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:Classify fungi into the five major phylaDescribe each phylum in terms of major representative species and patterns of reproduction

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:

"Indoor microbes can release harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but how environmental factors and microbial community composition impact microbial VOC emissions is unclear. To learn more, researchers recently subjected drywall and carpet to different equilibrium relative humidity levels and quantified microbial communities and microbial VOC emissions. Fungus grew in dusty carpet when the humidity was >75% and in inoculated painted drywall when the humidity was >85%. The dust sample collection site and the material type significantly affected the fungal and bacterial species compositions. In dusty carpet, increased humidity was associated with decreased microbial species diversity. Abundant VOCs were likely released from the materials and dust themselves, but some microbial VOCs, such as C₁₀10H₁₆H⁺ (monoterpenes) and C₂H₆SH⁺ (dimethyl sulfide and ethanethiol), were released from microbes that grew in dusty carpet. At 95% humidity, dusty carpet produced 5..."

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

This activity shows you how to make a mold terrarium using a jar and leftover food. Learners explore mold, an "icky but necessary" thing that helps living matter rot, return to the soil, and provide nutrients for other plants. If you use a variety of food scraps, with preservatives and without, you'll see the different kinds of mold and be able to compare the rate of growth on various foods. Note: don't put meat or fish in your mold terrarium--after a few days, these would start to smell very, very bad.

The concept of water activity is important to food preservation. When water activity is less than 0.6, almost all microbes, including bacteria, molds, and yeasts, stop growing. Vegetables are usually dried even further, to water activity of 0.3 or 0.2, for quality and storage. Virtual Labs – Controlling Water Activity in Food explores a traditional method of preserving corn by drying. In this virtual laboratory, learners test water activity levels of dried corn and explore how they change under three different storage environments. The interactive animation guides users through the theory and practice of sampling a food product, using a water activity meter, and setting up replicates, to build familiarity with concepts and procedures used in real food science labs. Before beginning this lab, it may be useful to complete Virtual Labs – Understanding Water Activity.

Moist foods – like fresh fruit or raw meat – often have high water activity and spoil quickly. But some foods that seem moist – like jam or pepperoni – don’t spoil as quickly. Why is this? All living things need water to survive. Enzymes and chemical reactions also require water. If water activity is less than 0.6, almost all microbes, including bacteria, molds, and yeasts, stop growing. This means that food can be preserved against spoilage by lowering its water activity – whether by evaporating water away or binding it up. Virtual Labs – Understanding Water Activity familiarizes the user with food science lab equipment and standard techniques for measuring water activity. The interactive animation guides the user through both theory and practice, preparing them for experiences in a real lab. Complete this lab first, then follow up with Virtual Labs – Controlling Water Activity.