Summary of Topics in Life Science. 1. What is Science? Today, the term "science" is used to describe the organized systematic study of anything that can.

Summary of Topics in Life Science

1. What is Science?• Today, the term "science" is used to describe the organized

systematic study of anything that can be examined (observed), tested, and verified true or false.

• Science is very useful it is also very limited not typically appropriate to address fundamental Biblical Truths or moral issues which are based upon belief and faith

• "Scientific Method" There are two ways the term "scientific method" can be used. – In general terms, any problem-solving method that solves problems in an

organized logical way, or "scientifically", can be called a scientific method. – "The Scientific Method", however, is used to describe the specific steps starting

with observation, then developing and testing a hypothesis a scientist uses to conduct research on some question.

– In order to follow the scientific method the hypothesis MUST be testable. For example, "Blue is the best color for a shirt" is not a testable hypothesis. "Blue hold it color better than any other color after 100 washings" would be a testable hypothesis.

2. Bible Creationism versus Evolution - What is the difference

• Therefore the Holy Scriptures we call the Bible is the ultimate authority for Christians. All interpretations of our physical world MUST be consistent with Scripture.– Bible states a 6 day creation

• "Theory" of Biological Evolution states that simple life was formed billions of years ago on Earth, by some yet unknown mechanism and slowly changed over billion of years to current forms– Deistic Evolution states that the God directed the

evolution

3. Characteristics of Life3.1 Structural Organization of Matter

• Atoms: the smallest component of an element made up of protons and neutrons he center and electrons on the outer edges having the chemical properties of the element.

• Molecules: a molecule is defined as a sufficiently stable, electrically neutral group of at least two atoms in a definite arrangement held together by very strong (covalent) chemical bonds.

• Cells: The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building brick of life.

• Organs: an organ is a tissue that performs a specific function or group of functions within an organism.

• Organ System: Groups of organs that perform related function such as circulatory, digestive, endocrine, excretory, integumentary, muscular, nervous systems.

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• Organism: In biology, an organism is any living thing (such as animal, plant, fungus, or micro-organism) that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently. In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole.

3.2 DNA Molecule and Life• Purpose of DNA: DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid molecule, is the

code for life. It is the chemical carrier of an organism's genes which acts a set of an instructions form which each living being can be created. Each species has a general set of genes called chromosomes, but the exact makeup of DNA is different in every individual.

• Structure of DNA: DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, has an elegantly geometric double helix structure that allows it to play its crucial role as the chemical carrier of an organism's genes. The backbone of the long DNA molecule is quite strong. It is made up of alternating sugars and phosphates linked through oxygen atoms. The bonds between these structures are covalent, and therefore difficult to break. This strong backbone helps guard the genetic information against destruction or mutation.

3.3 The Cell - Life’s Smallest Unit

3.4 Energy and Life

• The capture and use of energy in living systems is dominated by two processes: photosynthesis and respiration. Through these two processes living organisms are able to capture and use all of the energy they require for their activities.

3.5 Reproduction and Life• Reproduction is the biological process by which new individual

organisms are produced. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual organism exists as the result of reproduction. The known methods of reproduction are broadly grouped into two main types: sexual and asexual.

• In asexual reproduction, an individual can reproduce without involvement with another individual of that species. The division of a bacterial cell into two daughter cells is an example of asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is not, however, limited to single-celled organisms. Most plants have the ability to reproduce asexually.

• Sexual reproduction requires the involvement of two individuals, typically one of each sex. Normal human reproduction is a common example of sexual reproduction.

4. Classifying Life The Five-Kingdom System

• As of 2009, there are at least 1.7 million species of living organisms that have been discovered, and the list grows longer every year. To help organize the study of living things biology needed a life classification system.

• Since classification is not completely objective, there are several different specific classification

• that have been developed. But they all tend to have seven levels organization. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Genus, Species which can be remembered by the acronym: King Phillip Came Over For Green Soup.

4.1 Methods of Classification

• Ideally, classification should be based on homology; that is, shared characteristics that have been inherited from a common ancestor. The more recently two species have shared a common ancestor, the more homologies they share, and the more similar these homologies are.

• Until recent decades, the study of homologies was limited to anatomical structures and patterns of embryonic development. Since the birth of molecular biology, homologies can now also be studied at the level of proteins and DNA.

4.2 Kingdom Monera

• The Kingdom Monera consists entirely of the bacteria - very small one-celled organisms.

4.3 Kingdom Protista

• The protistia is no considered a grouping of 30 or 40 organisms with phyla with diverse combinations of trophic modes, mechanisms of motility, cell coverings and life cycles. The protista do not have much in common with each other besides being a relatively simple organization. They are either unicellular, or they are multicellular without specialized tissues. This simple cellular organization distinguishes the protistsa from other eukaryotes, such as fungi, animals and plants.

4.4 Kingdom Fungi• Though the appearance of many fungi may resemble plants, they

are not plants because fungi are not capable of performing photosynthesis. The get their nourishment from other sources. Many fungi absorb nutrients directly from t he soil. Many others feed on dead and decaying organisms and therefore have an important role in the recycling of nutrients in natural systems. Still others feed on living organisms. Athlete's foot is a common fungus which feeds on a living host - like you!

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• Fungi come in a wide variety of sizes and forms, and many have great economic importance. Tiny, one-celled yeasts are important for baking breads and fermenting wines, beers and vinegars. Many medicines are produced with the help of fungi, most notably, the antibiotic, Penicillin. If you leave your bread on the counter too long, you'll be able to observe a relative of the Penicillium mold for yourself!

4.5 Kingdom Plantae

• There are two things that distinguishes kingdom plantae from all the other kingdoms (1) that the cells of kingdom plantae have cell walls made of cellulose that are used to support the plant and (2) plants are capable of creating energy through photosynthesis.

4.6 Kingdom Animalia

• Animals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living things. Animals are organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes (eukaryotic) and are multicellular which separates them from bacteria and most protists. They also have resperaion has the way of converting energy in there bodies, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae

5. Energy and Life5.1 Life’s Energy Cycle

• The capture and use of energy in living systems is dominated by two processes: photosynthesis and respiration. Through these two processes living organisms are able to capture and use all of the energy they require for their activities.

5.1.1 Photosynthesis• Plants can capture the electromagnetic energy from the Sun by a chemical process called

photosynthesis. This chemical reaction can be described by the following simple equation:• 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy >>> C6H12O6 + 6O2

• The product of photosynthesis is the carbohydrate glucose and oxygen which is released into the atmosphere. All of the sugar glucose is produced in the specialized photosynthetic cells of plants and some other organisms. Glucose is produced by chemically combining carbon dioxide and water with sunlight. This chemical reaction is catalyzed by chlorophyll acting in concert with other pigment, lipid, sugars, protein, and nucleic acid molecules. Sugars created in photosynthesis can be later converted by the plant to starch for storage, or it can be combined with other sugar molecules to form specialized carbohydrates such as cellulose, or it can be combined with other nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, to build complex molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids.

• Because all the energy fixed by a plant is converted into sugar, it is theoretically possible to determine a plant's energy uptake by measuring the amount of sugar produced. This quantity is called gross primary productivity. Measurements of the buildup of sugar in the plant reflect gross primary productivity less respiration, or net primary productivity.

• In general, animals cannot produce their own energy via photosynthesis. Instead, they capture their energy by the consumption and assimilation of the biomass of plants or other animals. Thus, animals get the energy they need for maintenance of their bodies tissues, growth, and reproduction indirectly from photosynthetic organisms.

5.1.2 Respiration

• The oxidation of sugar by organisms is called respiration. This process occurs in both plants and animals. In most organisms, respiration releases the energy required for all metabolic processes. This chemical reaction can be described by the following simple equation:

• C6H12O6 + 6O2 >>> 6CO2 + 6H2O + released energy

• One of the products of respiration is energy, which is released via the chemical decomposition of glucose. Other products of this chemical reaction are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O).

5.2 Energy Use in the Body • The chemical equation of photosynthesis is the basic starting place for energy used in the human body. In photosynthesis, Six molecules of carbon dioxide plus six molecules of water in the

presence of sunlight yields one molecule of glucose.•

• 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + light energy =======> C6 H12 O6 + 6 O2.•

• An additional benefit of this process is that oxygen is formed as a by–product.•

• This chemical equation, however, reflects only the beginning and end of a complex process involving hundreds of chemical reactions, each of which depends on the orderly execution of all of the preceding reactions.

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• So much for plants. How do human beings, lacking as they are in leaves and chlorophyll, harvest energy from the sun?•

• Of course the obvious answer is by partaking of foods created through the above process.•

• What may not be so obvious is that our bodies are designed with complicated networks of diverse molecules, cells, tissues, organs and organ systems that collectively enable every one of our billions of cells to obtain the energy needed to sustain themselves and carry out their individual functions.

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• Our digestive and nervous systems facilitate the ingestion of food and contribute the enzymes that break down sugars and starches into glucose. The endocrine system contributes insulin which, along with glucose, is delivered to cell membranes via the circulatory system.

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• Once it is inside the cell some glucose gets converted to glycogen — a storage form of glucose — that acts as an energy reservoir. The rest is delivered to the batteries of the cell called mitochondria. Each microscopic mitochondrion contains hundreds of enzymes with highly specific tasks. As each enzyme does its work, a chemical reaction causes breaks in the chemical bonds of the glucose molecule producing a different glucose derivative until the original molecule has been fully degraded to the components from which it arose in the plant — carbon dioxide and water.

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• Whenever chemical bonds are broken, energy is released. The energy released as mitochondrial enzymes break up the chemical bonds in the glucose molecule that is used by the cell for two purposes.

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• The first purpose is to do the primary business of that particular cell, whether it be movement, nerve conduction, hormone production or whatever.•

• The second purpose is to nourish the genetic machinery of the cell (DNA), to keep its structure and function intact.•

• Whenever this whole process is dissected into its tiny details, it seems tedious and mechanical. But when you stop to think that a redwood, a whale and you and I are interconnected by virtue of our dependence on sunbeams it seems to be a miracle. We are all the sun's children, with plants serving as abundant, efficient intermediaries that sustain our life.

5.3 Calories and Food• Food energy is the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion.•

• Like other forms of energy, food energy is expressed in calories or joules. Some countries use the food calorie, which is equal to 1 kilocalorie (kcal), or 1,000 gram calories. In the context of nutrition, and especially food labeling, the calories are large calories approximately equal to 4.1868 kilojoules (kJ). The kilojoule is the unit officially recommended by the World Health Organization[1] and other international organizations. In some countries only the kilojoule is normally used on food packaging, but the calorie is still the most common unit in many countries.

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• Only carbohydrates (including fiber), fats, proteins, organic acids, polyols, and ethanol contain food energy. All foods are made up of a combination of these six nutrients. Everything else in food is non-caloric, including (but not limited to) water, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, caffeine, spices and natural flavors. Tea and coffee also have no calories without sugar or milk added. Nutritionists usually talk about the number of calories in a gram of a nutrient. Fats and ethanol have the greatest amount of food energy per gram, 9 and 7 kcal/g (38 and 30 kJ/g), respectively. Proteins and most carbohydrates have about 4 kcal/g (17 kJ/g). Carbohydrates that are not easily absorbed, such as fiber or lactose in lactose-intolerant individuals, contribute less food energy. Polyols (including sugar alcohols) and organic acids have fewer than 4 kcal/g.

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• Each food item has a specific metabolizable energy intake (MEI). Normally this value is obtained by multiplying the total amount of energy contained in a food item by 85%, which is the typical amount of energy actually obtained by a human after the digestive processes have been completed.

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• Some foods have significantly more Calories than others. For example an entire plate of broccoli contains the same number of Calories as a small spoonful of peanut butter. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average adult needs to consume about 2000 - 2500 Calories to maintain their weight. In other words, you have a fixed amount of Calories to "spend" each day.

5.4 Metabolic Rates • Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in

order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories. Catabolism breaks down organic matter, for example to harvest energy in cellular respiration. Anabolism, on the other hand, uses energy to construct components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids.

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• The chemical reactions of metabolism are organized into metabolic pathways, in which one chemical is transformed into another by a sequence of enzymes. Enzymes are crucial to metabolism because they allow organisms to drive desirable but thermodynamically unfavorable reactions by coupling them to favorable ones, and because they act as catalysts to allow these reactions to proceed quickly and efficiently. Enzymes also allow the regulation of metabolic pathways in response to changes in the cell's environment or signals from other cells.

6. The Human Body

6.1 Superstructure (Skeleton) of the Human Body

6.2 Muscles

6.3 Skin

6.4 The Human Digestive System

6.5 Circulatory System

6.6 Respiratory System

6.7 Lymphatic System

6.8 Tears

6.9 Urinary System

6.10 Endocrine System

6.11 Nervous System

6.11.1 Neurons: The Basic Unit of the Nervous System

6.11.2 Basic Layout of the Human Nervous System

6.11.3 The Brian6.11.4 The Peripheral Nervous

System (PNS)

6.11.5 Senses