Chapter 2- The Chemical Basis Of Life

Question 1

Chemical evolution

Answer 1

• Early in Earth’s history, simple chemical compounds in the atmosphere and ocean combined to form larger, more complex substances. As a result, the chemistry of the oceans and atmosphere changed over time.
• The process responsible was the conversion of the kinetic energy in sunlight and heat to chemical energy in the form of bonds between atoms that formed large, complex compounds.
• Also maintains that larger, more complex substances began to accumulate and then reacted with one another to produce even more complicated compounds, and that continued chemical evolution eventually led to the origin of life.

Question 2

Four atoms

Answer 2

Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen make up 96% of all matter found in organisms today