Lecture 1:

1. The seven common properties to all life are:

i) Order The highly ordered structure that typifies life
ii) Reproduction The ability of organisms to reproduce their own kind
iii) Growth and development consistent growth and development
controlled by inherited DNA
iv) Energy processing The use of chemical energy to power an organisms
activities and chemical reactions
v) Response to the environment- An ability to respond to environmental
stimuli
vi) Regulation- An ability to control an organisms internal environment
within limits that sustain life
vii) Evolutionary adaptation- Adaptations evolve over many generations as
individuals with traits best suited to their environments have greater
reproductive success and pass their traits to offspring
2. Biological organization unfolds as follows:
i) Biosphere- All of the environments on Earth that support life
ii) Ecosystem- All the organisms living in a particular area and the physical
components with which the organisms interact
iii) Community- The entire array of organisms living in a particular
ecosystem
iv) Population- All the individuals of a species living in a specific area.
v) Organism- An individual living thing
vi) Organ system- Several organs that cooperate in a specific function
vii) Organ- A structure that is composed of tissues and that provides a
specific function for the organism
viii) Tissues- A group of similar cells that perform a specific function
ix) Cells- The fundamental unit of life.
x) Organelle- A membrane-bound structure that performs a specific function
in the cell
xi) Molecule- A cluster of small chemical units called atoms held together by
chemical bonds.
3. Emergent properties are:
i) New properties that arise in each step upward in the hierarchy of life
ii) From the arrangement and interactions among component parts
4. Cells are a special level in biological organization because cells illustrate
another theme in biology: the correlation of structure and function.
Structure is related to function at all levels of biological organization.
i) Prokaryotic cells: Were the first to evolve, are simpler and are usually
smaller than eukaryotic cells
ii) Eukaryotic cells: Contain membrane-enclosed organelles, including a
nucleus containing DNA, and are found in plants, animals and fungi.
5. Quantitative data is usually a numerical value and qualitative data is
usually a descriptive value.
6. A scientific theory is:
i) Much broader in scope than a hypothesis

ii) Usually general enough to generate many new, specific hypotheses, which
can then be tested
iii) Supported by a large and usually growing body of evidence
7. Controlled experiments consists of:
i) An experimental group consisting of artificial king snakes
ii) An controlled group consists of artificial brown snakes
iii) The groups differed only by one factor, the coloration of the artificial
snakes.
iv) The data fit the key prediction of the mimicry hypothesis.
8. The goal of science is to understand natural phenomena and the goal of
technology is to apply scientific knowledge for some specific purpose.
Lecture 2:
1) Chemicals are important because chemicals are the stuff that makes up our
bodies, the bodies of other organisms and the physical environment.
2) A compound is a substance consisting of two or more different elements in a
fixed ratio.
a) Compounds are more common than pure elements
b) Sodium chloride, table salt, is a common compound of equal parts of sodium
(Na) and chlorine (Cl)
3) Atoms consists of:
a) Protons which are positively charged
b) Electrons which are negatively charged
c) Neutrons which are electrically neutral
4) Bonds
a) Ionic Bonds are attractions between ions of opposite charge.
b) Hydrogen Bonds are weak bonds important in the chemistry of life.
c) Covalent Bonds join atoms into molecules through electron sharing.
5) Chemical reactions make and break chemical bonds. The reactants (H2 and
O2) are converted into H2O, the product. They dont create or destroy matter but
they rearrange it.
6) Cohesion is the tendency of molecules of the same kind to stick together and
Adhesion is the tendency of molecules to stick together.
7) The pH scale describes how acidic or basic a solution is. 0 is the most acidic
and 14 is the most basic.
a) A compound that releases H+ to a solution is an acid
b) A compound that accepts H+ to a solution is a base
Lecture 3:
1) Lifes molecular diversity is based on the properties of Carbon because
Carbon, with attached hydrogens, can bond together in chains of various
lengths.
2) The functional groups are:
i) Hydroxyl group: Consists of a hydrogen bonded to an oxygen
ii) Carbonyl group: A carbon linked by a double bond to an oxygen atom

iii) Carboxyl group: Consists of a carbon double-bonded to both an oxygen

and a hydroxyl group
iv) Amino group: Composed of a nitrogen bonded to two hydrogen atoms
and the carbon skeleton
v) Phosphate group: consists of a phosphorus atom bonded to four oxygen
atoms.
3) A cell makes a large number of polymers from a small group of monomers
through dehydration reactions, which removes water and polymers are
broken apart by hydrolysis, the addition of water
4) A. Monosaccharides are the simplest carbohydrates and can be hooked
together to form more complex sugars and polysaccharides. This includes
glucose and fructose. They are also the main fuels for cellular work and used as
raw materials to manufacture other organic molecules.
B. Disaccharides are two monosaccharides (monomers) combined in a
dehydration reaction.
C. Polysaccharides are macromolecules and polymers composed of
thousands of monosaccharides. They may function as storage molecules or
structural compounds.
5) A. Lipids are water insoluble compounds, are important in long-term energy
storage, contains twice as much energy as a polysaccharide and consist mainly
of carbon and hydrogen atoms linked by nonpolar covalent bonds.
B. Phospholipids are structurally similar to fat and the major component of
all cells. Its structurally similar to fat because fat contain 3 fatty acids attached
to glycerol and Phospholipids contain 2 fatty acids attached to a glycerol.
C. Steroids are lipids in which the carbon skeleton contains four fused rings.
6) Proteins are made from amino acids linked by peptide bonds.
The most important role for proteins is as enzymes, proteins that serve as
metabolic catalysts and regulate the chemical reactions within cells
8) Nucleic acids: DNA and RNA are the two types of nucleic acids. They are both
composed of monomers called nucleotides which have three parts. A five-carbon
sugar called ribose in RNA and deoxyribose in DNA, a phosphate group, and a
nitrogenous base.
i) DNA is inherited from an organisms parents, provides directions for its
own replication and programs a cells activities by directing the synthesis
of proteins. It has adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G)

ii) RNA is translated into proteins and is worked from a subsidiary, DNA
which is transcribed into RNA. Also has A, C, and G but instead of T, it has
uracil (U)
9) Lactose tolerance represents a relatively recent mutation in the human
genome and survival advantage for human cultures with milk and dairy products
available year-round.

Lecture 4:
1) Membranes are composed of
a) A bilayer of phospholipids with
b) Embedded and attached proteins
c) In a structure biologist called a fluid mosaic
2) Phospholipids, the key ingredient of biological membranes, spontaneously selfassemble into the simple membranes. The formation of membrane-enclosed
collections of molecules was a critical step in the evolution of the first cells.
3) Passive transport is diffusion across a membrane with no energy investment.
4) Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a membrane. If a membrane permeable
to water but not a solute separates two solutions with different concentrations of
solute, water will cross the membrane, moving down its own concentration
gradient, until the solute concentration on both sides is equal.
5) F
a) A hypertonic solution is when the solute concentration is higher outside
the cell making water molecules move out of the cell and the cell will shrink
b) A hypotonic solution is when the solute concentration is lower outside the
cell making water molecules move into the cell and the cell will expand and
may burst
c) An Isotonic solution is when the concentration of solute is the same on
both sides of the membrane and the cell volume will not change
6) Hydrophobic substances easily diffuse across a cell membrane. However, polar
or charged substances do not easily cross cell membranes and, instead, move
across membranes with the help of specific transport proteins in a process called
facilitated diffusion, which does not require energy and lies on the
concentration gradient
7) Exocytosis is used to export bulky molecules, such as proteins or
polysaccharides. Endocytosis is used to import substances useful to the
livelihood of the cell.
Lecture 5 and 6:
1) Bacteria and archaea are prokaryotic cells and all other life forms are
composed of eukaryotic cells.
a) Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells have a plasma membrane and one or
more chromosome and ribosomes

b) Eukaryotic cells have a membrane-bound nucleus and a number of other

organelles
c) Prokaryotic cells have a nucleoid and no true organelles
2)