Biology Terms to Know Essay

Biology Lecture Terms to Know Biology- is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Characteristics of Life 1. Living Things are Composed of Cells: * Single-cell organisms have everything they need to be self-sufficient. * In multicellular organisms, specialization increases until some cells do only certain things. 2. Living Things Have Different Levels of Organization: Both molecular and cellular organization.

Living things must be able to organize simple substances into complex ones. Living things organize cells at several levels: * Tissue – a group of cells that perform a common function. * Organ – a group of tissues that perform a common function. * Organ system – a group of organs that perform a common function. Organism – any complete living thing. 3. Living Things Use Energy: * Living things take in energy and use it for maintenance and growth. 4.

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Living Things Respond To Their Environment: * Living things will make changes in response to a stimulus in their environment. A behavior is a complex set of responses. 5.

Living Things Grow: * Cell division – the orderly formation of new cells. * Cell enlargement – the increase in size of a cell. Cells grow to a certain size and then divide. * An organism gets larger as the number of its cells increases. 6. Living Things Reproduce: * Reproduction is not essential for the survival of individual organisms, but must occur for a species to survive. * All living things reproduce in one of the following ways: – Asexual repoduction – Producing offspring without the use of gametes.

Sexual reproduction – Producing offspring by the joining of sex cells. 7. Living Things Adapt To Their Environment: * Adaptations are traits giving an organism an advantage in a certain environment. * Variation of individuals is important for a healthy species. Atom- The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons.

Molecules- the smallest physical unit of a substance that can exist independently, consisting of one or more atoms held together by chemical forces.Proton- a stable elementary particle of the baryon family that is a component of all atomic nuclei and carries a positive charge equal to that of the electron’s negative charge. Electron- a stable negatively charged elementary particle with a small mass that is a fundamental constituent of matter and orbits the nucleus of an atom. Neutron- a neutral elementary particle of the baryon family with a zero electrical charge and a mass approximately equal to that of a proton. Proton Number(Atomic Number)- the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom of an element and its isotopes, used to determine that element’s position in the periodic table.Mass Number- the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom of a particular substance.

Dalton(Atomic Mass Unit)- a unit used to express the masses of atoms and molecules, equal to one-twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 atom or about 1. 660 x 10-27 kg. Symbol-u Characteristics of Molecular(Electron) Shell- “1 shell” (also called “K shell”), followed by the “2 shell” (or “L shell”), then the “3 shell” (or “M shell”), and so on further and further from the nucleus. The shell letters K, L, M, .

.. are alphabetical.

Each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons: The 1st shell can hold up to two electrons, the 2nd shell can hold up to eight electrons, the 3rd shell can hold up to 18, and 4th shell can hold up to 32 and so on. Since electrons are electrically attracted to the nucleus, an atom’s electrons will generally occupy outer shells only if the more inner shells have already been completely filled by other electrons. However, this is not a strict requirement: Atoms may have two or even three outer shells that are only partly filled with electrons.

Charges on molecules(Elements) Group 1| | | |All are 1+| | | | | Group 2| | | | All are 2+| | | | | Group 3| | Sc   3+| Y    3+| La     3+| Ac   3+| | Group 4| | | | Ti   4+   3+| Zr   4+| Hf     4+| | | Group 5| | | | V   5+   4+| Nb   5+   3+| Ta   5+| | | Group 6| | | | Cr   3+   2+| Mo   6+| W   6+| | | Group 7| | | | Mn   2+   4+| Tc   7+| Re   7+| | | Group 8| | | | Fe   3+   2+| Ru   3+   4+| Os   4+| | | Group 9| | | | Co   2+   3+| Rh   3+| Ir   4+| | | Group 10| | | | Ni   2+   3+| Pd   2+   4+| Pt   4+   2+| | | Group 11| | | | Cu   2+   1+| Ag   1+| Au   3+   1+| | | Group 12| | | | Zn   2+| Cd   2+| Hg   2+   1+| | | Group 13| | | |Al   3+| Ga   3+| In   3+| Tl   1+   3+| | Group 14| | | | Ge   4+| Sn   4+   2+| Pb   2+   4+| | | Group 15| | | | Sb   3+   5+| Bi   3+   5+| | | | Group 16| | | | Po   2+   4+| | | | | Charges of negative ions| The charges on the representative non-metallic elements can generally be determined from their position in the periodic table. Except for hydroxide (OH-) any ion ending in –ide is an element from one of these groups, so you can locate it on the periodic table. | Group 15| 3-| | | | Group 16| 2-| | | | Group 17| 1-| | | | Group 18| No common ions| | | | Most polyatomic ions are negative.Their names never end in –ide. The only common positive exceptions are NH4+, H3O+, and Mercury(I) Hg22+| 1- ions| | | | acetate| CH3COO-| hydrogen sulfite (bisulfite)| HSO3-| benzoate| C6H5COO-| hydroxide| OH-| chlorate| ClO3-| hypochlorite| OCl-| chlorite| ClO2-| nitrate| NO3-| cyanide| CN-| nitrite| NO2-| dihydrogen phosphate| H2PO4-| perchlorate| ClO3-| hydrogen carbonate (bicarbonate)| HCO3-| permanganate| MnO4-| hydrogen sulfate (bisulfate)| HSO4-| thiocyanate| SCN-| hydrogen sulfide (bisulfide)| HS-| | | | 2- ions| | | | carbonate| CO32-| silicate| SiO32-| chromate| CrO42-| sulfate| SO42-| ichromate| Cr2O72-| sulfite| SO32-| hydrogen phosphate| HPO42-| thiosulfate| S2O32-| oxalate| C2O42-| | | | 3- ions| | | | borate| BO33-| phosphate| PO43-| | | Relationship between charges of elements and chemical reactions * The ability to balance chemical equations in terms of mass and charge Relationship between water(H2O) and Ice * Both made out of the same compound * 2 different states * Why does ice float on water? Ice floats because it is less dense than liquid water.

Compound- a substance formed by the chemical combination of elements in fixed proportions. * Examples:Isotope- each of two or more forms of a chemical element with the same atomic number but different numbers of neutrons. Radioactive Isotope- describes a substance such as uranium or plutonium that emits energy in the form of streams of particles, owing to the decaying of its unstable atoms. This energy can be damaging or fatal to the health of people exposed to it. Carbohydrate- a biological compound containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that is an important source of food and energy Protein- a complex natural substance that has a globular or fibrous structure composed of linked amino acids.Proteins are essential to the structure and function of all living cells and viruses.

* Structures: Lipid- a biological compound that is not soluble in water, e. g. a fat. The group also includes waxes, oils, sterols, triglycerides, phosphatides, and phospholipids. Steroid- any of a large group of natural or synthetic fatty substances containing four carbon rings, including the sex hormones Vitamin- an organic substance essential in small quantities to the metabolism in most animals. Vitamins are found in minute quantities in food, in some cases are produced by the body, and are also produced synthetically.Nucleic Acid- an acid of high molecular weight, e.

g. DNA or RNA, consisting of nucleotide chains that convey genetic information and are found in all living cells. * RNA- a nucleic acid containing ribose found in all living cells, essential for protein synthesis.

RNA also acts instead of DNA as the genetic material in some viruses. * DNA- a nucleic acid molecule in the form of a twisted double strand double helix that is the major component of chromosomes and carries genetic information.DNA, which is found in all living organisms except some viruses, reproduces itself and is the means by which hereditary characteristics pass from one generation to the next.

Essential and Non-Essential Elements * Essential * Nitrogen * Phosphorus * Potassium * Calcium * Magnesium * Sulfur * Boron * Chlorine * Iron * Manganese * Zinc * Copper * Molybdenum * Nickel * Silicon * Sodium * Cobalt * Selenium * Hydrogen * Oxygen * Carbon Non-Essential Major and Minor Elements Element| Percentage| Function| Oxygen| 65. 0| Part of all major nutrients of tissues; vital to energy production| Carbon| 18. | Essential life element of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats; building blocks of cells| Hydrogen| 9. 5| Part of major nutrients; building blocks of cells| Nitrogen| 3. 3| Essential part of proteins, DNA, RNA; essential to most body functions| Calcium| 1. 5| Form nonliving bone parts; a messenger between cells| Phosphorous| 1. 0| Important to bone building; essential to cell energy| Potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium each occur at 0.

35 percent or less. There are also traces of iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, iodine, zinc, fluorine, boron, aluminum, molybdenum, silicon, chromium, and selenium.Acid- a sour-tasting compound that releases hydrogen ions to form a solution with a pH of less than 7, reacts with a base to form a salt, and turns blue litmus red and a compound that can donate a proton or accept a pair of electrons to form a covalent bond with a base. Base- a compound that releases hydroxyl ions to form a solution with a pH greater than 7, reacts with acids to form salts, and turns red litmus paper blue and a compound that can accept a proton or donate a pair of electrons to form a covalent bond with an acid. H- a measure of acidity or alkalinity in which the pH of pure water is 7, with lower numbers indicating acidity and higher numbers indicating alkalinity. pH Range Chemical Bond- a force resulting from the redistribution of energy contained by orbiting electrons, which tends to bind atoms together to form molecules. * Hydrogen Bond- an electrostatic interaction between molecules of compounds in which hydrogen atoms are bound to electronegative atoms such as oxygen or nitrogen. The attraction between water molecules due to hydrogen bonds accounts for the relatively high boiling point of water.

Covalent Bond- describes a chemical bond in which the attractive force between atoms is created by the sharing of electrons * Ionic Bond- a chemical bond that is created during the formation of a compound by transfer of one or more electrons from one atom to another, the resulting oppositely charged ions being held together by attraction. * Van der Waals Bond- is the sum of the attractive or repulsive forces between molecules (or between parts of the same molecule) other than those due to covalent bonds, the hydrogen bonds, or the electrostatic interaction of ions with one another or with neutral molecules.Environment- a set of external conditions, especially those affecting a particular activity; all the external factors influencing the life and activities of people, plants, and animals.

Ecology- the study of the relationships between living organisms and their interactions with their natural or developed environment. Evolution- the theoretical process by which all species develop from earlier forms of life. According to this theory, natural variation in the genetic material of a population favors reproduction by some individuals more than others, so that over the generations all members of the population come to possess the favorable traits. the natural or artificially induced process by which new and different organisms develop as a result of changes in genetic material. Creationism- the belief that God created the universe. Atheist- a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Religion- people’s beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life; an institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine; a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by.

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