Inquiring About Life - PDF

Inquiring about life An organism's adaptations to its environment are the result ofevolution is the process ofchange over time that has resulted in the incredible array o...

Inquiring about life An organism's adaptations to its environment are the result ofevolution is the process ofchange over time that has resulted in the incredible array of organismfound on Earth evolution accounts for the unity and all animalsskeletons a diversity of life are organized in the same basic way is the fundamental principleofbiology nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution Dobzhansky central activity the scientific posingquestions aboutthe Living worldandseeking a study of life answers through scientificinquiry biologists questions can be ambitious theymay ask how biology is a subject ofenormousscope a singlecell becomes a tree or a dog thehumanmindwork thedifferentformsoflife in Biologistsmake sense oflife'sdiversity a forestinteract and complexity byusing 5 unifyingthemes 1 organization a information eways ofthinkingabout life that 3 energyandmatter are and will still be useful a interactions decadesfrom now 5 evolution 1 Organization s Lifeon Earth extends from moleculesand call to the entire living plate ne divide intodifferent levels of biologyorganization We zoom in fromspace to take a closer and closer look at life in a mountain meadow it highlights thehierarchyofbiological Organization reductionism an approachthat reducescomplex systems to simplercomponents that are more easier to study  but it Guides an incomplete view of Life Beginning this timeat themolecularlevel and then zoomingout we see that novel properties emerge at each level that are absent from the precedingon emergent properties o due to the arrangement and interactionsof ports They are notunique to life tostudy these biologists complement reductionism with systems biology theexplorationof the networkof interactions that underliethe emergent propertiesof a system it can be usedto studylife at all levels At each level ofbiologicalorganization ne find a correlation between structure andfunction The leaf's broad Hummingbird'sanatomyallows flatshapemaximizes its wing torstate at the the captureoflight shoulder that allows him to fly backward or hover in pace tesuchonsofstructure common all livingthings analyzing and function are in a biological structure gives us clues about whatit does andhow itworks The cell is the smallest unit oforganization that can perform all activitiesrequired for life all cell share certain characteristics however we distinguish two main MEprokaryotic beingenclosed by a membrane that regulatesthepassageofmaterial G between the call and its surroundin eukaryotic  2 Information within cells structures called chromosomes contain genetic material in the farm of DNA deoxyribonucleic acid eachchromosomecontains one verylong DNAmolecule with 10011000ofgenes units ofinheritancetransmitted from parents to offspring theyencodethe information necessary to build all ofthe molecules synthesizedwithin a cell youbegan as a single cell stockedwithinDNA inherited from yourparents the replication prior to each celldivision transmitted as the cellsgrew copies oftheDNA to what anddivided thegeneticinformation encoded by the eventuallybecameyourbody DNA directedyourdevelopment the molecularstructureofDua accounts for its abilityto storeinformation A DNAmoleculeis madeup of tuobugchains calledstrandsarrangedin a doublehelix each chainis made up of four nucleotides AtCG specificsequencesofthese encodesinformation in an analogousway tohow we arrangetheletters into wordsandphrases with specificmeanings 3 Energyandmatter 4liferequiresthe transfer and transformation of those movinggrowingreproducing andthe variouscellularactivitiesare work and workrequiresenergy a 4 interactions everyorganism in an ecosysteminteractswithotherorganisms eachorganism in an ecosystem alsointeracts continuously with phsical factors in itsenvironment it includesthose that are mutually on a globalscaleplants and beneficial andthose in un icone photosyntheticorganismshavegenerated speciesbenefitsandthe other is all the oxygen in theatmosphere harmed in someinteractionsbetweenspecies gg are poema Thefishfeedon smallorganismslivingonthe sea an shelesaining a mealand III L protectionfrom enemies The sea turtle benefitsfrom the removal A warmer environment causes lizards to spend more time in refugesfrom the heatreducing the time available for foraging E's foodintakedropsdecreasing theirreproductivesuccess 5 Evolutionbiology's come theme