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Biology Lecture Notes

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6 views5 pages

Biology Lecture Notes

kopkppkpokpokp

Uploaded by

kolbe1walsh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Characteristics of living things

A few characteristics of living things

● Energy use
● Cellular organization
● The ability to reproduce
● Growth + development
● Homeostasis
● The ability to adapt
● Respone to their environments

What do you know about non living things?

They have the ability to influence, alter a habitat, and impact its life.

1. Living things are made of cells

● Single celled organisms have everything they need to survive and be


independent.
● Multiple celled organisms specialization increases until some cells do
certain things.
● There is both mocecular and cellular organization.
● Living things must be able to organize simple substances into complex
ones.
● Living things orangize 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.

2. Living things obtain and use energy

What are ways that living things gain energy?

● All living things must acquire energy from their environment.


● Plants and photosynthetic bacteria and algae get energy from the Sun.
● Animals get energy from eating plants or other animals.
● Bacteria and fungi get energy from decaying plants and animals.

3. Living things respond to their environment

How do you think living things respond to their environment?

Do plants respond?

How about animals?


● Living things will make changes in response to a stimulus in their
environment.
● A behavior is a complex set of responses.

4. Living things grow and develop

● 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.

5. Living things reproduce

● Reproduction is not essential for the survival of individual organisms, but


most occur for a species to survive.
● All living things reproduce in one of the following ways:

● Asexual reproduction– Producing offspring without the use of gametes.


● Sexual reproduction– Producing offspring by the joining of sex cells.

6. 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.
● As the environment changes species must also change to survive or go
extinct

7. Living things are made of DNA

● Living things are based on a universal genetic code


● All organisms store their complex genetic information they need to survive
in a genetic code stored in a molecule called DNA

8. Living things maintain homeostasis

● Homeostasis: A process by which organisms keep their internal conditions


relatively stable
● Example: How do humans maintain the same body temperature?

● Sweat
● Shiver

● Maintain a relatively constant internal environment, pH, temp, and salinity.

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