This textbook has been modified from OpenStax Biology by faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University.  We endeavoured on this project with the goal of providing students a complete textbook with interactive features (reading quizzes, videos, links) that was highly engaging and, of course, at no cost to the students.  Moreover, we recognize that this textbook will need to be constantly updated as our understanding of the world around us continues to grow.  On that note, we encourage any person using this textbook to inform us when we’ve missed an opportunity to update the knowledge presented here.  We would like to thank the Virtual Library of Virginia for providing the funding to create this body of work as well as the numerous student and former student artists from the Department of Communication Arts at VCU School of the Arts that helped to provide some of the figures in this book.

Jonathan Moore and Dianne Jennings