Books in Building Blocks of Life series

This fun series will entertain children while giving them a head start on learning. With these bigger editions, little ones can now get all the more absorbed in the full-color, bright designs and beautiful photographs of this successful series. The simple words combined with colorful photographs of familiar items will help children develop early reading, number, and general learning and communication skills.

Plants may seem like simple organisms, but their complex systems for food production, reproduction, and protection make them some of the most highly adapted living things on the planet. From the arctic tundra to the tropical rainforests, plants dominate the land and produce the energy necessary to sustain life on Earth. Plant Cells investigates these amazing organisms and explores how they have provided cures for some of today's deadliest diseases. Plants may also play a vital role in helping to solve some of the world's most pressing problems, such as air pollution, nonrenewable resource consumption, and food shortages. From low-lying mosses to massive redwoods than 30 stories high, plants all have one thing in common: They all began life as a single cell.

Some 3.8 billion years ago, in an era of churning seas and murky skies, a few chemicals combined under the right conditions, and life emerged on planet Earth. From that first cell, life progressed to a myriad of one-celled organisms, to organisms capable of photosynthesis, to multicellular organisms, to simple plant and animal forms, up to the complex life-forms we know today. The Evolution of Cells traces these developments and how they may have occurred, through the scientific study of fossils, relationships among organisms, biochemistry of current life-forms, genetic sequencing, and laboratory experiments. Readers will also explore the complexity of cells and the ways science is making use of internal cell mechanisms for new discoveries in sustainable energy sources, cleaning up pollution, improving the food supply, and treating disease.

This fun series will entertain children while giving them a head start on learning. With these bigger editions, little ones can now get all the more absorbed in the full-color, bright designs and beautiful photographs of this successful series. The simple words combined with colorful photographs of familiar items will help children develop early reading, number, and general learning and communication skills.

Scientific progress often sparks disputes about the meaning of a discovery, the research methods, and the possible uses of new technology. From the debate about teaching evolution in public schools to the modern controversies of ownership that arise in the context of gene patenting and medical tissues, there have been many ethical and religious arguments for and against further scientific advancements. Stem Cell Research and Other Cell-Related Controversies explores many of these complex issues in cell research and technology, including strategies for pursuing human stem cell-based therapies and the genetic modification of plants, animals, and humans.

This fun series will entertain children while giving them a head start on learning. With these bigger editions, little ones can now get all the more absorbed in the full-color, bright designs and beautiful photographs of this successful series. The simple words combined with colorful photographs of familiar items will help children develop early reading, number, and general learning and communication skills.

The amazing complexity of human anatomy and physiology is dependent upon its single most basic unit: the cell. Humans can attribute their overall health to homeostasis, the balance of activity within properly functioning cells. Additionally, cells are affected by the food we eat along with the microscopic entities that make us ill. Cells and Human Health covers how cells work to maintain human health and immunity as well as the history of cell discovery and the basics of cellular activity. Readers will also learn the processes of illnesses and corresponding genetics that compromise a cell's proper activity in the human being.