Class notes
BIOL 111 Chapter 1 Lecture Notes
- Course
- Basic Biology
- Institution
- Campbell University
This is a comprehensive and detailed note on Chapter 1;An introduction to life on Earth.
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Chapter 1: An Introduction to Life on Earth● Life can be studied at different levels:
○ Atom
○ Molecule
○ Cell
○ Tissue
○ Organ
○ Organ System
○ Multicellular Organism
○ Population
○ Species
○ Community
○ Ecosystem
○ Biosphere
● Levels of organization
○ All matter is formed of elements
■ An atom is the smallest particle of an element retaining the
properties of an element.
■ Atoms combine to form molecules.
■ Molecules provide the building blocks for cells, the smallest
unit of life.
■ Some forms of life consist of single cells.
■ In multicellular organisms, cells combine to form tissues
■ Tissues combine to form organs, which then can be
connected as organ systems
■ Organisms of the same that are capable of interbreeding are
called a species
■ A group of organisms of the same species living in a given
area is a population
■ Interacting populations make up a community.
■ A community and its nonliving components is an ecosystem
■ The entire surface of the Earth, including living and nonliving
components, is the biosphere
● How do Scientists Study Life?
○ Scientific principles underlie all scientific inquiry.
■ Natural causality is the principle that all events can be traced
to natural causes.
, ■ Natural laws apply to every time and place
● Natural laws are uniform in space and time
● The principle is key to understanding biological events
before humans record them.
● Creationism is contrary to the principle of uniformity-
in-line and natural causality.
○ Creationists hold the different species were
created one at a time by the direct intervention
of God, contrary to events we see happening
today.
○ Scientific inquiry is based on the assumption that people perceive
natural events in similar ways
○ Historical approaches to studying life
■ The belief that some actions happen through supernatural
forces (e.g., the supernatural)
■ The belief that all events can be traced to natural causes that
we can comprehend (natural causality)
● Corollary: evidence gathered from nature that has not
been deliberately distorted to fool us
○ People have similar perceptions
■ This is based on the assumption that all human beings
perceive natural events in fundamentally the same way
■ Common perception allows us to accept observations of
other humans as reliable
■ Common perception is usually not found in appreciation of
art, poetry, and music, nor between cultures or religious
beliefs
● Value systems are subjective
● Science requires objectively gathered data
● The scientific method-the basis for scientific inquiry
○ Scientific inquiry is a rigours method for making observations
○ The scientific method or inquiry follows six steps
1. Observation of a specific phenomenon
2. The observation, in trunks, leads to a question
3. The question leads to formulation of a hypothesis, based on
previous observations, that is offered as an answer to the question
4. The hypothesis leads to a prediction, typically expressed in “if…
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