Unit A Clinical Trials

Placebo: type of control used in experiments on people; a pill with no medicine inside, but patients think they receive
treatment. They are included in clinical trials to observe what happens to patients over time not influenced by
medicine, to see if the medicine is actually working.
Placebo effect: patient’s health improves even though they have taken an inactive pill. Factors include regular
medical attention, paying attention to lifestyle, and positive attitude.
Informed consent forms: patients in a clinical trial have to sign such forms to say they know the risks involved.
Qualitative data: non-numerical categorical data
Quantitative data: numerical data
Controlled variable: factors intentionally kept constant
Uncontrolled variable: factors change purposely during experiment

Unit B Human Body

Function Organs and Structures System

removes waste in form of urine kidneys excretory

releases CO2 into air lung respiratory

stores and breaks down food (mechanical/chemical breakdown) stomach digestive

absorbs oxygen from the air lung respiratory

moves food into body (mechanical/chemical breakdown) esophagus/mouth digestive

protects spinal cord/supports head and back spine skeletal

holds solid waste before it is expelled form body rectum/large intestine digestive

breaks down waste and neutralizes poisons liver digestive

helps body move muscles muscular

signals body to react to changes in environment like danger and smell of food brain/nerves/spinal cord nervous

pumps blood around body heart circulatory

holds urine before it is expelled from the body bladder excretory

protects the lungs and supports breathing rib cage skeletal

absorbs water and salt from food large intestine digestive

carries messages from sense to brain spinal cord nervous

Organ System Function

circulatory carries blood (food/oxygen) to all parts of the body, collects waste

digestive takes in/breaks down food into things body can use

excretory removes excess waste from bloodstream and helps process it out

muscular works to help move body by pulling on skeleton

nervous takes information from body/surroundings and gives it commands

reproductive produce chemicals to help development and reproduction

respiratory moves air in and our of body

skeletal supports body and gives it structure, shields organs

 blood from upper body

to upper body

to right lung
to left lung artery: oxygenated blood away
from heart; red (except
pulmonary artery)

vein: deoxygenated blood to

heart; blue (except pulmonary
vein)

blood from
lower body

Blood entering lungs CO2 rich and O deficient.

Blood leaving lungs oxygen rich and CO2 deficient.
Blood entering body cells O rich and CO2 deficient.
Blood leaving body cells CO2 rich and oxygen deficient.
Pulmonary artery transports oxygen-deficient blood to lungs.
Pulmonary vein: transports oxygen-rich blood from lungs to left atrium of heart to be pumped.
Heart structure splits into two sides with two jobs (two pumps): left side receives oxygenated blood and pumps to
rest of body, right side of heart receives deoxygenated blood and pumps to lungs. Roles do not switch.
Blood does not leak into atria because valves between ventricle/atria are sealed except during pumping. during
pumping, blood is forced one direction. There is such great force that no excess blood can go in the wrong direction.
Unit C Microlife
Timeline of cell discovery
1665: Hooke Micrographia and introduced the concept of cells after looking at a slide of bark of cork tree.
1676: Leeuwenhoek built powerful microscopes and observed/recorded information about microbes.
1838: Schlseiden suggested plants are made up entirely of cells.
1839: Schwann suggested that all animals and everything living are made up of cells.
1840: Semmelweiss noticed patients died from contamination. Hand washing decreased death rate from 13% to 1%.
1845: Siebold build on Schwann and Schlseiden’s ideas and suggested that all organisms are made up of many
cells (unicellular microbes).
1850: Virchow discovers cells reproduce to form more cells; diseases come from cells that don’t function properly
(which produce more disease cells).
1860: Nightingale recognized value of cleanliness; she improved sanitation and minimized infection
1864: Pasteur discovered certain microbes cause food to spoil and cause disease “germs” that high heat can kill.
1867: Lister came up with idea to reduce infection risk after surgery: cleaning surgical instruments and environment.
1876: Koch designed experiment to prove anthrax microbes causes anthrax; identified microbes for cholera and TB.
1890: Halstead came up with using rubber gloves for surgery which could be sanitized.
Germ theory of disease: microbes could cause infectious diseases and are easily spread by people.
Theory of spontaneous generation: theory that living things come from non-living things (e.g. plants from soil,
maggots from meat)
Francesco Redi’s experiment: put meat into flasks, seal some flasks completely, put gauze on others, leave rest
open. Maggots only appeared in flasks open to air which flies could lay eggs in. Disproved spontaneous generation
because it showed maggots appeared only from eggs laid by flies.
Lazzaro Spallanzani’s experiment: put liquid in flask, seal flask and vacuum out air, boil for 30 minutes. No microbes
left inside, however, Couldn’t prove that no microbes grew; only proved microbes cannot grow without air.
Louis Pasteur: yeast, sugar, water into glass flask, bend neck of flask into S shape (air can enter, microbes cannot),
boiled flasks. Broke some flasks’ necks and microbes only grew in broken neck ones. Disproved spontaneous
generation, showed that living organisms must come from living things.
Characteristics of living things:
• comprised of cells
• use energy
• grow and develop
• movement
• levels of organization
• respond to environment
• reproduce
Cell theory:
1. all living things are composed of cells
2. cells are the basic units of structure/function of all living things
3. all cells are produced from other cells
Unicellular: make up of 1 cell (e.g. microbes, yeast, amoeba)
Multicellular: multiple cells, living (animals, plants, fungi)
Levels of Organization:
1. body
2. organ system
3. organ
4. tissue
5. cell
6. organelle
Common organelle structures of the cell are the(membrane), cytoplasm (material), and nucleus (control center).
Membranes regulates what enters/exits the cell. Nuclei contain genetic material and direct activity. Bacteria have no
nucleus, but live and respire. Virus are nonliving but have genetic material.

Cellular respiration: organisms break down sugar from food with oxygen to produce energy in the form of ATP. The
leftovers are carbon dioxide and water.

Cellular Respiration: C6H12O6 + O2 = CO2 + H2O + ATP

Photosynthesis: light energy + CO2 + water = O2 + glucose
input/raw materials yields output/product
Unit D Genetics
DNA
1. C (cytosine) is always joined to G (guanine) and D (deoxyribose).
2. T (thymine) is always joined to A (adenine) and D (deoxyribose).
3. G (guanine) is always joined to C (cytosine) and D (deoxyribose).
4. A (adenine) is always joined to T (thymine) and D (deoxyribose).

Adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine are nitrogen bases, while P

is a phosphate group and deoxyribose is sugar.

DNA Replication (sequences remaining same)

1. DNA unzips (both sides become blueprint)
2. Nitrogen bases floating in cytoplasm attach to the unzipped DNA.
3. Two new DNA strands are formed with the exact same sequence.

James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953.
Levels of organization (after cell)
1. cell
2. nucleus
3. chromosomes
4. gene
5. DNA

Sexual reproduction: inherits traits from two parents; an egg carrying 23

chromosomes and a sperm carrying 23 chromosomes join
Asexual reproduction: one person produces offspring which have exact same DNA;
clones produced without reproduction. Examples include budding (hydra plant breaks
off original and plants somewhere else), binary fission (bacteria splitting itself into 2 clones), fragmentation (flanaria
are cut 5 times and each grow a full body), and vegetative propagation (potatoes are cut and separated).
Alleles: version of a trait (represented as dominant-capital letter, recessive-lowercase)
Homozygous/Purebred: two same alleles (TT or tt)
Heterozygous/Hybrid: two different alleles (Tt only, order capital to lowercase)
Genotype: genetic makeup of allele combo (TT, tt, or Tt)
Phenotype: physical expression of characteristics (eye color blue)
Incomplete dominance: when heterozygous individuals exhibits a blend of dominant and recessive traits
Co-dominance: when heterozygous individuals exhibits both traits simultaneously
Simple inheritance: dominant/recessive pattern discovered by Mendel
Polygenic inheritance: characteristic determined by more than one set of genes
Environmentally influenced: trait affected by environment
 mitosis with somatic (body cells); parent cell doubles chromosomes and
splits to 2 identical daughter cells with 46 chromosomes

meiosis with gametes (sex cells); parent cell doubles chromosomes and splits to 2 identical daughter cells, which
splits to 4 unique granddaughter cells (egg or sperm) with 23 chromosomes

Gene expression: DNA is not only our body’s blueprint, it also codes proteins for individual functions.
Transcription: when DNA opens up and is read; mRNA is made
Translation: mRNA is changed into chains of amino acids and proteins
1. DNA is located in the nucleus of the cell. The nucleus protects the DNA from harm. The DNA structure (double
helix) makes it too large to fit through the pores of the nucleus.
2. mRNA is made using an exposed strand of DNA that has the recipe for the protein to be made. mRNA copies the
code to take to the ribosomes. mRNA has uracil instead of thymine. mRNA is single stranded and can leave the
nucleus.
3. mRNA attaches to the ribosomes which reads the code 3 bases at a time (codon by codon). IT calls for the
matching tRNA (anticodon) carrying a specific amino acid.
4. The ribosome holds onto mRNA white the matching tRNA attaches. The amino acid detaches from the tRNA and
the ribosome links them together in a chain to make protein.
Unit F Evolution
Evolution: the gradual change in a species over time; the idea that new organisms develop from earlier organisms
through tiny changes over time; all evidence supports the theory and there is no opposing evidence. However, it is
not an origin of life theory. It was developed by Charles Darwin. Evidence includes fossils (extinct life looked like) &
rocks (law of superposition/stratigraphic column).
Lamarck: early evolutionary scientist, created the incorrect idea that animals acquired traits from their environment.
Darwin/Wallace: thought of the concept of natural selection, where the animal best fit for the environment is more
likely to survive and pass on its genes to the next generation. There were random genetic mutations, which varied
the population and were passed through reproduction. Mutations may have been helpful, harmful, or have no effect.
Geologic time scale: the earth is 4.6 billion years old, and began with single celled organisms. It is divided up into
eras, categories by appearance/disappearance of life. Extinctions were caused by changes in the environment, and
99% of all species are extinct.
Geologic Name (era) Time Span (mya)

early Pre-Cambrian 4500-3800 the formation of Earth marks the beginning of this time span. No fossils.

late Pre-Cambrian 3800-550 first fossils of multicellular organisms mark the end of the time span. (bacteria,
algae, earliest aquatic plants)

early Paleozoic 550-408 fossils of shelled organisms mark this beginning (coral, fungi, fish)

late Paleozoic 408-245 extinction of many fossils begins the era (land plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles)

Mesozoic 245-65 extinction of many species marks the end of the era (ammonites, dinosaurs, flowers)

Cenozoic 65-0 series of ice ages marks the end of the time span
Lamarckian evolution: idea that an organism can pass on characteristics acquired during its lifetime to its offspring,
and it would not take a long time to adapt to the environment. (e.g. giraffes started out with necks the same length
and would stretch their necks each time they tried to get leaves out of reach. As parents stretched their necks, the
longer necks would pass to the offspring. The best adapted would survive.) His theory was not accepted.
Darwinian evolution/natural selection: the idea that organisms with more desirable traits are more likely to survive
and pass on their traits to their offspring. For example, giraffes with longer necks would eat food and live longer than
short necked giraffes and were able to pass on the long neck genes. Neck length would depend on the parent, and
neck length varied giraffe by giraffe. It would take a while for traits to evolve. His theory was accepted.
Theory of evolution and natural selection
Observations
1. All organisms produce more offspring than could possibly survive.
2. All organisms within a species vary from one another due to mutation and sexual reproduction.
3. Most of the variations are inherited in offspring.
Inferences
…since these offspring will inherit traits from their parents, organisms of the following generations will
become better adapted to their environment.
…since only some offspring can survive, survivors will be variants better suited to changing environments.
Theory of dinosaur extinction
1. a large asteroid (or more than one) crashes into the earth and causes massive dust clouds.
2. dust clouds block out sunlight for a long time.
3. producers (plants) relying on the sun die out.
4. herbivorous animals die out.
5. carnivorous animals, which eat herbivores, die out. extinction.
Adaptation: physical or behavioral trait that allows an organism to better survive in their environment.
Structural adaptation: body part/trait that aids in survival (e.g. camouflage, claws, body shape, big eyes)
Behavioral adaptation: a behavioral action that aids in survival (e.g. hunting, playing dead, fighting, mating rituals)
Physiological adaptation: an internal body function that aids in survival (hiberation, venom, metabolism, slime)