Characteristics of Living Things
• Cellular Organization• Uses energy• Contain Similar
Chemicals• Respond to surroundings• Reproduce• Grow and Develop
Cellular Organization• All living things are
composed of cells• Unicellular – single-
celled organisms (ex. Bacteria)
Cellular Organization• Multicellular –
organisms that are composed of more than one cell (ex. Humans)
Chemicals of Life• All living things
contain similar chemicals
• The most abundant chemical in cells is water
Use Energy• All living things use
energy to do the things that living things must do (ex. Grow and repair injured parts)
Growth and Development• Growth is the process of
becoming larger• Development is the
process of change that occurs during an organism’s life to produce a more complex organism
• A Response is when a living thing reacts to stimuli
• Stimuli is a change in your surroundings
Response
Response• All living things
respond to stimuli• Living things respond
in different ways• The ways in which
living things respond is called behavior
• Migration to warm places in a response
• Hibernation (sleeping) through the winter months is another example
Response
Reproduction• Reproduction is the
process by which living things produce new organisms (offspring) like themselves.
Spontaneous Generation
• Spontaneous Generation is the idea that living things come from nonliving things.
• Francesco Redi disproved this theory.
Water• Water is used to
transport stuff through living things
• Water is necessary to carry out chemical changes in living things
Energy
• All energy comes from the sun
• Autotrophs (organisms that make their own food) get their energy directly from the sun
Energy• Heterotrophs
(organisms that cannot make their own food) get their energy indirectly from the sun
Living Space• Living space includes
air, water, sunlight, food, and shelter
• Organisms need living space to survive
• Organisms compete for living space
• Proper temperature is necessary for living things to carry out life processes
• Many living things would die without homeostasis
Stable Internal Conditions
Stable Internal Conditions
• Homeostasis is the ability of a living thing to keep conditions inside its body constant
Stable Internal Conditions
• Homeostasis keeps life processes working even if external temperature changes
What are Life Processes?
• Life processes are the things an organism must do to stay alive
• Living things carry out all life processes