links to media such as animations, simulations, and jaw-dropping videos appear throughout each chapter and allow students to interact with content in a variety of ways.
Intriguing Pop-Up questions in figure captions sharpen students’ skills in critical thinking about biology and subtly reinforce the process of doing science. - Connect the Concepts foster thinking about the big picture—a task that can be overwhelming for introductory biology students—by demonstrating how certain important terms and concepts relate to discussions in another chapter.
ACTIVE
To help instructors encourage students to “learn by doing”:
- Learning objectives guide students to the essential content as they read through each Key Concept section.
- Recaps for each Key Concept include Questions (all Bloom's levels 2-4) that test their mastery of the key concept.
- The Active Learning Guide (for instructors) provides invaluable resources and support for implementing active learning techniques in the classroom. Accompanying the Guide are a set of full Active Learning Modules, which are comprised of a pre-lecture video, a complete in-class exercise, a pre- and post-quiz, and extensive instructor support.
New to This Edition
SUPPORTED IN ACHIEVE
Achieve is the culmination of years of development work put toward creating the most powerful online learning tool for biology students. It houses all of our renowned assessments, multimedia assets, e-books, and instructor resources in a powerful new platform.
Achieve supports educators and students throughout the full range of instruction, including assets suitable for pre-class preparation, in-class active learning, and post-class study and assessment. The pairing of a powerful new platform with outstanding biology content provides an unrivalled learning experience.
Highlights include:
- A design guided by learning science research. Co-designed through extensive collaboration and testing by both students and faculty including two levels of Institutional Review Board approval for every study of Achieve
- A learning path of powerful content including pre-class, in-class, and post-class activities and assessments.
A detailed gradebook with insights for just-in-time teaching and reporting on student achievement by learning objective. - Easy integration and gradebook sync with iClicker classroom engagement solutions.
- Simple integration with your campus LMS and availability through Inclusive Access programs.
TEXT UPDATES
- Data in Depth offers students a more in-depth exploration of the in-text “Work with Data” feature via interactive modules that further enhance scientific literacy skills via a host of interactive enhancements: data visualizations, experimental design, graphing, and mathematical calculations.\The engaging and powerful simulations are now outfitted with quizzes that will report to the Instructor grade-book.
A new online, interactive version of the in-text Statistics Primer offers students the opportunity to actually perform statistical analysis and calculations. - A new in-text Visual Summary takes the place of standard text-only summaries to help students better master concepts and competencies via a visual trigger (a key in-text figure) and short concise text entries, to aid their memory. Relevant animations and activities are referenced in each summary entry.
- Learning Objectives are provided at the start of each Key Concept. The goal of Learning Objectives is to help students focus their attention as they read each section. At the end of each section, we reinforce the Learning Objectives with exercises/questions in Review & Apply. Learning Objectives encourage active learning, and student focus on mastering concepts and skills.
- Reorganization of the Genes, Development, and Evolution coverage so it appears in context with relevant content
- New mentions of diversity in the world of biologists.
- Life 12E welcomes two new authors: Dave Hall (University of Georgia) and Marta Laskowski (Oberlin College) who bring fresh ideas that augment the skills-based mission of the text.

Life: The Science of Biology
Twelfth Edition| ©2020
David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; David E. Sadava
Digital Options

Achieve
Achieve is a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools that incorporate the most effective elements from Macmillan Learning's market leading solutions in a single, easy-to-use platform.

E-book
Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.

Life: The Science of Biology
Twelfth Edition| 2020
David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; David E. Sadava
Table of Contents
Part one The Science of Life and Its Chemical Basis
1 Studying Life
2 Small Molecules and the Chemistry of Life
3 Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Lipids
4 Nucleic Acids and the Origin of Life
Part two Cells
5 Cells: The Working Units of Life
6 Cell Membranes
7 Cell Communication and Multicellularity
Part three Cells and Energy
8 Energy, Enzymes, and Metabolism
9 Pathways that Harvest Chemical Energy
10 Photosynthesis: Energy from Sunlight
Part four Genes, Genomes, and Heredity
11 The Cell Cycle and Cell Division
12 Inheritance, Genes, and Chromosomes
13 DNA and Its Role in Heredity
14 From DNA to Protein: Gene Expression
15 Gene Mutation and Molecular Medicine
16 Regulation of Gene Expression
17 Genomes
18 Recombinant DNA and Biotechnology
Part five The Processes and Patterns of Evolution
19 Processes of Evolution
20 Reconstructing and Using Phylogenies
21 Evolution of Genes and Genomes
22 Speciation
23 The History of Life on Earth
Part six The Evolution of Diversity
24 Bacteria, Archaea, and Viruses
25 The Origin and Diversification of Eukaryotes
26 Plants without Seeds: From Water to Land
27 The Evolution of Seed Plants
28 The Evolution and Diversity of Fungi
29 Animal Origins and the Evolution of Body Plans
30 Protostome Animals
31 Deuterostome Animals
Part seven Flowering Plants: Form and Function
32 The Plant Body
33 Transport in Plants
34 Plant Nutrition
35 Regulation of Plant Growth
36 Reproduction in Flowering Plants
37 Plant Responses to Environmental Challenges
Part eight Animals: Form and Function
38 Physiology, Homeostasis, and Temperature Regulation
39 Animal Hormones
40 Immunology: Animal Defense Systems
41 Animal Reproduction
42 Animal Development
43 Neurons, Glia, and Nervous Systems
44 Sensory Systems
45 The Mammalian Nervous System
46 Musculoskeletal Systems
47 Gas Exchange
48 Circulatory Systems
49 Nutrition, Digestion, and Absorption
50 Salt and Water Balance and Nitrogen Excretion
51 Animal Behavior
Part nine Ecology
52 The Physical Environment and Biogeography of Life
53 Populations
54 Species Interactions
55 Communities
56 Ecosystems
57 A Changing Biosphere

Life: The Science of Biology
Twelfth Edition| 2020
David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; David E. Sadava
Authors

David M. Hillis

H. Craig Heller

Sally D. Hacker

David W. Hall

Marta J. Laskowski

David E. Sadava
David E. Sadava is the Pritzker Family Foundation Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at the Keck Science Center of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps, three of The Claremont Colleges. In addition, he is Adjunct Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at the City of Hope Medical Center. Twice winner of the Huntoon Award for superior teaching, Dr. Sadava has taught courses on introductory biology, biotechnology, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, plant biology, and cancer biology. In addition to Life: The Science of Biology, he is the author or coauthor of books on cell biology and on plants, genes, and crop biotechnology. His research has resulted in many papers coauthored with his students, on topics ranging from plant biochemistry to pharmacology of narcotic analgesics to human genetic diseases. For the past 15 years, he has investigated multi-drug resistance in human small-cell lung carcinoma cells with a view to understanding and overcoming this clinical challenge. At the City of Hope, his current work focuses on new anti-cancer agents from plants.

Life: The Science of Biology
Twelfth Edition| 2020
David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; David E. Sadava
Related Titles

Life: The Science of Biology
Twelfth Edition| 2020
David M. Hillis; Craig H. Heller; Sally D. Hacker; David W. Hall; Marta J. Laskowski; David E. Sadava
Videos
Life: The Science of Biology Overview Video
Select a demo to view:

