Chapter 1 - Themes In Biology Flashcards
What is a cell?
The basic building blocks of all living things.
What is biology?
The study of life; a multidisciplinary science that can be unified by fundamental themes.
What are emergent properties?
New properties that arise with each step upward in the hierarchy of life as a result of interactions between components.
What are examples of emergent properties of a water molecule?
- Cohesion & adhesion
- Temperature moderation
- Freezing.
- Polarity.
List the levels of biological organization in order from biggest to smallest.
The biosphere Biome Ecosystem Community Population Organism Organ and organ system Tissues Cells Organelles Molecules Atoms
What is holism?
The principle that a higher level of order cannot be explained by examining the component parts in isolation.
What is systems biology?
Attempts to address the complexity of living things by modeling the dynamic behavior of whole biological systems through the study of interactions among the system parts. “Big picture system”
What are some properties of life?
Order, regulation, energy processing, reproduction, growth and development, response to the environment, evolutionary adaptation
What is reductionism?
The approach of reducing complex systems to simpler components that are more manageable to study.
Biologists must balance what 2 things when studying the complexity of life?
The reductionist strategy with the larger scale, holistic objective of understanding emergent properties.
What is the ultimate aim of systems biology?
Answer large scale questions such as, “how might a gradual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide alter ecosystems and the entire biosphere?”
What do interactions between biotic and abiotic organisms result in?
Cycling of nutrients
What is an example of a consequence of human interactions with the environment?
Global climate change
In the process of energy flow in an environment, what happens to some of the energy?
Energy is converted to thermal energy, which dissipates to the surroundings as heat. Energy usually enters an ecosystem as light and exists as heat.
What are the common characteristics of cells?
- encoded by a membrane
- uses DNA as it’s genetic information
Compare and contrast the two groups of cells.
Prokaryotic (before nucleus):
- domain: bacteria & archaea
- kingdom: bacteria & archaea
- no membrane bound nuceleus
- no membrane bound organelles
- least complex
- generally smaller
Eukaryotic (true nucleus)
- domain: eukarya
- kingdoms: Protista, plantae, fungi, animalia
- membrane bound nucleus
- membrane bound organelles
- most complex
- generally larger
What is a nucleotide?
The building block of a Nucleic acid that consists of a nitrogenous base, a phosphate molecule and a sugar molecule. Thousands of nucleotides are linked to form a DNA and RNA molecule.
What is a gene?
Unit of hereditary information consisting of a specific nucleotide sequence in DNA