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Lecture Starts: 27:00
Biology: The Study of Life, Part 1
Lecture: BModule01-1w
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/1stOverhead01.htm
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/2ndOverhead.htm
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/3rdOverhead.htm
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/BModule1SG.htm
http://redwagontutorials.com/SampleInformalReport.htm
http://redwagontutorials.com/FormLabB.htm
The four criteria for life are:
a. All life forms contain
deoxyribonucleic acid, which is called
b. All life
forms have a method by which they extract energy from the surroundings and convert it into
energy that sustains them.
c. All life
forms can sense changes in their surroundings and respond to those changes.
d. All life
forms reproduce.
1. According to Dr. Wile, all live forms contain
what?
http://www.blc.arizona.edu/Molecular_Graphics/DNA_Structure/DNA_Tutorial.HTML
2. A mule is a cross between a male ass (a
jackass) and a female horse (a mare). It
is usually sterile. This means it cannot
produce offspring. Is the mule alive?
Yes. A mule, although small has the potential to
reproduce. The equipment is there to
reproduce but the cells/gametes necessary to make it happen are few and far
between.
3. A virus is composed of
genetic material (sometimes
Virus -- http://tolweb.org/Viruses/5
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/Virus1B.htm
No. A virus is non-living matter for two reasons:
(1) It has no potential to reproduce on it own and (2) it has no way to extract
energy from its environment without the host cell.
4. A Euglena has an eyespot which allows it to
sense light and respond to the light. Is
the Euglena living? Why?
http://bio.rutgers.edu/~gb101/lab6_protists/r6a1euglena.html
Yes. It has the ability to sense change in its
environment and respond to it.
I point these organisms out to
you to demonstrate the incredible diversity of live on earth and how carefully things
like Dr. Wile’s criteria need to be applied.
Taken too literally Mrs. R and I would be considered non-living because
we have never reproduced. I guarantee
you she and I are living………..although some of you may not think so by now.
http://www.south-seas-adventures.com/Gallery/South_Pacific_Beaches_1/image002.htm
5. The process by which a living organism takes
energy from its surroundings and uses it to sustain itself, develop, and grow
is called what?
Metabolism
http://www.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/BioBookGlyc.html
a. Anabolism is
the sum total of all processes in an organism which use energy and simple
chemical building blocks to produce large chemicals and structures necessary
for life
b. Catabolism is
the sum total of all processes in an organism which break down chemicals to
produce energy and simple chemical building blocks
6. Were does the process of metabolism begin?
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA03149_modest.jpg
It begins with the sun. The sun releases energy in the form of
photons which travel to earth at the speed of 300,000,000 meters/sec or 6
trillion miles in one year (one light year).
7. The process by which a plant uses energy of
sunlight and certain chemicals to produce its own food is called what?
Photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, six water molecules
and six carbon dioxide molecules in the presence of chlorophyll and sunlight
become one glucose molecule and six oxygen molecules.
8. There are two words given in your text that
signify an organism that makes its own food.
What are they?
Producers or autotrophs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotroph
9. Heterotrophs are organisms that depend on
other organisms for food. What are the
two kinds mentioned in your book?
Consumers and decomposers
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/Figure1.2.htm
10. There are three kinds of consumers listed in
your book. What are they and what do
they eat?
Herbivores are organisms that
eat plants exclusively
Carnivores are organisms that
eat only organisms OTHER than plants.
Omnivores are organisms that eat
both plants and other organisms
11. Plants are autotrophs. Are they carnivores or omnivores? Are they producers or consumers?
Plants are producers; therefore
the words carnivore or omnivore do not apply.
12. I have an article about a lion that WILL NOT eat meat. This animal
would literally starve to death before it would eat meat. It only eats oats, grain, etc. Is it an omnivore, carnivore, or herbivore?
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v22/i2/lion.asp
Herbivore. Because this animal has been bred to only eat
meat and will never eat meat, it is a herbivore.
13. Can you name some omnivores other than
humans?
Many: apes, turtles, cranes, ostriches,
many crabs, raven, songbirds, foxes, iguana, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore
14. A fungus is a decomposer. Would you classify it as an omnivore or
carnivore?
http://www.pbrc.hawaii.edu/bemf/microangela/cheese.htm
Neither. Fungi and certain bacteria are decomposers
and not consumers.
15. Are decomposers autotrophs or
heterotrophs?
They are heterotrophic in that
they cannot produce their own food but under the classification scheme in your
book they have a separate division under heterotrophs. Remember the two divisions of heterotrophic
organisms are (1) consumers and (2) decomposers. Fungi fall into the latter. (There is a better word for them which we
will learn in module 2. They are called
saprophytes.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decomposer
Anyone confused? (open blank
page)
16. Are there any living organisms that have no
receptors?
No. They may not have nerve cells but even single
cell bacteria can sense a change in their environment and respond to it.
17. Do humans asexually reproduce?
On a cellular level, yes, they
do. The cells of your body are
constantly reproducing themselves. In
fact your whole body, with the exception of your brain, is regenerated in about
one year’s time. Nerve cells are the
exception. They are very slow to
reproduce if they do at all. That is why
it is so important you protect your brain cells. You literally have a limited number of
these!
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/cellcerebell.html
18. Can you see an advantage to asexual
reproduction, in terms of the survival of a species? What about a disadvantage?
In asexual reproduction, there
is no need for a partner; hence, no chance for genetic disorders being
pasted. What is in the parent will be in
the offspring.
A disadvantage is that there is
no partner; hence, no exchange of genetic material. If the parent has a mutation, the mutation
will be in the offspring. There is no
chance of getting a bad trait out in asexual reproduction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction
19. Can you see an advantage to sexual
reproduction, in terms of the survival of a species? What about a disadvantage?
An advantage is that there is a
partner; hence, exchange of genetic material.
If one parent has a genetic defect, there is a chance of getting a bad
trait out of the gene pool in sexual reproduction.
In sexual reproduction, there is
a need for a partner; hence, there is a chance for genetic disorders to be
passed. For example, if both parents
have the trait for sickle cell anemia, there is 50-50 chance that the
off-spring will have the disease. If one
parent was able to asexually reproduce, then all the offspring would have the
trait, but never have the disease.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_reproduction
20. Scientists have successfully cloned several
organisms. Is this creating life?
Cloning is not creating
life. The cell that was used to make the
animal was already living; hence, what scientists are doing are simulating a
cell to do what God already designed it to do.
Science has it limitations. It
can only take what God did and try to imitate it.
http://www.time.com/time/newsfiles/cloning
21. Is Dolly an exact replica of her “mother?”
No. Dolly’s life was cut short because science
was not able to reproduce the exact genetic sequence to give Dolly a long
health life.
22. The discovery of Neptune is excellent example of the
scientific method in use. Scientists had
noticed that the planet Uranus did not orbit around the sun exactly as Newton’s
Universal Law of Gravitation predicted.
French scientist Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier assumed that this was because a previously
undiscovered planet was interfering with Uranus’ movement. He made some calculations using Newton’s
Universal Law of Gravitation and determined where this undiscovered planet had
to be in order for Uranus’s motion to be consistent with Newton’s law. German scientist Johann Gottfried Galle used
a telescope to look in the sky at the position that Leverrier
predicted, and he saw the planet on the very first night of the search! The planet was named Neptune.
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/SolarSystemT.html
http://redwagontutorials.com/HandoutsB/Module01/Figure1.3.htm
a. What was the observation that started
the use of the scientific method in this instance?
Scientists had noticed that the
planet Uranus did not orbit around the sun exactly as Newton’s Universal Law of
Gravitation predicted.
b. What was the hypothesis?
French scientist Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier
assumed that this was because a previously undiscovered planet was interfering
with Uranus’ movement. He made some
calculations using Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation and determined where
this undiscovered planet had to be in order for Uranus’s motion to be
consistent with Newton’s law.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbain_Le_Verrier
c. What was the experiment to confirm
the hypothesis?
German scientist Johann
Gottfried Galle used a telescope to look in the sky at the position that Leverrier predicted, and he saw the planet on the very
first night of the search!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Galle
d. At the end of the story as written
here, was the presence of Neptune in space a scientific law or a theory?
Theory. More observations are needed to find out if
Neptune is really the source of Uranus’ movement. As it turns out both Neptune and Pluto (which
was not discovered until later) affect Uranus’ orbit.
23. In terms of the scientific method, where is
the idea of evolution?
Evolution is still a theory
because its assumption of macroevolution as fact has not been proven.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/hasnt-evolution-been-proven
24. What lessons can we draw from the story of
spontaneous generation?
Even though a scientific law
seems to be supported by hundreds of years of experiments, it might very well
still be wrong because the original experiments might be flawed.
Scientific laws are not 100%
reliable.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/dw_origin.asp
25. Does the current version of spontaneous
generation have experimental evidence?
No. To date, no scientist has taken chemicals and
created a living organism.