What makes something alive, what is inside a cell, how plants make food and bodies use it, why children look like their parents, how life changes over generations - and how living things depend on each other.
Biology is the science of living things, from a single bacterium to a forest. This course starts with the biggest question - what does it mean to be alive? - and works down to the cell, the tiny unit every living thing is made of: how it was discovered, what is inside it, and how cells build a whole body. You will see how plants turn sunlight into food and how every cell releases energy from it, how your body's systems keep you going, and how DNA and genes pass traits from parents to children, as Gregor Mendel first worked out with his peas. Then the big picture: how variation and natural selection change living things over many generations, what fossils tell us, how all life is related, and how living things depend on each other in ecosystems. Every lesson tells how scientists found out, and lists its sources. No background needed.