Introduction To Modern Biology: Learning Outcomes
Introduction To Modern Biology: Learning Outcomes
Introduction To Modern Biology: Learning Outcomes
BIOLOGY
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, the students should be able to:
• Define biology;
• Characterize biology as a “unified science of life”;
• Enumerate the characteristics of life and explain the
significance of each;
• Explain the principles involved in the scientific inquiry;
• Assess the importance of studying biology as applied to
engineering field
Inquiring about life
• Order
- All living things are
both complex and
highly ordered.
- Your body is composed
of many different kinds
of cells, each
containing many
complex molecular
structures.
• Energy possessing/
energy utilization
- All organisms take in
energy and use it to
perform many kinds
of work.
- Every muscle in your
body is powered with
energy you obtain
from your diet.
• Evolutionary adaptation/
evolution
- All organisms interact
with other organisms and
the nonliving environment
in ways that influence their
survival, and as a
consequence, organisms
evolve adaptations to their
environments.
• Growth and
development
- All organisms are
capable of growing and
they all possess
hereditary molecules
that are passed to their
offspring, ensuring that
the offspring are of the
same species.
• Response to the environment
- All organisms respond to stimuli.
• Regulation
- All organisms maintain
relatively constant
internal conditions that
are different from their
environment, a process
called homeostasis.
• Reproduction
- Organisms (living
things) reproduce
their own kind.
FIVE UNIFYING THEMES
– ways of thinking about life
• Organization
• Information
• Energy and Matter
• Interactions
• Evolution
Organization
Organization
• Biosphere
– Consists of all life on Earth and all the places where life exists: most regions of land,
most bodies of water, the atmosphere to an altitude of several kilometers, and even
sediments far below the ocean floor.
• Ecosystems
– An ecosystem consists of all the living things in a particular area, along with all the
nonliving components of the environment with which life interacts, such as soil,
water, atmospheric gases, and light.
• Communities
– The array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem is called a biological
community.
• Populations
– A population consists of all the individuals of a species living within the bounds of a
specified area.
• Organisms
– Individual living things are called organisms.
Organization
Organization
• Organs
– a collection of tissues that structurally form a functional unit
specialized to perform a particular function.
• Tissues
– a group of cells that work together, performing a specialized
function
• Cells
– The cell is life’s fundamental unit of structure and function.
• Organelles
– the various functional components present in cells.
• Molecules
– a chemical structure consisting of two or more units called atoms.
Information
– In feedback regulation,
the output or product of
a process regulates that
very process. The most
common form of
regulation in living
systems is negative
feedback, a loop in which
the response reduces the
initial stimulus.
Interactions