ZOO-100 Module 1 Quiz

Study Notes

Proposed by Kant and Laplace in the 18th century.
Describes solar system formation from a rotating nebula of gas and dust.
Explains the formation of the Sun, planets, and other celestial bodies from a rotating cloud of gas and dust.
Contraction of the cloud leads to spinning and flattening into a disk shape.
The central region of the disk becomes the protosun, initiating nuclear fusion.
Remaining material forms planetesimals.
Planetesimals collide and accrete, forming larger bodies (protoplanets).
Differentiation occurs, with denser materials sinking to the core and lighter materials to the mantle and crust.
This process generates heat, leading to a molten interior.
Objections:
- Planets possess 98% of the solar system's rotational energy while the sun has 99.87% of the mass.
- Earth's heavy elements require higher temperatures than those found in the sun.
- Some satellites have retrograde orbits, and some rotate faster than their planet.

Proposed by Chamberlin and Moulton in 1895.
Suggests that the solar system formed from a collision between the Sun and another star.
The collision causes ejection of material from the sun's surface.
Near-side ejections form larger planets.
Far-side ejections form terrestrial planets.
This material forms planetesimals that accrete to form planets.
Objections:
- Difficult to explain the massive passing star's proximity to the Sun.
- Stars are too far apart for such alignment to occur.
- Does not account for the differing sizes of the planets.

Proposed by James Jeans and Harold Jeffreys in 1917.
Discusses a gaseous two-star Hypothesis.
A passing star approaches the sun, creating tidal bulges and emitting a filament of gas.
This filament condenses and forms the planets.
Explains planet formation as a result of solar gas interactions.

Life arises from non-living matter.
Proposed by ancient thinkers like Anaximander and Anaxagoras.
Believed that some simple organisms originated in nonliving matter.
Supported by observations of life emerging from decaying matter but lacked scientific basis.

Life originates from pre-existing life.
Refutes spontaneous generation.
Francesco Redi's experiments disproved spontaneous generation.
Lazzaro Spallanzani disproved spontaneous generation using broth experiments under controlled conditions.
Louis Pasteur further disproved it using swan-neck flask experiments.

Life has always existed.
Proposes that life can originate from other extraterrestrial sources or that life appeared under certain conditions when Earth was a molten mass.
Has not been supported by scientific evidence

Explains extinction by catastrophic events.
Suggests that life emerged after a cataclysmic event.
Argues that life forms were wiped out and evolved in new ways based on what is needed.
Belief that a catastrophe occurs and then life is repopulated by evolution.

Life emerged gradually through a slow process of change.
Organisms evolved from simpler forms.
Theories of organic evolution are based on observation and the idea of natural selection.