1.1-1.3 Flashcards
7 properties of life
order, reproduction, growth and development, energy processing, regulation, response to environment, evolutionary adaptations.
Order
Cells create patterns and order within organisms. Holothuroidea, or sea cucumbers, have spikes on their long, ropey bodies in an organized, intentional way
Reproduction
: Necessary to sustain life, organisms must be able to create other organisms. Cells, through processes called mitosis or meiosis are able to divide and replicate themselves.
Growth and Development:
Organisms can grow and change based on their (inherited) DNA. During mating season for many birds, the males develop brighter feathers as a feature of their DNA.
Energy Processing
The ability of organisms to translate energy into different forms to sustain itself while alive. While Luna Moths only live for a week when fully developed, when they are a caterpillar they eat walnuts, hickory, pecans and persimmons to sustain themselves when they change into a moth, and when they are a moth.
Regulation.
(Homeostasis): An organism’s ability and desire to maintain a consistent and healthy “internal environment” Flowers often absorb water through roots, and let this water out in a process called transpiration to regulate its internal environment.
Response to Environment
Organism’s ability to move to get something it needs or to protect itself based on different situations. The very famous human example is “fight, flight or freeze” when they are exposed to a dangerous external environment.
Evolutionary Adaptation
While the response to the environment is instantaneous, evolutionary adaptation takes much longer stretches of time. These are the optimal features an organism can have to sustain itself. Melanin in hair and skin was an adaptation to deal with the damage which UV rays could cause to the skin.
biosphere
all of environments on earth which support life
ecosystem
one environment; consists of all the organisms in said environment, and their interaction with air soil water and sunlight
communities
species groups; ex. alligators and snakes
population
all individuals of a particular species living in that area.
Organism
an individual living thing
Organ system
like a circulatory system or nervous system, several organ which cooperate for a specific function
Organ
an individual in the organ system, made of tissue
Tissue
creates organs, made of cells
cells
the fundamental unit of life
organelle
a membrane-enclosed structure which performs a certain action within a cell. Ex. nucleus
molecule
a cluster of small chemical units (atoms) held together by chemical bonds. Ex. DNA
order (b–>s)
biosphere, ecosystem, community, population, organism, organ system, organ, tissue, cell, organelle, molecule
emergent properties
“the whole is more than the sum of its parts” an organelle is not alive, but a group of organelles, a cell is. Life is an emergent property. Emergent properties come when we combine components. The ability to evolve emerges only at the population level
the emergent properties of the entire system result from the specific arrangement and interactions of the individual parts
biosphere…
ecosystem
ecosystem…
community
community…
population
population…
organism
organism…
organ system
organ system…
organ
organ…
tissue
tissue…
cell
cell…
organelle
organelle…
molecule
the parts vs the whole, in cells
organelles vs a system
what is special about a cell
The cell is the lowest level of the hierarchy that possesses the characteristics common to all forms of life
what types of organisms are unicellular?
amoeba and bacteria (protists)
what trait do all cells share
enclosed in a membrane/has DNA
prokaryotes inhabited earth for___
1.5 billion years
Eukaryotes started evolving
1.8 billion years ago
what is systems biology?
study of biological system and the modeling of its dynamic behavior by analyzing the interactions among its parts. Functioning of a biosphere, molecular machinery of an organelle
