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97 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is biology?
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The scientific study of life
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What is life?
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The set of common characteristics that distinguish living organisms- seven main characteristics
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What are the seven characteristics that distinguish living organisms?
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1. Order
2. Regulation 3. Growth and development 4. Energy utilization 5. Response to the environment 6. Reproduction 7. Capacity to evolve over time |
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Order
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All living things exhibit complex but ordered organization
i.e. symmetry in a pinecone |
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Regulation
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The organism can adjust its internal environment despite a drastically changing external environment, keeping it within the appropriate limits
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Growth and development
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Information carried by genes controls the pattern of growth and development in all organisms
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Energy utilization
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Organisms take in energy and use it to perform all of life's activities
i.e. eating a fish then swimming |
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Response to the environment
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All organisms respond to environmental stimuli
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Reproduction
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Organisms reproduce only their own kind
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Evolution
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Reproduction underlies the capacity of populations to change or evolve over time
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What has been a central, unifying feature of life since life arose nearly 4 billion years ago?
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Evolutionary change
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What are the 10 levels of life from largest to smallest?
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1. Biosphere
2. Ecosystems 3. Communities 4. Populations 5. Organisms 6. Organ systems and organs 7. Tissues 8. Cells 9. Organelles 10. Molecules and atoms |
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Biosphere
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Consists of all the environments on Earth that support life
i.e. soil, oceans, lakes and the lower atmosphere |
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Ecosystems
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Consists of all living in a particular area, as well as nonliving, physical of the environment that might affect the organisms (such as water, air, soil and sunlight)
i.e. a tide pool |
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Communities
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All organisms collectively in an ecosystem
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Populations
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Grops of interacting individuals of one species within a community
i.e. a group of iguanas |
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Organsims
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An individual living thing
i.e. one iguana |
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Organ systems and organs
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An organisms's body consists of several organ systems, each of which contains two or more organs
i.e. a circulatory system includes a heart and blood vessels |
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Tissues
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Consists of a group of similar cells performing a specific function. Each organ is made up of several different tissues
i.e. heart muscle tissue |
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Cells
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The smallest unit that can display all the characteristics of life
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Organelles
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Functional components of cells
i.e. The nucleus that houses the DNA |
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Molecules and atoms
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The chemical level of the hierarchy. Clusters of even smaller chemical units called atoms. Each cell consists of an enormous number of chemicals that function together to give the cell the properties we recognize as life
i.e. DNA |
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Where do the interactions between organisms and their environment take place?
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In their ecosystem
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What are the two main processes that influence the dynamics of an ecosystem?
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1. The cycling of nutrients
2. The flow of energy |
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The cycling of nutrients
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How nutrients are passed through the organisms in an ecosystem through producers, consumers and decomposers
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Producers
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Photo synthetic organisms
i.e. plants |
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Consumers
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Organisms that feed on pants either directly (by eating plants) or indirectly (by eating animals that eat plants)
i.e. animals |
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Decomposers
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Decompose waste products and the remains of deceased organisms, changing complex dead material into simple nutrients that are recycled
i.e. fungi and many bacteria |
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Flow of energy
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Energy is gained and lost constantly in an ecosystem and is mostly gained through solar power captured and converted into chemical energy by producers
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Chemical energy
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Sugars and other complex molecules that is passed and decomposed through various consumers
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How is chemical energy lost from the ecosystem?
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Energy is converted to heat during energy conversions between and within the organisms which is then lost from the system
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How does energy enter and exit an ecosystem?
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Enters as light
Exits as heat |
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How are humans disrupting ecosystems?
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Fuel burning and forest chopping change the atmosphere and the planet's climate
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What is the organism's basic unit of structure and function?
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The cell
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How to cells form new cells?
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By dividing
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Why is the cells ability to form new cells important to multicellular organisms?
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It is the basis for all reproduction and for the growth and repair of multicellular organisms
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What are the two major kinds of cells?
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1. Prokaryotic cells
2. Eukaryotic cells |
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What are the characteristics of a prokaryotic cell?
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1. Smaller
2. Simpler structure 3. DNA is concentrated in nucleoid region which is not enclosed by a membrane 4. Lacks most organelles i.e. bacterium |
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What are the characteristics of a eukaryotic cell?
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1. Larger
2. More complex structure 3. Nucleus is enclosed by a membrane 4. Contains many types of organelles i.e. most forms of life (like plants and animals) are composed of these |
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Organelle
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A membrane-enclosed structure with a specialized function within a eukaryotic cell
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What is the largest organelle in an eukaryotic cell?
What is it function? |
The nucleus which houses DNA
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DNA
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Heritable material that directs the cell's many activities
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What do prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells have in common?
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All cells use DNA as the chemical material of genes, the discrete units of hereditary information
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What are the chemical names of DNA's four molecular building blocks?
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A, G, C, and T
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Where is a gene's meaning to a cell encoded?
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In its specific sequence of the four letters, which is often hundreds or thousands of letters long
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Genetic engineering
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The direct manipulation of genes for practical purposes
i.e. diabetics can inject themselves with insulin |
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Genome
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The entire "book" of genetic instructions that an organism inherits
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Genomics
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A branch of biology that studies genomes
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Explain how diverse life is
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There is at least known 290,000 plants, 52,000 vertebrates and 1 million insects with an estimated total number of species ranging form 10 million to 100 million
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Taxonomy
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The branch of biology that names and classifies species
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What are the three domains?
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1. Bacteria
2. Archaea 3. Eukarya |
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What is the difference between the bacteria and archaea groups and the eukarya group?
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The bacteria and archaea groups identify two very different groups of organisms that have prokaryotic cells while the eukarya includes all organisms with eukaryotic cells and is divided up into further categories
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What is the category that is a division of the eukarya domain?
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It is divided in to three kingdoms: Plantae, Fungi, Animalia and Protists
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What characterizes the three kingdoms?
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How the organisms obtain their food
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Plantae
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Produce their own sugars and other foods by photosynthesis
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Fungi
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Decomposers that obtain food by digesting dead organisms
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Animalia
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Obtain food by eating and digesting other organisms
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Protists
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Any eukaryote that is not a plant, fungi or animal that are often single-celled (though certain multicellular forms as well) and microscopic protozoans
i.e. seaweed |
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What are unifying themes of life?
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1. The universal genetic language of DNA
2. Evolution |
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Charles Darwin
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A british biologist who published The Origin of Species which made two main points
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What were the two main points of The Origin of Species?
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1. The available evidence in support of the evolutionary view that species living today descended from ancestral species- "descent with modification"
2. The process of descent with modification is called natural selection |
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What two important processes did Darwin regard as closely related?
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1. Adaption to the environment
2. Origin of new species |
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What two observations helped Darwin reach his conclusion of natural selection? What was his exact conclusion?
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1. Overproduction and competition
2. Individual variation Conclusion: Unequal reproductive success |
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Overproduction and competition
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The first observation of Darwin's inescapable conclusion: Any population of a species has the potential to produce more offspring than their environment could support. This overproduction leads to competition among the varying individuals for resources
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Individual variation
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The second observation of Darwin's inescapable conclusion: No two individuals in a population are exactly alike
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Unequal reproductive success
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The conclusion of Darwin's inescapable conclusion: Those individuals with traits best suited to the local environment will have the greatest reproductive success. The very traits that enhance survival and reproductive success will be disproportionately represented in succeeding generations of the population
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Natural selection
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A process in which organisms with certain inherited characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than organisms with other characteristics; differential reproductive success. A mechanism of evolution
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Artificial selection
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The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals by humans
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Science
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A way of knowing based on inquiry
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What are the two main scientific approaches?
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1. Discovery science
2. Hypothesis-driven science Often a combination of the two is practiced |
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Discovery science
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About describing nature
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Hypothesis-driven science
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About explaining science
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What is the category that is a division of the eukarya domain?
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It is divided in to three kingdoms: Plantae, Fungi, Animalia and Protists
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What characterizes the three kingdoms?
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How the organisms obtain their food
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Plantae
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Produce their own sugars and other foods by photosynthesis
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Fungi
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Decomposers that obtain food by digesting dead organisms
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Animalia
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Obtain food by eating and digesting other organisms
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Protists
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Any eukaryote that is not a plant, fungi or animal that are often single-celled (though certain multicellular forms as well) and microscopic protozoans
i.e. seaweed |
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What are unifying themes of life?
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1. The universal genetic language of DNA
2. Evolution |
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Charles Darwin
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A british biologist who published The Origin of Species which made two main points
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What were the two main points of The Origin of Species?
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1. The available evidence in support of the evolutionary view that species living today descended from ancestral species- "descent with modification"
2. The process of descent with modification is called natural selection |
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What two important processes did Darwin regard as closely related?
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1. Adaption to the environment
2. Origin of new species |
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What two observations helped Darwin reach his conclusion of natural selection? What was his exact conclusion?
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1. Overproduction and competition
2. Individual variation Conclusion: Unequal reproductive success |
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Overproduction and competition
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The first observation of Darwin's inescapable conclusion: Any population of a species has the potential to produce more offspring than their environment could support. This overproduction leads to competition among the varying individuals for resources
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Individual variation
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The second observation of Darwin's inescapable conclusion: No two individuals in a population are exactly alike
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Unequal reproductive success
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The conclusion of Darwin's inescapable conclusion: Those individuals with traits best suited to the local environment will have the greatest reproductive success. The very traits that enhance survival and reproductive success will be disproportionately represented in succeeding generations of the population
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Natural selection
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A process in which organisms with certain inherited characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than organisms with other characteristics; differential reproductive success. A mechanism of evolution
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Artificial selection
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The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals by humans
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Science
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A way of knowing based on inquiry
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What are the two main scientific approaches?
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1. Discovery science
2. Hypothesis-driven science Often a combination of the two is practiced |
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Discovery science
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About describing nature; verifiable observations and measurements of data. Uses inductive reasoning to reach conclusions that summarize a large number of observations
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Hypothesis-driven science
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About explaining science; a process of scientific inquiry that uses the steps of the scientific method to answer questions about nature
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What is the scientific method? What are the 5 steps?
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A formal process of inquiry
1. Observation 2. Question 3. Hypothesis 4. Prediction 5. Experiment (revise if it does not support the hypothesis and/or make additional predictions and test them) |
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Controlled experiment
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An experiment designed to compare an experimental group with a control group that ideally differ by only one variables
Enable researchers to draw conclusions about the effect of just one variable |
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Theory
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Theories only become widely accepted in science if they are supported by an accumulation of extensive and varied science as they are very broad
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What are the two key features that distinguish science from other styles of inquiry?
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1. A dependence on observations and measurements that other can verify
2. The requirements that ideas (hypotheses) are testable by experiments that others can repeat |
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Are science and technology interdependent or dependent?
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Interdependent
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