Origins of Life and Characteristics of Living Organisms

Flashcards covering the origins of life on Earth, various scientific and historical theories, major geological timelines, and the fundamental characteristics that define living organisms.

Big Bang

The event that occurred approximately $13.0$ billion years ago, marking the beginning of the universe.

Formation of Earth

The geological event that took place approximately $4.5$ billion years ago.

Anaerobic prokaryotes

The first forms of life that emerged on Earth, followed later by the development of photosynthesis.

Prekambrium (Precambrian)

A vast geological period encompassing the Prahory and Starohory eras, occurring before the Paleozoikum.

Paleozoikum

The geological era known as the 'prvohory' following the Precambrian period.

Mesozoikum

The geological era known as the 'druhohory'.

Kenozoikum

The current geological era, which includes the 'třetihory' and 'čtvrtohory' periods.

Creationist theory

The theory of the origin of life based on the belief that life was created by God (Na počátku Bůh…).

Panspermia theory

The theory suggesting that life did not originate on Earth but was brought here from space.

Naive abiogenesis (Theory of spontaneous generation)

The belief in the spontaneous emergence of living forms from non-living matter.

Evolutionary abiogenesis

The theory that life arose from non-living matter through a process of gradual development directly on Earth.

A. I. Oparin

The scientist who proposed the 'primordial soup' theory in $1924$.

Secondary atmosphere

The early Earth's atmosphere composed of gases including hydrogen ($H_2$), methane ($CH_4$), ammonia ($NH_3$), carbon monoxide ($CO$), carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), and nitrogen ($N_2$).

Coacervates

Complex droplets formed from the aggregation of macromolecules (like proteins and nucleic acids) during the chemical evolution of life.

Miller's experiment

A $1952$ experiment that used electrodes and a mixture of gases ($H_2$, $NH_3$, $CH_4$) to simulate early Earth conditions and produce organic substances.

Ontogeny

The process of development of an individual organism.

Phylogeny

The evolutionary development and history of a species.

Irritability (Dráždivost)

The ability of a living organism to respond to external stimuli.

Metabolism

The manifestation of life involving the intake of food, digestion, respiration, excretion, and the flow of matter and energy.

Open systems

A characteristic of living organisms where they exchange matter, energy, and information with their surroundings.

Autoregulation

One of the capacities of highly organized living systems that allows them to maintain stability and function.

Heredity

The transfer of genetic information using DNA.