Biology & Chemistry Flashcards
How does CRISPR-CAS9 work?
CRISPR encodes specific RNA sequences to recognize. CAS9 is an enzyme that uses the guide RNA to find and snip out that sequence and potentially replace it
What is a protein?
Proteins are large macromolecules or bio molecules composed of amino acids. The sequence of amino acids and protein folding determine the biological function that they serve.
What is an enzyme?
An enzyme is both a protein and a biocatalyst
What is diffusion?
Movement of anything from high to low concentration.
What is osmosis and how is it different from diffusion?
Osmosis is a special case of diffusion where the solvent moves across a semipermeable membrane
What is a hormone?
A chemical substance used to communicate and regulate behavior between organs
How does tree grafting work?
Put desirable top (scion) on an undesirable stump. Good for asexual reproduction and propagation of a tree.
How big is a mole? How was that value picked?
6.022x10^23. Chosen so the atomic mass matches grams
What is a marsh?
A marsh is a wetland that has poorly drained mineral soil and grass with a constant inflow of water. They often have rich mineral deposits and plant and animal life.
What is the difference between a seed, grain, and cereal?
Seeds are just the embryonic part that can grow into a new plant.
Grains are seeds (maybe with bran aka the fruit part) grown for consumption and not necessarily viable.
Cereals are grains for grasses
According to David Attenborough, what 5 things do we need to do to increase biodiversity to address climate change?
- Reduce poverty to slow population growth by providing healthcare and educating girls
- Reverse deforestation
- Switch to renewables and get off fossil fuels
- Rewind farmlands by eating less meat
- Conserve fishing by reserving areas
What is a swamp?
A swamp is a wetland that has waterlogged soils interspersed with dry land. They usually have trees and often develop from marshes as the plants slow down the water.
What is a bog?
A bog (i.e. quagmire) is a wetland that has a sealed clay bottom and lacks nutrients. Moss, fungi, and small plants live and decompose plant matter into peat.
What is a fen?
A fen is a wetland that has a clay bottom but there’s a crack where water seeps up from underground into the depression. Thus, it is like a bog but also has some fresh water flowing in.
What does Richard Dawkins mean by “the selfish gene?”
He argues that the fundamental unit for selection is the gene vying for survival and heredity.
According to Richard Dawkins, how might replicators have been the beginning of life?
These replicators were able to copy themselves out of the primeval soup and propagate into a more stable state over time.
According to Douglas Tallamy, what is the problem of introducing non-native plants to ecologies?
Even if thet aren’t directly harmful, they don’t support native insects, which reduces the food supply further up the food chain.
On average, how many people die from the flu in the US annually?
30,000
Why does low pressure cause rain?
Under low pressure, more air can rise to higher altitudes with lower temperatures, which condenses into clouds and then rain.
How do fungi connect communities of trees and plants?
Fungi attach to tree roots, and they bridge between them to exchange water and nutrients
According to Tallamy, why do alien invasive plants tend to thrive?
Native insects do not eat them (making them “pest-free”) and can grow unchecked
What is a mnemonic for biological taxonomy?
King Phillip came over for great spaghetti
Kingdom phylum class order family genus species
What defines animals as a species?
Animas that tend to mate naturally and produce fertile offspring
What defines a family of animals in taxonomy?
All members share a founding matriarch or patriarch
According to Harari, what were two advantages of humans evolving to stand upright?
Higher perspective for viewing. Using arms for other tasks.
What are some disadvantages of humans evolving to walk upright?
Hard to support a large head causing neck and backaches
Narrower hips combined with large heads led to more risks in childbirth
We are born underdeveloped
How did walking upright lead to more premature births in humans?
Narrower hips and bigger heads meant that underdeveloped skulls were more likely to survive.
Compared to other mammals like horses that can walk on birth, we rely on raising children as a family
Where did Homo sapiens first appear? When was this?
150,000 years ago in East Africa
What is megafauna?
The large and giant animals in an area
According to Harari, why did reptiles originally evolved to have feathers?
For warmth
What is a chromosome made out of?
Thread-like structure with protein and a single molecule of DNA
What are genes made of?
Genes are segments of DNA that express some trait.
What is lichen? How is that different from moss?
Lichen is when fungi and algae work together where the alga is food and the fungi is the body (thallus).
Moss is only a single organism.
What is chemotaxis?
An organism moving towards a chemical stimulus
How does E. coli move with its one tail towards a chemical stimulus?
It either runs with all motors going the same way or tumbles until it picks a new direction
