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Questions and Answers
What is the primary goal of science?
What is the primary goal of science?
Which of the following is a characteristic of a scientific theory?
Which of the following is a characteristic of a scientific theory?
What is the main difference between asexual and sexual reproduction?
What is the main difference between asexual and sexual reproduction?
What is the term for the ability of an organism to maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in the external environment?
What is the term for the ability of an organism to maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in the external environment?
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What is the primary function of metabolism in an organism?
What is the primary function of metabolism in an organism?
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What is the term for the study of the entire set of DNA code contained in a wide range of organisms?
What is the term for the study of the entire set of DNA code contained in a wide range of organisms?
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What is the primary characteristic of a chemical compound?
What is the primary characteristic of a chemical compound?
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What is the term for the weak interactions that occur within a living cell to send signals, carry out chemical reactions, or copy information from one molecule to another?
What is the term for the weak interactions that occur within a living cell to send signals, carry out chemical reactions, or copy information from one molecule to another?
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What is the primary reason why water molecules attract each other?
What is the primary reason why water molecules attract each other?
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What is the term for the process of science that involves testing ideas and analyzing the results?
What is the term for the process of science that involves testing ideas and analyzing the results?
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What is the primary function of hydrogen bonding in water?
What is the primary function of hydrogen bonding in water?
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What is the term for the attraction between molecules of the same substance?
What is the term for the attraction between molecules of the same substance?
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What is the primary difference between a solution and a suspension?
What is the primary difference between a solution and a suspension?
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What is the term for a compound that releases H⁺ ions into a solution?
What is the term for a compound that releases H⁺ ions into a solution?
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What is the process by which larger compounds are built from smaller ones?
What is the process by which larger compounds are built from smaller ones?
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What is the term for the monomers that make up nucleic acids?
What is the term for the monomers that make up nucleic acids?
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What is the term for the energy required to get a chemical reaction started?
What is the term for the energy required to get a chemical reaction started?
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What is the term for a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction?
What is the term for a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction?
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What is the term for the site on an enzyme where the substrate binds?
What is the term for the site on an enzyme where the substrate binds?
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What is the term for the complex formed when a substrate binds to an enzyme?
What is the term for the complex formed when a substrate binds to an enzyme?
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Study Notes
What is Science?
- Science is a process that involves observing and asking questions about the natural world, turning them into testable explanations, and analyzing the results.
- The goals of science are to provide testable explanations with data to understand nature and make useful predictions about natural events.
Scientific Theory
- A scientific theory is a tested, reliable explanation of events in the natural world that puts together many repeated observations and incorporates durable, well-supported hypotheses that enable scientists to make accurate predictions.
Science in Context
- The process of science involves different aspects that are interconnected, making it dynamic, flexible, and unpredictable.
- Testing ideas involves exploration and discovery, which can lead to new technology and practical problems.
- Good scientists share scientific attitudes such as curiosity, skepticism, open-mindedness, and creativity.
Benefits and Outcomes
- Science and engineering play an important role in guiding decisions about health, social, and environmental issues.
Community Analysis and Feedback
- Research must be officially shared to be accepted, and it must follow a variety of rules to ensure it is scientifically appropriate.
Science and Engineering Practices
- Developing and using models, using mathematics and computational thinking, constructing explanations, and engaging in argument from evidence are some of the key practices.
Patterns of Life
- Living things are made up of basic units called cells, reproduce, are based on a universal genetic code, grow and develop, obtain and use materials and energy, respond to their environment, maintain a stable internal environment, and evolve over time.
Universal Genetic Code
- Offspring usually resemble their parents, and the directions for inheritance are carried by a molecule (DNA).
- There are different ways of inheritance, including asexual and sexual reproduction.
Need for Materials and Energy
- To grow and develop, and to stay alive, living things need materials and energy, which is achieved through metabolism.
Response to the Environment
- Living things detect and respond to stimuli, and they maintain internal balance through homeostasis.
Maintaining Internal Balance
- Living things maintain internal balance by keeping internal conditions constant despite varying external conditions.
Crosscutting Concepts in Biology
- Cause and effect: using observations, questions, and experiments to explain the natural world in terms of natural forces and events.
- Systems and system models: understanding how different parts of the biosphere work together and interact with one another.
- Stability and change: homeostasis and the ability to respond to changes in the environment.
- Patterns: linear and cyclical patterns, such as the tendency for organ systems to become more complex as you move through vertebrates from fishes to mammals.
- Scale, proportion, and quantity: understanding how structure is studied depends on the scale on which it is being studied.
- Energy and matter: flows, cycles, and conservation: understanding how living things are linked in a web of interdependent relationships.
Fields of Biology
- Bio includes many overlapping fields that use different tools to study life, from the molecular level to the planetary level.
- Global ecology: understanding how life on earth is shaped by weather patterns and processes in the atmosphere.
- Biotechnology: using molecular biology to "edit" and rewrite the genetic code.
- Building tree of life: combining the latest genetic information with computer technology to organize all living things into a single universal "tree of all life".
The Nature of Matter
- Chemical compounds: physical and chemical properties of a compound are usually very different from those of the elements from which it is formed.
- Chemical bonds: ionic bonds involve the transfer of electrons, covalent bonds involve the sharing of electrons, and weak interactions involve brief interactions between molecules.
Properties of Water
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Water molecule: water's oxygen nucleus attracts electrons more strongly than the two hydrogen nuclei, resulting in water's shared electrons being more likely to be found near the oxygen nucleus.
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Polarity: water has a partial negative charge on one end and a partial positive charge on the other, making it a polar molecule.
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Because of partial charges, polar molecules can attract each other.### Hydrogen Bonds and Water
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Attraction between hydrogen atom with a partial positive charge and another atom with a partial negative charge is known as a hydrogen bond.
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Water's heat capacity is relatively high because of hydrogen bonding.
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Water in living things: nearly everything that cells do takes place by means of chemical reactions in a water environment.
Solutions and Suspensions
- Mixture: a material composed of two or more elements or compounds that are physically mixed together but not chemically combined.
- Solution: all components are evenly distributed throughout the solution.
- In saltwater solution, table salt is the solute and water is the solvent.
- Water's polarity gives it the ability to dissolve both ionic compounds and other polar molecules.
- Suspensions: materials placed in water that separate into pieces so small that they do not settle out.
- The movement of water molecules keeps the particles suspended.
Acids, Bases, and pH
- H₂O = H⁺ + OH⁻.
- pH scale: a measurement system to indicate the concentration of H+ ions in the solution.
- Acids: compounds that release H⁺ ions into a solution.
- Acidic ions have higher concentrations of H⁺ ions than pure water and have a pH below 7.
- Bases: compounds that produce hydroxide ions in solution.
- Basic (alkaline) solutions contain lower concentrations of H⁺ ions than pure water and have a pH above 7.
- Buffers: weak acids/bases that can react with strong acids/bases to prevent sharp, sudden changes in pH.
- Internal pH of most cells in the human body must be kept between 6.5 and 7.5 to maintain homeostasis.
Carbon Compounds
- Carbon can bond with many elements to form compounds with many different chemical properties.
- One carbon atom can bond to another, giving carbon the ability to form chains that are almost unlimited in length.
- No other element matches the versatility or the size of molecules that carbon can build.
Macromolecules
- Produced by a process called polymerization: larger compounds are built by joining smaller ones together.
- Smaller units (monomers) join together to form polymers.
Carbohydrates
- Made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, usually in a ratio of 1:2:1.
- Organisms use carbohydrates to store and release energy, as well as for structural support and protection.
- Simple sugars: single sugar molecules are known as monosaccharides.
- Complex carbohydrates: polysaccharides are formed by joining many monosaccharides together.
Lipids
- Made mostly from carbon and hydrogen atoms.
- Can be used to store energy, and they form important parts of biological membranes and waterproof coverings.
Nucleic Acids
- Nucleotides: monomers that consist of three components: 5-carbon sugar, phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base.
- Nucleic acids: polymers assembled from nucleotides.
- Store and transmit hereditary information.
Proteins
- Macromolecules containing nitrogen as well as carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
- Amino acids: compounds with an amino group on one end and a carboxyl group on the other end.
- Serve as building blocks of protein.
- Functions: some proteins function to control the rate of reactions and regulate cell processes, others form important cellular structures, while still others transport substances into or out of cells to help fight disease.
Chemical Reactions and Enzymes
- Chemical reaction: a process that changes one set of compounds into another.
- Reactants: elements/compounds that engage in chemical reaction.
- Products: elements/compounds produced by chemical reaction.
- Chemical reactions involve changes in the chemical bonds that join atoms in compounds.
Energy in Reactions
- Energy is released/absorbed whenever chemical bonds are formed or broken.
- Chemical reactions that release energy often occur on their own.
- Reactions that absorb energy require a source of energy.
Energy Sources
- Because matter and energy are conserved in chemical reactions, every organism must have a source of energy to carry out chemical reactions.
Activation Energy
- Energy that is needed to get a reaction started.
Enzymes
- Catalyst: a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction.
- Nature's catalyst: enzymes are biological catalysts, most are protein.
- Role of enzymes: to speed up chemical reactions that take place in cells.
- Enzyme substrate complex: reactants of enzyme-catalyzed reactions are known as substrates.
- Substrates bind to a site on the enzyme called active site.
- Active site and substrates have complementary shapes, and may be held together by weak interactions.
- Regulation of enzyme activity: the activity of enzyme depends upon the structure of its active site, conditions that tend to change protein structure can affect enzyme activity.
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Description
Review of the basics of science, including the process of scientific inquiry, goals of science, and the importance of testable explanations and data analysis.