HIN K LIK T E A S CIEN T IST WHERE DO WE LOOK FOR LIFE TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 CHAPTERS LIFE SCIENCE EVOLVES 7 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 17 IN THE FIELD 27 YEAR OF THE HORSE 37 GLO SSARy 46 SELECTED bIbLIOGRAPHy 47 WEbSITES 47 INDEx 48 SCIENTIST IN THE SPOTLIGHT EDWARD JENNER 10 LOuIS PASTEuR 20 RACHEL CARSON 30 ELIzAbETH bLACKWELL 40 3
Hin K LiK T E A s s T T CiEn T is CiEn T is WHERE DO WE LOOK FOR LiFE INTRODUCTION Peering through his handcrafted microscope Anton van Leeuwenhoek examined the bee under the lens He could see the insect had tiny mouthparts and a needlelike stinger He reported his first micro scopic observations of the bee a fungus and a louse to the Royal Society of London but many doubted his work until they could repli cate his experiments Leeuwenhoek continued building micro scopes more than 500 of them in order to look more closely at substances such as lake water blood and even tooth scrapings In 1676 he announced that he had observed tiny organisms moving around inside drops of water When another scientist was able to confirm those results it was determined that Leeuwenhoek was the first person to observe bacteria From the smallest bacterium to the larg est whale the life sciences encounter and study life in all its varied forms Life scientists use the scientific method to gather knowledge investigate observe and ex periment to learn about the world Studying life sciences can help solve human health problems improve conservation methods and foster coexistence among Earth’s living things Whether it was Leeuwenhoek ob serving human blood cells for the first time botanists finding that plant leaves undergo a process called photosynthesis or marine biologists locating the elusive giant squid in its deep-ocean habitat amazing discoveries are made possible through the life sciences 5
