Evolution and the Scientific Method

Question 1

What are the limitations of science?

Answer 1

Science can often explain how, but not why. Science cannot answer questions regarding ethics, faith, and the supernatural, nor can science completely prove hypotheses. Scientific hypotheses must also be testable

Question 2

What are the 7 properties of living things?

Answer 2

(1) Reproduction, (2) homeostasis, (3) organization, (4) metabolism, (5) growth, (6) evolution/adaptation, and (7) response to stimuli

Question 3

Emergent Properties

Answer 3

Properties of systems that emerge at each level that are absent from the preceding level

Question 4

Systems Biology

Answer 4

The exploration of a biological system by analyzing the interactions among its parts

Question 5

Contrast a bacterial cell and an archaea cell

Answer 5

The composition of their cell walls are different (archaea’s are just saccharides, bacteria contain specific proteins as well); the chemical structure of their DNA and RNA differs

Question 6

Genomics

Answer 6

Studying whole sets of genes (or DNA) in one or more species, rather than investigating a single gene at a time

Question 7

Proteomics

Answer 7

The study of sets of proteins and their properties

Question 8

Inductive Reasoning

Answer 8

Deriving generalizations from a large number of specific observations

Question 9

Deductive Reasoning

Answer 9

Using general premises to extrapolate to the specific results we should expect if the premises are true

Question 10

What are the 8 steps to the Scientific Method?

Answer 10

(1) Observations/Questions, (2) Research topic area, (3) Hypothesis, (4) Test with experiments, (5) Analyze data, (6) Report conclusions, (7) Peer review, (8) Publish

Question 11

What are the 4 steps to building a hypothesis?

Answer 11

(1) Observation, (2) Possible reason, (3) If…, (4) Then…/Prediction