basic topics and classification Flashcards
what is biology
the study of living organisms, the study of life-including morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin.
why study biology
to gain knowledge to understand life, medicine, agriculture and to protect the environment
what is Scientia?
Scientia refers to comprehension, understanding, and objective knowledge
what is sapientia
sapientia refers to wisdom, subjective understanding of how things operate and decision making.
what are some differences between objective and subjective knowledge
objective means its a type of knowledge that can be agreed upon by everyone, regardless of background or context.
subjective refers to knowledge related to the perspective of the individual experiences and in respect to surroundings. (using adjectives instead of numbers)
what is the modeling relation
The modeling relation is based on the universally accepted belief that the world has some sort of order associated with it. It depicts the process of assigning interpretations to events in the world in a diagrammatic form. (ie. how we interpreted existence vs how it actually is)( we will never know)
how is science objective
science attempts to describe, explain and understand the world in terms that are quantitative and empirical and that can be agreed upon.
what is the scientific method
an orderly process of asking questions about the natural world and attempting to answer these questions through experimentation and date collection.
what is mechanism
the idea that living things are just highly complex machines and the separation between us and machines is our limited understanding.
what is vitalism
the idea that the origin of life is dependent on a force or principle distinct from purely physical or chemical properties.
the idea that for something to be alive it must have/are governed by a life force/soul/spirit/elan vital.
who contributed to the ideas of mechanism and vitalism
William Harvey is a prominent contributor to the idea of mechanism when he discovered the complete circulatory system.
Rene Depart is attributed with connecting consciousness with life. i.e. “Cogito Ergo Sum.”
Erwin Schrodinger contributed with his book “what is life” explaining that life is material, energy and information.
what are the characteristics of life?
complex organization
energy processing
response to stimuli
regulation
growth, development,
evolutionary adaption
what are some things that separate the living and non-living
living things cannot be reassembled or reanimated.
what are emergent properties
properties that arise from the interaction of multiple components withing a system, but are not properties of the individual components themselves
what are some examples of emergent properties
water-hydrogen and oxygen atoms have different properties than when they form water.
cells-cells have different properties than the organisms they make up.
what is autopoiesis
autopoiesis is the idea that life has the capacity to reproduce and regulate itself.
what are some examples of autopoiesis
self regulation-your bodies ability to tightly regulate things like blood sugar
what are the levels of complex organization
biosphere-ecosystem-community-population-organism-organs-tissue-cell-organelle-molecule.
what is energy processing
energy processing in the way that living things use energy to perform metabolic activities. this includes growing, reproducing, maintaining structure and responding to the environment.
energy process is possible due to complex organization.
why do living things respond to their environments
living organisms have evolved to respond to their environment to stay alive, and to improve their chances of survival and reproduction.
why do living thing preform regulation
living things must perform regulation to maintain extremely complex organized systems. regulation helps maintain a state of equilibrium, and without equilibrium to adapt to their enviroment.
what is meant by growth and development
growth and adaption refers to how organism adaption to changes in their environment and ecosystem.
these changes can be structural, physiological or behavioral
what is evolutionary adaption
is long-term, irreversible changes that occur over long periods of time.
what are some differences between evolutionary adaption and growth and development
evolutionary adaption refers to long term changes over long periods of time.
growth and development refer to changes as well, but are short term and can include behavioral changes.
