[自然科学]01-exploring biology text.ppt

Chapter 1 Exploring Life Overview: Biology’s Most Exciting Era Biology Is the scientific study of life The phenomenon we call life Defies a simple, one-sentence definition We recognize life By what living things do Some properties of life Concept 1.1: Biologists explore life from the microscopic to the global scale The study of life Extends from the microscope scale of molecules and cells to the global scale of the entire living planet A Hierarchy of Biological Organization The hierarchy of life Extends through many levels of biological organization From the biosphere to organisms From cells to molecules A Closer Look at Ecosystems Each organism Interacts with its environment Both organism and environment Are affected by the interactions between them Ecosystem Dynamics The dynamics of any ecosystem include two major processes Cycling of nutrients, in which materials acquired by plants eventually return to the soil The flow of energy from sunlight to producers to consumers Energy Conversion Activities of life Require organisms to perform work, which depends on an energy source The exchange of energy between an organism and its surroundings Often involves the transformation of one form of energy to another Energy flows through an ecosystem Usually entering as sunlight and exiting as heat A Closer Look at Cells The cell Is the lowest level of organization that can perform all activities required for life The Cell’s Heritable Information Cells contain chromosomes made partly of DNA, the substance of genes Which program the cells’ production of proteins and transmit information from parents to offspring The molecular structure of DNA Accounts for it information-rich nature Two Main Forms of Cells All cells share certain characteristics They are all enclosed by a membrane They all use DNA as genetic information There are two main forms of cells Eukaryotic Prokaryotic Eukaryotic cells Are subdivided by internal membranes into various membrane-enclosed organelles Prokaryot