Survival Guide for Dr. Messer's Second Scientific Origins Exam: Sept.22--Oct.20

The fact of evolution differs from the theory or mechanism of evolution.

What is the fact of evolution?

Organisms alive today are related by descent from common ancestors

The fact of evolution differs from the theory or mechanism of evolution.

What are the 3 major mechanisms of evolution?

1.) Variation
2.) Hereditary
3.) Differential survival and reproduction

What larger polymer macromolecule is made with nucleic acids?

Nucleotides

What larger polymer macromolecule is made with carbohydrates?

Sugars (polysaccharides and monosaccharides)

What larger polymer macromolecule is made with proteins?

Amino acids

What larger macromolecule is made with lipids?

Fatty acids

What mostly makes up the membranes surrounding a cell?

Lipids (phospholipids and fatty acids)

What are the three ways in which you can be hungry?

1. Energy hunger

2. Hedonic hunger

3. Nutrient hunger

How many calories per gram do carbs yield?

4

How many calories per gram do fats yield?

9

How many calories per gram do proteins yield?

4

What is the taxonomy of a human?

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primate
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: Sapien

Where was Darwin in his mid-20s?

Sailing around the world for 5 years on the HMS Beagle

What are two difficulties Darwin had with explaining his theory?

1. Explaining why the same species (such as frogs) were found on different regions of the Earth

2. Explaining why divine intervention’s suggestion that complex life occurred suddenly is incorrect→ he wanted more evidence to be sure

Why did Darwin finally publish?

Delirious with a malaria-induced fever, another scientist named Alfred Wallace came up with a theory exactly like Darwin’s (except his religious values kept him from moving as far forward as Darwin did), causing Darwin to publish his life’s work early.

Who coined the term “dinosaurs,” named the giant sloth after Darwin, and was a former friend turned foe who criticized Darwin’s theory out of jealousy?

Richard Owen

Proteins yield 4 calories per gram, how much energy is needed to digest?

25%

Carbs yield 4 calories per gram, how much energy is needed to digest?

10%

Fats yield 9 calories per gram, how much energy is needed to digest?

2%

How are Abraham Lincoln and Darwin related?

1. They were born on the same day: February 12, 1809

2. Abolitionists

3. Both had personal experiences with slavery that shaped their worldview

When was Charles Darwin born?

February 12, 1809

What does this mean: Everything that is, GOT to be that way

This refers to Evolution→ you are the way you are because of processes. Life is the way it is because of processes.

Who was John Edmonston?

An ex-slave who taught Darwin taxidermy and allowed him to see the humanity of slaves

What are the three basic mechanics of evolution?

1. Variation

2. Heredity

3. Differential survival and reproduction

What is Natural Selection?

Nature selects according to the best fit to the environment. Those who are not fit to the environment, die (or are unable to reproduce)

What is an example of natural selection in giraffes?

1. Giraffes with longer necks will outlive and be healthier than those with shorter necks

2. Shorter neck giraffes will die out, with longer neck giraffes becoming more common.

3. Giraffe populations will slowly start to have LONGER necks with each generation

What is artificial selection?

When humans select specific traits in lifeforms

What is an example of artificial selection in cows?

Breeding cows with larger udders together to produce future generations with larger udders and more milk production

What is sexual selection?

When females select mates based on specific traits

What is an example of sexual selection in a population of peacocks?

1. Peahens selecting peacocks based on tail size and the colorfulness of their tails.

2. Generations of peacock’s tails will become bigger and more colorful with each generation

What was Darwin’s original plan for publishing Origin of Species?

He wanted to wait until he was on his deathbed, so that he could avoid social drama and prosecution from the church

What pressured Darwin into publishing his work early?

Alfred Russel Wallace, while delirious with malarial fever, came up with the exact same theory as Darwin

What were both Darwin and Wallace reading that inspired them to pursue the idea of Natural Selection?

Thomas Malthus’ essay on the Principle of Population

What compelled Malthus to write the Principle of Population?

Disturbed by policies to promote population growth, Malthus came up with a theory that, as the population rises, the exponential increase of labor supply will lower wages.

Higher population = higher poverty rates

What, within Malthus essay Principle of Population, inspired Darwin and Wallace to think of Natural Selection?

Darwin and Malthus both applied the logic of overpopulation = “poverty” to plants and other animals as well.

Darwin had originally thought that organisms naturally reproduced just enough offspring to keep the population stable, but came to realize:

Not only do most organisms make WAY more offspring than the individual, but there is some mechanism that is determining the survival success of each offspring→ resulting in a controlled population

Malthus mentioned that God controlled the human population through disease and hunger→ Darwin approached this claim by removing the divine factor, and attempting to understand why competition and this mysterious mechanism work together in a population

True or False: Mars has a bigger SA/Vol ratio than Earth

True

Earth might have larger surface area and volume, but Mars has a much higher ratio

What is the relationship between surface area/volume ratio and the size of a planet?

The smaller a planet is, the higher the surface area/volume ratio

What is the relationship between SA/Vol ratio and heat retention for planets?

The higher the SA/Vol ratio in a planet, the lower the heat retention (or higher the rate of heat loss)

Use Mars as an example of SA/Vol ratio and heat retention

Because Mars is much smaller than Earth and thus has a higher SA/Vol ratio, it is unable to retain heat as well.

Why is Mars in the condition it’s in today?

4 Billion years ago, Mars had lost its magnetic field→ thus, leaving an unprotected atmosphere to the powerful solar winds and cosmic radiation constantly hitting it

Mars’ inner core froze because of its high SA/Vol ratio, losing its convection currents in the outer core in the process, and losing its magnetic field due to the lack of electric energy produced by the outer core’s movement

Essentially, the atmospheric material (oxygen, water, etc.) was blown off the face of the planet.

Why do magnetic fields deflect solar winds and cosmic radiation?

Magnetic fields reject charged particles. So, when the sun releases millions of tons of charged particles (solar wind) and exploding distant stars do the same (cosmic radiation), they are dragged along the poles of the earth, scattering.

How is the Arora Borealis created?

The dragging and scattering of charged particles along Earth’s poles

What is an example of SA/Vol ratio in organisms?

Ectomorphs, because of their higher SA/Vol ratio from being skinnier and taller, expel heat much faster than Endomorphs, which have more volume and less SA/Vol ratio

What did William Paley (1802) argue?

“Argument from design”

This guy argued that such complex life could not have been created without divine intervention.

The “pocket watch” hypothetical is a popular legacy of his

Who inspired the idea of “irreducible complexity,” and what does this argument mean?

William Paley

This is a modern argument:

Life is so complex that life’s individual components CANNOT work independently from one another.

Think about the eye:

Creationists claim that all the intricate parts of an eye are simply too complex to have slowly been formed over time. “What good is half an eye?” These individual parts have ALWAYS been necessary

In reality:

The eye has multiple phases that all have functional contributions to the organism

What are the three kinds of tectonic plates?

1. Diverging

2. Converging

3. Neutral/Transform

What are the four layers of the Earth?

1. Inner core

2. Outer core

3. Mantle

4. Lithosphere (crust)

What causes the Earth’s crust (lithosphere) to shift over time?

Convection currents in the mantle, which causes divergent currents to move away from each other-→ resulting in lava rising and creating new crust

What geological feature is created by converging tectonic plates?

Mountains→ like the Himalayan Mountains in India

What are the three sources of Earth’s internal energy?

1. Coalesced interstellar gas

2. Kinetic energy from impacting asteroids

3. Radioactivity

What is the molecular structure of an amino acid?

1. Amino groups (NH2)—> nitrogenous base

2. Carboxyl group (COOH)

3. Central carbon

4. R group

Who was John Baptiste Lamarck?

French naturalist who developed a theory of evolution in 1809

What theory did John Baptiste Lamarck come up with?

“Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics”

Served as a foundation for EPIGENETICS

What are epigenetics?

How your behavior and environment can cause changes in the way your genes work

Who was Charles Lyell?

A British geologist who wrote the “Principles of Geology”

What was the relationship between Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin?

Lyell’s book, Principles of Geology, was read by Charles Darwin during his 5 year voyage on the HMS Beagle 1831-1836

Darwin found his theories on geology inspiring, specifically the one on Unitarianism→ or the idea that the Earth was formed through slow and gradual changes

How did Charles Lyell contrast with Lord Kelvin’s beliefs on the age of the Earth?

Lord Kelvin believed that the earth was only 10-100 million years okd

Lyell argued that the Earth was much older, and developed much slower and gradually→ which supports Darwin’s theory of evolution taking millions of years to take place

Who was Erasmus Darwin?

1. Darwin’s grandpa

2. Abolitionist

3. Physician

4. Part of the Lunar society: developed a poem based on evolution

5. A huge inspiration for Darwin

What are the four protein structures?

1. Primary

2. Secondary

3. Tertiary

4. Quaternary

What the nitrogenous bases of DNA and RNA?

DNA:

1. Adenine

2. Thymine

3. Guanine

4. Cytosine

   RNA:

   1. Adenine

   2. Uracil

   3. Guanine

   4. Cytosine

What are the differences between RNA and DNA?

RNA:

1. Ribose

2. Uracil instead of thymine

3. Single stranded

4. Can leave the nucleus

5. Less stable and easily degradable

6. Does a variety of tasks

   DNA:

   1. Deoxyribose

   2. Double stranded

   3. Never leaves the nucleus

   4. Carries information

   5. Stable

What makes up a nucleotide?

1. Sugar

2. Phosphate

3. Nitrogenous base

What happens to the sugar and the phosphate within a DNA double helix?

The sugar and phosphate are the backbone of the double helix, while the nitrogenous bases point towards the middle and connect to one another

Where does TRANSCRIPTION take place?

In the nucleus of a cell

Where does TRANSLATION occur?

The cytosol of the cell

What organelle does TRANSLATION include?

Ribosomes attaching to the mRNA

How many chromosomes are in Human Somatic cells?

46 (23 pairs)

How many chromosomes are in gametes?

23 pairs

What pair of chromosomes are the sex hormones?

The 23rd pair

True or False:

A mother can contribute an X or Y chromosome

False

A mother can ONLY contribute an X chromosome, while a father can contribute either an X or Y

What is mRNA?

Messenger Ribonucleic Acid

A single strand of RNA which copies a segment of DNA in transcription. After copying the segment, it carries it out into the cytosol of the cell

What is tRNA, and what does it do?

A molecules which carries an anticodon on one end, and an amino acid on the other.

This tRNA will attach to the ribosome, connecting its anticodon to the codon of the mRNA, and release its amino acids

What is a codon, and why is it important?

A codon is a sequence of nucleotides which provide instructions for a specific amino acid. The tRNA, depending on whether its anticodon will fit the codon of the mRNA, will bring its amino acid

What are the functions of proteins?

1. Enzymes

2. Collagen

3. Keratin

4. Actin and myosin (mobile proteins in the muscles)

5. Antibodies (immune system)

6. Signaling molecules (hormones)

7. Receptors

8. Proteins channels

9. Transporters

What is eugenics?

Selective breeding of humans

Example:

Fertility clinics

Why is Earth’s magnetic field so important?

Prevents solar flares and galactic radiation from impacting the erth

If solar flares were to hit the Earth, it would completely disrupt the entire globe’s technological infrastructure

How many amino acids does all life use?

20 amino acids

Why are the 20 amino acids for life significant?

It shows that all life IS connected—we come from one cell that “decided” to use 20 amino acids

What is phylogeny?

Evolutionary history of life

We can trace our phylogeny back to a single cell billions of years ago—and we can trace our ancestry to previous forms of human beings

What is interstellar coalescence?

When gases and material cluster together, the gravity increasing until it pushes them and generates heat. Primordial heat from when the Earth first formed in an accretion disk contributes to the Earth’s heat.

Most conditions are ___________ (polygenic/monogenic)

Polygenic

If you go to a geneticist who proclaims your polygenic risk score for diabetes is quite high, this means you have a (higher / lower) chance of actually developing diabetes compared to someone whose score is low

HIGHER

What was the “surprising” things about blood samples taken after participants ate the differing dishes of burger/fried, salmon/avocado, nuts, etc?

They found that every sample was cloudy with fat, showing all 4 meals contained fats

What are the four molecules of life?

1. Carbs

2. Proteins

3. Lipids

4. Nucleic acids

Glycolysis in the cell’s cytosol (does / does not) require oxygen

DOES NOT

Who coined the term Dinosaurs, named the giant sloth after Darwin, and was Darwin’s best friend turned enemy?

Richard Owen

Where did Darwin go in his mid-20’s?

He was on the HMS Beagle for 5 years, sailing around the world

Who wrote the book of The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation?

Robert Chambers

Who was called Darwin’s “bulldog”?

Thomas Henry Huxley

Who mocked Darwin’s theory at the big conference?

“Soapy Sam”

Bishop Sam Wilberforce

Besides natural selection and evolution, what are two additional ideas developed by Darwin?

1. Sexual dimorphism & the complementarity hypothesis

2. The variation/variability hypothesis

What did Darwin spend 8 years studying?

Barnacles

What ultimately destroyed Darwin’s faith in God?

When his eldest daughter, Annie, died from tuberculosis

What was the entire Northern African Coast called?

The Barbary Coast

How many slaves did the Barbary Pirates take?

Over a quarter million slaves

When was the Barbary Slave Trade?

1500-1830

When was the Crimean-Nogai Slave raids?

1441-1774

When was the Ottoman Slave Trade?

1450-1700

When were the General Raids?

1463-1694

Ideally, though not always done in practice, a Pearson r procedure should only be done if __________________

There are two I/R Variables