BIOL107 > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

Describe the steps of the scientific method:

A
  1. Observation - What you notice by using your senses to observe the natural world
  2. Question - Ask a question based on the observations(s) or other relevant information
  3. Hypothesis - A possible explanation for your observations that can be tested
  4. Prediction- If my hypotheses is correct, then what will happen
  5. Experiment/Test - A control way to test a hypothesis
  6. Results - Supports or rejects your hypothesis
  7. Conclusion - interpretation of what you learned
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2
Q

True or False?

All life on Earth shares a common ancestor.

A

True

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3
Q

True or False?

Humans evolved from chimps.

A

False

Humans and Chimps evolved from a common ancestor

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4
Q

True or False?

“Survival or the fittest” means that the fittest organisms in a population are those that are the strongest, healthiest and/or largest?

A

False

In evolutionary terms, fitness has a very different meaning than the everyday meaning of the word. An organism’s evolutionary fitness does not indicate its health, but rather its ability to get its genes into the next generation. The more fertile offspring an organism leaves in the next generation, the fitter it is. This doesn’t always correlate with strength, speed, or size.

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5
Q

True or False?

The process of mutation of DNA that generates genetic differences is random, but natural selection is not random.

A

True

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6
Q

True or False?

Evolution results in progress; organisms are always getter better through evolution.

A

False

There is no valid concept of “progress” in evolution. Natural selection results in the evolution of improved abilities to survive and reproduce; This does not mean that evolution is progressive. It allows the survival of individuals with a range of traits, not just those “perfectly suited to the environment; evolutionary change is not always necessary for species to persist. Mutation, migration, and genetic drift may cause populations to evolve in ways that are not useful and may actually be harmful

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7
Q

True or False?

Individual organisms can evolve during a single lifetime.

A

False.

Evolution happens because of mutation that happen during the pass-on of genes, and so can only happen on a long-term, generation by generation basis. Populations evolve, not individuals.

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8
Q

True or False?

Evolution usually occurs slowly and gradually.

A

False

Evolution can happen quite quickly, in geological terms.

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9
Q

What is Natural Selection?

A

The ability of the natural environment to “edit” a population’s heritable characteristics. Organisms that have advantageous characteristic are more likely to survive and pass them on the their descendants.

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10
Q

What are the three domains?

A

Bacteria
Archaea
Eukarya

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11
Q

Which of three domains of life are Prokaryotes?

A

Bacteria

Archaea

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12
Q

What is a Prokaryote?

A

An organism without a nucleus.

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13
Q

What is a Eukaryote?

A

An organism that’s cells have a nucleus that encloses the genetic material.

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14
Q

What are the Kingdoms of Eukarya?

A

Fungi
Plantae
Animalia
Protists

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15
Q

What are single-celled Eukaryotes calls?

A

Protists

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16
Q

What the levels of Biological organisation?

A
  1. Biosphere - All the environments on earth
  2. Ecosystems - All the living organism in an area, along with non-organic components that they interact with
  3. Communities - Entire array of organisms in an ecosystem
  4. Populations - All the individuals living of a particular species living within a defined area
  5. Organisms - Individual Organisms
  6. Organs and Organ Systems - A body part consisting of one or tissues that carries out a particular function in the body. Organ systems are groups of organs that cooperate to form a specific function.
  7. Tissues - Groups of similar cells
  8. Cells - The fundamental unit of structure and function of life. Consists of organelles and houses the genetic information of the organism.
  9. Organelles - Components that perform the functions of a cell
  10. Molecules - Chemical structures consisting of two or more atoms.
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17
Q

What is binomial nomenclature?

A

The two worded, unique scientific name given to an organism. First word is genus, second is species.

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18
Q

What are the characteristics that all life shares?

A
  1. Order - Living organism show high level of organisation
  2. Response to the environment - All living organisms sense and respond to their environment.
  3. Reproduction - Living organisms reproduce themselves using the hereditary material DNA.
  4. Growth and development - A new organism uses its DNA as a blueprint to grow and develop into an organism similar to its parent(s).
  5. Energy processing - Plants capture energy from the sun and convert it to sugars (or carbohydrates) by photosynthesis. Other organisms capture energy by consuming (eating) other organisms or parts of other organisms.
  6. Regulation - Organisms sense their internal environment and try to maintain it.
  7. Evolutionary Adaptions - Descent with modification or evolution. Over time populations (groups) of organisms change because inherited traits, caused by genetic mutations, are naturally selected for by their environment.
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19
Q

What is the difference between hypothesis and theory?

A

Hypothesis is a limited specific explanation for an observation. A theory is more comprehensive, and has been tested and confirmed many, many times over.

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20
Q

What is a control?

A

A group of samples that are treated the same way as the experimental group but do not receive the experimental treatment or factor. It provides a reference point to which to compare the hypothesis.

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21
Q

What is an experimental subject/group?

A

A round of samples that revive the experimental treatment or factor.

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22
Q

What is a variable?

A

Any factor that is different between the experimental and control groups or samples.

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23
Q

What is the independent variable?

A

The variable that is controlled by the experimenter and is not affected by any other factor.

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24
Q

What is the dependant variable?

A

The factor that is affected by the independent variable.

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25
What is a positive control?
A sample or group that is teated the same as the experimental factor and is known to give a positive result.
26
What is a negative control?
A sample or group that is treated the same as the expriementals factor and is known to give a negative result.
27
What is matter?
Matter is anything the takes up space and has mass. It consists of elements in pure form and in combinations called compounds.
28
What is an element?
A substance that can't be broken down to other substances by chemical reactions.
29
What is a compound?
A substance consisting of two or more elements in a fixed ratio. It has characteristics different from those of it's elements.
30
What are the four most important elements for life?
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen make up 96% of living matter.
31
What 4 elements make up the remaining 4% of life?
Calcium, phosphorous, potassium, and sulphur
32
What are trace elements?
Elements required by organism in minute quantities.
33
What is an atom?
The smallest unit of matter that still retains the properties of an element.
34
What are the three subatomic particles (for this class), and their charges?
Neutrons - No charge Protons - Positive charge Electrons - Negative charge
35
What is an atomic number?
The number of protons in the nucleus.
36
What is a mass number?
The sum of the protons plus the neutrons.
37
What is the atomic mass?
The approximate mass of that element, allowing for the abundance of different isotopes.
38
What is neutron and proton mass measured in?
Daltons
39
What is an isotope?
An atom of an element that differs in number of neutrons.
40
What is a radioactive isotope?
An isotope that spontaneously decays, giving off particles and energy.
41
What is energy?
It is the capacity to cause change.
42
What is potential energy?
The energy that matter has because of it's location or structure.
43
What is an electron's state of potential energy called?
It's energy level, or electron shell.
44
What is an electron orbital?
The three-dimensional space where an electron is found 90% of the time.
45
How many electrons can a shell accommodate?
The first shell can take 2 electrons, the shells after that can take up to 8.
46
What is the outermost shell of an atom called?
The valence shell. The electrons are called valence electrons.
47
What determines an elements chemical behaviour?
Mostly the valence electrons.
48
What happens if a valence shell is full?
The element is chemically inert.
49
What is a chemical bond?
The sharing and transferring of electrons between atoms with incomplete valence shells that hold them together.
50
What formula is this? H-H
Structural formula. The letter represents the element and the lines the bonds.
51
What type of formula is this? H2
Molecular formula. It represents the number of atoms of different elements in the molecules.
52
What its a molecule?
Two or more atoms held together by covalent bonds?
53
What is a covalent bond?
A bond formed by the sharing on a pair (single bond) or two pairs (double bond) of valence electrons.
54
What is the bonding capacity of an atom called?
Valence, and is determined by the number of atoms needed o complete the outer (valence) shell.
55
What is electronegativity?
The degree to which a particular atom attracts electrons in a covalent bond. The more electronegative an atom, the more it attracts the electrons.
56
What is a non polar covalent bond?
A covalent bond where the electron is shared equally. The atom is not charged.
57
What is a polar covalent bond?
A bond where one of the atoms is more electronegative and attracts the shared electron(s) more strongly. The electrons spend more time around the more electronegative atom. This results in a molecule with parts that are negatively charged (δ-) and parts that are more positively charged (δ+).
58
What is an Ionic Bond?
A bond formed by two atoms of opposite charge, because one of the atoms has stripped the electron from another, causing one to become positively charged and the other to be negatively charged.
59
What is a positively charged ion called?
Cation
60
What is a negatively charged ion called?
Anion
61
What is a hydrogen bond?
A bond formed when a slightly δ+ hydrogen atom, covalently bonded to a more electronegativel atom (e.g. Oxygen), is slightly attracted to another electronegative atom.
62
What are Van der Waals interactions?
Attractions between molecules that have "hot spots" of δ+ and δ- because of asymmetrically distributed electrons.
63
What determined a molecules shape?
The positions of it's atom's valence orbitals.
64
What are chemical reactions?
The making and breaking of chemical bonds?
65
What are the starting and finishing molecules in a chemical reaction called?
The starting molecules are called reactants, and the finishing molecules are called products.
66
True or False? All chemical reactions are reversible?
True
67
What is chemical equilibrium?
When the forward and reverse reaction rates are equal.
68
What are the four emergent properties of water?
- Cohesion - Ability to moderate temperature - Expansion upon freezing - Versatility as a solvent
69
What causes cohesion?
The hydrogen bonds of H2O.
70
What is adhesion?
An attraction between difference substances, e.g. water and plant cell walls, because of Van der Waals interactions.
71
What is surface tension?
A measure of how hard it is to break the surface of a liquid.
72
Why is water good at moderating temperature.
It has a high specific heat, so it takes a lot of energy to change the temperature, meaning it stays stable. It absorbs heat from warmer air and releases heat to cooler air.
73
What is kinetic energy?
The energy of motion.
74
What is heat?
The total amount of kinetic energy due to molecular motion.
75
What is temperature?
The intensity of heat due to the average kinetic energy of molecules.
76
What is a calorie?
The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1g of water by 1°C.
77
What is specific heat?
It is the amount of heat that must be absorbed or lost for 1g o that substance to change its temperature by 1°C.
78
What is the specific heat of water?
1 cal/g/°C
79
What is the reason for waters high specific heat?
Hydrogen bonds. - heat is absorbed when hydrogen bonds break - heat is released when hydrogen bonds form
80
How does the high specific heat of water make life possible?
It limits temperature fluctuations to within limits that permit life.
81
What is evaporation?
The transformation of a substance from a liquid to a gas.
82
What is heat of vaporisation?
The heat a liquid must absorb for 1g to be converted to gas.
83
What is evaporative cooling?
As a liquid evaporates, the remaining surface cools.
84
Why does ice float?
The ordered, hexagonal hydrogen bonds in ice are less dense than in liquid water.
85
At what temperature does water reach it's greatest density?
4°C
86
Why is it important to life that ice floats?
Floating ice insulates the water and prevents water below it from freezing. If it sank, all bodies of water would freeze from the bottom up, eventually becoming completely frozen and making life impossible.
87
What is a solution?
A liquid that isa homogenous mixture of substances.
88
What is a solvent?
The dissolving agent of a solution?
89
What is a solute?
The substance that is dissolved.
90
What is an aqueous solution?
A solution in which water is the solvent.
91
What makes water such a good solvent?
It's polarity, which allows it to easily form hydrogen bods.
92
What happens when an ionic compound is dissolved in water?
Each ion is surrounded by a sphere of water molecules called a hydration shell.
93
True or False? Water can also dissolve compounds made of nonionic polar molecules
True
94
True or False? Even large polar molecules such as proteins can dissolve in water if they have ionic and polar regions
True
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