Learning Objectives

 Define biology and explain it's importance

 Explore the evolving concept of life based on emerging
evidence
 Describe classic experiments that model conditions that
may have enabled the first life forms to environment
 Describe how unifying themes in the study of life show the
connections among living things and that they interact
with each other and their environment
 Identify the branches of biology and it's related
occupations
 Cite and explain examples of biological advances and how
they affect our daily life
Values
 Deeper understanding and respect for life
 Recognition and acceptance of one's strength's and
weaknesses
 Realizing the importance of biology and it's
practical applications to one's daily life
 Realizing the potential benefits and risks of
modern biological advances to society
 Making adjustments or decisions concerning the
importance or usefulness of biological advances to
life
 The Great Escape of Deadly
Viruses
Global warming is one of In 2014, Evolutionary
the most pressing biologists and researchers
problems that living at the Russian Academy of
organisms face in Science in Pushchino and
modern times. The Arctic France’s National Center
ice cap melts, glaciers for Scientific Research
turn into lakes, and (CNRS), Jean Michel
temperatures become Claverie and Chantal
more severe. Another Abergel revived a giant
concern of many scientist virus buried in siberian ice
is the potential thawing of
for 30 000 years. The virus
dormant viruses and
disease causing
can be seen by an ordinary
organisms within ice optical microscope and
sheets that could lead to was called Pithovirus from
an outbreak of deadly the Greek word pithos
diseases. meaning “large container to
store wine and water.”
Lesson 5.1 Biology deals with
 The Study of life
structure,
Nowadays, problems of global warming, food
shortage, escalating energy costs, functions and
overpopulation, disease outbreaks, endangererd relationships of
species, environmental pollution, stem cells, and organisms with
human genome are common headlines.
their environment
In the early part of twenty-first century, the Human
Genome project was completed and it was hailed
as one of the most significant scientific endeavors
ever accomplished.
With this momentous scientific milestone , the
current has been dubbed as the “Century of
Biology” ushering revolutionary ways in solving
challenges in health care, agriculture, energy
productive, environmental remediation, global
warming and other problems that threaten
mankind.
Biology unravels a story that started at least
3.8 billion years back in an aquatic environment
devoid of life. The first living cells same about as a
result of ancient events wherein lifeless matter (atoms
and molecules) became organized into an entity
capable of capturing and using energy and raw
materials, capable of sensing and responding to the
environment, and reproducing its own kind. Provided
with genetic materials that can change, the first living
things evolved from one generation to the next,
resulting in the present diversity of living
microorganisms, plants, and animals.
Biology literally means “study of life”. It comes from two
Greek words, “bios” (life) and “logos” (reason or study).
Biology is the science that deals with structures, functions,
and relationships of living things and their environment. It
is a broad field and may be studied at various level—
molecular, cellular, organismal, population, community, or
ecosystems. Traditionally, there are three major division of
the biological sciences:

 Microbiology – study of microorganisms

 Botany – study of plants
 Zoology – study of animals

These major divisions may be further subdivided into

specialized branches that often correlate overlap with one
another. Some of these branches of biology include:
Taxonomy – naming and Cytology – structures and
classifying organisms functions of cells
Embryology – formation Anatomy – structures and
and development of parts of organisms
organisms
Physiology – functions of Biochemistry –
living organisms and their biochemical compositions
parts of living things
Genetics – heredity and Evolution – origin and
variations differentiation of various
organisms
Ecology – relationships of organisms with their environment
New subdisciplines in biology have emerged because of
the rapidly changing technology, and these modern
branches of biology include:

 Molecular biology- molecules that make up the cells of

living organisms
 Genomics- genetic material (genome) of an organism
 Proteomics- different proteins (proteome) found in a
living organism
 Immunology- immune system
 Bioinformatics- biological data using computer
programs
Lesson 5.2
 Life and it's beginnings
Early beliefs about the origin of life. Centuries ago, people
were puzzled about how life originated on Earth. One belief
that governed their thinking is the theory of Spontaneous.
Spontaneous is the idea that life could appear from non-
living material. This idea was proposed by Aristotle in the
fourth century and held it's position as the belief on the origin
of life until the seventeenth century people in the past
believed that flies can grow from cattle manure , mice from
wheat scored in the dark , maggots from decaying meat, fish
from mud of previously dried lakes, or lice from sweat. As
time go by, scientist questioned this belief and began to
explore an opposing idea, biogeneous. Biogeneous is the
belief that life originates from presisting life. Since then,
several experiments have been conducted to prove these
contraficting beliefs to know how life came about.
 Virologist
Viruses are one of the most dangerous of living organisms in
the modern world. Viruses are minute infectious agents that
reproduce only in the living cells of their hosts such as humans,
animals, plants, and even bacteria. Scientists who specialize on
the study of viruses are called virologist. In the Philippines, a
bachelor's degree in biology or microbiology is the best shipping
stone to become a virologist. However, one must enrol in graduate
programs and certificate courses and attend intensitive training
seminars to be expert in virology. A virologist typically works in a
research laboratory, hospital, or research institutions in the
academy, government or private pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies. Since viruses are a very diverse group
of infectious agents virologists may be included in a variety of
expertise such as medical virology , plant virology, animal virology
and bacterial virology. Virologists may also work as science writers
in newspapers and science magazines or volunteers in health
organizations.
 Redi’s Experiment
In 1668, Italian physician Francesco Redi conducted an experiment
that challenged the idea of spontaneous generation. His experimental setup
involved disproving spontaneous generation using maggots that arose in
decaying meat. He designed the experiment using two sets of jars that were
identical but the other with a gauze covering. Redi observed that flies were
attracted to both jars but settled only on the meat of the open jar since the
gauze blocked flies from hovering onto the meat in the other jar. After several
days, Redi observed that maggots arose from eggs laid by flies on rotten
meat but not on the meat in the covered jar. He concluded that life arose from
living matter as maggots from eggs, not from spontaneous generation in the
meat.
 Needham’s Experiment
In 1748, English priest John Needham challenged Redi’s
experiment. It was a common knowledge at that time that boiling
could kill microorganisms. Needham’s experiment tested whether or
not microorganisms can appear spontaneously after boiling. He
placed a solution mutton broth in a container and heated it. Then he
scaled it with corks proving that it could prevent anything from the
environment from entering the flask and generate life. After several
days, Needham observed that the broth turned cloudly and full of
microorganisms. He then concluded that life in the broth was caused
by spontaneous generation. In actuality, he did not heat it long
enough to kill all the microbes in the broth.
 Spallanzani’s Experiment
In 1767, Italian scientist Lazzaro Spallanzani, challenged Needham’s
experiment. Spallanzani boiled a broth containing meat and vegetables
placed in clean glass containers. Both containers were boiled but one setup
was not sealed, allowing air to enter the flask. Several days later, the open
container was filled with a population of microorganisms but the sealed
container remained sterile. He concluded that life occurred from something
that entered the unsealed flask and that it was the one responsible for life to
grow. The results were not taken completely by the believers of abiogenesis
who even stated that Spallanzani excluded air from his sealed flasks, which
they believed was needed for spontaneous generation to occur.
 Pasteur's Experiment
It was only in 1861 through Louis Pasteur's experiment that most scientists
were convinced this spontaneous generation could not occur. Pasteur designed an
experiment to test the idea that a vital elements from air was necessary for life to
occur. He boiled sugar solution with yeast in flasks with long neck. The flasks were
left open to allow the vital element in air ti enter but no organisms developed in the
mixture. It was because the microorganism that settled on the bottom of the curved
neck of the flask and could not reach the mixture. He also cut the neck of the flask
and within 2 days, the solution was teeming with microorganisms because airborne
microorganisms could easily enter the flask. This experiment supported the theory of
biogenesis and disproved spontaneous generation. This evidence suggests that new
bacteria appear only when they are produced by existing bacteria.
Current beliefs about the origin of life
At the time it was widely agreed that stromatolites were
the oldest known life forms on earth which had left a record
of its existence therefore, if life originated on earth, this
happened sometime between 4.4 billion years ago. When
water vapor first liquefied and 3.5 billion years ago.

Divine creation
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and
aspects such as the universe, earth, life, and humans,
originated with supernatural acts of divine creation
 Spontaneous origin
Spontaneous generation refers to an obsolete body of thought
on the ordinary formation of living organisms. The theory of
spontaneous generation held that living creatures could arise from
nonliving matter and that such processes were common place and
regular
 Panspermia
The Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius popularized the idea
that life arose outside Earth and life that forms were transported from
another planet to seed life on Earth. Panspermia proposes that a
meteor or cosmic dust may have carried to Earth significant amounts
of oragnic molecules, which started the evolution of life. In 1966, a
meteorite that was found in Antartica, suggested that is had been
ejected from Mars possibly by a collision with an asteroid. The
meteorite contained presence of complex oraganic molecules and
small globules, which resemble those found on Earth.
Despite the inlflux information, the question about how life began
on Earth remained unanswered because there is our account about
what happened 4.5 billion years ago.
 Lesson 5.3
 Unifying Themes About Life
We are surrounded by living and nonliving things but sometimes,it is
not easy to decide which ones are living and which ones are not.Living
things on Earth shate common charactereristics or properties typically not
found in inanimate things. though the properties of life discussed below
are typical of all living organisms,some of them may not be present in an
organism at every point in its life cycle. One particular example pertains to
reproduction and growth wherein some organism may have reached a
point in their life that stop reproducing.
 GATHERING AND USING ENERGY
One unique charateristics of living things is the ability to use energy
And matter to ensure survival.energy is the ability of organism to do work
that allows them to move. In order to perform vital activities such as
growth , movement , and reproduction , all living things require energy .
Green plants obtain energy from sunlight by means of photosynthesis.for
humans and animals , energy is derived from other organism or food.
Energy is produced when complex organic matter such as carbohydrates
and proteins are broken down unto simple substances such as glucose
and amino acids.the process by which energy is released by the
breakdown of food substances is called cellular respirations. Consider a
car that converts the energy stored in gasoline in order to move.Do you
think nonliving things like the car also undergo respiration?
 NUTRIENT UPTAKE AND PROCESSING
All livung organism need to feed in order to survive,grow,and
reproduce. The process by which organism acquire food is called nutrition. In
plants, nutrition is performed by absorbing water and minerals from the soil
and carbon dioxide from the air. Animals,nongreen plants,and some
microorganisms feed on organic food obtained from plants and other
animals. These acquired foods are the sources of energy. Nonliving things
also absorb water and minerals, like in the case of a filter paper or a ball of
catton. But unlike living things, they are unable to convert the body, it will be
processed through various chemical reactions for
repair,reproduction,manufacture of new body pairs or continuous supply of
energy for activities. The Golden Rice is a genetically engineered rice that
contains provitamin A (b-corotene) intended for the benefit of mankind. It was
developed to help treat and prevent vitamin A deficiency (VAD) , which is the
major cause of blindness and corneal afflictions worldwide with 500 000
children affected each year. It was created by Ingo potrykus (swiss federal
institute of technology) in 1992-2000. Golden rice 2 was recently generated,
which contains higher B-corotene levels providing more adequate amounts of
provitamin A in children's diets in southeast Asia
 WASTE ELIMINITION
Inside the body of the organism,all
metabolic processes must be
coordinated and regulated. In the
metabolic level, the chemical reaction
are processed to ensure efficient
coodinatiom via enzymes. Enzymes
help regulate the rate at which these
reaction occur including the amount of
nutrients to be processed into other
forms. In the. Organismal level,
regulatory chemicals in the form of
hormones control the functions of
activities , growth, and development.
The different organ systems help control
the internal environment and maintain
normal processes such as heart
rate,body temperature,and fluid
environment of cells. The
maintenance of the body's internal
environment is called bomeotasis.
Although different organ systems
perform individualized functions, they
all work together to achieve a
coordinated goal and that is to keep
the organism alive.
 MOTILITY
Most animals can move from one place to another by walking
flying ,swimming, gliding,or jumping. Such movement is called
locomotion or motility. Corals may not appear to be moving all
the time but rather they are attached to a substrate after
reaching adulthood compared during their juvenile stage. Some
animals such as sponges cannot locomore but can move parts
of their bodies. Plants also show slow movements of body parts
like in flowers blomming,tendrils clinging for support, shoots
bending toward light, and vines creeping as they grow.
Microorganisms also move from place to place using their
locomotory organs such as cilia,flagella,or pseudopods. Animals
exhibit movement for variety reason- in search for food, process
of reproduction , and respose to changes in the movement.
Nonliving things also move but their movement is dependent on
external forces,sush as wind or water current . Living things
move in a directed and controlled fasion..
 IRRITABILITY
External factors of stimuli sush as light, sound,
temperature,pressure,food sources,or presence of chemical
substances affect living things. The reaction of an organism to stimuli
is called tropism or response. The ability of an organism yo respond
appropriately against a stimuli is called sensitivity or irritability,
houseflies are easily attracted to omelly foods. Sunflowers band their
stalk and follow the sun's direction. A baby cries when hungry. Im all
these examples, a stimuli caused the organism to respond in a
predictable way.
 ADAPTATION
For living things to survive and perform normal functions, the ability to
adjust to changes in the environment is a must, living things need to
adapt because the environment where they temperatures and relative
humidity fluctuate, and natural calamities occur. Individual adaptation
usually happens more slowly than responding to stimulus because it
requires some changes to occur in the organism. For example, your body
will produce more red blood cells in response to lower oxygen levels. This
is the reason why athletes practice endurance in elevated areas with low
levels oxygen. This practice will enable the body to produce more oxygen,
which will be delivered yo its muscle cells and thus give the athletes more
advantage once they are in the lowlands. Some plants may adjust their
individual adaptation depending on the length of the day. Lengthening of
days may stimulate their flowers yo bloom earlier.
 EVOLUTION
Several competing theories surround the dawn of the
dinosaurs from super volcanoes, asteroid impact, and
prehistoric climate change. One theory claimed that a
meteor strike produced high quantities of sulfate
parricle, which shielded Earth's surface from receiving
more sunlight. The inability of solar energy to enter
Earth atmosphere caused a long cold spell, which
persisted for years called the ice age. Dinosaurs
became extinct because they failed to adapt
themselves in characteristics of a group of organism
(populations) over time. Evolutionary adaptation is a
gradual or rapid change in body structure or behavior to
be better suited and to survive a new environment.
 Growth
 A farmer soaks "palay" seeds in water to germinate them into
seedlings, which later grow up be mature palay plants that produce
rice grains. A duck egg hatches into a duckling and grow up to be an
egg-laying mature duck. Bacteria split by cell division Ang accumulate
enough nutrients to be come mature bacteria cells. This process of
growth of common to all 'IIving things. Growth is an increase in size
and volume by converting food to become a part of body cells. Living
things exhibit growth from within the cell in a process called
intecisusception. Among multicellular organism, growth involes more
complex process of cells diffirentiation and formation of new organs or
organogenesis. Growth in Large organism involve the increase in
number of body cells, Nonliving things some times also growth. Have
you heard of a Living stone or "batong buhay" Nonliving thing growth
but only accretion. Which is growth by external addition of substance.
Flg 5-13- growth is an increase in size and volume growth is also
anodated with the replacement of damage of cells. Death of cells. And
growth of new cells
“Frankenfish” declare safe to eat
 The fish transgenic animal. The GM salmon.was
declared safe to eat by the U.S federal drugs
administration on December 2012 this was announced
after a 17-years Old long procedure for regulatory
approval. The salmon was develop by Aquabounty.
Which consists of a normal Atlantic salmon with it's
genetic material modified with genes Coming from a
Chinooks salmon and ocean pout. The genetically,
modified salmon has the ability to reach maturity
faster than a normal salmon and can achieve it's adult
weight in 8 months instead of 36 months or three
years. A genetically modified salmon next (top) to a
form salmon of the some age.
Development and Reproduction
 All living things undergo  Organisms reproduce in
defined stages in their lives two ways
cycle called development,  Sexual Reproduction-
which starts with birth and organisms reproduce with
ends in death. the use of two individuals
Reproduction is a process contributing these sex cells
by which genetic to produce a unique
information is passed on individual of their kind.
from one generations to
another as organisms  Asexual Reproduction-
produce offspring when two organism makes
copies to itself, as
commonly found in lower
life forms.
Asexual Reproduction
Heredity: Unity Amidst diversity
 Animals, plants and microorganisms carry the common genetic
material DNA, which is the common molecule of life that carries the
instructions for assembling protein that is responsible for forming a
variety of structures. The presence of DNA in every living organisms
explains the unity of life. DNA differentiates a living organism from a
nonliving thing. The molecular structure of DNA accounts for its
ability to be used as a genetic material.
Organization of Life
 The scope of life on earth is so immense but it can be simplified by
viewing it in two dimensions. The vertical dimension spreads the scope
in terms of size scale from microscope DNA inside cells to the
macroscopic view of the living sphere of the world, the biosphere. This
dimension follows a path known as the hierarchical levels of biological
organization.
 Living things exhibit a high degree of organization from molecular to
cellular level. The cells of animals, plants or microorganisms are made
up of living protoplasm with organelle and membranes, each performing
an organized activity. Each organelle is made up of a complex
organization of organic (nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and
fats) and inorganic compounds (water). These organic and inorganic
compounds are made up of basic elements like carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen. For multicellular organisms such as plants and animals, the
level of organization is more complex. Groups of cells form tissues and
different tissues form organs. Different organs comprise an organ
system with a specialized function. An organism is made up of different
organ systems with individualized but coordinated functions.
The organism interacts with each other organisms of the same kind
known as population, while an array of populations sharing their habitat
compose a community. These communities _ an environment affected
by both living and non living components known as ecosystem. All
ecosystems on Earth whether they support life on land , water or lower
atmosphere make up what we call the biosphere. All the interactions
happening in the distant biosphere the intricacies of the inner cell
inspire biologists attempts to investigate at its many levels, shedding _
the many questions about our very own nature.
 The immensity of the biological realm can also be viewed in a
horizontal dimension to show the diversity and richness of
organisms inhabiting our planet. To date, biologists have so far
named and classified about 1.8 million different organisms.
Estimates of about 10 million to 200 million organisms are yet be
identified. To make sense of these enoumus numbers of organisms,
biologists classified them into 3 groups known as the 4 domains of
the living based on their similar characteristics. Advances in the
comparison of DNA sequences led to reclassification of organisms
into the six kingdoms of life which are organized under the three
overaching domains.
Lesson 5.4
Twenty first Century
 Biology: A bird's Eye View
 Because of the availability of modern techniques in the study of
biology, advances in the field are moving at a tremendous rare.
Noteworthy are the developments in biotechnology and medicine.
 Biotechnology is defined as the application of biological concepts
and systems to make products beneficial to man. It uses the basic
molecules of life to make new products. It is currently being used in
many areas such as business, agriculture, bioremediation, food
processing, energy production ,medicine and pharmaceuticals.
Biotechnology is not new field as it has been used for decades in
the manufacturer of beverages, cheese bread, milk, and many other
products in the Philippines, traditional biotechnology is used in the
production of nata de coco, bagoong, local wines and other
fermented products.
 Today, biotechnology encompasses manufacturing processes that
include the advances in genetic engineering such as recombinant
DNA technology, monoclonal antibodies and bioprocess technology.
It applies to any technique that manipulates or mimics a natural
process to improve one's physical and economic well-being.
 In biology, biotechnology is used to increase crop yield improve
crop quality, and reduce production costs. Genetically modified
(GM), crops such as seedless watermelons, banana with longer
shelf life, extra large tomatoes and vitamin-fortified corn are now
available. Some crops are genetically engineered to fight plant
diseases.
 In the field of medicine, biotechnology is used in _ production of
medicines and supplements. The most _ example is insulin that
synthetically produced using _. Transgenic animals are also
products of biotechnology. There are pigs with humanized organs
to be used for humans organ transplantation.