Chapter 1

Question 1

define BIOLOGY

Answer 1

the scientific study of life

Question 2

what are the properties of life?

Answer 2

order
energy processing
evolutionary adaptation
growth & development
regulation
response to the environment
reproduction

Question 3

what are some unifying themes of life?

Answer 3

organization
information
energy & matter
interactions
evolution

Question 4

what are the levels of biological organization?

Answer 4

biosphere
ecosystems
communities
populations
organisms
organs
tissues
cells
organelles
molecules

Question 5

what does a biosphere consist of?

Answer 5

all life on Earth and all places where life exists: most land regions, bodies of water, the atmosphere and sediments far below the ocean floor

Question 6

what does an ecosystem consist of?

Answer 6

all living things in a certain area along with all nonliving components of this environment i.e. soil/water/atmospheric gases/light

Question 7

what does a community consist of?

Answer 7

a set of populations that inhabit a particular area

Question 8

what is reductionism?

Answer 8

zooming in through the levels of the biological hierarchy at ever-finer resolution - this reduces complex systems to simpler components

Question 9

define organ

Answer 9

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

Question 10

define tissue

Answer 10

a group of cells that work together, performing a specialized function

Question 11

define photosynthesis

Answer 11

the process of converting light energy into the chemical energy of sugar

Question 12

what is life’s fundamental unit of structure and function?

Answer 12

a cell

Question 13

what units are responsible for photosynthesis?

Answer 13

chloroplasts

Question 14

what is a molecule?

Answer 14

a chemical structure composed of two or more units called atoms

Question 15

define ‘systems biology’

Answer 15

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

Question 16

the so-called Cell Theory was first developed in what century?

Answer 16

1800s

Question 17

what are two main forms of cells?

Answer 17

prokaryotic and eukaryotic

Question 18

what makes a cell prokaryotic?

Answer 18

it’s single-celled (i.e. bacteria and archaea)

Question 19

all other life forms including plants and animals, are composed of what type of cells?

Answer 19

eukaryotic

Question 20

a eukaryotic cell contains what?

Answer 20

membrane-enclosed organelles

Question 21

what does a prokaryotic cell lack?

Answer 21

a nucleus and other membrane-enclosed organelles

Question 22

each of the two chains in a DNA molecule is made up of chemical building blocks called…

Answer 22

nucleotides

Question 23

what is the role of protein?

Answer 23

building/maintaining the cell and carrying out its activities

Question 24

what is gene expression?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

define genome

Answer 25

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

Question 26

approximately how many nucleotide pairs of DNA are in a chromosome set?

Answer 26

3 billion

Question 27

define genomics

Answer 27

the study of whole sets of genes (or other DNA) in one or more species

Question 28

define proteomics

Answer 28

refers to the study of sets of proteins and other properties

Question 29

what is a proteome

Answer 29

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

Question 30

what important research developments have made genomic and proteomic approaches possible?

Answer 30

“high-throughput” technology - tools that can analyze many biological samples very rapidly

bioinformatics - the use of computational tools to store/organize/analyze huge data volume

formation of interdisciplinary research teams - groups of diverse specialists (i.e. computer scientists, mathematicians, engineers, chemists, physicists, etc)

Question 31

how does energy flow in an ecosystem?

Answer 31

through in one direction, usually entering in as light and exiting as heat

Question 32

how do chemicals flow in an ecosystem?

Answer 32

within, where they’re used and then recycled

Question 33

what is the most common form of regulation in living systems and what does it do?

Answer 33

negative feedback - a loop in which the response reduces the initial stimulus

Question 34

describe the process of insulin signaling after eating a meal

Answer 34

eat meal -> blood sugar levels rise -> pancreas secretes insulin -> body cells take up glucose while liver cells store it, which decreases blood glucose -> lower blood glucose eliminates stimulus for insulin secretion

Question 35

what is an example of a positive feedback?

Answer 35

blood clotting

Question 36

what are the three domains of life?

Answer 36

bacteria, archaea, and eukarya

Question 37

what were the two main points of “On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin?

Answer 37

• contemporary species arose from a succession of ancestors that differed from them (“descent with modification”)
• “natural selection” is a primary cause of descent with modification

Question 38

what is inductive reasoning?

Answer 38

deriving generalizations from a large number of specific observations

Question 39

define hypothesis

Answer 39

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

Question 40

what is deductive reasoning?

Answer 40

involves logic that flows from general to the specific and takes the form of “if…then” logic

Question 41

what is the independent variable?

Answer 41

the factor being manipulated in an experiment

Question 42

what is the dependent variable?

Answer 42

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

Question 43

sickle-cell disease is prevalent among what population?

Answer 43

native inhabitants of Africa and other warm regions