L02

Question 1

What person advanced the field of neuroscience the most?

Answer 1

Charles Darwin. All animals in the world (all cells in the world) have a lot in common because they all are descendants of a common ancestor

Question 2

Cells are made up of atoms: _____, ______, and _____.

Answer 2

protons, neutrons, electrons

Question 3

Most (>99.9%) of the atoms in the universe are _____ or _____.

Answer 3

hydrogen, helium

Question 4

How old is the oldest light we can detect?

Answer 4

13.7 billion years old

Question 5

How far is the oldest light we can detect now because of the expansion of the universe?

Answer 5

46 billion years away

Question 6

What is ordinary matter made of?

Answer 6

Elements on the periodic table

Question 7

How many elements are there in the periodic table?

Answer 7

118 elements, but only the first 94 occur naturally on Earth

Question 8

The air we breathe is largely (99%) just __ and __.

Answer 8

N2 and O2

Question 9

What is an atom?

Answer 9

A chemical element

Question 10

When atoms bond together, they form a _____.

Answer 10

molecule

Question 11

What does a chemical reaction refer to?

Answer 11

A molecule being formed, broken, or modified in some way. ex: change in the position of electrons in the molecule

Question 12

What is a molecule or single atom that has an electric charge and often breaks apart in water?

Answer 12

An ion

Question 13

What are molecules held together by ionic bonds called?

Answer 13

Salts

Question 14

The likelihood of a chemical reaction depends on many factors. Name one.

Answer 14

Temperature

Question 15

When was Planet earth formed?

Answer 15

4.5 billion years ago

Question 16

What happened sometime in the first billion years of Planet Earth?

Answer 16

One self-replicating cellular entity emerged out of the “primordial soup”

Question 17

What are the main elements of cells (life on Earth) and their percentages?

Answer 17

-59% Hydrogen
-24% Oxygen
-11% Carbon
-4% Nitrogen
-2% Others (phosphorus, sulfur, …)

Question 18

What does CHNOPS stand for?

Answer 18

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
They represent the six most important chemical elements whose covalent combinations make up most biological molecules on Earth.

Question 19

What are some examples of molecules we can find in cells?

Answer 19

Water, sugar, lipid, nucleic acid, amino acid

Question 20

What molecules formed naturally on Earth prior to the first lifeform and have been found on asteroids?

Answer 20

Water, sugar, lipid, nucleic acid, amino acid

Question 21

What are cells made up of besides water (70% of total cell mass)?

Answer 21

-15% Sugars (strings of sugar molecules are called carbohydrates)
-10% Lipids (cell membranes and vesicles are made of lipids)
-15% Nucleic acids
-50% Amino acids
-10% Other organic (CHNOPS) molecules

Question 22

What does RNA mean?

Answer 22

Ribonucleic acid

Question 23

Some RNA strands are _____.

Answer 23

self-replicating

Question 24

What are phospholipids?

Answer 24

Strands of fat (lipid) with a phosphate cap

Question 25

Lipids prefer the company of other _____, while phosphate groups prefect to interact with _____.

Answer 25

lipids, water

Question 26

What do phospholipids form if left undisturbed?

Answer 26

Bilayer sheets

Question 27

What do phospholipids form when shaken?

Answer 27

Micelles

Question 28

What will micelles do under certain conditions?

Answer 28

Micelles will explode and reform as liposomes

Question 29

The cell membrane is basically a _____.

Answer 29

Liposome. Diffusion through the membrane is limited. The interior is full of salt water.

Question 30

___ is more stable, more durable than ___. DNA or RNA?

Answer 30

DNA, RNA.Eventually DNA replaced RNA as the predominant information storage molecule for all of life

Question 31

Is RNA abundant?

Answer 31

No. There is a greater abundance and diversity of amino acids, which canbe strung together to form molecules of all different shapes and sizes.

Question 32

What are the main catalysts of life's chemical reactions?

Answer 32

Protein enzymes

Question 33

The prokaryotic cell is basically a _____ _____ filled with _____ (a solution of water, salt, and sugar).

Answer 33

cell membrane, cytoplasm

Question 34

What floats in the cytoplasm of prokaryotic cells?

Answer 34

1. Loose strands of DNA 2. Ribosomes (which are made of proteins and nucleic acids)

Question 35

What is the function of ribosomes?

Answer 35

Make proteins, which involves linking together amino acids in the order dictated by the genetic code

Question 36

What are enzymes?

Answer 36

Proteins that catalyze chemical reactions

Question 37

What are receptors?

Answer 37

Proteins that sense things and react accordingly

Question 38

The scaffolding and roads of a cell are made of..?

Answer 38

proteins. They also mediate transport and storage and serve as messengers

Question 39

What is different in the eukaryotic cell compared to the prokaryotic cell?

Answer 39

1. The DNA is compacted into the nulcleus, from which it cannot escape. 2. It has mitochondria, which are responsible for extracting energy from nutrients. This energy is typically stored in the molecular bonds of the molecule ATP.

Question 40

How do we call a strand of compacted DNA?

Answer 40

A chromosome

Question 41

What is a gene?

Answer 41

A section of DNA that encodes a specific protein.

Question 42

When a gene is read, copies of it are transcribed into ___, which can leave the nucleus

Answer 42

RNA

Question 43

Outside the nucleus, _____ translate RNA into proteins

Answer 43

ribosomes

Question 44

What does the genome refer to?

Answer 44

All of the organism's DNA. It provides the information necessary to synthesize all of the cell’s proteins.

Question 45

How many protein-encoding genes do humans have in their genome?

Answer 45

About 20 000

Question 46

There can be “alternative” ways of reading a gene, which results in protein _____ (i.e., different versions of a protein that are made from one gene).

Answer 46

Isoforms

Question 47

How are neurons typically defined?

Answer 47

By where their soma is located

Question 48

The cell body (or soma) is where the _____ is located.

Answer 48

nucleus

Question 49

What is the cytoplasm?

Answer 49

A semi- transparent, gelatinous fluid in which organelles are suspended.

Question 50

What are mitochondria?

Answer 50

Semi autonomous double membrane-bound organelles. They generate ATP (the cell’s main source of chemical energy), and so are known to be the "powerhouse of the cell".

Question 51

What is the cell membrane made of?

Answer 51

It's made of lipids and is embedded with proteins that have special functions. It also defines the boundary of the cell.

Question 52

What do microtubules allow?

Answer 52

They allow for rapid transport of material throughout the neuron

Question 53

How long ago did animals appear?

Answer 53

650 million years ago.

Question 54

Once multicellular organisms formed, cells began to _____, and the structure and function of life became almost limitless.

Answer 54

specialize

Question 55

Nerve cells haven’t changed that much in the last hundreds of millions of years. So, to understand how human neurons work, you can study a _____.

Answer 55

squid

Question 56

What was the 1963 Nobel Prize awarded for?

Answer 56

Describing how neurons transmit electrical signals (i.e. the action potential) using a squid

Question 57

What was the 2000 Nobel Prize awarded for?

Answer 57

Describing the neuronal basis of learning and memory. This was done on a sea slug

Question 58

What is the percentage of the mammalians alive today that are rodents?

Answer 58

40%

Question 59

What is the percentage of the mammalians alive today that are bats?

Answer 59

20%

Question 60

_____ are evolutionarily closer to humans than cats, dogs, bats, sloths, elephants, etc.

Answer 60

Rodents

Question 61

Because of the genetic and behavioral similarities between humans and _____, as well as their small size, _____ have become the dominant group of species used in neurobiology research.

Answer 61

rodents!

Question 62

What 3 species are our closest living relatives — the only present-day hominids (humanlike apes) besides ourselves?

Answer 62

Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. DNA analysis shows that genetically there is very little difference between humans and these 3 species.

Question 63

Humans and chimpanzees share ___ % of their DNA.

Answer 63

98.8

Question 64

When does the production of new neurons almost ceases?

Answer 64

At birth. But the neurons that are already present grow and establish connections with each other, and other types of brain cells, which protect and support neurons, begin to proliferate. After birth, the human brain continues to grow larger and heavier in a dramatic fashion.

Question 65

When does the human brain reach its adult size?

Answer 65

Late adolescence

Question 66

What does an adult size human brain weight?

Answer 66

1400g - about 4x the weight of a newborn's brain

Question 67

How many estimated planets are there in the Milky Way that could support life?

Answer 67

40 billion

Question 68

How old is the Milky Way galaxy?

Answer 68

Over 13 billion years old

Question 69

How much time would it take to colonize the Milky Way galaxy if interstellar travel was possible?

Answer 69

5 to 50 million years

Question 70

How many galaxies are estimated to be in our observable universe?

Answer 70

2 trillion galaxies

Question 71

What is the Fermi paradox?

Answer 71

The Fermi paradox is the conflict between the lack of clear, obvious evidence for extraterrestrial life and the various high estimates for their existence.