General Introduction to Biology

Objectives

Chapter 1:  The Science of Biology

1.                  What 7 basic characteristics do all living organisms share?

2.                  The biological world is hierarchical.  Describe the hierarchy for the following levels:

a.       The cellular level

b.      The organismic level

c.       The population level

3.                  There are two basic types of reasoning.  What are they and explain the difference between them.

4.         What is a hypothesis?  How is it tested?

5.         In an experiment, what are controls? What are variables?

6.         What is a theory?  How do scientists use the term?

7.         What are the steps of research?

8.         On what observations and theories did Darwin use to develop his evolutionary theory?

9.                  What was the contribution of the economist Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population?

10.       Explain natural selection and artificial selection.

11.       What other information is used to support the theory of evolution? (at least 5 lines of evidence)

12.       What are the 4 themes that unify biology?

Chapter 2:  The Nature of Molecules

1.   What is an element?  How many naturally occurring elements are there? (in section on periodic table)

2.   Describe the structure of an atom (include charges).

3.   What are isotopes?

4.   In what order are the orbitals/energy levels filled?

5.   What is the atomic number?

6.   What is the atomic weight?

7.   What are the outer-most orbitals like in an unreactive atom? (they are full of electrons)

8.   What is a molecule?  What is a bond?

9.   What is an ion? 

10.  What is an ionic bond?  How is it formed?

11.  What is a covalent bond?  Is it stronger or weaker than an ionic bond?

12.  How many covalent bonds can a carbon atom form?  What are double and triple bonds?

13.  What are chemical reactions?  Give an example.

14.   How much of a living organism is water?

15.   Draw the structure of a water molecule.

16.   Why is water polar?  Draw the polarity.

17.   What is hydrogen bonding?

18.   Is hydrogen bonding strong or weak?  Is it permanent or fleeting?

19.   Define cohesion.  What is surface tension?  Give an example of the effect of surface tension.

20.   Define adhesion.  What is capillary action?  Where or how can capillary action be observed?

21.   What is “specific heat”?  Does water have high or low specific heat? 

When have you observed the specific heat of water and what impact does it have on life.

22.   Water has a high heat of vaporization.  What does that mean?

23.  What happens to the density of water as it gets colder?  At what temperature is it most dense? 

            What are the implications to life?

24.  Define solution, solvent and solutes.  Does a solution have to be liquid?

25.  Is water polar or nonpolar?  Do polar substances dissolve in water? 

Do nonpolar substances dissolve in water?

26.  What does hydrophilic mean?  Is it polar or nonpolar?

Give an example of a hydrophilic substance.

27.  What does hydrophobic mean?  Is it polar or nonpolar?

            Give an example of a hydrophobic substance.

28.  What is the ionization or dissociation of water?  Does most of the water dissociate?

29.  What is an acid?  What does it release in water?

30.  What is a base?  What does it release in water?  ( or What does it accept?)

31.  What is a pH scale?  What does it measure?  What are the acidic pH’s?  What are the basic pH’s?  What is neutral?

Chapter 3: The Chemical Building Blocks of Life

1.         Describe what I mean by “the carbon backbone”.  What does it determine?  What are hydrocarbons?  Are they polar? Are they hydrophobic?

2.  What is a functional group?

3.   What is a dehydration synthesis?  What does it accomplish?  Is it anabolic or catabolic?

4.  What is hydrolysis?  What does it accomplish?  Is it anabolic or catabolic?

5.  What are the four major classes of biochemicals?

6.  What are the functions of proteins?

7.  What building blocks are used to make proteins?

8.  What is the general structure of an amino acid?  How are they linked together?

9.  What two things help maintain a protein’s shape?

10.  What are chaperone proteins?

11.  What does “denatured” mean?  What causes it?  Can it be reversed?

12.  What are the 2 types of nucleic acids?  What are    their functions?

13.  What is a nucleotide?

14.  Describe a DNA molecule.  Describe a RNA molecule.

15.  How is a RNA molecule different from a DNA molecule? How is it similar?

16.  What are the 4 nitrogenous bases in DNA?  In RNA?

17.  What is ATP?  What does it do for cells?

18.  What are lipids?  Are they polar or nonpolar?

19.  What are the functions of lipids?

20.  What is a phospholipid?  What part is hydrophilic?  What part is hydrophobic? 

            Why do they form lipid bilayers?

21.  Given a glycerol and 3 fatty acids, synthesize a fat. What kind of reaction is required?

22.  What are saturated fats?  What are their sources?  Are they generally liquid or solid?

23.  What are unsaturated fats?  What are their sources?  Are they generally liquid or solid?

24.  What is the general shape of a steroid?  Are they hydrophobic?  What is the role of cholesterol?  

       What do the other steroids do?

25.  What is a carbohydrate?  What ratio of atoms does it have?

26.  What is a monosaccharide, disaccharide, polysaccharide?

            Give examples of each.  Are they polar?

27.   Recognize the 3 forms of glucose. (Is it a mono, di or polysaccharide?)  What is the role of glucose

            in organisms?

28.   Given the initial structures for alpha-glucose and fructose, make a condensation reaction to form the

            disaccharide sucrose.   

29.   What is the difference between starch (or glycogen) and cellulose?  What effect does that difference

            have on the digestion of those compounds?

Chapter 4-The Origin and Early History of Life

1.  What are the fundamental properties of life?

2.  What 3 theories did the text give for the origin of life?

3.  The best known hypothesis is that life began at the ocean’s edge.  Explain this hypothesis.  What supports this idea and what are its weaknesses.

4.  The hypothesis that is gaining in popularity is that life began at the ocean’s deep sea vents.  What are these and what kinds of organisms that live there are we interested in from an origin of life stand point.

5.   What is the theory of chemical evolution?  How does the Miller-Urey experiment fit in.  What was Oparin’s “bubble hypothesis”?

6.   What elements were present on prebiotic earth?  Was molecular oxygen present?

7.  What are the oldest fossils?  When are they dated to?

8.  What are archaebacteria?  What types of environments do they often live in?  How does this tie into

the deep sea vent origin of life hypothesis?

9.   What are bacteria?  What role did they play in the formation of the modern atmosphere?

10.   List the characteristics of eukaryotes. 

11.  Learn the characteristics of each of the 6 Kingdoms of classification used by your textbook.

            (Prokaryote or eukaryote; cell wall?; single or multi-cell; mode of nutrition; examples)

12.       Be able to draw a time line containing the hypothetical dates of when earth formed, first organisms arose, first oxygen-generating cyanobacteria and first eukaryotic cells formed.