Biological Principles ch 1 Flashcards
(34 cards)
General Properties of Living Systems
Chemical uniqueness
Complexity and hierarchical organization
Reproduction
Possession of a genetic program
Metabolism
Development
Environmental interaction
Movement
Chemical uniqueness
Atoms & inorganic molecules organize into macromolecules
Complexity and hierarchical organization
-Macromolecules, cells, tissues, organisms, populations, species
-Emergent properties
Emergent properties
properties that become apparent and result from various interacting components within a system but are properties that do not belong to the individual components themselves
Possession of genetic program
DNA is common to all living things; single origin of life
Metabolism
acquire & utilize energy for life
Development
-have a life cycle
-describes the characteristic changes that an organism undergoes from its origin
Environmental interaction (ecology)
Respond to stimuli
The study of organismal interaction with an environment is called
ecology
First Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Conservation of Energy)
Energy is neither created nor destroyed but can be transformed from one form to another.
Sun—> photosynthesis forms macromolecules —>metabolism —>energy for life
Second Law of Thermodynamics:
Physical systems tend toward a state of greater disorder or entropy.
* Organismal complexity is achieved and maintained by the perpetual use of energy from the sun and dissipation of that energy as heat
-states that the state of entropy of the entire universe, as an isolated system, will always increase over time
What are organisms whose cells contain membrane enclosed nuclei
Eukaryotes
what are organisms whose cells lack a nucleus and other organelles
Procaryotes
Heterotrophs
must rely on external food sources.
* Animal cells lack cell walls
-an organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients
autotroph
an organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals.
What are some things an animal cell and plant cell have that are different to eachother?
Animal cell: Small vacuoles, lysosome
Plant cell: cell wall, chloroplast, large vacuole
What are principles of science?
-Science is based on rational explanations and natural laws
-Has to be explained by reference to natural law (not supernatural; not a belief)
-Conclusions are tentative; not ever proven
-Science is falsifiable (additional data can lead one to new or different conclusions)
-Not ‘wrong’; data support another conclusion
-Theory = Hypothesis that has consistently been supported by data; not falsified (yet).
The process of science is:
- It is guided by natural law.
- It has to be explanatory by reference to natural law.
- It is testable against the observable world.
- Its conclusions are tentative and therefore not necessarily the
final word. - It is falsifiable.
Scientific method: - Observation
- Question
- Hypothesis
- Empirical test
- Conclusions
- Publication
Hypothetico-deductive Method
- Generate hypotheses based on observations
- Hypotheses make predictions that may not be supported by data and are thus falsifiable
- This method requires us to generate hypotheses or potential answers to a question being asked
1. Identify the hypothesis to be tested.
2. Generate predications from the hypothesis.
3. Use experiments to check whether predictions are correct.
4. If the predictions are correct, then the hypothesis is confirmed. If not, then the hypothesis is disconfirmed.
what is an overarching assumption undergirding a general worldview? Like a pattern observed/ viewed
Paradigm
\The history of science shows that even major paradigms are subject to refutation and replacement when they fail to explain our observations of the natural world. They are then replaced by new paradigms in a process called a________.
Scientific Revolution
what is the basic theory of evolution on
which the others depend. It states that the living world is neither constant nor perpetually cycling, but is always changing, with continuity between past and present forms of life?
Perpetual change
states that all forms of life descend from a common
ancestor through a branching of lineages
Common descent
life’s history has the structure
of a branching evolutionary tree, called a ________.
Phylogeny