Biodiversity 101

What should the average person know about science? Because science is so central to life in the 21st century, science educators and other leaders of the scientific community believe that it is essential that everyone understand the basic concepts of the most vital and far-reaching disciplines. Biodiversity 101 does exactly that. This accessible volume provides readers -- whether students new to the field or just interested members of the lay public -- with the essential ideas of the origins of humans using a minimum of jargon and mathematics. Concepts are introduced in a progressive order so that more complicated ideas build on simpler ones, and each is discussed in small, bite-sized segments so that they can be more easily understood.

MELINA F. LAVERTY is a marine biologist, and former Senior Program Officer at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. She is currently completing her law degree at the University of Toronto.

ELEANOR J. STERLING is the Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, as well as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University.

AMELIA CHILES is a former staff member of the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. She now lives in Denver where she works for the Colorado chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

GEORGINA CULLMAN works in the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History.