Intro to Biology & Science Flashcards
What is biology?
Biology is the study of living organisms and the way that they interact with each other and their environments.
What is science?
Knowledge that covers general truth, or the operation of general laws (note: especially when acquired tested by the scientific method)
What are the properties of life? (what separates living things from nonliving)
- Order (organized structure of cells, tissues and organs)
- Sensitivity or response to stimuli,
- Reproduction,
- Growth and development
- Regulation
- Homeostasis
- Energy processing
Remember the pneumonic - HER GROS
What are the levels of organization? How do they differ from each other?
Histology = * / Biology = + / Each level builds on itself making more complex systems
- Atoms *
- Molecules * and macromolecules *
- Organelles +*
- Cells +* (note: lowest level of organization that can perform all activities required for life / use DNA as as their genetic information)
- Tissues +*
- Organ and Organ Systems +*
- Organisms +
- Populations +
- Communities +
- Ecosystems +
- Biome+
- Biosphere +
Remember this - AMMOCTOOO OPCEB
What is taxonomy? Why is it useful in biology?
The branch of biology that names and classifies species into groups of increasing breadth (note: domains followed by kingdoms are the broadest units of classification)
To help categorize the various forms of life.
What are the three domains? how do these three domains differ?
- Prokaryotes (which consist of domain #1 Bacteria and #2 Archaea / differ in their genetic and cellular processes)
- # 3 Eukaryotes (which consist of Protista [multiple kingdoms], Fungi [environment], Plantae [photosynthesis], Anamalia [ingestion] / differ in how they are nourished)
What is inductive and deductive reasoning? What roles do they have in scientific thinking?
- Inductive Reasoning uses related observations to arrive at a general conclusion (e.g., hypothesis)
- Deductive Reasoning uses a general principle or law to predict specific results.
- Provides a framework of logical thinking to understand and explain phenomena and/or processes in the natural world.
What are the steps of the scientific method? What is the purpose of each step?
1) Make an observation (acknowledge the natural phenomena exists)
2) Ask a question (understand the process, the how)
3) Form a hypothesis (educated guess [inductive reasoning])
4) Make a prediction based on the hypothesis (IF hypothesis is true, THEN.… [deductions for both true and false hypothesis])
5) Conduct an experiment to test the prediction (repeatable)
6) Analyze and interpret the results (confirm and verify proper understanding of phenomena)
7) Report results or develop another hypothesis and restart the process (share with others to expand the field)
What are scientific facts? What is the theory?
Scientific facts can disprove a hypothesis but cannot prove a hypothesis (repeatability).
A theory is a comprehensive body of extensive and varied evidence that is usually widely accepted.
What is scientific literature? How is scientific information shared?
Peer reviewed papers that typically follow the following format
-Abstract
-Introduction
-Methods
-Results
-Discussions
-Literature cited
What are independent, dependent and standardized variables? How are they important to designing good experiments?
- Independent variables: what is being manipulated?
- Dependent variables: what is being measured?
- Standardized (or controlled) variables: what is what is being kept the same? (E.g., control groups - age, gender, physical and/or medical conditions, etc.)
What are emergent properties in biology?
Properties that become a parent and result from various interacting components with a system, however, these properties do not belong to the individual components themselves.
(Example: atoms, molecules and organelles do not have the properties of living things, however when organized into a cell, life emerges)
(Example: lungs help you breathe but individual cells in the lungs do not breathe themselves.)
What is reductionism? how can it be used in learning about biology? What are some of its limitations?
Breaking down a larger system into smaller parts and analyzing the connections between them to help explain the whole system.
Reductionism cannot account for emergent properties or interactions that occur between the environment the individual components.
What is the difference between discovery and hypothesis based approaches to science? How do these approaches help us understand the natural world?
A discovery based approach to science is made through observations and an analysis of observations (i.e., general science, what is out there?)
A hypothesis based approach to science uses inductive and deductive reasoning to develop a hypothesis (i.e., applied science, what should we expect?)
