CHAPTER
1
A VIEW OF LIFE
1. How to Define Life
A. Living Things Are Organized
1. Like non-living things, living things are made of elements.
2. The cell is the basic unit of all living things.
3. Different cells combine to make up tissues.
4. Tissues combine to make up an organ.
5. Specific organs work together as a system.
6. A species in a particular area constitutes a population.
7. Interacting populations in a particular area comprise a community.
8. A community plus its physical environment is an ecosystem.
9. The biosphere is comprised of regions of the Earth’s crust, waters, and atmosphere inhabited by
organisms.
B. Living Things Acquire Materials and Energy
1. Maintaining organization and conducting life-sustaining processes require an outside source of energy,
defined as the capacity to do “work.”
2. The ultimate source of energy for nearly all life on earth is the sun; plants and certain other organisms
convert solar energy into chemical energy by the process of photosynthesis.
3. Food provides nutrient molecules used as building blocks for energy.
4. Metabolism is all the chemical reactions that occur in a cell. It transforms energy used by the cell from
food.
5. All organisms must maintain a state of biological balance, or homeostasis.
C. Living Things Respond
1. Responses help ensure survival of the organism and allow the organism to carry out its biological
activities.
2. The collective responses of an organism constitute the behavior of the organism.
D. Living Things Reproduce and Develop
1. Reproduction is the ability of every type of organism to give rise to another organism like itself. It is
NOT making copies of self, but rather, a mechanism of introducing the diversity of a population.
E. Living things adapt to environment.
2. How Living Things Are Classified
A. Taxonomy is the discipline of identifying and classifying organisms according to certain rules.
B. Categories of Classification
1. From smaller (least inclusive) categories to larger (more inclusive), the sequence of classification
categories is: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain.
C. Domains
1. Biochemical evidence suggests that there are three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya.
2. The domains Bacteria and Archaea contain unicellular prokaryotes; organisms in the domain Eukarya
have a membrane-bound nucleus.
3. Archaea can live in water devoid of oxygen, and are able to survive harsh environmental conditions.
D. Kingdoms
1. The domains Archaea and Bacteria are not yet categorized into kingdoms.
2. Eukarya contains four kingdoms: Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.
3. Protists (kingdom Protista) range from unicellular forms to multicellular ones.
4.
5.
Fungi (kingdom Fungi) are the molds and mushrooms.
Plants (kingdom Plantae) are multicellular photosynthetic organisms.
6. Animals (kingdom Animalia) are multicellular organisms that ingest and process their food .
E. Scientific Name
A binomial name is a two-part scientific name: the genus (first word, capitalized) and the specific
epithet of a species (second word, not capitalized).
Living Things & Scientific Methods
1. Living organisms are characterized by:
2. Which of the characteristics is NOT required for the life of an INDIVIDUAL organism to
continue?
3. What is the sequence of organization is likely to be seen in a multicellular organism, going
from smallest to largest?
4. What are the characteristics of about nearly all living things?
5. One classic definition of life is "a self-replicating molecular assemblage." However, clay
particles (in clay soil) contain layered aluminum and iron compounds that determine the pattern
of the adjacent layers of sediment. In short, it can replicate itself. Is it a living organism?
6. What is the process by which the sun's energy is trapped as the source of energy used by
virtually all living organisms?
7. What is the name of all the chemical energy transformations that occur within a cell?
8. What do we call the maintenance of internal conditions of an organism within a certain
boundary range?
9. Which of these is the process by which changes occur in the characteristics of species of
organisms over time?
10. What are the three domains of life? Which one do bacteria, fungi, plants and animals belong
respectively?
Page 6, figure 1.5
11. What is a hypothesis? How to best describe a control group in an experiment? What term
could best describes a conceptual scheme in science that is strongly supported, has not yet been
found incorrect, and is based on the results of many observations?
12. Four groups of mice consume different amounts of sweetener in their food. The control
group is the one that receives _____________.
13. From Kansas to central Indiana to Pennsylvania, many people believe that they have water
moccasins (also called "cottonmouths") in their ponds. Some assert they have seen them,
although they are certainly not so foolish as to try to capture one alive. Meanwhile, the fish and
game offices and the range maps in the herpetology books indicate that this poisonous snake
does not breed this far north. What is the most scientific attitude to assume on this issue?
14. True or false? -----------------
Extinction can occur if a species is unable to adapt to a changing environment.
The control group in an experiment is given all the same treatments as the experimental
group(s), except for the one variable being tested.