{"id":1055,"date":"2016-12-02T21:21:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T21:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-biology2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=1055"},"modified":"2017-04-11T16:00:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T16:00:22","slug":"why-it-matters-introduction-to-biology","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/chapter\/why-it-matters-introduction-to-biology\/","title":{"raw":"Why It Matters: Introduction to Biology","rendered":"Why It Matters: Introduction to Biology"},"content":{"raw":"<h2>Why define biology and apply its principles?<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3842\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"400\"]<img class=\" wp-image-3842\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1087\/2016\/12\/06215701\/8152835443_ae5634fd08_z.jpg\" alt=\"A small mammal covered in armored scales. It stands on its back legs, using its tail to balance itself.\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/> Figure 1. The pangolin (also known as the scaly anteater) is a unique animal. It walks on just its hind legs and uses its front claws to tear open termite mounds.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOne night while she was scrolling through her\u00a0social media feeds, Cristina\u00a0saw that her\u00a0brother had linked to\u00a0an article about some of the world's weirdest animals. As she\u00a0paged through the article, Cristina became increasingly interested in the different features these animals had: some were eyeless, some were colorless, and others had even stranger features.\r\n\r\nBefore Cristina\u00a0could dig deeper into these animals, she\u00a0got a\u00a0message\u00a0from her\u00a0cousin Samuel. He'd sent a link to an article that said scientists had discovered a new organ in the human body called the mesentery. Cristina watched a short video attached to the article, but before she began to read\u00a0the article itself, she remembered\u00a0that she had a paper due the next day. She\u00a0made a mental note to come back to the article from her cousin, and she bookmarked the animals article.\r\n\r\nThough Cristina might not realize it, she's just been presented with two\u00a0different biological questions. How did these animals develop such unique\u00a0characteristics? How could scientists just now be discovering a new organ?\r\n\r\nCristina still has to come to her own conclusions and make her own choices, but having\u00a0an understanding of biology will help her make the best choices she can.\r\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>List the defining characteristics of biological life<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Identify the different kinds of cells that make up different kinds of organisms<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe classification and organizational tools biologists use, including modern taxonomy<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe biology as a science and identify the key components of scientific inquiry<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<h2>Why define biology and apply its principles?<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_3842\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3842\" class=\"wp-image-3842\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1087\/2016\/12\/06215701\/8152835443_ae5634fd08_z.jpg\" alt=\"A small mammal covered in armored scales. It stands on its back legs, using its tail to balance itself.\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3842\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 1. The pangolin (also known as the scaly anteater) is a unique animal. It walks on just its hind legs and uses its front claws to tear open termite mounds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>One night while she was scrolling through her\u00a0social media feeds, Cristina\u00a0saw that her\u00a0brother had linked to\u00a0an article about some of the world&#8217;s weirdest animals. As she\u00a0paged through the article, Cristina became increasingly interested in the different features these animals had: some were eyeless, some were colorless, and others had even stranger features.<\/p>\n<p>Before Cristina\u00a0could dig deeper into these animals, she\u00a0got a\u00a0message\u00a0from her\u00a0cousin Samuel. He&#8217;d sent a link to an article that said scientists had discovered a new organ in the human body called the mesentery. Cristina watched a short video attached to the article, but before she began to read\u00a0the article itself, she remembered\u00a0that she had a paper due the next day. She\u00a0made a mental note to come back to the article from her cousin, and she bookmarked the animals article.<\/p>\n<p>Though Cristina might not realize it, she&#8217;s just been presented with two\u00a0different biological questions. How did these animals develop such unique\u00a0characteristics? How could scientists just now be discovering a new organ?<\/p>\n<p>Cristina still has to come to her own conclusions and make her own choices, but having\u00a0an understanding of biology will help her make the best choices she can.<\/p>\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>List the defining characteristics of biological life<\/li>\n<li>Identify the different kinds of cells that make up different kinds of organisms<\/li>\n<li>Describe classification and organizational tools biologists use, including modern taxonomy<\/li>\n<li>Describe biology as a science and identify the key components of scientific inquiry<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-1055\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Why It Matters: Introduction to Biology. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Shelli Carter and Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Scaly Anteater. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: David Brossard. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/dqrpWk\">https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/dqrpWk<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Why It Matters: Introduction to Biology\",\"author\":\"Shelli Carter and Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Scaly Anteater\",\"author\":\"David Brossard\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/dqrpWk\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"db2640ef-a5f8-43a4-8776-dbde27d5ca04","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-1055","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":1054,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3186,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1055\/revisions\/3186"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/1054"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1055\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-biology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}