UN1

bio

Biology

 The science of how life works. 

Biologiest

 scientists who study life.

Organisms

Living beings that display all of the properties of life. 

Gene

The unit of heredity affecting one or more traits of an organism; the DNA sequence that corresponds to a specific protein or noncoding RNA. 

Genome

All of the genetic information that an individual/species contains

Cells

simplest self-reproducing entity that can exist as an independent unit of life

Species

 A group of individuals that are capable of interbreeding organisms and producing viable, fertile offspring.

--distinct from other groups in body, form, behavior, or biochemical properties

Evolution

A change in the genetic makeup of a population over time. 

Big Idea 1

Evolution; central concept that unites all of biology; recognized as key principle of life. 

Natural Selection

a mechanism of evolution that occurs when there is genetic variation in a population of organisms and the variants best suited for survival and reproduction in a particular environment contribute disproportionately to future generations. Of all the evolutionary mechanisms, only natural selection leads to adaptations. 

Energy

the ability to do work; essential for life.

Energetic

 The science of the properties of energy and how energy is distributed in biological, chemical, and physical processes. 

-All organisms obtain energy from just two sources: The sun or chemical compounds.

-Losing/Reducing access to sources of energy can have damaging/fatal consequences for organisms

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

 The carrier molecule of genetic information for all organisms.

-Stores genetic information, allowing this information to be retrieved and used by the cell, and transmit this information to the next generation. 

• Allows species of organisms to maintain their identity through time

• Allows some organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments more than others

System

 A group of entities that function together. (functions as a whole) A system may be living or nonliving. 

Biotic

• living organisms 

Abiotic

nonliving organisms (physical/behavioral)

Biological system

made up of both biotic and abiotic (biological and physical) entities that interact. → shows complex properties.

Scientific Inquiry

A deliberate, systematic, careful, and unbiased way of learning about the natural world; the process used to ask questions and seek answers about the natural world in a deliberate and ordered way

-Three parts: exploration, investigation, communication.

Observation

The act of viewing the world around us

Hypothesis

tentative (educational guess/ testable) explanation for one or more observations that makes predictions that can be tested by experimentation or additional observations. 

Controlled experiment

an experiment in which there are at least two groups to be tested and the conditions and setup are almost identical for the groups except the test/experimental group deliberately has a variable introduced, whereas the control group does not. 

Test group/experimental group

The group that is exposed to the variable in an experiment.

Control group “Negative control”

The group that is not exposed to the independent variable in an experiment, and therefore is not expected to show a change. 

Positive control group:

 a sample/group that receives a treatment or variable with a known effect in a controlled experiment and therefore is expected to show a predictable change. 

[X-axis] Independent variable

Variable that is manipulated/changed or added to an experimental group to test a hypothesis 

[Y-axis] Dependent variable

What is being measured as a result of the independent variable; The variable that is being tested/observed/measured, and that may change due to the independent variable.

Null Hypothesis

predicts that the intervention (independent variable) or treatment has no effect at all. — and the possible difference is due to chance (probability/luck)

• If p>/=0.05: greater than or equal to 5%, then the results obtained are by chance. 

• “The null hypothesis has failed to be rejected” –meaning null hypothesis has not been disproven 

Alternative Hypothesis

predicts that independent variables will have a real effect. There will be a difference between data collected from the control and experimental groups.

• If p</= 0.05: less than or equal to 5% chance that the observed results are the result of chance, in this case, it's likely the observed results in a dataset are real.

Error bars

 represents a range of values within which the true value is likely to be.  

• If error bars overlap beyond 25%, your findings are likely to be insignificant. 

• If it overlaps less than 25%, then your findings are significant. 

Theory

A general explanation of the world supported by a large body of experiments and observations. 

Matter

Anything that has mass and takes up space; material that makes physical objects.

• Gas, liquid, solid.

• To grow, reproduce, and maintain organization, all organisms exchange mass within their environment. (requires energy)

Atom

• basic unit of matter

Molecule

• a chemical formed of two or more atoms

What introduced our carbon atom into Earth’s early atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide?

Volcanoes

Organic molecules

biological molecules made of carbon.

• Microorganisms were able to convert CO2 in the environment into organic molecules as life took hold on Earth and our carbon atom began to cycle much more rapidly. 

As organisms move carbon, they also transfer ____

energy

• energy sources for many organisms are the carbon-rich organic molecules in the organisms they eat or the molecules they build themselves. 

Carbon moves in a cycle while _____ do not.

Energy

-Must continually be harvested from the environment to sustain community

• I.e. sunlight’s availability; the sun provides the entry point for energy into living systems.

Where sunlight is absent (vast depths of the oceans), energy instead comes from ___

chemical compounds

Organisms transform ____– converting it into a chemical form that their cells can use

energy

• (some of this energy is used by the organism: building cellular components, moving, reproducing)

• The rest of the energy is dissipated as heat. 

Atoms contain a nucleus

the dense, central part of an atom.