General Biology: Themes, Chemical Context, Water Properties, and Organic Molecules

Comprehensive 100-card vocabulary flashcard set for General Biology chapters on Evolution, Chemical Context of Life, Water Properties, and Molecular Diversity of Carbon.

Biophilia

E.O. Wilson's concept describing humanity's innate attraction to life and living organisms in all their forms.

Biology

The scientific study of life and living organisms.

Order

A fundamental characteristic of life characterized by highly organized biological structures, such as sunflower seed patterns.

Energy processing

A characteristic of life in which organisms convert energy from food or sunlight to power their metabolic activities.

Evolutionary adaptation

The gradual change in traits within a population over generations, driven by natural selection to enhance survival and reproductive success.

Response to the environment

An organism's ability to sense and react to environmental stimuli, such as a Venus flytrap snapping shut on an insect.

Regulation

The mechanisms that maintain an organism's internal environment within tolerable limits, such as controlling blood flow.

Reproduction

The biological process by which organisms produce new offspring of their own kind.

Growth and development

The process by which inherited genetic information controls the pattern of growth and cellular differentiation in organisms.

Biosphere

The highest level of biological organization, encompassing all life on Earth and all environments capable of supporting life.

Ecosystem

All living organisms in a given area along with the nonliving abiotic factors with which they interact.

Community

The array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem, comprising populations of different species.

Population

A group of individuals belonging to the same species living within a specified geographical area.

Organism

An individual living entity, such as a single tree or animal.

Organ system

A group of organs that cooperate to perform major complex physiological functions.

Tissue

An integrated group of similar cells working together to perform a specialized function.

Cell

The fundamental, membrane-enclosed structural and functional unit of life.

Organelle

A specialized membrane-enclosed structure that performs a specific function within a eukaryotic cell.

Molecule

A chemical structure composed of two or more atoms held together by covalent bonds.

Prokaryotic cell

A cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles, containing DNA freely within the cytoplasm.

Eukaryotic cell

A cell characterized by a membrane-bound nucleus housing DNA and membrane-enclosed organelles.

Emergent properties

Novel characteristics that appear at higher levels of biological organization that were not present at lower levels.

Natural Selection

The evolutionary principle defined by Charles Darwin in which natural hereditary variations lead to differential reproductive success.

Domain Bacteria

One of the three domains of life, comprising diverse, single-celled prokaryotic organisms lacking a membrane-bound nucleus.

Domain Archaea

One of the three domains of life, consisting of unicellular prokaryotes distinct from bacteria, often inhabiting extreme environments.

Domain Eukarya

The domain of life containing all eukaryotic organisms, encompassing Kingdom Animalia, Kingdom Plantae, Kingdom Fungi, and Protists.

Matter

Anything that occupies space and has mass, composed of chemical elements.

Element

A substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical reactions and consists entirely of one type of atom.

Atom

The smallest unit of matter that retains all the unique chemical properties of its element.

Compound

A substance consisting of two or more different elements combined in a fixed ratio, displaying emergent properties distinct from its elements.

Proton

A subatomic particle located in the atomic nucleus carrying a single positive charge $(+)$.

Neutron

An electrically neutral subatomic particle located in the atomic nucleus of an atom.

Electron

A negatively charged subatomic particle $(-)$ moving within the electron cloud around the atomic nucleus.

Atomic number

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom, which uniquely determines the element's identity.

Atomic mass

The total mass of an atom, calculated as the sum of its protons and neutrons.

Isotope

One of several atomic forms of an element possessing the same atomic number but differing in the number of neutrons.

Carbon-12

The most common stable isotope of carbon, comprising $99\,\%$ of naturally occurring carbon.

Carbon-14

An unstable, radioactive isotope of carbon containing $8$ neutrons, present as part of the remaining $1\,\%$ of natural carbon.

Valence electrons

Electrons located in the outermost shell (valence shell) of an atom that govern its chemical reactivity and bonding capacity.

Octet Rule

The principle that atoms are most stable when their valence shell contains $8$ electrons (or $2$ electrons for Hydrogen and Helium).

Ionic bond

A chemical bond formed by the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions following an electron transfer.

Cation

A positively charged ion produced when an uncharged atom loses one or more valence electrons.

Anion

A negatively charged ion produced when an uncharged atom gains one or more valence electrons.

Covalent bond

A strong chemical bond formed when two atoms share one or more pairs of valence electrons.

Electronegativity

The measure of an atom's attraction for shared electrons within a covalent bond.

Nonpolar covalent bond

A covalent bond in which electrons are shared equally between two atoms with similar electronegativities, such as in $\text{CH}_4$ or $\text{O}_2$.

Polar covalent bond

A covalent bond between atoms that differ significantly in electronegativity, resulting in unequal electron sharing and partial charges $\delta+$ and $\delta-$.

Hydrogen bond

A non-covalent attraction formed when a hydrogen atom covalently bound to an electronegative atom is attracted to another electronegative atom.

Reactants

The initial chemical substances present at the start of a chemical reaction.

Products

The resulting chemical substances formed at the completion of a chemical reaction.

Cohesion

The property of water molecules forming hydrogen bonds with one another, causing liquid water to stick together.

Adhesion

The attraction between water molecules and different polar substances, such as cell walls.

Surface tension

A measure of how difficult it is to break or stretch the surface of a liquid, made exceptionally high in water by cohesive hydrogen bonding.

Capillary action

The upward movement of liquid through small tubes driven by transpirational pull, cohesion, and adhesion.

Specific heat

The amount of heat required to raise or lower the temperature of $1\,\text{g}$ of a substance by $1\,^\circ\text{C}$, equal to $1\,\text{cal/g/}^\circ\text{C}$ for water.

Heat of vaporization

The quantity of heat energy $1\,\text{g}$ of a liquid must absorb to be converted from liquid into a gas.

Evaporative cooling

The reduction in surface temperature of a liquid when high-energy molecules transition to the gas phase during evaporation.

Solution

A liquid that is a completely homogeneous mixture of two or more chemical substances.

Solvent

The dissolving agent component of a solution.

Solute

The substance dissolved within a solution.

Aqueous solution

A solution in which water acts as the solvent.

Hydration shell

The sphere of oriented water molecules surrounding a dissolved ion or polar solute.

Molarity

A unit of solute concentration defined as the number of moles of solute dissolved per liter of solution.

Hydronium ion

A water molecule that has gained an extra proton, represented as $\text{H}_3\text{O}^+$ or simplified as $\text{H}^+$.

Hydroxide ion

The negatively charged anion $\text{OH}^-$ produced when a water molecule loses a proton.

Acid

A substance that increases the hydrogen ion concentration $[\text{H}^+]$ of a solution.

Base

A substance that reduces the hydrogen ion concentration $[\text{H}^+]$ or increases hydroxide concentration $[\text{OH}^-]$ in a solution.

pH scale

A logarithmic measure of solution acidity defined by $\text{pH} = -\log([\text{H}^+])$, ranging from $0$ to $14$.

Neutral solution

An aqueous solution where $[\text{H}^+] = [\text{OH}^-] = 10^{-7}\,\text{M}$, yielding a pH value of $7$.

Buffer

A substance that resists dramatic pH changes by absorbing or donating $\text{H}^+$ or $\text{OH}^-$ ions.

Gastric juice

An acidic fluid in the stomach with a pH of $2$ ($[\text{H}^+] = 0.01\,\text{M}$).

Household bleach

A basic liquid solution with a pH of $13$ ($[\text{H}^+] = 10^{-13}\,\text{M}$).

Density of ice

The unique structural property where solid water is less dense than liquid water due to locked hydrogen bonds, reaching peak density at $4\,^\circ\text{C}$.

Organic chemistry

The branch of chemistry dedicated to the structure, properties, and reactions of carbon-containing compounds.

Stanley Miller

Scientist who performed the classic 1953 origin-of-life experiment under the guidance of Harold Urey.

Harold Urey

Nobel laureate chemist who co-designed the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment simulating early Earth atmosphere conditions.

Miller-Urey experiment

A 1953 experiment simulating primitive Earth's reducing atmosphere using $\text{CH}_4$, $\text{NH}_3$, $\text{H}_2\text{O}$, and $\text{H}_2$ with electrical sparks to abiotically synthesize amino acids.

Paper chromatography

The analytical method used in the Miller-Urey experiment to separate and identify synthesized organic products.

Abiotic synthesis

The non-biological formation of organic molecules from simple inorganic precursors.

Hydrocarbon

An organic molecule consisting exclusively of carbon and hydrogen atoms.

Isomer

Compounds that possess identical molecular formulas but differ in structural arrangement and biological properties.

Structural isomer

Isomers that differ in the covalent arrangement of their carbon backbone, such as glucose and fructose.

Cis-trans isomer

Isomers sharing identical covalent bonds that differ in spatial orientation around an inflexible double bond.

Cis isomer

A cis-trans isomer configuration where functional groups or variable groups are located on the same side of a double bond.

Trans isomer

A cis-trans isomer configuration where functional groups or variable groups are located on opposite sides of a double bond.

Enantiomer

Isomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other around an asymmetric carbon atom.

S-Ibuprofen

The effective enantiomer of ibuprofen responsible for pain and inflammation relief, unlike ineffective R-Ibuprofen.

R-Albuterol

The effective enantiomer of albuterol that relaxes bronchial airway muscles in asthma patients.

Functional group

A specific configuration of atoms attached to a hydrocarbon skeleton that confers distinct chemical reactivity.

Hydroxyl group

A polar functional group consisting of an oxygen atom bonded to a hydrogen atom ($-\text{OH}$), characterizing alcohols like ethanol.

Carbonyl group

A functional group composed of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom ($-\text{C}=\text{O}$), forming ketones and aldehydes.

Carboxyl group

An acidic functional group consisting of a carbon double-bonded to oxygen and single-bonded to a hydroxyl group ($-\text{COOH}$).

Amino group

A basic functional group consisting of a nitrogen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms ($-\text{NH}_2$), characterizing amines.

Sulfhydryl group

A functional group composed of a sulfur atom bonded to a hydrogen atom ($-\text{SH}$), forming thiols such as cysteine.

Phosphate group

A functional group consisting of a phosphorus atom bound to four oxygen atoms ($-\text{OPO}_3^{2-}$), crucial for energy release in ATP.

Methyl group

A nonpolar functional group consisting of a carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms ($-\text{CH}_3$), which reduces water solubility.

Adenosine triphosphate

An organic phosphate molecule (ATP) consisting of adenosine attached to three phosphate groups, storing potential energy to react with water.

Estradiol

A female sex hormone whose molecular structure features a hydroxyl group attached to a steroid ring skeleton.

Testosterone

A male sex hormone whose molecular structure features a carbonyl group and an extra methyl group on a steroid ring skeleton.

Cysteine

A sulfur-containing amino acid featuring a sulfhydryl group ($-\text{SH}$) that can form covalent disulfide linkages in proteins.