Biology Chapter 1
Natural selection
A process in which individuals with certain inherited traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than are individuals that do not have those traits.
Hypothesis
A testable explanation for a set of observations based on the available data and guided by inductive reasoning.
Prokaryotic cells
A type of cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus and other membrane-enclosed organelles; found only in the domains bacteria and archaea.
Eukaryotic cells
A type of cell that has a membrane-enclosed nucleus and other membrane-enclosed organelles. All organisms except bacteria and archaea are composed of eukaryotic cells.
Inductive reasoning
A type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations.
Deductive reasoning
A type of logic in which specific results are predicted from a general premise.
Theory
A widely accepted explanatory idea that is broader in scope than a hypothesis, generates new hypotheses and is supported by a large body of evidence.
Biosphere
All of the environments on Earth that support life.
Ecosystem
An environment that consists of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as the physcial components with which the organisms interact such as air, soil, water and sunlight.
Controlled experiment
An experiment in which an experinemntal group is compared with a control group that varies only in the factor being tested.
Organism
An individual living thing.
Three Domains of Life
Bacteria, Archaea, Eurkarya.
Life's heirarchy of organization from largest to smallest.
Biosphere ecosystem community population organism organ system organ tissue cell organelle molecule
Evolution
Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from presentday ones; also, the genetic changes in a population from generation to generation.
Emergent properties
New properties that arise with eache step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arragnements and interactions of parts as copmlexity increases.
Community
The entire array of organisms in an ecosystem.
Cell
The fundamental unity of life.
Biology
The scietifice study of life.
Genes
The units of inherticane that tramsit information from parents to offspring.
Molecule
a cluster of small chemcial units called atoms held together by chemical bonds.
Organelle
a membrane-enclosed structure that performs a specific function in a call.
Population
all the individuals of a particular species living in an area.
Seven properties associated with life
order, reproduction, growth and development, energy processing, response to the environment, regulation, evloutionary adaption.
Organ system
such as circulatory system or nervous system, consists of several organs that cooperate in a specific function.
