what is life Flashcards
How do scientists ‘know’ and mediate uncertainty about what they know?
research. minimizing error in experiments. replication to mitigate uncertainty. observation and process help us learn
Contrast observations with categorisations.
observations are things you can determine with your senses. so things you can touch, see, smell, taste, hear. categorizations is putting things into a box. it i biased. it recognizes what we see and accesses previous knowledge about items. we can infer things when we are in a category. take own opions and infer based on own prior knowledge. Biaed and arbitray based on human experience. based on observations. catergories are biased
What are the principal determinants if something is alive?
1) has dna/rna
2) if it can evolve
3) it an reproduce and grow
Compare bacteria with viruses. Substantiate whether members of these categories are
alive.
Baterica- single cells that can survive on their own, inside or outside the body. Have dna/rna. reproduces asexually by binary fission. ribsosomes present. have a cell wall. ALIVE
viruses- have dna/rna. no cell wall. need a host to reproduce. they insert their genome into the hosts genome to reproduce and make multiple copies. no ribosomes. no cell wall. NOT ALIVE
What are the main (taxonomic) categories for living organisms? How are organisms
placed into these categories?
Domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
- at each classification category, organisms become more similar because they are more closed related. classified based on cell type, their ability to make food, and the number of cells in their body.
What is bias? How has human bias been exhibited in the categorization of living things?
bias is a prejudice in favour of of against one thing, person, or group, compared with another, usually in an unfair way
- bias in classification towards species like humans. Ex. monera is a large group that is not as well studies as eukaryotes
What is a dichotomous key? How are they useful? How are they biased?
a method of identification whereby groups of organisms are divided into 2 categories repeatedly. used to differentiate organisms based on observable traits. can be used identify unknown specimens, usually organism. they demand subjective interpretation of the characteristics and are susceptible to bias or user experience.
who is attibuted with discovering the alpha helixacal picture of dna
rozlynn franklin, watson ,crick
what are the kingdoms
- monera: includes prokaryotes, non nucleic, split into eubacteria and archeabacteria
- plantea: structured cell wall. autootrophes, photosynthesis, range in size, increased diversity
- fungi: increased diversity, not as well studied because not animal like
- animalia: 3-300 000 different species
, vertebres and eukaryotes
