Ch 1-3 Flashcards
the study of life; “bios” = life
characteristics of life
- living organisms reproduce
- living organisms grow and develop
- organisms process energy
- regulation
- organisms interact
- composed of cells
- evolutionary adaptation
Living organisms reproduce
they produce copies of themselves; pass on genetic information to the future
Living organisms grow and develop
growth and development
growth
increase in size and number
development
change during life cycle (infant-child-adolescent-adult)
organisms process energy
allliving organisms live at the expense of their environment; they must extract energy and materials from the environment; convert energy from another source (ex: plants from sun and animals from food they eat)
regulation
organisms maintain their interval environment within limits that sustain life; ex: sweating, jackrabbit has blood vessel in ears to maintain body temp.; have to eat right food, balanced pH
organisms interact
interact with one another and their environment, responding to stimuli (ex: venus fly trap)
composed of cells
order; all living things exhibit complex organization
evolutionary adaptaino
over many generations, individuals with inheritied traits best suited to their local environment tend to pass these traits on to their offspring
“to know”; science is a way of knowing (one way, not the only way)
is to better understand the natural world; looking for empirical evidence; supernatural is outside of the realm of science
to approaches to science
- discovery science
2. scientific method
discovery science
- verifiable observations and measurements
- describe life in a variety of ways
- aka “descriptive science”
- looks at physical characteristics (what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel)
- observe behaviors
- dissections
scientific method
- formal process of inquiry
- series of steps
- begins with observations (discovery science)
- asks questions and seek answers (forms hypothesis)
scientific hypothesis
- a proposition that can be tested by careful observation or experiment (more than an educated guess)
- “if ___ occurs, then ___ will result”
- has to be potentially falsifiable which means it has to be able to be proven false
- controlled experiment
with a control group, only one variable changed in each ofthe experimental groups; not always possible for practical and ethical reasons (es: global warming and testing drugs on children)
results of the scientific method
- scientists do not tend to prove hypothesis, but support hypothesis with evidence
- lots of evidence in support is considered “proof”
- if the tests supports the hypothesis, move on to another question
- if test does not support the thesis go back and provide another hypothesis to explain it
scientific fact
an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as true (ex: cells have membranes, egg and sperm contain DNA)
Scientific Theory
a well substantiated explanation for some aspect of the natural that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences and tested hypothesis (ex: theory of evolution); lot of evidence behind it;
science is not set in stone
- understandings can change as we learn more
- the body of knowledge grows and science adapts to this new knowledge
- science can change (# of planets changes, we can’t entirely stop disease with antibiotics because bacteria evolves extremely fast)
science tends to be self-correcting
- scientists publish their findings in “peer-reviewed” journals and conferences
- other scientists repeat their procedures to see if they get the same results and come to the same conclusions
- over time, incorrect conclusions will usually be corrected
strengths of science
- scientists strive to be free of bias and coercion in order to obtain objective answers and results
- use controlled experiments when possible]
- findings are reported in peer-reviewed journals with methods and results (helps for replication and self-correcting)
limitations of science
- it isn’t always possible to do controlled experiments for practical and ethical reasons (climate change, testing drugs on kids)
- science is reductive (looks at ever smaller parts, separate from the whole so it may not give an accurate picture of how the parts function within the whole)
- the objective, value-free approach of good science cannot determine if something is good/bad, ethical/unethical, and cannot answers about the spiritual/supernatural (basically, it is only one facet of knowledge)
binomial nomenclature
- scientific names (2 names)
- italicized
- genus and species
genus
begins with a capital letter (first word)
species
begins with a lower case letter (second word)
common name
both names are capitalized
three domains
domain bacteria
domain archaea
domain eukarya
domain bacteria
- prokaryotic
- unicelular
- no nucleus
- some (not all) cause disease
domain archaea
- prokaryotic
- unicellular
- do not cause disease
- some can do photosythesis
- some can live in extreme environments (hot, salty, acidic…)
Domain eukarya
- eukaryotic
- some multi and some unicellular
- 4 kingdoms
Domain Eukarya Kingdoms
kingdoms…Protista, plantae, fungi, and animalia
Kingdom protista
- protists
- eukaryotic
- unicellular
- more complex and larger than bacteria and archaea
- some are photsynthetic
Kindom Plantae
- plants
- eukaryotic
- multicellular
- photosynthetic
Kingdom Fungi
- eukaryotic
- most are multicellular
- do not photosynthesis
- decomposers (live off dead things)
Kingdom Animalia
- animals
- eukaryotic
- multicellular
energy flows
- almost all energy on the earth comes from the sun
- some energy can be used to do work but much of the rest is lost as heat
- energy has to be continually brought into a system
- slows in and out of a system
- once you use it, its gone (reason we have to eat everyday)
chemicals cycle`
- chemicals are used over and over again
- nature recycles (to be sustainable on this planet we need to learn how to recycle almost everything)
elements that make up 96.3% of our body weight
- oxygen
- carbon
- hydrogen
- nitrogen
fifith element need in molecules of life
- phosphorus
molecules of life
- water (O & H)
- carbohydrates (O,H,C)
- lipids or fats (O,H,C)
- Proteins (O,H,C,N)
- nucleic acids or DNA (O,H, C,N, P)
submicroscopic units of matter, smalles unit of all physical materials; molecules are made up of atoms
Proton
- located in nucleus
- one unit positive charge (+)
Neutrons
- located in nucleus
- no charge
electrons
- revolve around nucleus in shells (shells are energy levels)
- one unit negative charge
- shell closest to nucleus holds 2 electrons; second and third shells hold 8 electrons
atomic number
determined by the number of protons (whereas mass number is the combined number of protons and neutrons)
what does the atomic number tell us?
of protons
what does the mass number tells us?
of protons and neutrons
isotopes
have the same number of protons and electrons but different number of neutrons; can be dangerous because some are radio active (nucleus decays, giving off particles and energy); living cells cannot distinguish between radioactive and non-radioactive elements so they take up both and use them (used in carbon dating and medicine)
Danger of isotopes
- uncontrolled exposure to large doses can damage molecules, especially DNA
- it does this by breaking chemical bonds and reforming abnormal bonds
- can cause cancer and other diseases