Introduction: Characteristics of Life and Homeostasis Flashcards
What are the six characteristics of life?
- Organization
- Metabolism
- Responsiveness
- Growth
- Development
- Reproduction
What characteristic of life refers to the specific relationship of many individual parts of an organism, from cell organelles to organs, interacting and working together.
Organization
The ability to use energy to perform vital functions, such as growth, movement, and reproduction.
Metabolism
What is the ability of an organism or a system to adjust to changes in conditions?
Responsiveness
What is the characteristic of life that refers to an increase in size of all or part of an organism?
Growth
The process of change that occurs during an organism’s life to produce a more complex organism.
Development
Formation of new cells or new organisms.
Reproduction
The state of steady internal conditions maintained by living things despite fluctuations in either external or internal environment.
Homeostasis
The physiological value around which the normal range fluctuates.
Set point
The restricted set of values that is optimally healthful and stable.
Normal Range
The system that provides protection, regulates body temperature, synthesizes vitamin D, prevents water loss.
Integumentary System
The system that provides protection and support, allows body movements, produces blood cells, and stores minerals and fat.
Skeletal System
The system that produces movement, maintains posture, and produces heat.
Muscular System
A major regulatory system that detects sensations and control movements, physiological processes, and intellectual functions.
Nervous System
A major regulatory system that influences metabolism, growth, reproduction, and many other functions.
Endocrine System
Transports nutrients, wastes, gases, and hormones throughout the body. Plays a role in immune response and regulation of body temperature.
Cardiovascular System
The system that removes foreign substances from the blood and lymph, combats disease, maintains tissue fluid balance, and absorbs fats from the digestive tract.
Lymphatic System
A system that exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide between the blood and air and regulates blood pH.
Respiratory System
Performs the mechanical and chemical processes of digestion, absorption of nutrients, and elimination of wastes.
Digestive System
The system that removes waste products from the blood and regulates blood pH, ion balance, and water balance.
Urinary System
The system that produces oocytes and is the site of fertilization and fetal development; produces milk for the newborn; produces hormones that influence sexual function and behaviors.
Female Reproductive System
The system that produces and transfers sperm cells to the female and produces hormones that influence sexual functions and behaviors.
Male Reproductive System
What is the average body temperature of a human (in degrees Fahrenheit)?
98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
It is a feedback mechanism that reverses a deviation from the set point. Deviation from the setpoint is made smaller. (ex. body temperature)
Negative Feedback
