Chapter 1: Biology - Exploring Life

What is a hypothesis?*

A hypothesis is a proposed explanations for a set of observations.

What is a theory?*

A theory is something used in science that explains a great diversity of observations and is supported by a large and usually growing body of evidence. --> Tend to generate new hypotheses, which can be tested.

Evolutionary Adaption (characteristic #7)

Adaptions evolve over many generations as individuals with traits best suited to their environment pass them to offspring.

Order (characteristic of life #1)

All living things exhibit complex organization.

Response to Environment (characteristic of life #5)

All things respond to environmental stimuli.

How does life depend on interactions within and between systems within life's hierarchy of organization?

Each organism interacts with its environment and both organism and environment are affected by the interaction between them.

How does evolution by natural selection explain both the unity and diversity of life?

Evolution is considered a unifying theory in biology. It explains the unity and diversity in life. Unity comes from the concept of a common ancestor and diversity comes from the fact that people mate with others and share DNA.

Growth and Development (characteristic of life #3)

Inherited information carried by genes controls the pattern of growth and development of organisms.

What is meant by cells are the structural and functional units of life and how is structure correlated to function in living organisms?

It means that cells are what control almost everything in all organisms. Cells can regulate it's internal environment, take in and use energy, respond to it's environment and develop and maintain it's complex organization.

How does life depend on the flow of information through the inheritance and variation of traits?

It's from the DNA, it's the substance of genes, the units of inheritance that transmit information from parent to offspring. Inherited information carried by genes control the pattern of growth and development/traits of organisms.

What components make up the Scientific Method, the process of inquiry that scientists use to learn about the world?

Observations, questions, hypotheses, predictions, and tests of predictions.

How do living organisms interact with their living and non-living environments to transfer and transform energy and matter?

Organisms interact with both living and non-living things in an ecosystem, for instance, by the cycling of chemical nutrients. An ecosystem gains and loses energy constantly. Energy flows through an ecosystem, entering as light for producers and consumers, and exiting as heat.

Reproduction (characteristic of life #6)

Organisms reproduce their own kind.

Energy Processing (characteristic of life #4)

Organisms take in energy and transform it to perform all of life's activities.

What is science and how is science different from other ways of describing and explaining nature, such as philosophy or religion?

Science is a way of knowing it stems from curiosity, limited to the study of structures and processes that we can observe and measure dependent on direct observation.

Regulation (characteristic of life #2)

The environment outside an organism may change, but mechanisms maintain an organisms internal environment within limits that sustain life.

What characteristics are important to well designed a controlled experiment?*

The experimental (variable) and controlled groups differ in only 1 factor, which is the one that the experiment is based around.