Preface 1. Looking for Sowbugs 2. Life around Us Building the Family Tree Animals What Distinguishes Humans from Other Animals Plants Lichens Fungi and Bacteria Life Is Everywhere 3. Life beneath Our Feet Earth under Our Feet Life Underground Key Process Underground Think about What's Underground 4. Supermarket Systematics Animals Animal Products Plant Products Mushrooms and Fungi Thanksgiving Dinner Supermarket Systematics 5. Fellow Travelers Visitors That Drop in for a Bite Visitor That Stay for a While Internal Parasites Fungi Bacteria Microbiome Viruses Viral Fossils Endosymbiosis In the End 6. Inside and Outside Water Oil and Lipids Proteins Membrane Structure Crossing Membranes Other Lipids Inside and Outside of Us The Ultimate Inside 7. Inside and Outside of Us Outside: Skin The Other Outside: The Digestive Tract The True Outside 8. Food and Eating The Evolution of Eating Cooking Digestion When Things Go Wrong Diseases of Affluence 9. Standing Up Standing on Two Feet Cells and Cellular Structures Animals Humans Plants Moving Plants Putting it all together 10. The Heart of the Matter Blood Heart Lungs Kidneys Internal Sea 11. Life Using Death Programmed Cell Death Butterflies and Frogs Falling Leaves and Fruit Human Development and Maintenance Diseases and Aging Quorum Sensing in Bacteria Cell Death Support Cell Life 12. Laughing and Crying Crying and Tears Laughing Anatomy of Speech Vocalizations and Language Evolution of Speech Chemical Communication Conclusions 13. Sleep and Consciousness What Is Sleep? How Much Sleep Do We Need? Sleep Disorders Do All Animals Sleep? Do Plants Sleep? How the Brain Works What Are Dreams? Consciousness Conclusion 14. Telling Time Circadian Rhythms Confusing Our Internal Clocks Beyond Waking and Sleeping Development and Aging Time 15. What's Next Glossary

Gary C. Howard, PhD, served as a science editor and writer for the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco for 22 years. He received a PhD in biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and completed fellowships at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. He continues to edit and write. His previous books, The Biology of Death (2021) and Imaging Life (2014) were both published by Oxford University Press. Howard is also an elected member of the Board of Education of Castro Valley Unified School District and an appointed member of the Alameda County Public Health Commission.

Selling point: Highlights the fascinating biology that exists all around us through descriptions of nature Selling point: Explains how modern humans are still part of nature Selling point: Expands understanding of humanity's connection to biology and how the natural world affects us