Characteristics of Life

3) Have Genetic Material/ Reproduction

-All living things are able to make new living things by producing. -You cannot produce a living thing from a non living thing. -Some examples of reproduction are: -divide in two -use seeds -lay eggs -give birth to a live "baby" -Have DNA or "Genes" -DNA is long stringy stuff in the nucleus of your cell. -Very long pieces of DNA makes genes. -Your genes are the reason you look, act, and function the way you do. -You inherit 1/2 of your genes from each parent.

5) Metabolism/ Use Energy (AKA Waste/ Homeostasis)

-All living things need energy for a variety of reasons such as movement, growth, repair, reproduction, body heat etc. -Some examples of energy sources are food you eat, sunlight for photosynthesis and other chemicals. -Metabolism= total of all biochemical reactions occurring in a cell or organism that take in and transform organisms that take in and transform energy and materials from the environment.

Respond to Stimuli

-All living things react to things around them so that they may stay alive. -A stimulus is anything that causes a response in an organism. -Some examples include...... -Plants grow towards the sun. -You shiver if you are cold. -Pond water organisms swim away from harmful chemicals, etc.

4) Growth and Development

-All organisms get larger (or add to the number of cells they contain) -Organisms have cells that have different abilities. -In multi cellular organisms we consider development as when cells become differentiated and can do different things (functions).

Maintain Homeostasis

-Homeostasis is a big, long, word with a very simple meaning. -It simply means you remain the same on the inside no matter where you go or what you do. -Some examples of maintaining a constant internal environment include -amount of water inside you is the same no matter how much you drink. -Inside temperature is the same even in cold or hot environments.

What is homeostasis?

-Homeostasis, from the Greek words for "same" and "steady," refers to any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival. -Homeostasis is a key concept in understanding how our body works. It means keeping things constant and comes from two Greek words: 'homeo,' meaning 'similar,' and 'stasis,' meaning 'stable.' A more formal definition of homeostasis is a characteristic of a system that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, relatively constant, condition of properties. -Homeostasis is happening constantly in our bodies. We eat, sweat, drink, dance, eat some more, have salty fries, and yet our body composition remains almost the same. If someone were to draw your blood on ten different days of a month, the level of glucose, sodium, red blood cells and other blood components would be pretty much constant, regardless of your behavior (assuming fasting before drawing blood, of course). -No matter how much water you drink, your body doesn't swell up like a balloon if you drink tons, and it doesn't shrivel like a raisin if you drink very little. Have you ever wondered about this? Somehow, our bodies know how much fluid we need to keep, and then maintain a constant level regardless of how much water we drink. This maintenance of body size is an example of homeostasis. And we don't even have to think about it for this to happen! Aren't our bodies amazing? -There are several other examples of homeostasis. For example, our concentration of salts and glucose (sugar) is constant; our body temperature is usually around 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit); the amount of blood in our bodies is about 5 liters, the osmolarity (number of solutes) of our blood remains about 300mOsm. The normal value of a physiological variable is called its set point.

2) Have organization/ made of cells

-The cell is the small microscopic thing that makes up all living organisms. -You are made of approximately 100 trillion cells. -Some organisms are only made of one cell (bacteria). -Some examples of cells are Prokaryotic. -Bacteria cells (simple, no nucleus.) -Eukaryotic -Animals Cells -Plant Cells -Organisms have parts made of atoms which are organized. -Structures with an organism have a specific function.

1) Poke it with a stick

-Why not poke it with a stick? -Not all living things move, have eyes, have blood, legs, or breathe oxygen. They don't all eat with a mouth.

Why are Coral Polyps living?

1) They have cells As stated in the passage, "each coral polyp is actually a small, soft, translucent system of cells. 2) They require energy to survive. Coral Polyps produce sugar for food (which gives them energy) and they eat small fish. 3) They reproduce. 4) They develop as they grow older. 5) They respond to stimuli 6) They maintain homeostasis.

What are differentiated cells?

Cells that have been differentiated.

What are undifferentiated cells?

Cells that have not been differentiated.

What is stimuli?

Events or occurrences in the environment of an organism that influence its behavior. Response to stimuli is an important characteristic of life. Anything that causes a living organism to react is called a stimulus (plural is stimuli) Stimuli can be external or internal. For instance, if you feel like going to the bathroom, it is an internal stimulus that is controlled by the brain. If the sun comes up on a warm day, it is an external stimulus that can cause a snake to come out and busk. The ability of the organism to react is called 'irritability' It helps the organism to stay in balance. Living organisms have some senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, etc) that help them to detect changes in their external environment, as well their internal balance and respond to them. Some organisms (such as herbivores) respond to stimuli much quicker than others (such as plants).

Give another example of an animal that displays all the characteristics for living things?

Humans

How do trees/ flowers reproduce?

In school you may have learned that under normal conditions, trees reproduce naturally through seed reproduction. Here we discuss it only briefly, as an introduction to cloning. Trees are naturally produced from seeds, which are created from mature trees. Most sugar maple trees need 30 years of healthy growing before they reach maturity. In sugar maples and many other trees, pollen from the male reproductive organs of a "father" tree fertilize the ovule, or female reproductive organ, of the "mother" tree. This pollination results in the creation of a seed (click here to see a sugar maple seed) that eventually drops from the tree and lands on the ground - generally nearby, but often at quite a distance (think about how sugar maple seeds you may have seen can travel on the wind). If the environmental conditions are right, the seed will sprout roots, grow a shoot, and eventually become a small seedling. The seedling will have a genetic makeup that reflects both its parents.

What are stem-cells?

Stem cells are a class of undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into specialized cell types. Commonly, stem cells come from two main sources: Embryos formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development (embryonic stem cells) and. Adult tissue (adult stem cells).

Differentiation

The normal process by which a less specialized cell develops or matures to become more distinct in form and function.