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 basis of the resting membrane potentialExplain the stages of an action potential and how action potentials are propagatedExplain the similarities and differences between chemical and electrical synapsesDescribe long-term potentiation and long-term depression

Surveys the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuronal communication. Covers ion channels in excitable membrane, synaptic transmission, and synaptic plasticity. Correlates the properties of ion channels and synaptic transmission with their physiological function such as learning and memory. Discusses the organizational principles for the formation of functional neural networks at synaptic and cellular levels.