Having won over a dozen educator awards, Jay Phelan knows how to get students interested in finding out the big questions surrounding us in life, and he can tell the story of how scientists investigate these questions through this third edition text. Through using biology as the starting point, Jay is able to develop the critical thinking skills and scientific literacy that are both essential to students throughout their degree and beyond. The rigorously updated new edition brings forward features that have made this text such a success, including chapters anchored to intriguing questions about life, with original illustrations and innovative learning tools.  Having partnered with LaunchPad, you can access a fully interactive e-book with a wide range of assessment features, bringing Phelan's work to life. What is Life? is available with LaunchPad. LaunchPad combines an interactive ebook with high-quality multimedia content and ready-made assessment options, including LearningCurve adaptive quizzing.  See 'Instructor Resources' and 'Student Resources' for further information.

Jay Phelan teaches biology at UCLA, where he has taught introductory biology in large lectures for majors and nonmajors for twelve years. He received his PhD in evolutionary biology from Harvard in 1995, and his master's and bachelor's degrees from Yale and UCLA. His primary area of research is evolutionary genetics, and his original research has been published in Evolution, Experimental Gerontology, and the Journal of Integrative and Comparative Biology, among others.