Life Processes Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering life processes, nutrition, photosynthesis, human digestion, respiration, circulation, and excretion based on the lecture transcript.

Life processes

The basic and essential functions or processes performed by living organisms to maintain and sustain their life.

Nutrition

The process of obtaining and utilization of food.

Respiration

The process of breaking down of food to obtain energy.

Transportation

The process of transfer of substances from one part of the body to other parts.

Excretion

The process of removal of waste materials produced in the cells of the body.

Autotrophic Nutrition

A mode of nutrition where the organism makes its own food from simple inorganic materials, such as in green plants and autotrophic bacteria.

Heterotrophic Nutrition

A mode of nutrition where the organism cannot make or synthesize its own food from simple inorganic materials; examples include humans, cats, fungi, and leeches.

Holozoic Nutrition

A type of heterotrophic nutrition where organisms consume and internally digest organic food substances; examples include humans, dogs, amoeba, and paramecium.

Saprophytic Nutrition

A type of heterotrophic nutrition where organisms feed on dead and decaying organic matter; examples include fungi, bread moulds, yeast, and mushrooms.

Parasitic Nutrition

A mode of nutrition where organisms obtain nutrition by living on or in the body of another living organism (host), often causing harm; examples include lice, leeches, tapeworms, and cascuta (amar-bel).

Photosynthesis

The process by which green plants make their own food from $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ by using sunlight energy in the presence of chlorophyll, expressed as: $6CO_2 + 12H_2O \rightarrow C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6H_2O + 6O_2$.

Chloroplasts

Green-coloured organelles inside plant cells that contain chlorophyll and serve as the site of photosynthesis.

Stomata

Tiny pores present on the surface of the leaves through which $CO_2$ enters and gas exchange occurs.

Guard Cells

Cells that regulate the opening and closing of the stomata pore by swelling when absorbing $H_2O$ to open and shrinking when losing $H_2O$ to close.

Starch

The form in which food ($glucose$) is stored in plants.

Glycogen

The form in which energy or food is stored in animals.

Pseudopodia

Temporary finger-like projections of the cell surface in Amoeba used for taking in food and for movement.

Cilia

Hair-like structures in Paramecium that move food to a specific spot (vacuoles) and help in the movement of the organism.

Salivary Amylase

An enzyme in saliva that breaks down starch (complex carbohydrates) into simple sugar.

Peristaltic movement

The contraction and expansion of the walls of the food pipe (oesophagus) that pushes food into the stomach.

Pepsin

A protein-digesting enzyme in the stomach that requires an acidic medium provided by hydrochloric acid.

Bile Juice

A secretion from the liver stored in the gall bladder that makes acidic food alkaline and performs emulsification of fats.

Emulsification

The process of breaking down fats into smaller globules to increase the surface area for enzymes to work.

Villi

Finger-like projections on the inner lining of the small intestine that increase surface area for absorption and are richly supplied with blood vessels.

ATP

The form of energy released during respiration, produced by breaking down food in the cells.

Aerobic Respiration

The complete oxidation and breakdown of glucose in the presence of oxygen ($O_2$), occurring in cytoplasm and mitochondria to produce $CO_2$, $H_2O$, and high energy.

Anaerobic Respiration

The incomplete oxidation and breakdown of glucose in the absence of oxygen, occurring only in cytoplasm and producing less energy; end products are $CO_2$ and ethanol (in yeast) or lactic acid (in muscle cells).

Alveoli

Tiny, balloon-like air sacs at the end of bronchioles that serve as the site of gas exchange in the lungs.

Residual Volume

The amount of air always remaining in the lungs to provide sufficient time for the absorption of $O_2$ and the release of $CO_2$.

Plasma

The pale yellow fluid medium of blood that transports food, carbon dioxide, and nitrogenous waste.

Haemoglobin

A protein found in red blood cells that binds with oxygen for transport and gives blood its red colour.

Arteries

Thick-walled, elastic blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood under high pressure away from the heart, with the exception of the pulmonary artery.

Veins

Thin-walled blood vessels with valves that return deoxygenated blood to the heart under low pressure, with the exception of the pulmonary vein.

Vena Cava

The largest vein that brings deoxygenated blood from the upper and lower body to the right atrium.

Aorta

The largest artery that carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle to the rest of the body.

Septum

The dividing wall in the heart that prevents the mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood.

Double Circulation

A circulatory pattern where blood flows twice through the heart to complete one full circuit of the body, typical in warm-blooded creatures like mammals.

Lymph

A colourless tissue fluid that leaks from capillaries into intercellular spaces, containing fewer proteins than blood and helping in the transport of fats and immune defense.

Xylem

A plant conducting tissue that transports water and minerals unidirectionally from roots to aerial parts using physical forces.

Phloem

A plant conducting tissue that translocates food and amino acids bidirectionally using active transport (ATP).

Transpiration

The loss of water in the form of vapour from the aerial parts of the plant, helping in temperature regulation and the upward movement of minerals.

Translocation

The transfer of food produced in leaves to other parts of the plant via the phloem.

Nephron

The structural and functional unit of the kidney responsible for filtration and urine formation.

Glomerulus

A cluster of blood vessels in the nephron where nitrogenous wastes, glucose, and salts are filtered from the blood.

Bowman's Capsule

A cup-shaped structure in each nephron that surrounds the glomerulus and collects the initial filtrate.

Hemodialysis

A procedure using an artificial kidney to remove nitrogenous waste products from the blood in case of kidney failure.