It is essential that textbook authors step back and look with fresh eyes
as each edition of their work goes into planning and preparation. In
doing so, they always need to pose two main questions: (1) How has
the body of information in their field—in this case genetics—shifted
since the last edition? (2) What pedagogic innovations might they add
that will unquestionably enhance students’ learning? The preparation
of the 9th edition of Concepts of Genetics, now well into its third
decade of providing support for students studying in this field, occa-
sioned such a fresh look. And what we clearly saw is that in the past
three years, the rapid expansion of the study of genomics, and the im-
pact of that information at all levels in the field of genetics, represent
the major advances in the field. In keeping with these observations,
we have placed particular emphasis on genomics as we carefully re-
vised and updated the entire text. This was accomplished not only by
adding a new chapter related to genomics, but also by devising a new
pedagogic feature that brings genomic information into each and
every chapter in the text. Called Exploring Genomics, this innovation
provides the information necessary for students to explore on the
Web one or more databases closely related to the chapter topics being
studied. We will discuss the details of our added coverage of genomic
information as well as Exploring Genomics later in this preface.