Botany: History, Characteristics of Life, and Scientific Method

Review cards covering the historical timeline of botany, the characteristics of life, and the components of the scientific method.

Who is known as the Father of Biology?

Aristotle (4th century BCE)

Who is known as the Father of Botany and wrote "Enquiring into Plants" and "De causis Plantarum"?

Theophrastus

Which book written by Dioscorides focused on medicines derived from plants?

De Materia Medica

What were the findings of Johannes van Helmont's 1640 willow tree experiment?

A $5\,lbs$ plant turned into a $169\,lbs$ willow tree over 5 years while being fed only water.

Who is the Father of cytology that coined the term "cells" after observing dead cork cells in 1665?

Robert Hooke

Who is the Father of Microscopy and observed live cells he called "animalcules"?

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

What was the significance of John Ray's 1686 work "Historia Plantarum"?

It was a step for modern taxonomy.

What did Rudolf Camerarius establish in his 1694 work "De sexu Plantarum Epistola"?

Plant sexuality, stating the ovary of a plant must be pollinated by the stamen to develop into seeds.

What field of botany did Stephen Hales contribute to in 1727?

Plant physiology

Who is known as the Father of taxonomy and for creating Binomial Nomenclature?

Carlos Linnaeus

What did Joseph Priestley discover about green plants in 1774?

Green plants absorb $CO_2$ and give off $O_2$ (dephlogisticated air), which is essential for animal life.

Contrast the cellular findings of Matthias Schleiden (1838) and Theodore Schwann (1839).

Matthias Schleiden concluded plants are made of cells, while Theodore Schwann concluded animals are made of cells.

What 1840 event spurred advancements in the study of plant diseases?

A potato blight that killed potato crops in Ireland.

What theory did Charles Darwin propose in 1859?

The Theory of Evolution, also known as "Survival of the Fittest."

What principle did Rudolf Virchow contribute to biology in 1855?

All cells come from pre-existing cells.

Who is the Father of Genetics (1859)?

Gregor Mendel

According to the 1862 findings on photosynthesis, when is starch formed in green cells?

Starch is formed when light is present.

What did Alexander Oparin propose in 1936?

The mechanical synthesis of organic matter from inorganic molecules.

How is the hierarchy of cellular organization structured in living organisms?

Cell $→$ Tissues $→$ Organs

What is the difference between Growth and Development?

Growth is a quantitative change in numbers, whereas Development is a qualitative change in physical appearance.

What is Homeostasis?

The body's automatic response to remain stable inside when change is happening outside.

Define Metabolism based on the lecture notes.

The total of all chemical changes in the body, summarized as Food + Drink $→$ energy.

What is the difference between an Observation and an Inference?

An Observation is noticing things through senses or instruments (objective), while an Inference is a logical conclusion drawn from those observations.

How does an Independent variable differ from a Dependent variable in an experiment?

An Independent variable is what is being tested or manipulated (x-axis), while the Dependent variable responds to those changes (y-axis).