Biology Chapter 1 Review (Pearson)

PowerPoint PresentationDavid Krogh
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 1 • Lecture Outline Science as a Way of Learning: A Guide to the Natural World
Biology
Everyday World?
Everyday World?
Science plays an increasingly important role in the everyday lives of Americans.
Until the mid-1990s, most Americans did not use e-mail, cell phones, or the Internet.
Figure 1.1
What Do Americans Know About Science?
The average American has at best an uneven knowledge of science.
What Do Americans Know About Science?
Almost 80 percent of adult Americans who were surveyed know that the continents are moving about the face of the Earth.
Of those surveyed, 25 percent think the sun goes around the Earth.
1.2 What Is Science?
What Is Science?
Science is a body of knowledge; a collection of unified insights about nature, the evidence for which is an array of facts.
The unified insights of science are known as theories.
A theory is a general set of principles, supported by evidence, that explains some aspect of nature.
Science as a Body of Knowledge
Science can also be defined as a way of learning; a process of coming to understand the natural world through observation and the testing of hypotheses.
Figure 1.3
Science works through the scientific method, in which an observation leads to the formulation of a question about the natural world.
Science is a tentative, testable explanation that has not been proven true. The hypothesis may be tested through observation or through a series of experiments, as aided by statistical procedures.
Science as Process
An example of hypothesis testing is Louis Pasteur’s experiment regarding the spontaneous generation of life
Observation:
flask of sterile meat broth. . .
Question: What is the source of the living material?
Hypothesis:
material (spontaneous generation).
dust into broth
Conclusion: No growth appears in the broth unless dust is admitted from outside.
Reject “spontaneous generation” hypothesis.
living material outside the flask.
Hypothesis 2
generally appears in the broth.
Science as Process
In science, every assertion regarding the natural world is subject to challenge and revision.
Scientific claims must be falsifiable, meaning open to negation through scientific inquiry
Scientific inquiry is limited to investigating natural (as opposed to supernatural) explanations for natural phenomena.
Animation 1.1 Scientific Method
The Nature of Biology
Characteristics of Living Things
Life is defined by a group of eight characteristics possessed by living things.
5. Possess an inherited information base, encoded in DNA, that allows them to function.
Life Is Hierarchical
Life is organized in a hierarchical manner, ranging in increasing complexity from atoms to molecules to organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere.
Special Qualities of Biology
Until the early nineteenth century, biology was largely a descriptive science that mainly catalogued and described the Earth’s living things.
Biology’s subject matter—the living world—is notable for its complexity and diversity compared to other aspects of the natural world (such as stars and atoms).
Biology does not deal in universal rules to the extent that a discipline such as physics does; instead, biological research may focus on particular species, processes, or portions of the living world.
Biology’s Chief Unifying Principle
Biology’s chief unifying principle is evolution, which can be defined as the gradual modification of populations of living things over time.
This modification sometimes results in the development of new species.
Evolution provides the means for making sense of the forms and processes seen in living things on Earth today.
Figure 1.6
Many stinging insects with black and yellow stripes look alike because of the general protection this provides from predators.
Figure 1.7

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Biology Chapter 1 Review (Pearson)