Ch. 1 Vocab

Question 1

biology

Answer 1

the scientific study of life with a very large scope of studies

Question 2

community

Answer 2

the array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem

Question 3

biosphere

Answer 3

consists of all the life on earth and all the places where life exists

Question 4

organ

Answer 4

a body part that is made up of multiple tissues and has specific functions in the body

Question 5

cell

Answer 5

life’s fundamental unit of structure and function

Question 6

organelles

Answer 6

the various functional components present in cells

Question 7

molecules

Answer 7

a chemical structure consisting of two or more units called atoms

Question 8

systems biology

Answer 8

the exploration of a biological system by analyzing the interactions among its parts

Question 9

tissue

Answer 9

a group of cells that work together performing a specialized funciton

Question 10

ecosystem

Answer 10

consists of all the living things in a particular area, along with all the nonliving components of the environment in which life interacts, such as soil, water, atmospheric gases and light

Question 11

eukaryotic cell

Answer 11

contains membrane enclosed organelles

Question 12

gene expression

Answer 12

the process by which the info in a gene directs the manufacture of a cellular product

Question 13

genome

Answer 13

the entire “library” of genetic instructions that an organism inherits

Question 14

consumer

Answer 14

an organism that feeds on another organism or their remains

Question 15

producer

Answer 15

plants and other photosynthetic organisms

Question 16

proteomics

Answer 16

refers to the study of sets of proteins and their properties

Question 17

proteome

Answer 17

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

Question 18

bioinformatics

Answer 18

the use of computational skills and tools to store, organize, and analyze the huge volume of data that results from high throughput methods

Question 19

feedback regulations

Answer 19

the output or product of a process regulates that very process

Question 20

climate change

Answer 20

a directional change to the global climate that lasts for 3 decades or more

Question 21

evolution

Answer 21

a process of biological change in which species accumulate differences from their ancestors as they adapt to different environments over time

Question 22

natural selection

Answer 22

the natural environment consistently “selects” for the propagation of certain traits in the population

Question 23

inquiry

Answer 23

the search for information and explanations of natural phenomena

Question 24

inductive reasoning

Answer 24

collecting and analyzing observations; can lead to important conclusions

Question 25

hypothesis

Answer 25

an explanation, based on observations and assumptions, that leads to a testable prediction

Question 26

experiment

Answer 26

a scientific test, carried out under controlled conditions

Question 27

deductive reasoning

Answer 27

involves logic that flows in the opposite direction, from general to specific

Question 28

controlled experiment

Answer 28

designed to compare an experimental group with a control group

Question 29

variables

Answer 29

a feature or quantity that varies in an experiment

Question 30

independent variable

Answer 30

the factor being manipulated by the researchers

Question 31

dependent variable

Answer 31

the factor being measured that is predicted to be affected by the independent variable

Question 32

theory

Answer 32

a much broader scope than a hypothesis

Question 33

model organism

Answer 33

a species that is easy to grow in the lab and lends itself particularly well to the questions being investigated