Ch 1-3 Flashcards
(131 cards)
the study of life; “bios” = life
characteristics of life
- living organisms reproduce
- living organisms grow and develop
- organisms process energy
- regulation
- organisms interact
- composed of cells
- evolutionary adaptation
Living organisms reproduce
they produce copies of themselves; pass on genetic information to the future
Living organisms grow and develop
growth and development
growth
increase in size and number
development
change during life cycle (infant-child-adolescent-adult)
organisms process energy
allliving organisms live at the expense of their environment; they must extract energy and materials from the environment; convert energy from another source (ex: plants from sun and animals from food they eat)
regulation
organisms maintain their interval environment within limits that sustain life; ex: sweating, jackrabbit has blood vessel in ears to maintain body temp.; have to eat right food, balanced pH
organisms interact
interact with one another and their environment, responding to stimuli (ex: venus fly trap)
composed of cells
order; all living things exhibit complex organization
evolutionary adaptaino
over many generations, individuals with inheritied traits best suited to their local environment tend to pass these traits on to their offspring
“to know”; science is a way of knowing (one way, not the only way)
is to better understand the natural world; looking for empirical evidence; supernatural is outside of the realm of science
to approaches to science
- discovery science
2. scientific method
discovery science
- verifiable observations and measurements
- describe life in a variety of ways
- aka “descriptive science”
- looks at physical characteristics (what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel)
- observe behaviors
- dissections
scientific method
- formal process of inquiry
- series of steps
- begins with observations (discovery science)
- asks questions and seek answers (forms hypothesis)
scientific hypothesis
- a proposition that can be tested by careful observation or experiment (more than an educated guess)
- “if ___ occurs, then ___ will result”
- has to be potentially falsifiable which means it has to be able to be proven false
- controlled experiment
with a control group, only one variable changed in each ofthe experimental groups; not always possible for practical and ethical reasons (es: global warming and testing drugs on children)
results of the scientific method
- scientists do not tend to prove hypothesis, but support hypothesis with evidence
- lots of evidence in support is considered “proof”
- if the tests supports the hypothesis, move on to another question
- if test does not support the thesis go back and provide another hypothesis to explain it
scientific fact
an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as true (ex: cells have membranes, egg and sperm contain DNA)
Scientific Theory
a well substantiated explanation for some aspect of the natural that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences and tested hypothesis (ex: theory of evolution); lot of evidence behind it;
science is not set in stone
- understandings can change as we learn more
- the body of knowledge grows and science adapts to this new knowledge
- science can change (# of planets changes, we can’t entirely stop disease with antibiotics because bacteria evolves extremely fast)
science tends to be self-correcting
- scientists publish their findings in “peer-reviewed” journals and conferences
- other scientists repeat their procedures to see if they get the same results and come to the same conclusions
- over time, incorrect conclusions will usually be corrected
strengths of science
- scientists strive to be free of bias and coercion in order to obtain objective answers and results
- use controlled experiments when possible]
- findings are reported in peer-reviewed journals with methods and results (helps for replication and self-correcting)