Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts. The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Art and illustrations have been substantially improved, and the textbook features additional assessments and related resources.

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

Discuss the role of carbohydrates in cells and in the extracellular materials of animals and plants
Explain carbohydrate classifications
List common monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides

Here you can learn about biochemistry, the chemistry of the living world. Content explores carbohydrates, lipids, amino acid structure and proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, and metabolism.

Here you can learn all about carbohydrates! Content explores what carbohydrates are used for in the body, as well as the different types: saccharides, regular sugars, and polysaccharides.

This public health resource provides information on carbohydrates. Very in-depth, discussing what carbohydrates are, how they work, and popular diets related to carbohydrates.

This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets. [1:38]

This activity is a classroom experiment where students gather data on which foods contain starch. They use observation and develop their own hypothesis to create a question they would like to discover about starches.

This pathway provides an overview of biological macromolecules and their properties. The resources in this pathway can be used to introduce or review the structure and function of lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids. For a deeper look at this topic, we recommend the pathway Biological Macromolecules from the OpenStax textbook Biology for AP® Courses.

Find out what the human body needs to function at its best, and why.

All cells, organs and tissues of a living organism are built of molecules. Some of them are small, made from only a few atoms. There is, however, a special class of molecules that make up and play critical roles in living cells. These molecules can consist of many thousands to millions of atoms. They are referred to as macromolecules (or large biomolecules).