Biology Concepts Quiz

Biology Concepts

• Biology: The study of life
• Properties of Living Things:
  • Reproduction
  • Growth and Development
  • Energy Use
  • Ordered Structure
  • Cells
  • Response to Environment
  • Evolution
• Unicellular: Organism made of a single cell
• Multicellular: Organism made of many cells
• Cell: Fundamental unit of life
• Organism Response to Environment: Maintain internal stability
• Evolution's Importance: Eliminates traits hindering survival, preventing their inheritance.
• NASA's Definition of Life: Self-sustaining chemical systems capable of Darwinian evolution.
• Exponential Growth: Rapid increase in population size
• Resource Limitation: Food, shelter, sunlight are finite for all organisms.
• Variation: Differences among individuals of a species, eg., ladybug colors.
• Natural Selection: Favors traits enhancing survival and reproduction.
• Evolution's Impact: Explains both the unity and diversity of life.
• Artificial Selection: Humans selecting traits for desired traits.
• Antibiotic Resistance: Natural selection makes bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
• Structure: Shape of something
• Function: What something does
• Ecosystem: All living and nonliving factors interacting within a specific area. Dependent on energy flow and chemical cycling.
• Energy Flow: Passage of energy through ecosystem components
• Chemical Recycling: Reuse of Earth's nutrients, chemicals, and metals

Cellular Organization

• Information Flow: Receiving, transmitting, and using information is crucial for life.
• Genes: Units of hereditary information, made from DNA.
• Emergent Properties: Complex systems with new properties from interactions of parts
• Domains (Classification): Three groups classifying life: Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya
• Domain Bacteria: Unicellular, prevalent, some disease-causing, others beneficial.
• Domain Archaea: Unicellular, often thrives in extreme conditions.
• Domain Eukarya: Unicellular or multicellular, more complex cells, organized into kingdoms based on energy acquisition.
  • Kingdoms in Eukarya: Plantae, Fungi, Animalia, Protista

Scientific Method

• Scientific Method: Guidelines for understanding observations
• Discovery Science: Provides data to describe the natural world.
• Hypothesis: Testable proposed explanation for an observation
• Theory: Explains many observations, broad scope, supported by much evidence
• Controlled Experiment: Manipulates one variable to study its effect.
• Independent Variable: The manipulated factor (cause).
• Dependent Variable: The measured outcome (effect).
• Control Groups: Negative (no change expected) and positive (change expected).
• Hypotheses:
  • Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): Indicates a change (e.g., fertilizer affects sunflower growth).
  • Null Hypothesis (H0): Indicates no effect or change (e.g., fertilizer does not affect sunflower growth).
• Experimental Design: Key components: independent & dependent variables, treatments, controlled variables, control group, replication, hypotheses.
• Blind Experiments: Types of experiments in which information is concealed to either the participants or researchers (Single-blind, Double-blind).
• Placebo: Medically ineffective treatment.
• Placebo Effect: Improvement illusion after receiving a non-medicinal treatment
• Pseudoscience: Misrepresenting a field as scientific
• Information Sources:
  • Primary Sources: Original material by the researchers, e.g., peer-reviewed journals.
  • Secondary Sources: Descriptions or reviews of primary sources, e.g., books, magazine articles.
• Data Presentation:
  • Tables: Effective for small data sets to organize, collect, and share data
  • Graphs: Visual representations of data to compare trends
    • Line Graphs: Show continuous data
    • Bar Graphs: Illustrate categorical data; show error bars (95% confidence intervals)
    • Pie Charts: Show data as percentages
• Confidence Intervals: A range of values where there is a 95% likelihood of the true value falling within that range. Overlapping intervals suggest data is not significantly different
• P-values: A probability indicating the statistical significance of difference between groups. Used to reject a null hypothesis (type 1 error to reject correct hypothesis, or type 2 error if failing to reject a false hypothesis)
• Pseudoscience Characteristics: Vague/untestable claims, lack of peer review, lack of progress, misleading language.
• Pseudoscience Origins: History and examples (alchemy, astrology, etc.).

Genetics and Cell Division

• DNA: Genetic material for all life.
• Chromosomes: DNA strands in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells.
• Genes: Code for body proteins; units of inheritance.
• Chromatin: Complex of chromosomal DNA and proteins within the nucleus.
• Chromosome Number: Humans inherit 23 chromosomes from each parent (46 total).
• Dog Chromosomes: 78 chromosomes
• Paddlefish Chromosomes: 120 chromosomes
• Sister Chromatids: Duplicated chromosomes.
• Centromere: Sister chromatid connection point.
• Chromosome Duplication and Packing: Tightening during cell division.
• Cell Cycle: Ordered sequence of events in a cell's life.
  • Interphase: Cell growth, normal functions; chromosomes duplicate.
  • Miotic Phase: Nuclear and cell division for offspring cells.
• Mitosis: Stage of miotic phase where the nucleus divides to produce two identical nuclei Stages:
• Prophase: Nuclear membrane dissolves. Spindle assembled
• Metaphase: Chromosomes line up & attach to Miotic Spindle
• Anaphase: Chromosomes split & pull apart
• Telophase: Nuclei reform
• Cytokinesis: Cytoplasm division creating two daughter cells.
  • Animal: Cleavage furrow
  • Plant: Cell plate
• Cell Division Regulation: Healthy cells only divide when duplication is needed.
• Diploid Cells: Most human body cells have two copies of each chromosome.
• Haploid Cells: Sex cells (gametes) with one copy of each chromosome.
• Gametes: Sex cells (sperm and egg).
• Human Life Cycle Stages: Gamete formation, fertilization, zygote development, embryonic development, growth.
• Homologous Pairs: Chromosome pairs, one from each parent (humans have 23 pairs).
• Autosomes: Non-sex chromosomes (22 pairs in humans).
• Sex Chromosomes: Determine sex (1 pair in humans, XX or XY).
• Karyotypes: Images of an individual's chromosomes lined up
• Meiosis: Cell division for gamete production, resulting in haploid cells.
  • Meiosis 1: Homologous chromosomes separate.
  • Meiosis 2: Sister chromatids separate. Results in 4 haploid offspring cells.
• Mitosis vs Meiosis: Comparison table summarized below
  • Mitosis: Body cells, lifelong, 1 division, 2 diploid cells
  • Meiosis: Reproductive cells, puberty, 2 divisions, 4 haploid cells

Processes of Sexual Reproduction

• Independent Assortment: Random chromosome alignment during meiosis.
• Random Fertilization: Random combination of gametes.
• Crossing Over: Exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes during meiosis, creating genetic diversity.