Inanimate Life

A free online textbook in Biology: Inanimate Life.

WHY IT’S INTERESTING

Inanimate Life is an open textbook covering a very traditional biological topic, botany, in a non-traditional way. Rather than a phylogenetic approach, going group by group, the book considers what defines organisms and examines four general areas of their biology: structure (their composition and how it comes to be), reproduction (including sex), energy and material needs, and their interactions with conditions and with other organisms.

SERENDIPITYA little unexpected

FamiliarWeird

A CLOSER LOOK

Although much of the text is devoted to vascular plants, the book comparatively considers ‘EBA = everything but animals’ (hence the title): plants, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants (‘algae’, as well as some bacteria and archaebacteria), fungi, and ‘fungal-like’ organisms. The book includes brief ‘fact sheets’ of over fifty organisms/groups that biologists should be aware of, ranging from the very familiar (corn, yeast) to the unfamiliar (bracket fungi, late-blight of potato). These groups reflect the diversity of inanimate life.

Published by Milne Open Textbooks. The library lists its license as Attribution-ShareAlike. Open the catalog record to find the full text, formats, reviews, and current reuse terms.

FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE

Open Textbook Library · University of MinnesotaInanimate Life

Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.