BIOLOGY 111 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I Introduction to Biology II Levels of Organization III IV V VI Reductionist advantages and disadvantages Biology Systems Cell Evolution Current Lecture Biology is the study of life Life property or quality of plants and animals that distinguishes them from inorganic matter or dead organisms All living things have order evolutionary adaption respond to the environment reproduce grow and develop change phases throughout lifespan process energy and regulate There are several levels of organization that each has a variety of properties of life and we study in biology ALL of them 1 Biospheres consists of ALL life on Earth and all the places where life exists 2 Ecosystem prairies deserts grasslands consists of all living things in an area birds mammals and all the nonliving things in the environment soil rocks water 3 Communities consists of all the organisms living in one specific bound area horses deer birds 4 Populations Species specific groups just the herd of horses 5 Organisms Individual living things 6 Organs and Organ Systems structural hierarchy of an organism the heart lungs brain 7 Tissues group of cells working together and performing their own function to create the organs and organ systems 8 Cells life s fundamental unit of structure and function that make up the tissues 9 Organelles the various functional components present in cells chloroplasts nucleus mitochondria These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute 10 Molecules chemical structure consisting of two or more small chemical units called atoms Emergent Properties new properties that emerge from different levels of hierarchy and not found in the preceding level Reductionist Approach breaks everything down piece by piece from complex into the simplest possible components to study most powerful approach to study biology advantages successful b c otherwise could be too complex to study their entirety disadvantages Emergent properties may not be apparent and thus miss the bigger picture Systems Biology attempts to understand complicated biological systems by piecing the smaller parts back together The Cell Eukaryotic Cell contains a nucleus which contains DNA Prokaryotic Cell contains no nucleus Form Function is similar to Anatomy Physiology changing the structure form will also change the function Ex the mitochondria is made the way it is for a reason to have more surface area via the wrinkles and thus converts more energy Ex a molecule of one arrangement of atoms is not the same as another molecule of a different arrangement of the same atoms Evolution successfully explains similarity diversity in life and needs only 3 things to work 1 variation in a population desired trait necessary for survival 2 a way for the variation to be inherited must be able to reproduce if only two have the desired trait needed both can t be female or male one must be female and the other must be a male 3 Differential effect of the environment on the variation there needs to be the pressure for selection in order to force the change needed