Biology · High School (11–12)

A seed lies dry on a shelf for a year, and then it sprouts. A mule is strong and healthy, and it cannot have young. A crystal of salt grows bigger in a glass of water, and nobody calls it alive. So what does it mean to be alive? In this chapter we look for the answer, and then we meet the millions of kinds of living things on Earth. We learn how biologists give each one a name, how they sort them into groups, and which tools they use to find a name. Python helps us to count, to group and to check names.

A mushroom grows from the ground, and it is not a plant. A bacterium has one cell without a nucleus, and an Amoeba has one cell with a nucleus. A lichen is two organisms that live as one. How do we put such different living things in order? In this chapter we follow the work of biologists from two kingdoms to five. We study the bacteria, the protists, the fungi, the plants and the animals one by one. At the end we meet the viruses, the viroids, the prions and the lichens, which do not fit in the five kingdoms. Python helps us to sort organisms and to look at data.

From green slime on a pond to a towering deodar, plants come in astonishing variety. In this chapter you learn how botanists classify them, and meet each group in turn: the algae, the bryophytes, the pteridophytes, the gymnosperms and the angiosperms. You compare how each one is built and how it reproduces, and follow the alternation of generations in their life cycles. Python helps you sort plants with a key and count chromosomes through a life cycle.