BIOLOGY:

It’s All About You

Chapter 1
Lessons 1.1 and 1.2
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• Define biology and explain its importance

• Explore the evolving concept of life based on

emerging evidence
• Identify the different branches of Biology
Lesson 1.1
THE STUDY OF LIFE
 Biology is all about YOU.
It deals with structures, functions, and relationships of organisms with their environment.

How do biologists study life and explore its

complexities?
 Outbreak Endangered
of diseases species

Global
Warming
Food
shortage
Pollution

Overpopulation Energy Costs

 CENTURY OF BIOLOGY
• Completion of Human Genome
Project

• Scientific milestones and discoveries

• Revolutionary ways in solving

problems that threaten humankind
 In 1990, the Human Genome Project
aimed to sequence three billion DNA
bases in the human cell.

It was finished in 2003 and provided new

insights in understanding the Biology of
Homo sapiens, its evolution, and the
proper and accurate diagnosis of human
diseases.
Biology tells that ours is an environment that began 3.8 billion years ago,
aquatic and devoid of life.
The first living cells came as a result of ancient events wherein
lifeless matter became organized, capable of supporting life.
The diversity of life started with simple organisms that
were able to evolved from one generation to the next.
 BIOLOGY – study of life
Bios – life ; logos – study

It is a science that deals with

structures, functions, and
relationships of living things
and their environment.

*studied at various levels

Various Levels
Molecular
Cellular
Organismal
Population
Community
Ecosystems
carbon DNA organelle cell
molecule tissue
atom
biosphere
ecosystem
organ

organ
system
community population organism
THREE MAJOR DIVISIONS OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES:
 Taxonomy – naming and classifying organisms

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Cytology – structures and
functions of cells

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Embryology – function and development of organisms

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Anatomy – structures and parts of organisms

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Physiology – functions of living organisms and their parts

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Biochemistry – biochemical compositions and processes of living things

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Genetics – heredity and variation

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Evolution – origin and differentiation of various organisms

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Ecology – relationships of organisms with each other and their environment

Traditional
Branches of
Biological
Sciences
 Bioinformatics – Biological data using computer programs

New
Subdisciplines
in Biology
 Genomics – entire genetic material (genome) of an organism

New
Subdisciplines
in Biology
 Molecular biology – molecules that make up the cells of living organisms

New
Subdisciplines
in Biology
 Pharmacogenomics– how genes affect a person’s response to drugs

New
Subdisciplines
in Biology
New Subdisciplines in Biology

Proteomics – Proteins in a living organism Synthetic biology – artificial

biological systems
 Systems biology – computational and
mathematical modeling of biological systems

New
Subdisciplines
in Biology
Lesson 1.2
IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING
BIOLOGY
 Biology can help solve
societal problems.
Why study Biology?
 Why study Biology?
• Studying biology helps you
understand the functions
and reactions of your
body.

• It explains your similarities

and differences with other
organisms.
 Why study Biology?
• It helps in understanding how
animals survive, respond, and
interact with the environment.
• Organisms keep the balance in
the environment, esp. in the
food chain.
• Other animals (mice, frogs, and
monkeys) are used as
specimens to further
understand the body systems.
 Why study Biology?
• Biology encompasses the study
of different causative agents of
diseases such as bacteria and
viruses.

• People find ways to fight and

prevent the spread of diseases
caused by various infections.
 Why study Biology?
• Biology helps you respond to the
demands of human population,
esp. in food production, which is
made possible by careful study
and research.

• Biology also studies reproduction

and population growth of living
organisms to assure that problems
regarding overpopulation will be
solved.
 Why study Biology?
Biology takes into realm the study
of plants, which provide us food,
oxygen, medicines, clothing, and
various materials.
 Why study Biology?
Understanding biological processes
that lead to natural calamities can
help preserve these endangered
species and their ecosystems.
• BIOLOGY helps you think critically, make informed choices, and
solve problems.
• This will enable us to determine the biases of investigators,
mass media, and others that we encounter, thus, we are guided
to make sound judgments on biological scenarios in daily life.
 BIOLOGY:
It’s All About You
Chapter 1
Lessons 1.3 and 1.4
 Learning Objectives:
● Describe the classic experiments that model
conditions that may have enabled first life forms to
evolve

● Describe how unifying themes in the study of life

show the connections among living things and how
they interact with each other and their environment
 Lesson 1.3

BIOLOGY as a SCIENCE
Biology is an objective, logical, and
repeatable attempt to understand
the principles and forces operating
in the natural world.

How do biologists
study life?
 Science is a body of systematized information about living things
derived from observations and experiments.

Knowledge in biology and its immense data is dependent on the study of structures and
processes that need to be validated either directly or indirectly with the help of tools, such as
microscopes, that extend the physical capacity of your senses.
Biologists blend two main approaches in
scientific investigations

• Relies mainly on
DISCOVERY-
BASED verifiable
SCIENCE observations
and
measurements

HYPOTHESIS-
• Involves the
BASED use of
SCIENCE scientific
method
 OBSERVATION:
identifying and clearly defining the
problem

• Starts with being curious and asking

questions
• Maybe done anytime and anywhere
 HYPOTHESIS:
formulating a possible logical answer to
the identified problem

• After gathering observation and existing

knowledge on a particular phenomenon,
it’s time for REASONING.
Generalizations can certainly be useful,
but there may be exceptions to a general rule.
A "general rule" might even (eventually) turn out to be wrong most of the time.

Deductive reasoning precludes this complication.

 HYPOTHESIS – possible logical answer; not an

INDUCTIVE
ordinary guess; based on existing knowledge

BOTTOM-UP TOP-DOWN
approach approach
Specific to General General to Specific

Allows a biologist to Used by biologist to test

formulate a tentative existing theories or

DEDUCTIVE
hypothesis that can later hypothesis
be tested before
producing a general
conclusion.
INDUCTIVE LEAP – common pitfall where
one tends to jump into general observations
from only few specific things.
 EXPERIMENT:
conducting controlled attempts to test
one or more hypothesis and includes
recording and analyzing results

• Experimental design
• Involves the use of various references
and extensive related literature
 CONCLUSION:
formulating generalization about the
results that may accept, reject or
modify the hypothesis

• Experimental data are analyzed

• Repeatability of the experiment led to
more accurate and reliable findings
THEORIES – tested scientific results that contribute to the existing body
of knowledge, explains the natural world, and are well-accepted by the
scientific community.
Lesson 1.4

LIFE AND ITS

BEGINNINGS
 The study of the origin of life is viewed
from different perspectives.
How did life came about on Earth?
 Early Beliefs About the Origin of Life
Theories about the origins of life are as ancient as human culture.

The Theory of
Spontaneous
Idea: Generation /
Proposed by Abiogenesis Concept:
Aristotle in the 4th small organisms are
century, a belief spontaneously
that last until 17th generated from
century. nonliving matter
 As time passes by, scientists
questioned this idea with an opposing
concept.

BIOGENESIS
A belief that life originates from
preexisting life.
Experiments
to prove
BIOGENESI
S
Studies to prove BIOGENESIS
FRANCESCO REDI
(1668)
• Italian physician who experimented on
fresh meat in jars
• Disprove the theory of spontaneous
generation, concluded that life arose
from living matter, such as maggots
from eggs
• In the first jar, with the meat sealed inside by a stopper, maggots did not
appear on the meat;
• in the second jar, covered with mesh, maggots also did not appear on the
meat;
• but in the third jar, without a cover, maggots did appear on the meat and
developed into flies.
Studies on Spontaneous Generation

JOHN NEEDHAM
(1748)
Using his microscope, an English
experimenter and priest, John
Needham, noticed that broths
made from meat were teeming
with microorganisms, so he put it
to his own test.
 Needham heated the broth, let it sit covered for several days, then observed
microorganisms in the fluid.

In Needham’s mind, this finding suggested that the lifeless broth had given rise to life.
But another scientist, an Italian named Lazzaro Spallanzani, thought that Needham must
have done something wrong. Perhaps, he hadn’t heated the broth to a high enough
temperature or for a long enough time.
Studies to prove BIOGENESIS
LAZZARO
SPALLANZANI (1767)
• He boiled broth in two bottles, left one
bottle open and one closed, and found
that new microorganisms appeared only
in the open bottle.

• His conclusion: the microorganisms

entered the bottle through the air; they
were not generated spontaneously in the
broth
 Spallanzani
performed
Needham's
experiment, but
also tested a
bottle of broth
that was closed
after boiling. He
found no
microorganisms
grew in the
closed bottle.
Experiments seeming to prove or disprove
spontaneous generation of life went on for another century.

Because of the difference between closed and open vessels,

arguments focused on the possibility that
spontaneous generation of life might require fresh air. Thus, lack
of air in Spallanzani’s closed bottle could have been a factor
confusing the results.
Pasteur: Ummm, I
don’t think so!!!
?
=
+
19th Century Advancement
LOUIS PASTEUR
(1861)
• He designed flasks with long, specially
curved, swanlike necks and boiled the
sugar solution with yeasts in it.
• The flasks were open to allow air to
enter but there’s no organism developed
in the mixture.
• Microorganism settled on the bottom of
the curved neck of the flask and could
not reach the mixture.
• Then he cut the neck of the
flask, and after two days, was
teeming with microorganisms
because they can easily enter it.

• The solution in Pasteur’s special

flasks did not become infested
with microorganisms despite
being exposed to fresh air.

• This suggests that new bacteria

appear only when they are
produced by existing bacteria.

And so, after a run of centuries, the hypothesis of spontaneous

generation was finally laid to rest.
 CURRENT Beliefs
About the Origin of Life
 Current Beliefs

Divine Spontaneous
Panspermia
Creation Origin
 DIVINE CREATION

• Oldest belief that life came from a divine

being
• Supernatural power than naturalistic means
• Creationism – the belief that life arose
from nothing but the power of divine being
SPONTANEOUS ORIGIN

• Simple molecules combined to form complex

ones
• Energy – lighting, geothermal, electric sparks
• PRIMORDIAL SOUP – organic broth on
Earth’s early surface
 Miller-Urey experiment suggested that
lightning may have helped trigger the creation
of the key building blocks of life on Earth
during the earliest time periods.
Panspermia • Swedish scientist Svante
Arrhenius
• Life arose outside Earth and
life forms were transported
from another planet to seed life
on Earth
• A meteor or cosmic dust may
have carried to Earth
significant amounts of organic
molecules, which started the
evolution of life.
 Despite the influx of
information, the
question about how life
began on Earth remain
unanswered because there
is no account on what
happened 4.5 billion
years ago.
 Chapter 1
BIOLOGY:
It’s All About You
Lesson 1.5 – Unifying Themes about Life
Lesson 1.6 – Biology Careers in the Twenty-
First Century
Lesson 1.7 – Twenty-First Century Biology:
Bird’s Eye View
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• Describe how unifying themes in the study
of life show the connections among living
things and how they interact with each
other and their environment
• Identify careers in Biology
• Cite and explain examples of biological
advances and how they affect daily life
 All organisms share common
characteristics that guide in defining
what life means.

What characteristics do all living things

share?
 PROPERTIES OF LIFE
• GATHERING AND USING ENERGY
(Nutrient Uptake and Processing)

• MAINTAINING INTERNAL BALANCE

(Excretion and Homeostasis)

• RESPONDING, ADAPTING AND EVOLVING

(Motility, Irritability, Adaptation)

• REPRODUCING AND CONTINUING LIFE

(Growth, Development, Reproduction, Heredity)

• LIVING AND INTERACTING

(Levels of biological organization in vertical and horizontal dimensions)
 Gathering and Using Energy
• Using energy and matter for survival
• All living things require ENERGY,
which is produced when complex
organic matter are broken down into
simpler units
• CELLULAR RESPIRATION – the
C6H12O6 + 6O2  6H2O + 6CO2 + energy process by which energy is released
by the breakdown of food
substances
• METABOLISM – chemical processes,
reactions and energy changes
happening inside the body of an
organism
 Gathering and Using Energy
NUTRIENT UPTAKE AND PROCESSING

• NUTRITION – the process by which

organisms acquire food
• Plants absorb water and minerals from
the soil and take CO2 from the air
• Animals feed / consume organic food
obtained from plants and animals
• Living organisms process these raw
materials inside their bodies through
various chemical reactions for essential
activities of the human body.
Nutrient Uptake and Processing
 Maintaining Internal Balance
WASTE ELIMINATION

• Enzymes ensure efficient coordination during chemical reactions inside the

organism’s body. (Metabolic Level)
• Hormones are chemical regulators of the body as they control the functions of
activities, growth and development. (Organismal Level)
• HOMEOSTASIS – maintenance of the body’s internal environment
• Organ systems work together to keep the organism alive
 Excretion and Homeostasis
• EXCRETION – process of eliminating wastes from
the body
• HOMEOSTASIS – maintaining internal balance
 Responding, Adapting, and
Evolving
• Organisms react to changes in their
surroundings in a predictable and
meaningful way.
• Motility
• Irritability
• Adaptation
 Responding, Adapting, and
Evolving
MOTILITY and IRRITABILITY

• Motility or Locomotion – movement • Tropism or response – reaction of

• Animals move for a variety of reasons organism
– for food, for reproduction and for • Sensitivity or irritability – ability to
response to changes in the respond appropriately against a
environment. stimulus
 Adapting and Evolving
ADAPTATION and EVOLUTION

• ADAPTATION is the ability to adjust to • EVOLUTION – change over time

changes in the environment • Evolutionary adaptation is a gradual
• Limited food supply, temperature or rapid change in body structure or
fluctuations and natural calamities behavior to be better suited and to
may be experienced by the organism survive a new environment
 Reproducing and Continuing Life
GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT

• GROWTH – increase in size and

volume through the body cells
• INTUSSUSCEPTION – growth
from within the cells
• ORGANOGENESIS – complex
processes of cell differentiation
and formation of new organs • DEVELOPMENT – undergoing defined
• ACCRETION – external addition stages of living things’ life cycle
of substances
 Reproducing and Continuing Life
REPRODUCTION and HEREDITY

• REPRODUCTION – the process of HEREDITY : Unity in Diversity

passing genetic information to The presence of DNA in every living
produce offspring organism explains the unity of life.
HUMAN CCAAGGTCACGACTACTCCAATTGTCACAACTGTTCCAACCGTCACGACTGTTGAACGA
CHIMPANZEE CCAAGGTCACGACTACTCCAATTGTCACAACTGTTCCAACCGTCA TGACTGTTGAACGA
GORILLA CCAAGGTCACAACTACTCCAATTGTCACAACTGTTCCAACCGTCACGACTGTTGAACGA

Genetic code of chimps and gorillas is almost identical to humans

• Atoms
• Molecules
• Organelles
• Cells
• Tissues
• Organs
• Organ Systems
• Organisms
• Populations
• Communities
• Ecosystems
• Biosphere
Biological organization in
vertical dimension
Biological organization in
horizontal dimension
 Career opportunities in biological
sciences are needed to solve societal
problems.

How can knowledge of biology improve

the lives of other people?
Twenty-first Century Careers
Traditionally, an Academician or Medical Doctors

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

Computer Analysts
Software Designers

(Bioinformatics)

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

 Lawyers
Legal experts
Molecular Biologists

(Medicolegal and
Criminal Laboratories)
Twenty-first Century Biology Careers
 Public servants and
consultants

(Government agencies)

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

 Geneticists

(insurance companies)

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

 Human
Resource
Managers

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

Science reporters,
editors and writers

(Mass Media)

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

 Experts and
researchers

(Agriculture and
Fisheries)

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

 Biologists

(field of research)

Twenty-first Century Biology Careers

 Genetic engineers
Molecular biologists
Biochemists
Pharmacologists
Immunologists
Twenty-first Century Biology Careers
 Biotechnology serves a multifaceted
role to sustain or improve the quality of
life.

How can advances in biotechnology make

products useful to humans?
BIOTECHNOLOGY is the application of biological concepts
and systems to make products beneficial to humans. It
uses the basic molecules of life to make new products.
Biotechnology in BUSINESS
Biotechnology in AGRICULTURE
 Biotechnology in
FOOD PROCESSING
Genetically modified organism (GMO),
organism whose genome has been engineered
in the laboratory in order to favor the expression
of desired physiological traits or the generation
of desired biological products.
 Biotechnology in
ENERGY PRODUCTION
Biotechnology in MEDICINE
Biotechnology in PHARMACEUTICAL
Gene therapy involves the transfer of genetic material
into the appropriate cells. In genetic diseases,
the stem cells of the afflicted tissue are often targeted.
The adult stem cells of the tissue can replenish the
specialized cells.
Humanized organs in animals for human transplantation
DOLLY, the first cloned sheep
 Organisms that have altered genomes are known as
transgenic. Most transgenic organisms are generated in
the laboratory for research purposes.