General Biology: Characteristics of Living Things and Fundamentals

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards from the Bio 101 General Biology lecture notes, covering characteristics of life, chemistry, cellular structures, genetics, and biological classifications.

Growth and development

The process where organisms increase in size and weight, ensuring they do not die the same way they were born.

Ability to respond to stimuli

The capacity of organisms to react to temperature, pressure, and other external and internal environmental factors.

Cell

The smallest unit capable of all life functions; all living things are made up of one or more of these.

Unicellular Organisms

Organisms that consist of a single cell.

Multicellular Organism

An organism composed of more than one cell.

Homeostasis

The maintenance of stable internal conditions in spite of changes in the external environment.

Reproduction

The process by which organisms make more of their own kind from one generation to the next generation.

Metabolism

The sum of all the chemical reactions carried out in an organism to obtain and use energy.

Heredity

The passing of traits from parents to offspring.

Gene

The basic unit of heredity, coded in a molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid ($DNA$).

Element

A substance that cannot be split into simpler forms by any chemical method.

Atom

The smallest chemically indivisible particle of an element which takes part in chemical reactions.

Molecules

The smallest particles of a compound which retain the identity of that compound.

Compound

Small complex units of matter containing two or more elements chemically combined.

Ions

Electric charged particles that exist in two forms: cations and anions.

Cations

Positively charged atoms, such as calcium, found in bones, teeth, and nerve impulses.

Anions

The negatively charged particles in a chemical context.

Suspension

A heterogeneous mixture containing large particles that settle on standing, such as sand mixed with water.

Colloids

A mixture of two substances divided into minute particles dispersed over another substance, intermediate between a solution and a suspension.

Solution

A homogeneous mixture of two or more substances where one has dissolved the other.

Diffusion

The process whereby substances move from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration until even distribution is attained.

Osmosis

The process where solvent molecules pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one.

Hypertonic solution

A solution characterized by a high concentration of salt and a low concentration of water.

Hypotonic solution

A solution characterized by a low salt concentration and a high water concentration.

Isotonic solution

A solution having equal concentration of salt and water.

Organelles

Miniature chemical factories or small structures within cells that use genetic information to perform specialized functions and keep the cell alive.

Species

A group of similar organisms that can interbreed among themselves.

Autotrophs

Organisms that acquire energy from sunlight.

Heterotrophic Organisms

Organisms that depend on autotrophs for their energy.

Natural Causality

The principle that all events can be traced to natural causes within human ability to comprehend.

Scientific Method

A process consisting of observation, hypothesis, experiments, and conclusion used to validate results.

Botany

The branch of biology concerned with the study of plants.

Zoology

The scientific study of animals.

Taxonomy

The branch of biology which studies the classification of animals and plants.

Cytology

The study of the structural and functional unit of life called the cell.

Genetics

The study of heredity and variation.

Anatomy

The study of the structure and parts of living things.

Physiology

The study of the functions of the body parts of organisms.

Ecology

The study of the inter-relationship between organisms and their environment.

Evolution

The study of the process whereby living things are believed to have arisen.

Biogeography

The study of the distribution of living things on the earth.

Biochemistry

The study of the chemistry of life.

Histology

The study of tissues of living things and their structures.

Biophysics

The study of the application of the principles of physics in living things.

Embryology

The study of development, fertilization, and the formation of the embryo or fetus.

Paleontology

The study of fossils.

Protozoology

The scientific study of protozoa.

Helminthology

The scientific study of helminths.

Parasitology

The scientific study of parasites.

Entomology

The scientific study of insects.

Malacology

The scientific study of snails.

Ichthyology

The scientific study of fishes.

Herpetology

The scientific study of amphibians and reptiles.

Ornithology

The scientific study of birds.

Mammalogy

The scientific study of mammals.

Mycology

The scientific study of fungi.

Microbiology

The scientific study of micro-organisms.

Algology

The scientific study of algae, also known as phycology.

Bryology

The scientific study of bryophytes.

Pomology

The scientific study of fruits and fruit-bearing trees.

Aquaculture

The cultivation and management of fish.

Sericulture

The rearing and production of silkworms in order to produce silk.

Animal husbandry

The practice of domesticating animals for man's profit.

Vermiculture

The production of earthworms used in feeding livestock such as fish.

Apiculture

The rearing of honeybees.

Floriculture

The cultivation of flowering plants.

Ethnomedicine

The use of indigenous plants and animal bioactives in the treatment of diseases.

Bioactives

Chemicals found in small amounts in plants and animals.

Aeroponics

Growing plants in an air or mist environment without a growing medium.

Hydroponics

Growing plants in a soilless medium by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions.

In-vitro culture

Growing cells, tissues, or organs aseptically outside their natural environment, usually in a glass test tube under controlled conditions.

Horticulture

The cultivation of plants.

Vaccinia

Specially engineered proteins used to combat the $AIDS$ virus.

Prokaryotes

Organisms characterized by the absence of a nucleus and single membrane-enclosed organelles.

Eukaryotes

Organisms characterized by the presence of a true nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles.

Transmission genetics

Also known as classical or Mendelian genetics, it deals with how genes and genetic traits are transmitted from generation to generation.

Allele

A pair of opposite or contrasting genes.

Dominance

A phenomenon in which one member of a pair of allelic genes expresses itself as a whole.

Locus

A specific place on a chromosome occupied by an allele.

Phenotype

The appearance or manifestation of a character in an organism.

Zygote

A single cell formed by the union of a male and female sex cell, containing a diploid number of chromosomes.

Law of Segregation

Mendel's first law, stating that characters are controlled by genes that exist in pairs.

Law of Independent Assortment

Mendel's second law, stating that different pairs of alleles are passed to offspring independently of each other.

Biodiversity

The variety of life on earth, the differences among them, and the ecosystems in which they occur.

Species richness

The total count of species in a defined area.

Hotspots of diversity

Areas particularly rich in species diversity.

Cryptogams

Lower plants that live on land and need a veil of water for reproduction; they are flowerless and seedless.

Thallophyta

A group of lower plants that includes algae, fungi, bacteria, and lichens.

Viruses

Ultramicroscopic, nucleoprotein parasites that can neither grow nor divide outside a host.

Peptidoglycan

A material composed of a chain of sugar and peptides found in the cell walls of bacteria.

Thermophiles

Bacteria that can survive at very high temperatures.

Mesophilic bacteria

Bacteria that grow in a moderate temperature range between $20^{\circ}C$ and $45^{\circ}C$.

Bacteriophages

Viruses that parasitize and reproduce inside a bacterium.

Isogamous

The fusion of identical gametes that are similar in size, form, and structure.

Anisogamous

The fusion of a less motile female gamete with a male gamete.

Oogamous

The fusion of gametes that are different in size, form, and structure.

Lichens

Intimate associations between a photosynthetic partner and a fungus.

Crossing Over

A cellular process during meiosis when chromosomes of the same type line up to exchange genetic materials.

Angiosperm

Flowering plants subdivided into monocotyledons and dicotyledons.

Active transport

An energy-requiring transport process, such as ions moving from soil into plant roots.