Chapter 1 Flashcards
What are the fundamental properties of life?
Cellular organization
Energy utilization
Homeostasis
Growth, development, and reproduction
Heredity
What is cellular organization?
All living things are composed of one or more cells.
Cells carry out the basic activities of living.
How do living things utilize energy?
All living things require energy for movement, growth, and thinking.
Plants and algae capture energy from sunlight via photosynthesis.
Other organisms extract energy by consuming plants or animals.
What is homeostasis?
Homeostasis refers to maintaining relatively constant internal conditions, even when external environments change.
How do organisms grow, develop, and reproduce?
Bacteria grow by increasing in size and splitting in two.
Multicellular organisms grow by increasing the number of cells and develop different types of cells.
What is heredity?
Heredity refers to the genetic system in which DNA replicates and transmits traits from parent to offspring.
What are the levels of hierarchical organization in living systems?
Cellular Level: Atoms, molecules, macromolecules, organelles, cells (basic unit of life).
Organismal Level: Tissues, organs, organ systems, organism.
Populational Level: Population, community, ecosystem, biosphere.
What is deductive reasoning?
Deductive reasoning applies general principles to make specific predictions.
What is inductive reasoning?
Inductive reasoning uses specific observations to develop general conclusions.
What is a scientific theory?
A scientific theory is a well-supported, interconnected body of concepts that offers the most certain explanation for observations.
What is reductionism in science?
Reductionism is the approach of breaking complex processes down into simpler parts for study.
What is systems biology?
Systems biology focuses on understanding emergent properties by studying how simpler parts interact as a whole.
What did Darwin contribute to the theory of evolution?
Darwin proposed natural selection as the mechanism of evolution.
He studied how species’ characteristics varied and called this “descent with modification.”
What are homologous and analogous structures?
Homologous: Structures with the same evolutionary origin but different functions (e.g., vertebrate forelimbs).
Analogous: Structures with different origins but the same function (e.g., butterfly and bird wings).
