CH 1 Evolution, Themes of Bio, and Scientific Inquiry

Question 1

biology

Answer 1

the scientific study of life

Question 2

biosphere

Answer 2

the entire portion of Earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet’s ecosystem

Question 3

ecosystem

Answer 3

all organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact; one or more communities and the physical environment around them

Question 4

cell

Answer 4

life’s fundamental unit of structure and function; the smallest unit of organization that can perform all activities required for life

Question 5

population

Answer 5

group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area and inter-breed, producing fertile offspring

Question 6

organism

Answer 6

an individual living thing, consisting of one or more cells

Question 7

organ

Answer 7

a specialized center of body function composed of several different types of tissues

Question 8

tissue

Answer 8

integrated group of cells with a common structure, function, or both

Question 9

Bacteria

Answer 9

One of two prokaryotic domains, the other being Archaea.

Question 10

organelle

Answer 10

any of several membrane-enclosed structure with specialized functions, suspended in the cytosol of eukaryotic cells

Question 11

molecule

Answer 11

two or more atoms held together by covalent bonds

Question 12

emergent properties

Answer 12

new properties that arise with each step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arrangement and interactions of parts are complexity increases

Question 13

systems biology

Answer 13

approach to studying biology that aims to model the dynamic behavior of whole biological systems based on a study of the interactions among the system’s parts

Question 14

eukaryotic cell

Answer 14

type of cell with a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles. Organisms with eukaryotic cells (protists, plants, fungi, and animals).

Question 15

prokaryotic cell

Answer 15

cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus or organelles

Question 16

genes

Answer 16

unit of hereditary information consisting of a specific nucleotide sequence in DNA (or RNA, in some viruses)

Question 17

experiment

Answer 17

scientific test, often carried out under controlled conditions that involve manipulating one factor in a system in order to see the effects of changing that factor

Question 18

gene expression

Answer 18

the process by which information encoded DNA direct the synthesis of proteins, or in some cases, RNAs that are not translated into proteins and instead function as RNAs

Question 19

genome

Answer 19

genetic material of an organism or virus; the complete complement of an organism’s or virus’s genes along with its noncoding nucleic acid sequences

Question 20

genomics

Answer 20

systematic study of whole sets of genes (or other DNA) and their interactions within a species, as well as genome comparisons between species

Question 21

proteomics

Answer 21

systematic study of sets of proteins and their properties, including their abundance, chemical modifications, and interactions

Question 22

proteome

Answer 22

entire set of proteins expressed by a given cell, tissue, or organism

Question 23

producers

Answer 23

organism that produces organic compounds from CO2 by harnessing light energy (in photosynthesis) or by oxidizing inorganic chemicals (in chemosynthetic reactions carried out by some prokaryotes)

Question 24

natural selection

Answer 24

process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits

Question 25

science

Answer 25

approach to understanding the natural world

Question 26

inquiry

Answer 26

search for information and explanation, often focusing on specific questions

Question 27

inductive reasoning

Answer 27

type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific obervations

Question 28

hypothesis

Answer 28

testable explanation for a set of observations based on the available data and guided by inductive reasoning; narrower in scope than a theory

Question 29

model organism

Answer 29

particular species

Question 30

theory

Answer 30

an explanation that is broader in scope than a hypothesis, generates new hypotheses, and is supported by a large body of evidence

Question 31

model organism

Answer 31

particular species chosen for research into broad biological principles because it is representative of a larger group and usually easy to grow in a lab

Question 32

technology

Answer 32

application of scientific knowledge for a specific purpose, often involving industry or commerce but also including uses in basic research