Lecture 2

Question 1

When did the record of life start?

Answer 1

record begins ~3.8 billion years ago

Question 2

What do organisms require?

Answer 2

• organized complexity
• movement
• growth
• feeding
• elimination of wastes
• reproduction
• energy conversion
• response to stimuli

(fire has all these things. wowww so cool)

Question 3

Define life

Answer 3

• carbon-based cellular structures with controlled energy conversion (metabolism); ability to replicate, store and process information; with variations = ability to evolve (change over time)
• note: viruses are not organisms (not cellular), and not “alive”

Question 4

What are some of the common self-assembly organizations based on known physical and chemical principles?

Answer 4

• snowflakes
• crystals
• most cellular life processes of replication
• protein folding
• catalytic conversions
• all happen spontaneously, based on fundamental principles (like hydrogen bonding)
• also applies to higher levels, such as the formation of clouds, storm systems layered bacterial mats…

Question 5

What does LUCA stand for?

Answer 5

• Last Universal Common Ancestor

Question 6

what does LUCA mean?

Answer 6

• theoretical of life
• LUCA is the unknown most recent common ancestor of all current life on earth (not necessarily the first life form, but the first surviving one): basic genes shared by 3 domains
• likely formed near earth’s hydrothermal vents, where energy, raw materials, and other key conditions re present in seawater. NOT CONFIRMED

Question 7

what word did charles darwin never use?

Answer 7

• evolution
• he called it descent with modification

Question 8

What are the 3 domains based on genetic sequencing?

Answer 8

• Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota

Question 9

What are eucaryotes?

Answer 9

• have larger, more complex cells than procaryotes, with membrane-bound nuclei and organelles, b ut both have ribosomes (rRNA)
• animals, fungi, and land plants are the most common eucaryotes seen by humans

Question 10

What is taxonomy

Answer 10

naming and classifying

Question 11

What is phyla?

Answer 11

• the major branches of a tree representing different basic organization

Question 12

How do you write a binomial name?

Answer 12

in latin, comprised of Genus, followed by a species name, used in italics or underlined

ex.
- humas = Homo sapiends

Question 13

What is the binomial naming system called?

Answer 13

• Linnaean

Question 14

how do they come up with the name

Answer 14

• either descriptive or honor the discoverer

Question 15

What is evolution?

Answer 15

• change in the genetic characteristics of a population over time
• usually small changes (microevolution) but demonstrated to form new species (speciation), and also higher categories (genera, families, … , MACROEVOLUTION)

Question 16

What is a population?

Answer 16

• a group of individuals of the same species living in the same area at the same time
• individuals within a population do not evolve
• they may live or die, reproduce or not, but only the population can evolve

Question 17

does micro or macroorganisms evolve faster?

Answer 17

micro!

• like viruses

Question 18

What is the evolution of Coronavirus?

Answer 18

1. covid-19 (sars-cov-2) is a variant of sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus
2. omicron is a variant of covid-19, a more transmissible virus
3. omicron variants appear in Canada and elsewhere, (alpha, beta, gamma, delta)

delta - Kraken is more transmissible and spreads fast