Vocabulary
What term means maintaining relatively stable internal conditions?
Homeostasis
What is the smallest unit of life?
A cell
What organism did Redi observe appearing on meat?
Maggots
A person begins shivering when standing outside in cold weather. What biological process does this demonstrate?
Homeostasis
Put these in order from smallest to largest: organ, atom, tissue, cell, molecule, organ system.
atom → molecule → cell → tissue → organ → organ system
What term means all the chemical reactions that take place inside a living organism?
Metabolism
A crystal gets larger over time. Does growth alone prove that the crystal is alive? Explain.
No. Living things must demonstrate multiple characteristics of life; growth alone is not enough.
Where did Redi conclude the maggots actually came from?
Flies
A cell breaks down a food molecule and releases usable energy. What biological process does this demonstrate?
Metabolism
What kind of organism makes its own food, usually using energy from the Sun?
Producer
What is the old idea that living things can arise from nonliving matter?
Spontaneous generation
A machine can move, use electricity, and respond to sound. What evidence would be especially important in determining whether it is actually alive?
Whether it is made of cells
Pasteur found that broth remained free of microbes when microbes from the environment could not reach it. Which idea did this evidence argue against?
Spontaneous generation
A person grows several inches over two years. Is this the clearest example of metabolism or homeostasis, or something else?
Neither; it is growth and development.
A rabbit eats grass and a fox eats the rabbit. Trace the energy from its original source to the fox.
Sun → grass → rabbit → fox
What term means that living things come from other living things?
Biogenesis
A machine can move, use electricity, and respond to sound. What evidence would be especially important in determining whether it is actually alive?
Whether it is made of cells.
Redi put meat in containers that allowed different amounts of access by flies. Why did he compare different conditions?
To test whether maggots appeared only when flies could reach the meat.
A plant receives water, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and suitable temperatures but is kept completely in darkness. What important need is missing?
A usable source of energy/light energy.
Why can a fox ultimately depend on the Sun for energy even though the fox does not absorb sunlight to make food?
The producer captured solar energy, and that stored energy was transferred through the food chain to the fox.
What process allows plants and other producers to use light energy to make sugar from carbon dioxide and water?
Photosynthesis
Fire spreads, grows, and uses energy. Why are those observations not enough to classify fire as living?
Individual characteristics of life are not sufficient; living organisms demonstrate the collection of characteristics associated with life, including being made of cells.
Redi studied maggots and Pasteur studied microbes. What larger scientific question were both scientists testing?
Whether living organisms could arise from nonliving matter or came from existing living things.
Two students disagree. Student A says sweating is metabolism. Student B says sweating is homeostasis. Who has the better explanation, and why?
Student B. Sweating helps maintain a relatively stable internal body temperature.
Why can a heart perform functions that a single heart cell cannot?
An organ is made of organized tissues containing many cells that work together, allowing it to perform more complex functions.