BIOLOGY 1500 OUTLINE FOR CHAPTER 2
Science, Matter, and Energy
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science
o an organized way of looking at the world and asking questions; it’s a
way of finding out information.
The Scientific Method
o Steps
 Observation
 Question
 Background information
 Hypothesis
 Predictions
 Experiment
 Data collection and analysis
 Conclusion
 Report findings
o A hypothesis
 Is an educated guess formulated as a statement that can be
disproved.
o Types
 Experimental method involves control and experimental group
and short time spans.
 Comparative method involves looking for natural experiments
and testing hypotheses using them.
 Modeling is a simulation of complex processes and systems.
Theories and Paradigms
o Theory: well-supported and widely accepted hypothesis that explains
a set of interconnected phenomena, and it can become a paradigm
o Paradigm: an idea or concept so strong that it guides scientists so to
what questions they ask.
Scientific laws
o A scientific or natural law is a description of what scientists find
happening in nature without exception
o A statement of fact about the universe that illustrates something that
is always true.
Data
o Scientific data are facts obtained by making observations and
measurements
Things that are science (and their definitions)
o Frontier science
o Consensus science
o Fringe science
Things that are not science (and their definitions)
o Junk science
o Pseudoscience
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Chemistry
o Matter: is any substance that has mass and occupies space
o Element: pure substance that cannot be broken down into other
substances
o Atom: smallest particle of an element, cannot be broken down into
smaller particles while remaining the same element
o Compounds: substances composed of two or more elements
 Inorganic compounds: do not contain carbon combined with
hydrogen, characteristic of non-living things (exception is
methane CH4)
 Organic compounds: contain both, carbons (at least two) and
hydrogen, along with other elements, characteristic of living
things.
o Matter quality
 A measure of how orderly, concentrated, and useful a material
is for humans
 High-quality matter: is very pure and concentrated, very useful
 Low-quality matter: is impure, disordered, and dilute, not
useful at all.
 Think of the sorting and recycling facilities and how they
convert wastes in high quality matter through sorting and
concentrating the different type matter; plastic, cardboard,
glass…etc (matter quality at work)
o Physical changes
 Alters the state of matter of a material without changing the
composition of a material (example: ice to water)
o Chemical changes
 Alter the composition such as burning wood to give off water
and carbon dioxide, which is not the same as the cellulose and
oxygen that was there before
Laws of matter and energy
o Matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it can merely change
form (physical or chemical change), ---there is no “away”--o First law of thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed,
only conserved, ---you can’t get ahead--o Second law of thermodynamics: energy is always converted from a
higher-quality form into a lower-quality form, entropy, ---you can’t
break even, neither--Matter and pollution
o A pollution is a substance (or energy) in food, air, water, or soil that
impairs the life, health, safety, or even enjoyment of living things,
including humans
o Persistence is a measure of how long a pollutant lasts in the
environment
 Degradable or non persistent (example: a piece of paper)
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Biodegradable: requires the action of living things (example:
wood)
Slowly degradable or persistent (examples: DDT and CFC)
Nondegradable (examples: plastics, lead, mercury, arsenic)
Energy
o The ability to do work and transfer heat
o Heat is very low-quality energy and consists of the random motion of
molecules
o Types
 Kinetic energy: is the energy of motion
 Potential energy: is energy stored in a system
o Quality
 High-quality energy: has a high capacity for work
 Low-quality energy: has a low capacity for work
Connection between Laws of Matter and Ecology
o Everything is connected to everything else
o Everything must go somewhere. There is no “waste” in nature and
there is no “away” to which things can be thrown
o Nature knows best
o There is no such thing as a free lunch