Biological Science: a Molecular Approach (BSCS Blue Version), prepares honors or gifted students for the biology of the future by challenging them to think scientifically, to integrate concepts, to analyze data and to explore complex issues. Inquiry-based learning, a molecular perspective on the major concepts in biology and a focus on the nature and methods of science have been mainstays of the Blue Version since the first edition was released in 1963. The eighth edition incorporates new perspectives and understandings across major subdisciplines of biology such as genetics, cell biology, development, systematics, behavior, immunology and evolution–the central organizing theme of biology. As with BSCS's other biology programs, Blue Version provides an alternative to the presentation of vocabulary and isolated facts by using inquiry to present biology as an experimental science. Blue Version also recognizes the role that biology will play in the lives of students, who need an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of biological technology as they make decisions about everything from food products to medical care. By presenting science as a way of exploring the drama and beauty of the living world, students come to use scientific inquiry as a means to investigate the biological bases of problems in medicine, agriculture and conservation, which will provide a context in which students can appreciate the relationship of biology to personal and societal issues. Blue Version begins with a focus on the content of biology at the level of organization of molecules. The threads of molecular biology and the theory of evolution by natural selection tie together the chapters as the emphasis changes gradually from molecules to cells, individuals, populations, and finally to the biosphere. Seven unifying principles serve as a framework for conceptual biology