BIO

• MacGraw Hill Education, USA provides information on the origin of life.
• Biology is the study of life or living organisms, derived from the Greek words "Bio" meaning life and "logos" meaning study or discourse.
• Biology has a great impact on our everyday life, offering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world we live in, the planet Earth.
• Each level of biological organization has emergent properties.
• Cells are the basic units of structure and function of organisms.
• The continuity of life is based on heritable information in the form of DNA.
• Structure and function are correlated at all levels of biological organization.
• Organisms are open systems that interact continuously with their environments.
• Regulatory mechanisms ensure a dynamic balance in living systems.
• Diversity and unity are dual faces of life on earth.
• Evolution is the core theme of biology.
• Science is a process of inquiry that includes repeatable observations and testable hypotheses.
• Science and technology are the functions of society.
• Two General Fields of Science: Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.
• The pattern of development of the individual that is characteristic of the species is directed by the heritable program in the form of DNA (the genes) from the parents.
• Living organisms reproduce either asexually or sexually.
• Before a multicellular organism dies, it must pass on its genes to the next generation through sexual reproduction, in which the sperm and egg cells unite together to form a zygote or embryo which will develop into a complex adult organism.
• Non living things may also respond to stimuli but they cannot respond in a coordinated manner to changes to the environment the way living things do.
• Animals respond quickly to stimuli because they have a nervous system; plants also respond to stimuli but their response may not be as obvious as those of animals.
• Growth in living organisms requires a series of chemical reactions called metabolism.
• Living organisms respond to their environment, evolve and adapt to it.
• Organisms respond to stimuli in the way they respond to stimuli.
• Reproduction is the basic means by which life is continued, preserved and perpetuated.
• Living organisms are composed of cells; they require and utilize energy; metabolize, grow, develop and reproduce their own kind.
• Fields of Biology: Morphology, Anatomy, Cytology or Cell Biology, Histology, Ecology, Taxonomy or Systematic Biology, Genetics, Embryology or Developmental Biology, Physiology, Paleontology, Evolution, Biogeography, Entomology, Microbiology, Algology/Phycology, Mycology, Protozoology, Bryology, Biotechnology, Cryobiology.
• Science: Latin verb meaning to know, a way of knowing, stems from our curiosity about ourselves and the world around us, seeks natural causes for natural phenomena, involves a method for discovering new knowledge called scientific method.
• Scientific Method: a step-by-step approach or systematic way in arriving a conclusion in science, involves statement of the problem, gathering of information related to the problem, formulation of hypothesis, testing the validity of the hypothesis through experiment, gathering of data/observation, analysis of data, making conclusion or generalization.
• In setting up a scientific experiment, it must have a control which must be free from biases.
• A hypothesis becomes a theory once it is supported by extensive body of experiments and observations.
• A good theory simplifies our understanding of natural phenomena.
• Over a long period of time, a theory becomes a principle or law when it yields true predictions.
• There is no knowledge of life except on earth, man has tried to learn when, how and where life originated, a number of theories have been proposed to account for the origin of life on earth.
• Divine Creation Theory: human reason cannot fully explain the beginning of life; hence, life has been presumed to have been created by the supernatural power that we called GOD.
• The sum of all the chemical and energy transformations taking place in cells which are essential for growth, maintenance and repair of cells, and other activities of the body is called metabolism, life continuous only as long as the organism requires and uses energy.
• In the course of evolution, protoplasmic particles developed and gave rise to living organisms.
• Living organism reacts to stimulus, this characteristic is a test of the aliveness or awareness of living organism.
• Living organisms maintain life through controlled metabolism and self-perpetuative functions.
• Tissue is made up of cells with similar structure and function.
• Theory of Spontaneous Generation or Abiogenesis means that life originated from non-living things, but this erroneous idea was disproved by Francesco Redi through his own experiment in the 17th century.
• Living organisms are highly organized into a hierarchy of structural levels, each level is made of components of lower level and itself becomes a component of higher level.