Biology 111 - Chapter 1 - FTCC

The study of life.

What is biology?

The same chemical elements as nonliving things.

What are the basic chemical elements that compose living things?

The cell.

What is the basic unit of structure and function in all living things?

Unicellular and multicellular.

What are the two types of cellular organization?

Each level acquires new, emergent properties.

What happens as biological complexity increases?

The zone of air, land, and water where organisms exist.

What is the biosphere?

A community plus its physical environment.

What is an ecosystem?

A collection of interacting populations within the same environment.

What is a community in biological terms?

All the members of a species within an area.

What defines a population?

A group of similar, interbreeding organisms.

What is a species?

Atoms combine to form molecules, which form larger molecules, then cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and finally organisms.

What is the organization of life starting from the smallest unit?

All the chemical reactions that occur in a cell.

What is metabolism?

The sun.

What is the ultimate source of energy for nearly all life on Earth?

A process that converts solar energy into the chemical energy of carbohydrates.

What is photosynthesis?

Chemicals move from one population to another in a food chain, and energy flows from the sun through plants to consumers and decomposers.

How do ecosystems function in terms of chemical cycling and energy flow?

The maintenance of internal conditions within certain boundaries.

What is homeostasis?

Feedback systems monitor internal conditions and make adjustments to maintain balance.

Why is feedback important in living organisms?

They interact with the environment and respond to changes, often producing movement.

How do living organisms respond to their environment?

To maintain a population.

Why must living organisms reproduce?

Genes determine the characteristics of an organism and are composed of DNA.

What is the role of genes in living organisms?

Deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that carries genetic information.

What is DNA?

An adaptation is any modification that makes an organism better able to function in a particular environment.

What is an adaptation in the context of living organisms?

Diversity of life exists because organisms respond to changing environments by developing new adaptations over long periods of time.

How does diversity of life arise according to evolutionary principles?

Evolution is the change in a population of organisms over time to become more suited to the environment.

What is evolution in biological terms?

Charles Darwin proposed the mechanism of natural selection.

Who proposed the mechanism of natural selection?

Natural selection selects which traits are more likely to be passed on to the next generation based on environmental factors.

What role does natural selection play in evolution?

Individuals with favorable traits produce a greater number of offspring that survive and reproduce, increasing the frequency of those traits in the population.

How do favorable traits affect offspring survival?

Mutations introduce variations among members of a population.

What is the source of variations that fuel natural selection?

An evolutionary tree traces the ancestry of life on Earth to a common ancestor, similar to a family tree.

What is an evolutionary tree?

Taxonomy is the discipline that identifies, names, and classifies organisms according to certain rules.

What is taxonomy in biology?

Systematics is the study of evolutionary relationships between organisms.

What is systematics?

Species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, supergroup, domain.

List the classification categories from least inclusive to most inclusive.

Homo sapiens.

What is the full binomial name for humans?

Domain Archaea contains unicellular prokaryotes that live in extreme environments and lack a membrane-bound nucleus.

What characterizes the Domain Archaea?

Domain Bacteria contains unicellular prokaryotes that live in all environments, including on human skin and in the gut.

What environments do organisms in Domain Bacteria inhabit?

Domain Eukarya contains unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes that have a membrane-bound nucleus.

What distinguishes Domain Eukarya from the other domains?

Organisms in Domain Archaea may absorb or chemosynthesize food.

What type of food acquisition is common in Domain Archaea?

Escherichia coli.

What is a common example of a bacterium in Domain Bacteria?

Organisms in Domain Bacteria have adaptations to all environments and can absorb, photosynthesize, or chemosynthesize food.

What are the adaptations of organisms in Domain Bacteria?

Supergroups are present only in Domain Eukarya and represent a higher level of classification.

What is the significance of supergroups in the classification of organisms?

Corn is classified as Eukarya (Domain), Archaeplastids (Supergroup), Plantae (Kingdom), Anthophyta (Phylum), Monocotyledones (Class), Commelinales (Order), Poaceae (Family), Zea (Genus), Z. mays (Species).

What is the classification of corn?

Humans are classified as Eukarya (Domain), Opisthokonta (Supergroup), Animalia (Kingdom), Chordata (Phylum), Mammalia (Class), Primates (Order), Hominidae (Family), Homo (Genus), H. sapiens (Species).

What is the classification of humans?

Kingdom Protista, Kingdom Fungi, Kingdom Plantae, Kingdom Animalia.

What are the four kingdoms within the Domain Eukarya?

Mostly multicellular filaments with specialized, complex cells that absorb food.

What are the main characteristics of organisms in the Kingdom Fungi?

Molds, mushrooms, yeasts, algae, protozoans, slime molds, and water molds.

What types of organisms are included in the Kingdom Protista?

Photosynthesize food.

What is the primary mode of nutrition for organisms in the Kingdom Plantae?

Ingest food.

What is the primary mode of nutrition for organisms in the Kingdom Animalia?

Excavata, Chromalveolata, Rhizaria, Archaeplastida, Amoebozoa, Opisthokonta.

What are the six eukaryotic supergroups?

A two-part naming system for species, where the first word is the genus (capitalized) and the second is the species designation (lowercase), both italicized.

What is binomial nomenclature?

Observation, Hypothesis, Predictions and Experiments, Data Collection with Statistical Analysis, Results and Conclusion.

What are the five steps of the scientific method?

A tentative explanation for an observation that can be tested.

What is a hypothesis?

The test group is exposed to the experimental variable, while the control group is not.

What is the difference between a test group and a control group in an experiment?

A concept that joins together two or more well-supported and related hypotheses.

What defines a scientific theory?

A widely accepted set of theories with no serious challenges to their validity.

What is a scientific principle or law?

The total number and relative abundance of species, the variability of their genes, and the different ecosystems in which they live.

What is biodiversity?

As high as 8.7 million species, with approximately 2.3 million named and identified.

How many species are estimated to exist on Earth?

The death of the last member of a species or larger classification category.

What is extinction?

To ensure that the contribution of a specific variable (experimental variable) to the observation is examined.

What is the role of experimental design in scientific research?

To gather observable and objective results, often presented in tables and graphs.

What is the purpose of data collection in experiments?

It is the factor being tested to determine its effect on the observation.

What is the significance of the experimental variable in an experiment?

Newly discovered antibiotic B is a better treatment for ulcers than antibiotic A.

What is an example of a hypothesis related to antibiotics?

The hypothesis is not supported.

What happens if the control and test groups show the same results?

To analyze data collected during experiments to draw valid conclusions.

What is the importance of statistical analysis in scientific research?

It provides a standard series of steps for gaining new knowledge through research.

What is the significance of the scientific method?

The discovery of the antibiotic penicillin.

What is one example of a scientific observation?

Deductive reasoning.

What type of reasoning is used to make predictions in experiments?