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 how red and blue light affect plant growth and metabolic activitiesDiscuss gravitropismUnderstand how hormones affect plant growth and developmentDescribe thigmotropism, thigmonastism, and thigmogenesisExplain how plants defend themselves from predators and respond to wounds

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:

"It might seem like something straight out of comic book fantasy, but this self-healing material is all real. Able to repair itself in mere minutes—with practically no external input—this new class of polymer could hold the key to making plastics nearly invincible. To be sure, self-healing materials aren’t all that new. Scientists have discovered that the lime mortar used in Ancient Roman structures like the Colosseum forms tiny plate-like crystals that fill in cracks that develop over time. And researchers long ago cracked the chemistry that enables polymer networks to zip back up after damage. These materials, however, typically involve expensive and sophisticated designs. Many require complex chemical reactions to function or ionic or electronic interactions found only in a small subset of polymers. On top of that, repair often requires an external source of energy, typically in the form of heat, light, or pressure..."

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:

"Above ground, plants can seem fairly simple, but below, there is a rich world full of hidden activity. To promote their growth, plants secrete chemicals from their roots that can affect the soil and air around them. This helps them adapt to environmental conditions, stressors, and pathogens. But how these chemicals affect the plants’ microbiota is poorly understood. A recent study evaluated chemical interactions between peanut plants and cassava, which are often co-cultivated. The researchers found that cassava plants produced cyanide, which induced stress in peanut plants. This caused the peanut plants to emit ethylene, a volatile hormone that diffuses through gas and water in the soil. Ehtylene, in turn, attracted specific microbial species that helped to remineralize the soil, ensuring that the peanut plants could increase their yield alongside cassava..."

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