BIOL 1010 LCCC-ACC Final Exam Study Guide
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66 Terms
What is biology?
The scientific study of life.
What do biologists study?
The diversity and unity of life, living organisms, and their interactions.
What are the steps of the scientific method?
Observation, hypothesis, experimentation, data analysis, and conclusion.
What is a hypothesis?
A testable explanation for a set of observations.
What is a theory in science?
A broad and well-substantiated explanation for some aspect of the natural world.
What are the three Domains of life?
Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya.
What is an element?
A substance that cannot be broken down into other substances by chemical reactions.
What are compounds?
Substances consisting of two or more different elements combined in a fixed ratio.
What four elements make up 96% of all living matter?
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (CHON).
What is an atom?
The smallest unit of matter that retains the chemical properties of an element.
Where are the three main subatomic particles found in an atom?
Protons and neutrons are in the nucleus; electrons orbit the nucleus.
What are the charges of the three main subatomic particles?
Protons: positive (+), Neutrons: neutral (0), Electrons: negative (-).
What is the atomic number of an element?
The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
What is the atomic mass (mass number) of an element?
The total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.
What is an isotope?
Different forms of an element that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
What are valence electrons?
Electrons in the outermost electron shell (valence shell).
What is a covalent bond?
The sharing of valence electrons by two atoms.
What is electronegativity?
The attraction of an atom for the electrons of a covalent bond.
What is a nonpolar covalent bond?
A covalent bond in which the electrons are shared equally between two atoms.
What is a polar covalent bond?
A covalent bond in which electrons are not shared equally between two atoms.
What is an ionic bond?
A chemical bond resulting from the attraction between oppositely charged ions.
What is an ion?
An atom or molecule with an electrical charge due to the loss or gain of electrons.
What is a cation?
A positively charged ion.
What is an anion?
A negatively charged ion.
Which are the strongest chemical bonds?
Covalent Bonds
What are hydrogen bonds?
A weak chemical bond that forms when a hydrogen atom covalently bonded to one electronegative atom is also attracted to another electronegative atom.
What is a reactant in a chemical reaction?
A substance that takes part in and undergoes change during a reaction.
What are products of chemical reactions?
The substances that are formed during a chemical reaction.
What is the only common substance that exists as a gas, a liquid, and a solid in nature?
Water.
Explain how polar covalent bonds result in a polar molecule.
Unequal sharing of electrons in polar covalent bonds leads to partial charges on atoms, creating a polar molecule.
What is cohesion?
The binding together of like molecules, often by hydrogen bonds.
What is surface tension?
A measure of how difficult it is to stretch or break the surface of a liquid.
What is adhesion?
The clinging of one substance to another, such as water to plant cell walls.
How does water moderate temperature?
By absorbing heat from warmer air and releasing stored heat to cooler air.
Why does water have a high specific heat?
Because of hydrogen bonding; it takes considerable energy to break hydrogen bonds.
What is evaporative cooling?
As a liquid evaporates, its remaining surface cools.
Why does ice float on liquid water?
Because it is less dense.
Why is ice less dense than liquid water?
Hydrogen bonds in ice are more ordered, making ice less dense than liquid water.
What is a hydrophilic substance?
A substance with affinity for water.
What is a hydrophobic substance?
A substance that repels water.
What is the pH scale?
A measure of the relative amount of hydrogen and hydroxide ions in a solution.
What is an acid?
A substance that increases the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution.
What is a base?
A substance that reduces the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution.
Carbon has four valence electrons. How many covalent bonds can it form?
Four.
What is a hydrocarbon?
An organic molecule consisting only of carbon and hydrogen.
What are the four classes of large biological molecules?
Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
What is a monomer?
A small chemical subunit that serves as a building block of a polymer.
What is a polymer?
A long molecule consisting of many similar or identical monomers linked together.
Which of the four classes of macromolecules are polymers?
Carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids.
What are the functions of carbohydrates?
Energy storage (starch, glycogen) and structural support (chitin, cellulose).
What are the monomers of carbohydrates?
Monosaccharides (simple sugars).
Compare and contrast starch and cellulose.
Both are glucose polymers, but starch is used for energy storage in plants; cellulose is a structural component of plant cell walls.
What are lipids?
Any of a group of large biological molecules, including fats, phospholipids, and steroids, that are hydrophobic.
Are lipids hydrophobic or hydrophilic?
Hydrophobic.
What is the major function of fats?
Energy storage.
Describe the structure of a phospholipid.
Consists of a glycerol molecule linked to two fatty acids and a phosphate group.
Where do we find phospholipids in a cell?
Cell membranes.
What is a protein?
A biologically functional molecule consisting of one or more polypeptides folded and coiled into a specific three-dimensional structure.
What are the monomers of proteins?
Amino acids.
What are some functions of proteins?
Enzymes, structural support, storage, transport, cellular communication, movement, and defense against foreign substances.
What determines a protein's three-dimensional structure?
The sequence of amino acids.
What is the primary structure of a protein?
The sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain.
What is denaturation of a protein?
A process in which a protein loses its native shape due to the disruption of weak chemical bonds and interactions, thereby becoming biologically inactive.
What are the monomers of nucleic acids?
Nucleotides.
What are the two types of nucleic acids?
DNA and RNA.
What are the similarities and differences between RNA and DNA?
Both composed of nucleotides, but DNA is double-stranded with deoxyribose sugar, and RNA is single-stranded with ribose sugar; DNA contains thymine, RNA contains uracil.