First, Jackson applied for Nuvalence Builder Funds through Rensselaer’s Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship. Jackson volunteered to lead the RCOS effort within a global consortium and has gone above and beyond what was expected. Open source refers to software with code that is accessible and editable by the public, and RCOS brings together students to work on projects that help society.

The Rensselaer Center for Open Source (RCOS) was approached to collaborate on developing an open-source replacement for Microsoft’s Soundscape. This fold-out concertina includes a 12-page Timeline History of Biology and 12 full pages of amazing electron micrographs called Our Hidden World.Sheldon Jackson ’23 is spearheading refinements to a software that helps people with visual impairments navigate the world. The Imponderables looks at what questions biology still needs to answer.Īlso contains a 24-page removable foldout concertina neatly housed at the back of the book. A simple guide to biology draws together current understanding to set out the basics of the science Biographies of great life scientists and a chart of the tree of life Authoritative text, exciting imagery and helpful diagrams accompany each of the steps along the way Contains 100 chronological articles that tell the story of biology from the dawn of history to the present day Biology has changed the way we understand ourselves. Biology today is still very much a live science, finding a purpose in robot design and helping us to understand non-living complex systems like the Internet. The great names, such as Darwin and Linnaeus, are joined by lesser known discoverers, such as Karl von Frisch who discovered that bees dance, and Jan Baptist van Helmont who found a plant uses air and water to grow. We follow the journey through the history of life science to find out why the dolphin got its name (it is the 'womb fish'), how a seven-foot strand of DNA is able to build your body, and what gives a lobster its blue blood.

Here is the essential guide to biology, an authoritative reference book and timeline that examines how we have uncovered the secrets of life-the most complex process in the Universe.įrom the workings of molecules to the way entire oceans or continents of lifeforms interact, biology seeks to understand how it is that something can be alive, how it fends off death and how it leaves more life in its wake.

Science by Tom Jackson