chapter 1

• Emergent properties arise at each level of biological organization, meaning the components interact, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
• Primary producers extract energy and nutrients from the nonliving environment.
• Consumers obtain energy and nutrients by eating other organisms.
• Decomposers are consumers that obtain nutrients from dead organisms and organic wastes.
• Experimental groups: may or may not show different results from the control group, such as coffee beans from plants that have been treated with extra fertilizers.
• Control group: baseline used for comparison, such as coffee beans from plants that have been treated with only water.
• Homeostasis is the process by which a cell or organism maintains internal equilibrium, sensing a temperature change in the environment and adjusting heat to a constant temperature.
• Reproduction can be asexual, where only one parent is involved and the offspring are genetically identical to the parent, which is a successful strategy in unchanging environments.
• Reproduction can also be sexual, where two parents are involved and the offspring are genetically different from the parent, which is a successful strategy in changing environments, as offspring are unlike either parent.
• Scientists use taxonomy to name and classify organisms.
• All forms of life can be broadly categorized as either Domain Bacteria, Domain Archaea, or Domain Eukarya.
• Protists are the most diverse group of eukaryotes, with multiple lineages, including amoebas, slime molds, algae, and other species.
• Domains Bacteria and Archaea consist of small, prokaryotic and unicellular organisms.
• Domains are divided into kingdoms.
• Plants are producers that capture light energy from the sun, with energy from plants passed to consumers and decomposers.
• Independent variable: what is manipulated (that is, type of coffee bean)
• Dependent variable: what is measured (that is, amount of caffeine)
• Fungi are nature’s decomposers, with most being multicellular, like this mushroom, and many being microscopic and unicellular, like yeast.
• Well-designed experiments include independent, dependent, and standardized variables.
• Standardized variable: held constant for all subjects in an experiment (that is, mass of beans)
• Biology is the scientific study of life.
• Biology includes all forms of life, from bacteria to fungus to plants to humans.
• Biology also includes the interactions between different forms of life.
• All organisms are made of cells, which are the basic units of life.
• Every organism, or living individual, consists of one or more cells.
• DNA is the molecule that carries genetic information and is what is passed on to the next generation.
• All cells use DNA to produce proteins, which carry out the work that cells do.
• The biosphere is the global ecosystem where life is possible.
• Life is organized into ecosystems which are part of the biosphere, the global ecosystem where life is possible.
• All life shares five characteristics: organization, energy use, maintenance of internal consistency, reproduction, growth, and development, and evolution.
• Still other organisms are composed of tissues, like jellyfish and certain worms.
• Populations are organized into communities which are all populations that occupy the same region.
• Individual organisms are organized into populations which are all of the same species of organism living in the same place and time.
• Some organisms are single-celled, like bacteria and amoebas, composed of just one cell.
• Other organisms are multicellular, composed of many cells, like sea sponges, moss, and mushrooms.
• Communities are organized into ecosystems which are the living and nonliving components of an area.
• Cells are organized into tissues which are organized into organs which are organized into organ systems which are organized into individual organisms.
• The matter that makes up life is organized into atoms, which are the smallest chemical unit of a type of pure substance (element).
• All matter, living and nonliving, is composed of atoms.
• Atoms are organized into molecules, which are a group of joined atoms.