PowerPoint Notes

Question 1

Biology

Answer 1

The study of living beings

Question 2

Living things

Answer 2

1. consist of one or more cells
2. Contain information allowing them to function and reproduce, and transmit this information to offspring
3. Die
4. Are products of evolution

Question 3

Organisms

Answer 3

1. Extract/ utilize energy from the environment
2. Convert chemicals obtained from the environment into biological molecules and/ or obtain such molecules directly from the environment
3. Maintain an internal environment that differs from the external environment (homeostasis)
4. Respond adaptively (physiologically, behaviorally, etc.) to changing external conditions

Question 4

Biological systems are

Answer 4

organized hierarchically

Question 5

Larger structures assembled from smaller units

Answer 5

a. reflected by the disciplinary structure of biology: Biochemistry, physiology, ecology, etc. However,
b. Recent trend is the increasing use of molecular biology, especially genetics, to frame/ answer questions at higher levels of biological organization
c. Ecology analog is food chain shortening

Question 6

Conservation of Energy

Answer 6

energy can be transformed, not created or destroyed

Question 7

Thermodynamic Systems

Answer 7

a. Open: exchange energy and materials with envt.

b. Isolated: no exchange

Question 8

Entropy

Answer 8

measures disorder

Question 9

2nd Law

Answer 9

Entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease & must increase if work performed- e.g., air conditioners produce heat

Question 10

Thermodynamic equilibrium

Answer 10

an isolated system with maximum entropy

Question 11

A thermodynamic system is a

Answer 11

quantity of matter which one can draw a boundary. The state of a thermodynamic system can be described by variables such as temperature and pressure.

Question 12

Biological systems not a thermodynamic equilibrium

Answer 12

They create/ maintain order; reduce entropy.

Question 13

To impose/ maintain order requires

Answer 13

energy

Question 14

Energy can be maintained from

Answer 14

a. Potential gradients such as temperature, concentration, charge, etc.
b. Stores, e.g., high energy compounds such as ATP
c. Difference between a. and b. is that of using
i. FLowing water to power a flour mill vs.
ii. Electricity produced by from another source such as a coal-fired generating station- to power an automobile
d. Likewise, passive vs. active transport in organisms.

Question 15

Set-up and maintenance costs

Answer 15

inevitably accompany use of potential gradients, e.g., building the wheel.

Question 16

Biological Systems are “Open”

Answer 16

1. Exchange energy & materials with their environment
2. Plants convert atmospheric CO2 to sugars via photosynthesis-the energy source is sunlight
3. Animals:
   a. eat plants and animals
   b. Use O2 to convert products of digestion into molecules that drive other reactions

Question 17

Energy/ material exchange permits

Answer 17

local reversal of 2nd Law and the production/ maintenance of biological order

Question 18

“Biological Order” refers to

Answer 18

the non-random structural and behavioral complexity of living systems

Question 19

But, biological order achievable only at

Answer 19

the cost of increased global disorder

Question 20

Entropic “pollution”

Answer 20

an inevitable consequence of the creation/ maintenance of islands of order in an increasingly disordered universe, i.e., there is no free lunch- e.g., urban “heat-is-lands”

Question 21

Local entropy reduction can also result in the production of

Answer 21

waste products harmful to living systems, “pollution” in the usual sense of the word, e.g., the great oxygen crisis consequent to the “invention” of photosynthesis