BIOL 209

Concepts and Connections

Chapter 1: Biology – Exploring Life

Heinrich Dohna
 What is Biology?
• Biology = science of life
• What is science?
• What is life?
What is Life?
Spontaneous Generation

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)

Jan Baptist van Helmont

(1577 – 1644)
Death of Spontaneous Generation

Francesco Redi
(1626 – 1697)

Louis Pasteur
(1822 - 1895)
20 years before Pasteur’s experiment …

Charles Darwin
(1809 - 1882)
 Evidence for Common Ancestry
• Fossil record: taxa converge in the past
• Homologous traits
• Nested similarity patterns
• Geographic distribution
• Molecular:
– use of RNA and DNA by all organisms
– shared use of the same subset of all possible
amino acids
– a nearly universal genetic code

Crick (1968): “frozen accident”

Convergence in Fossil Record
The Tree of Life
 Domain Bacteria Domain Archaea

Colorized SEM 10,000×

Colorized SEM 7,500×
Bacteria Archaea
Domain Eukarya
LM 340×

Protists (multiple kingdoms) Kingdom Plantae

Kingdom Fungi Kingdom Animalia

Components of Life (on our Planet)
• Cells
• Reproduction/replication
• Homoeostasis
– Response to stimuli
– Regulatory feedback systems
• Energy consumption
• Evolutionary adaptation (=byproduct of
imperfect reproduction)
Figure 1.3

Order

Response to
the environment

Evolutionary adaptation

Reproduction

Regulation

Energy processing

Growth and
development
 Are These Alive?
• Mule
• Rickettsia 
• Giant virus
• Normal virus
• Viroid
• Transposon
• Prion
 NASA’s Definition of Life
“Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable
of Darwinian evolution”
Brief History of Life
1. Biosphere
Figure 1.3
Florida

2. Ecosystem
5. Organism

6. Organs and organ

systems

3. Community 7. Tissue
Nucleus

4. Population 8. Cell
DNA Nerve cell
Atom

10. Molecule 9. Organelle

1. Biosphere
Florida

2. Ecosystem

3. Community

4. Population
5. Organism
 Figure 1.3_2_2
5. Organism

6. Organs and organ

systems
 Figure 1.3_2_3
5. Organism

6. Organs and organ

systems

7. Tissue
 Figure 1.3_2_4
5. Organism

6. Organs and organ

systems

7. Tissue
Nucleus

8. Cell
DNA Nerve cell

9. Organelle
 5. Organism

6. Organs and organ

systems

7. Tissue
Nucleus

8. Cell
DNA Nerve cell
Atom

10. Molecule 9. Organelle

 What is Science?
A body of knowledge, and a method to obtain
such knowledge, about causal links and invariant
laws in the natural world, that are independent
of the opinions or experiences of the observer.
 The Scientific Method

Observation

Experiment Hypothesis

Prediction
 Scientific Activities
• Documentation, description, classification
• Generating hypotheses about phenomena
• Testing hypotheses
• Organizing phenomena into theories
• Revising theories based on new evidence
Documentation, Description, Classification
 Scientific Hypothesis
• Possible explanation of a specific phenomenon
• Has to generate testable prediction
• Testing can be done through experiments or
new observations
 Observation:
Flashlight doesn’t work.

Question:
Why doesn’t the
flashlight work?

Hypothesis #1: Hypothesis #2:

Batteries are dead. Bulb is burned out.
 Observation:
Flashlight doesn’t work.

Question:
Why doesn’t the
flashlight work?

Hypothesis #1: Hypothesis #2:

Batteries are dead. Bulb is burned out.

Prediction: Prediction:
Replacing batteries Replacing bulb
will fix problem. will fix problem.

Test of prediction: Test of prediction:

Replace batteries. Replace bulb.
 Observation:
Flashlight doesn’t work.

Question:
Why doesn’t the
flashlight work?

Hypothesis #1: Hypothesis #2:

Batteries are dead. Bulb is burned out.

Prediction: Prediction:
Replacing batteries Replacing bulb
will fix problem. will fix problem.

Test of prediction: Test of prediction:

Replace batteries. Replace bulb.

Results: Results:
Flashlight doesn’t work. Flashlight works.
Hypothesis is contradicted. Hypothesis is supported.
 Scientific Theory
• Explains a wide range of phenomena
• Needs to falsifiable
• Becomes accepted gradually after repeated
attempts of falsification
• Examples:
– Theory of Relativity
– Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Structure of Scientific Studies

Response variables

Predictor variables
 Type of Variables
• Continuous (e.g. height, weight, density)
• Ordinal (discrete but ordered)
• Categorical (discrete and unordered)
 Method of Inference
• Occam’s razor
• Statistical tests
• Mathematical model

William of Ockham (1287 – 1347)

 Type of Study
• Observational study: analyzed observed
patterns
• Experiment: manipulates predictor variables
• Simulation/Mathematical model
• Meta-analysis: summarizes many studies
Example: Effects of Invasive on Native Plants

• Observational study: compare vegetation with

and without invasive plant
• Experiment: experimental plots with and
without invasive plant added
• Simulation/Mathematical model: simulate
population dynamics of native and invasive
plants
• Meta-analysis: summarize studies
 Possible Causal Connections

Native Plant Species Native Plant Species Native Plant Species

- -
Invasive Plant Species Invasive Plant Species
- Invasive Plant Species

+
Other factor
 Example: Predicting Academic Performance
of Children
• Study measured many predictor variables such
as:
– teacher-student ratio at school
– income level of parent
– whether parent helped with homework
– etc.
• One result: helping with homework lowers
achievement
• Alternative explanation?
 Figure 1.5
Beach population Inland population
 Figure 1.5_1
Beach population
 Figure 1.5_2
Inland population
Table 1.5
 Exploration and
discovery

Formation and
testing of
hypotheses

Feedback from
Societal benefits the scientific
and outcomes community
 Answers Science Cannot Provide
• Ethical values
• Moral values
• Aesthetic values
• Why does the universe exist
 Five Unifying Themes
• Evolution
• Flow of information
• Relationship between structure and function
• Transfer and transformation of energy and
matter
• Interaction within and between systems
 Evolution
• Imperfect replication and selection
• Selection = unequal reproductive success
• Lead to diversity of all life forms
• Process is not teleological*
Flow of Information

T A
A T
C G
A T

T A
A
C G
G C
T C G

C
A T
A T
G
T A
DNA
Protein X
RNA transcribed
Gene X from gene X
RNA

Cellular
Information flow machinery

Protein Y
RNA transcribed
Gene Y from gene Y

Information flow
 Pancreas

1 Signal:
high blood
glucose level
2 Pancreatic
cell releases
Glucose 4 Normal blood
insulin
glucose level
removes
signal, insulin
release stops

3 Insulin binding
stimulates
body cells to
take up glucose
Normal blood
glucose level
Structure and Function
Transfer and Transformation of Energy and
Matter
FLOW OF ENERGY

Sun
Outflow of
heat
Inflow of Outflow of
light energy heat

Consumers
(animals)
Producers
(plants)

Chemical energy
Leaves take up in food Decomposers such
CO2 from air; roots as worms, fungi,
absorb H2O and and bacteria return
minerals from soil chemicals to soil
 Interactions within and between systems

• The study of life extends from the microscopic scale

of the molecules and cells that make up an organism
to the global scale of the living planet.
• Emergent properties are the result of interactions
between the components of a system.
• Using an approach called systems biology, scientists
attempt to model the behavior of biological systems
by analyzing the interactions among their parts.

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