bio vocab list

life

the ability of an entity of one of more cells to conduct metabolism, sense changes in the envioremtn and responds, and reporudce, and for populations of those entties to evolve

metabolism

teh chemical reactions and other processes that enable organisms to take in resources and process them in ways that make growth and reporduction possible

organism

a living thing—a being or individual

evolution

a change in the genetic characetrtsics of a population

fossil record

any trace of an organism that lived in the past

adaptation

a hertiable trait that increases teh ability to survive and reporduce in a particular enviorment

hypothesis

a proposed explanation for something that researchers have observed.

prediction

a statment of an outccome that should occur if a hypothesis is correct.

null hypothesis

a hypothesis that represents the “not” or “no effect” contrast to the hypothesis being tested.

treatment (or experimental) group:

a group that experinces experimental conditions that conform to the mechanism prposed in the hypothesis

control group

a comparison group that represnts the normal or no-treatment condition to contrast with groups that experience experimental manipulation

controlled conditions

aspects of an experimental design that are used in both control and experimental treatments and reduce influence from confounding factors

outcome variable

the variable that is measured in an experimemtal to observational study. It represents a quantity that is relevant to the hypothesis being tested.

element

distinctive type of matter one of 118 unique substances

atoms

smallest fundamental unit , made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons

ion

an atom or molecule that carries a full charge positvie if it contains more protons than electrons, and negative if it contains more electons than protons

molecule

structure made of two or more atoms that are connected by chemical bonds

covalent bond

connection based on two atoms sharing electrons

elctronegativity

the tendency for an atoms nucleus to attract the shared electons in a covalent bond

electronegativity levels

O>N>C=H

Polar

if electrions are shared unequually its polar

non-polar

electrons shared equally

hydrogen bond

attraction between a partial positive charge on a hydrogen atom of one molecule and a partia; negatie charge on an atom in a different molecule

hydrophilic molecule

a molecule that can readily interact with the partial charges on water

hydrophobic moleculre

a molecule that contains mostly non-polar covalent bonds and cannot readily interact with the partial charges on water

ion

an atom or molecule that carries a full charge

acid

an ion or molecule that releases a proton (H+)

base

an ion or molecule that acquires a proton (H+)

pH scale

a method for expressing the concentration of protons in a solution specfically, the negative of the base 10 logarithm of the proton connection

Nucleotide

a molecule made up of a phosphate group and nitrogenous base bonded to a 5-carbon sugar

Nucleic Acid

A molecule made up of nucleotides linked to form a chain or strand

Phosphodiester bond

covalent bonds between the phosphate group on the 5’ carbon of one nucletotide and the -OH group on the 3’ carbon of a second nucleotide

Complementary base pairing

hydrogen bondings between A-T or A-U and G-C pairs in a nucleic acid

Primary structure

the sequence of nucletoides in a nucleic acid 5’ to 3’

secondary structure

formstion of a double helix in DNA or a stem and loop structure in RNA, based on complementary base pairing

sugar-phosphate backbone

the “spine” of 5-carbon sugars and phosphate groups in a nucleic acid (the nitrogeneous bases project from this backbone)

antiparallel strands

strands of DNA or RNA that align in opposite 5’ to 3’ orientation

monomer

a small subunit molecule that can be linked to another via covalent bond, to form a larger molecule called a polymer

polymer

a large molecule made up of strings of covalently bonded small molecules (monomers).

amino acids

the building blocks that connect together via covalent bonds to form proteins

amino group

a group of NH2 atoms; can pick ip a proton ro from NH3+

carboxyl group

a group of COOH atoms; can lose a proton to form COO-

R-group

a highly variable group of atoms bonded to the central carbon of an amino acid

hydrophilic

can really interact with the partoal charges on water

hydrophobic

cannot readily interact with the peratial charged on water