Unifying Themes in the Study of Life

• The unifying theme connects the different subdisciplines that make biology as a science
• All levels of life have systems of related parts
• An organized group of interacting parts.

  System
• A system of chemicals and processes. It is the basic unit of life

  Cell
• A body system includes organs that interact.
• An ecosystem includes living and non-living things that interact
• Structure and function are related in biology
• Structure determines function.
• The structure is the shape of the object.
• The function is the object’s specific role
• Organisms must maintain homeostasis to survive in diverse environments
• Homeostasis is the maintenance of constant internal conditions.
• All living organisms must live in a stable environment
• Evolution explains the unity and diversity of life
• Evolution is the change in living things over time
• The genetic makeup of a population of a species changes.
• It accounts for both the diversity and the unity of life
• Traits are being inherited and transferred
• The continuity of life depends on the inheritance of biological information in the form of DNA molecules.
• The genetic information is encoded in the nucleotide sequences of the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
• Organisms reproduce
• It is necessary part of living; process of making more of one’s own kind
• Organisms are interdependent with one another
• Organisms have evolved to live and interact with other organisms.
• Ecology deals with the interactions of living organisms with one another and their environment
• Organisms acquire and process energy.
• Living organisms use a source of energy for their metabolic activities
• Some living organisms capture the light energy and convert it into chemical energy in food.
• Some living organisms use chemical energy stored in molecules obtained from food
• Scientific credibility depends on the repeatability of observation and experiments
• Many technologies are goaloriented applications of science
• The relationships of science and technology to society are now more crucial to understand than ever before