Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe the properties of water that are critical to maintaining lifeExplain why water is an excellent solventProvide examples of water’s cohesive and adhesive propertiesDiscuss the role of acids, bases, and buffers in homeostasis

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe the properties of water that are critical to maintaining lifeExplain why water is an excellent solventProvide examples of water’s cohesive and adhesive propertiesDiscuss the role of acids, bases, and buffers in homeostasis

Students are presented with a short lesson on the difference between cohesive forces (the forces that hold water molecules together and create surface tension) and adhesive forces (the forces that causes water to "stick" to solid surfaces. The interaction between cohesive forces and adhesive forces causes the well-known capillary action. Students are also introduced to examples of capillary action found in nature and in our day-to-day lives.

As part of a (hypothetical) challenge to help a city find the most affordable and environmentally friendly way to clean up an oil spill, students design and conduct controlled experiments to quantify capillary action in sand. Like engineers and entrepreneurs, student teams use affordable materials to design and construct models to measure the rate of capillary action in four types of sand: coarse, medium, fine and mixed. After observing and learning from a teacher-conducted capillary tube demonstration, teams are given a selection of possible materials and a budget to work within as they design their own experimental setups. After the construction of their designs, they take measurements to quantify the rate of capillary action, create graphs to analyze the data, and make concluding recommendations. Groups compare data and discuss as a class the pros and cons of their designs. Pre- and post-evaluations and two worksheets are provided.

Students observe multiple examples of capillary action. First they observe the shape of a glass-water meniscus and explain its shape in terms of the adhesive attraction of the water to the glass. Then they study capillary tubes and observe water climbing due to capillary action in the glass tubes. Finally, students experience a real-world application of capillary action by designing and using "capillary siphons" to filter water.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer worldwide. The spread of lung cancer within the body is a complex process that hinges on tumor cells’ ability to migrate. One family of proteins known as Rho GTPases is known to play a central role in regulating the cell mechanics required for migration. That role is more complex that initially thought and many cross talks are involved, as a recent study highlights for the GTPase StarD13. Initial experiments showed that StarD13 is a tumor suppressor in lung adenocarcinoma, confirming previously reported results. Interestingly, StarD13 is also required for the cancer cells to migrate. StarD13 regulates cell motility by modulating the activation of RhoA and Rac1 proteins downstream. Abolishing RhoA and Rac1 in lung cancer cells was shown to compromise cells’ ability to migrate. What further proves the complexity of cancer metastasis, is that while abolishing StarD13 stopped cell migration, it actually enhanced cancer invasion in 3D..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive cancer in the brain or spinal cord, is a devastating diagnosis. Although therapies exist, GBM has a poor prognosis, with a median survival of only 14-15 months after diagnosis. Key to its aggressiveness is the degree to which migrating GBM cells infiltrate adjacent brain tissue. GBM cells express the protein MACC1, which is a marker of metastasis and tumor cell migration. Unfortunately, how GBM cells learn to migrate is unclear. A recent study used live-cell and atomic force microscopy to evaluate cell migration and mechanical properties of GBM cells overexpressing MACC1. The results showed that MACC1 increased the migratory speed and elasticity of GBM cells while it decreased cell-cell adhesion and inhibited aggregation. MACC1-overexpressing cells also had specific increases in protrusive actin, allowing the cells to adhere to laminin..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students observe capillary action in glass tubes of varying sizes. Then they use the capillary action to calculate the surface tension in each tube. They find the average surface tensions and calculate the statistical errors.

This course covers the analysis and design at a molecular scale of materials used in contact with biological systems, including biotechnology and biomedical engineering. Topics include molecular interactions between bio- and synthetic molecules and surfaces; design, synthesis, and processing approaches for materials that control cell functions; and application of state-of-the-art materials science to problems in tissue engineering, drug delivery, vaccines, and cell-guiding surfaces.

This course focuses on the latest scientific developments and discoveries in the field of nanomechanics, the study of forces and motion on extremely tiny (10 m) areas of synthetic and biological materials and structures. At this level, mechanical properties are intimately related to chemistry, physics, and quantum mechanics. Most lectures will consist of a theoretical component that will then be compared to recent experimental data (case studies) in the literature. The course begins with a series of introductory lectures that describes the normal and lateral forces acting at the atomic scale. The following discussions include experimental techniques in high resolution force spectroscopy, atomistic aspects of adhesion, nanoindentation, molecular details of fracture, chemical force microscopy, elasticity of single macromolecular chains, intermolecular interactions in polymers, dynamic force spectroscopy, biomolecular bond strength measurements, and molecular motors.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Cancer cells interact with neighboring cells through proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM), a scaffold of molecules that support cells and tumor development. As part of this process, cancer cells release extracellular vesicles that participate in tumor progression, either interacting with ECM or tumor surrounding cells, allowing tumor cells to develop, metastasize, and become drug-resistant. Adhesion receptors called integrins are found in extracellular vesicles (EVs) from tumor cells. These receptors are responsible for the interaction of tumor cells/EVs with the ECM. EVs – nanovesicles secreted from cells and packed with bioactive cargo can mediate communication between cells. EVs are classified according their size, biogenesis mechanism and cargoes (SEVs: size 50–150 nm, LEVs: size 100–1000 nm). Integrins in EVs have been shown to promote cancer cell migration and metastasis, although how this happens is unclear..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Liver cancer is among the most common types of cancer worldwide. Between 2007 and 2017, liver cancer ranked 7th on the list of cancers with the highest global incidence. Through carcinogenesis, cancer cells go through complex and dynamic phenotypical changes -epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), or its reverse mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET)- to cope with metastasis rate-limiting steps. Tumor cells gain metastatic properties in EMT, whereas cells acquire tumor forming capabilities in MET. Growing evidence suggests that cells showing both types of properties are most likely to contribute metastatic outgrowth and resistant to therapeutics. Now, a new study has identified a pivotal molecular mechanism that gives rise to this “hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal (E/M)” state. Experiments on human liver cancer cells indicated that the process modulated by lncRNA HOTAIR, a non-coding RNA that contributes to metastasis and poor prognosis in liver cancer..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.