Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region IV-A CALABARZON
Amaya School of Home Industries
Sahud-Ulan, Tanza, Cavite

EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

GRADE 11

INTRODUCTION TO LIFE SCIENCE

CONCEPT OF LIFE
 What is biology? Simply put, it is the study of life, in all of its grandeur. Biology
concerns all life forms, from the very small algae to the very large elephant. But how do
we know if something is living? For example, is a virus alive or dead? To answer these
questions, biologists have created a set of criteria called the "characteristics of life."
The Characteristics of Life
Living things include both the visible world of animals, plants, and fungi as well
as the invisible world of bacteria and viruses. On a basic level, we can say that life is
ordered. Organisms have an enormously complex organization. We're all familiar with
the intricate systems of the basic unit of life, the cell.
Life can "work." No, this doesn't mean all animals are qualified for a job. It means that
living creatures can take in energy from the environment. This energy, in the form of
food, is transformed to maintain metabolic processes and for survival.
Life grows and develops. This means more than just replicating or getting larger in
size. Living organisms also have the ability to rebuild and repair themselves when
injured.
Life can reproduce. Have you ever seen dirt reproduce? I don't think so. Life can only
come from other living creatures.
Life can respond. Think about the last time you accidentally stubbed your toe. Almost
instantly, you flinched back in pain. Life is characterized by this response to stimuli.
Finally, life can adapt and respond to the demands placed on it by the environment.
There are three basic types of adaptations that can occur in higher organisms.
 Reversible changes occur as a response to changes in the environment. Let's
say you live near sea level and you travel to a mountainous area. You may begin
to experience difficulty breathing and an increase in heart rate as a result of the
change in altitude. These symptoms go away when you go back down to sea
level.
 Somatic changes occur as a result of prolonged changes in the environment.
Using the previous example, if you were to stay in the mountainous area for a
long time, you would notice that your heart rate would begin to slow down and
you would begin to breath normally. Somatic changes are also reversible.
 The final type of adaptation is called genotypic (caused by genetic mutation).
These changes take place within the genetic makeup of the organism and are
not reversible. An example would be the development of resistance to pesticides
by insects and spiders.
In summary, life is organized, "works," grows, reproduces, responds to stimuli and
adapts. These characteristics form the basis of the study of biology.
Basic Principles of Biology
The foundation of biology as it exists today is based on five basic principles. They are
the cell theory, gene theory, evolution, homeostasis, and laws of thermodynamics.
Cell Theory: all living organisms are composed of cells. The cell is the basic unit of life.
Gene Theory: traits are inherited through gene transmission. Genes are located on
chromosomes and consist of DNA.
Evolution: any genetic change in a population that is inherited over several
generations. These changes may be small or large, noticeable or not so noticeable.
Homeostasis: ability to maintain a constant internal environment in response to
environmental changes.
Thermodynamics: energy is constant and energy transformation is not completely
efficient.
Subdisciplines of Biology
The field of biology is very broad in scope and can be divided into several
disciplines. In the most general sense, these disciplines are categorized based on the
type of organism studied. For example, zoology deals with animal studies, botany deals
with plant studies, and microbiology is the study of microorganisms. These fields of
study can be broken down further into several specialized sub-disciplines. Some of
which include anatomy, cell biology, genetics, and physiology.
ORIGIN OF THE FIRST FORMS OF LIFE
The origin of life is a controversial topic and also it has a long history. Ancient
people believed that the origin of life is a spontaneous mechanism and occurs due to
nonliving substances. This opinion was known as “Abiogenesis”. However, finally
scientists proved that the origin of life is actually caused by preexisting living organism,
not by nonliving substances, and this opinion was known as “Biogenesis”.
Abiogenesis
Abiogenesis is an ancient belief about the origin of life. This is also known as the
theory of spontaneous generation of life. The theory of abiogenesis stated that the origin
of living organism is due to nonliving substances, or it is a spontaneous incident.
However, until now scientists have been unable to accomplish this theory by
experiments.
Biogenesis
Biogenesis is the currently accepted theory regarding the origin of a new life. The
theory of biogenesis states that the origin of life is because of preexisting living cells or
an organism. Louis Pasteur, Francesco Reddy, and Lazzaro Spallanzani experimentally
proved this theory.
Abiogenesis vs Biogenesis
 Abiogenesis states that the origin of life is due to another nonliving material, or it
is a spontaneous mechanism, whereas biogenesis reveals that the origin of life is due to
another preexisting living organism or cells. Abiogenesis failed to prove experimentally
while biogenesis was experimentally proved by many scientists.
While religions have relied on creation stories to explain how life on Earth began,
scientists have tried to hypothesize possible ways that inorganic molecules (the building
blocks of life) joined together to form living cells. There are several hypotheses about
how life started on Earth that are still being studied today. So far, there is no definitive
proof for any of the theories. However, there is strong evidence for several scenarios.
Hydrothermal Vents
The early atmosphere of the Earth was what we would now consider a quite
hostile environment. With little to no oxygen, there was not a protective ozone layer
around the Earth like we have now. This means the scorching ultraviolet rays from the
Sun could easily reach the surface of the Earth. Most ultraviolet light is now blocked by
our ozone layer, which makes it possible for life to inhabit the land. Without the ozone
layer, life on land was not possible.
This leads many scientists to conclude that life must have begun in the oceans.
Considering most of the Earth is covered in water, this assumption makes sense. It also
is not a leap to realize ultraviolet rays can penetrate the shallowest areas of water, so
life may have begun somewhere deep in the ocean depths where it would have been
protected from that ultraviolet light.
On the ocean floor, there are areas known as hydrothermal vents. These
incredibly hot underwater areas are teeming with very primitive life to this day. Scientists
who believe in the hydrothermal vent theory argue that these very simple organisms
could have been the first forms of life on Earth.
Panspermia Theory
Another consequence of having little to no atmosphere around the Earth is that
meteors often entered the Earth's gravitational pull and crashed into the planet. This still
happens in modern times, but our very thick atmosphere and ozone layer help burn the
meteors up before they reach the ground and cause damage. However, since those
layers of protection did not exist when life was first forming, the meteors that struck the
Earth were extremely large and caused great damage.
Because of these large meteor strikes, scientists have hypothesized that some of
the meteors that struck the Earth may have carried very primitive cells, or at least the
building blocks of life. Panspermia theory does not try to explain how life began in outer
space; that is beyond the scope of the hypothesis. With the frequency of meteor strikes
all over the planet, not only could this hypothesis explain where life came from, but it
could also explain how life spread out over various geographic areas.
Primordial Soup
In 1953, the Miller-Urey experiment was all the buzz. Commonly referred to as
the "primordial soup" concept, scientists showed how the building blocks of life, such as
amino acids, could be created with only a few inorganic "ingredients" in a lab setting
that was set up to mimic the conditions of early Earth. Previous scientists, such as
Oparin and Haldane, had hypothesized that organic molecules could be created from
inorganic molecules that could be found in the atmosphere of the young Earth.
However, they were never able to duplicate the conditions themselves.
Later, as Miller and Urey took on the challenge, they were able to show in a lab
setting that using just a few ancient ingredients such as water, methane, ammonia, and
electricity to simulate lightning strikes—a combination of materials they called the
"primordial soup"—they could generate several of the building blocks that make up life.
While, at the time, this was a huge discovery and lauded as the answer to how life
began on Earth, it was later determined that some of the "ingredients" in the "primordial
soup" were in fact not present in the atmosphere of early Earth. However, it was still
important to note that organic molecules were made relatively easily out of inorganic
pieces, and this process may have played a role in the development of life on Earth.

Reference
Bailey, Regina. "Biology: The Study of Life." ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/biology-meaning-
373266.

Scoville, Heather. "Origin of Life Theories." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/origin-of-life-
theories-1224553.

https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-abiogenesis-and-vs-biogenesis/