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Biology Chapter 1 Notes

A. Biology - the study of life.
1. Pelicanus occidentalis Reduction
a. An adept sea feeder and scavenger.
b. Almost extinct by the late 1960’s
c. DDT use for mosquitoes
d. Egg shells became too fragile.
2. Amphibian Reduction (frogs, toads and salamanders)
a. Rana muscosa, a frog in Sequoia-Kings National Park showed a 98% disappearance rate.
b. Rana cascadae, the cascades frog in Oregon, showed an 80% disappearance rate.
c. Ambystoma tigrinum, the tiger salamander in Colorado, showed a 65% decrease
d. The Problem
1. Amphibians have thought to have been around for about 370 millions years, and they were
suddenly disappearing.
2. Since amphibian’s moist skin is very sensitive to the environment they may suffer from the
same fate as that if the “Miner’s Canary Syndrome”.
3. A frog breathes through both its lungs and skin, thus the skin needs to be moist.
e. Answer to the Problem
1. Since there are so many factors that can affect the environment an answer is not easy to find.
2. When scientists communicate with each other, problems may be detected early.
3. The problem was narrowed down Acid Rain, which may be lowering the pH and affecting
egg development, similar to the Bald Eagle reduction and DDT.
a. pH, number from 1-14 that show the acidity of basidity of a substance where 7 is
neutral, below 7 is acidic and above 7 is basic.
b. Acid Rain is caused when nonmetal oxides are released into the air making the rain
more acidic.
c. Acid rain (in the form of snow) is carried by the westerly winds from the California
cities affected the egg development of amphibians when it melted and ran into the
streams and ponds.
f. Testing the Idea
1. Through research studies it was found that pond acidity rose sharply after the spring melt then
dropped once the minerals neutralized it.
2. Experiments showed high acidity affected eggs in their 5th through 10th day of development.
3. Research also showed that the 1-year population counts were not affected there was an early
melt and the eggs were not laid yet.
B. Life’s Levels of Organization
1. Hierarchal Organization - groupings with increasing or decreasing inclusiveness
a. Biosphere – Consists of all the environments on the earth that support life.
b. Ecosystem – Consists of all the organisms and nonliving physical components of an environment
within a particular area.
c. Community – Consists of the organisms within an ecosystem.
d. Population – The interacting group of 1 species.
e. Organism – The individual life form.
f. Organ System – a combination of organs that work for a specific purpose such as the digestive
system.
g. Organ –Several types of tissue and performs a specific function within an organ system. For
example the largest human organ is the skin. The organs within a body cavity are called viscera.
h. Tissue - similar types of cells that perform a function and make up organs.
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i. Cell – the basic unit of all living things. The smallest level of organization for living things.
j. Organelles, tiny structures with in the cell that perform specific duties, for example the nucleus is
involved with cell division.
k. Molecules – A collection of atoms bonded together
l. Atoms - smallest part of an element that still has the characteristics of that element. Made of
subatomic particles.
2. 5 Properties of Life must be present to be considered alive. Cellular Organization, Metabolism,
Homeostasis, Heredity, and Reproduction.
a. Cellular Organization
1. Cell, smallest unit capable of all the life properties, such as the Paramecium.
a. most single celled organisms are much to small to be seen by the naked eye.
b. The neuron (a single cell) in a giraffe’s leg may be up to 1 meter long.
2. Multicellular, many different cells that work together to form an individual.
b. Metabolism
1. Rate at which an organism utilizes energy to be used for growth and repair.
2. The original source of energy for all life on the earth is from the sun.
c. Homeostasis, defined as a steady state.
1. Mammals are warm-blooded; through homeostasis they maintain a somewhat average body
temperature.
2. Amphibians are cold blooded; as temperatures drop they cannot maintain their internal body
temperature to remain active.
d. Heredity, The gene patterns passed from 1 generation to the next.
e. Reproduction, ability to procreate or to maintain their own species.
1. certain bacteria divide every 15 minutes while Bristlecone Pine Trees 5000 years old still
produce seedlings.
2. Haeckel’s Law Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny
a. Ontogeny - the growth and development of an individual
b. Phylogeny – like species reproduce like species
c. The development of a species reflects the species development
f. Heredity a species DNA determines the traits that species will exhibit.
C. Organism and Environment Webs
1. Producers – Those that make the food for from the environment.
a. Autotrophs – Organisms the produce their own food.
b. Photoautotrophs – Produce food using sunlight as energy to the drive the process like
plants.
c. Chematotrophs - Produce food using chemicals as energy to the drive the process like
organisms in the deep ocean surrounding volcanic vents.
2. Consumers – Use the food provided by the producers.
a. Heterotrophs – Cannot produce it’s own food like carnivores and herbivores.
3. Decomposers – Return matter back to it’s original form like fungi and bacteria.
4. Circle of Life!!!
D. Cells, The structural Function of Life
1. Prokaryotic, simplest and oldest cell type.
a. Single celled organisms that lack membranes around the internal structures. Thus cells cannot
carry out specific functions.
b. Greek nomenclature, pro – before and karyote – kernel.
c. Contain no nucleus
d. Genetic material is a single circular molecule without a membrane.
e. Bacteria are an example.
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2. Eukaryotic, true cell.
a. Contains a nucleus
b. Much larger than any bacteria.
c. Greek word eu – true.
3. Multicellularity, group of cells that work to together to form an organism.
E. Naming and Classifying Organisms
1. Binomial Nomenclature
a. Developed in 1735 by Carolus Linnaeus
b. Uses Latin because it is considered a Dead Language and it was the “Language of the learned”.
c. Hierarchical System – based on the 8 groupings of organisms with increasing inclusiveness.
1. Domain – consists of 3 domains
a. Domain Eukarya – including plants, animals, fungi, and protists.
b. Domain Bacteria – including photoautotrophic, pathogenic and nonpathogenic,
prokaryotes.
c. Domain Archaea – the extreme condition prokaryotes that do not have peptidoglycan in
their cell walls.
2. Kingdom – the highest level of classification consisting of 6 kingdoms.
3. Phylum – classes with similar characteristics
4. Class – Common properties
5. Order – made of similar families
6. Families – consists of like structures
7. Genus – Homo
8. Species – Sapien
d. Scientific Nomenclature or Binomial Nomenclature assigns organisms to 2 word names.
e. Some organisms may look the same but are not, like the shark (fish) and dolphin (animal).
1. Genus (genera, pl.) – The 1st name and is always capitalized.
2. Species – 2nd name and is always lower case
3. Organisms are always referred to by both genus and species name.
4. Both names are either underlined or italicized.
5. By custom, once the scientific name has been mentioned once the genus can be referred to by an
initial followed by the species name.
f. Taxonomy - The science of classifying and naming organisms.
1. Scientific names can describe an organism.
a. Staphylococcus aureus – commonly known as “staph” infection in hospitals
1. Staphylo – is Latin for a “cluster arrangement” of the cells.
2. coccus – is Latin for “spherical” which, is the shape of the cells.
3. aureus – is Latin for golden color
2. Scientific names can also honor a person or identify the habitat that it lives in.
a. Escherichia coli – commonly known as E. coli
1. Escherichia – honors the scientist Theodor Escherich
2. Coli – is Latin for colon and describes that it lives in the large colon
i. Helps in water and vitamin K reabsorbtion in the large intestine.
ii. Becomes pathogenic outside the colon leading to any number of ailments like
Montezuma’s Revenge!!
F. The 6 stages of the Scientific Process
1. Problem a statement which defines the focus of the process and its significance by stating the
Hypothesis.
a. Hypothesis, an educated guess on what will happen in an experiment.
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2. Materials all the items needed to perform the scientific process. This includes not only raw material
but also the instruments or references needed to measure the information.
3. Procedure, the method used to perform the process, which ensures verification and accounts for
variables in an experiment.
a. Variable, the factors in an experiment that are kept the same for both groups.
b. Control Variable, the single variable that is different between the experimental group and
control group.
1. Experimental Group, the subjects or material that is experimented on.
2. Control Group, subjects or material that have 1 less variable from the that of the
experimental group.
4. Observation
a. The act of noting or perceiving objects.
b. Scientific knowledge is ultimately based on observations.
5. Conclusion, an explanation of the experiment to either state a Scientific Law or Theory.
a. Scientific Law, statement made to explain an event and can be experimentally reproduced.
1. Conservation of Mass Energy – matter can neither be created nor destroyed but may be
transferred under normal conditions.
a. This law was changed 3 times.
b. A candle in a large jar can test this law.
2. Gravity – All matter exhibits an attraction to other matter. We can test it but we cannot
explain it.
b. Scientific Theory, statement or educated guess made to explain an unobserved event or past
event such as Evolution or Black Holes.
1. Evolution, life changed to become more complex through Survival of the Fittest.
a. Survival of the Fittest. Life forms created with favorable genetic differences have a
greater survival rate.
2. Black Holes, an anomaly which occurs in outer space, where a star of enormous size dies and
collapses onto itself to form a relatively small mass with such enormous gravity that not even
light can escape its pull.
G. Addressing Real World Problems
1. Pollution – humans must learn to do a better job with their waste material.
a. Solid Garbage – the shear amount of garbage is getting to be a problem on where to put it all.
We must find a way to recycle.
b. Air Pollution – When materials are burnt their ashes and emissions (such as CFC’s, CO, CO2)
1. Excessive CO2 levels may be leading to Global Warming.
2. CO is deadly.
3. CFC – is thought to reduce the ozone layer which protects us from the ultraviolet rays of the
sun which can cause skin cancer if we get too much.
4. Sulfur emissions cause acid rain.
c. Extinction – Our consumption of our natural resources must be curbed to ensure a balance.
1. Rain Forest – we must replant what we use and allow room for the wildlife in those areas to
relocate until the new growth offers protection.
2. Life Forms – When 1 life form is removed it will affect the ecosystem of the remaining
species. Certain plants may offer herbal medicines.
d. Feeding our People
1. Genetic Engineering – genetically producing plants that will exhibit traits not normally found
so it can grow in places it normally would not survive. The court is still out on whether there
are any ill effects to this method.
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2. Population Explosion?? – This concept is now under scrutiny due to certain countries with a
negative growth rate.
e. Disease – There are several diseases that we have no cure for and several others that are becoming
resistant.
1. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
a. Although AIDS is under high visibility it is not the major killer, HPV, Human
Papillomavirus cause herpes and cervical cancer.
2. Infections – certain bacterial infections are becoming resistant to penicillin based drugs
because of incorrect and over usage.
3. Cancer – We are getting closer but have a long way to go.
4. Cystic Fibrosis – a genetic disorder that causes a thick build up of mucous in the lungs.
5. Genetic Defects – Embryonic genetic manipulations are being done to correct disorders but
again we have a long way to go and where will it lead????