Living organisms:

• Are organized
• Adapt
• Respond to the environment
• Reproduce and develop
• Acquire materials and energy

• Cell
• Similar cells form tissues
• Tissues form organs
• Organs work in organ systems
• Organ systems form the "body" 

Organisms must obtain nutrients (materials) from their environment to produce energy needed at the cellular level

Plants: photosynthesis (sunlight)

Animals: consumption of other organisms

Organization beyond the body:

• Individual
• Population
• Community
• Ecosystem
• Biosphere

Organizing life's diversity from the beginning based on genetic differences (phylogenetic systematics)

For understanding evolutionary relationships

Largest level of classification

• Bacteria
• Archaea
• Eukarya

Comprised of prokaryotes (before nucleus)

Extremophiles (live in extreme environments-really hot or really cold)

A domain

Comprised of prokaryotes (before nucleus)

A domain

Consists of all eukaryotes (with nucleus)

• Protist
• Fungi
• Plantae
• Animalia

• A theory
• Species today are descendants of ancestral species
• "descent with modification"
• Mechanisms of evolution are variation and natural selection

At the molecular and cellular levels

• all organisms consist of cells
• all organisms have the same genetic code (DNA)

• Uses a specific scientific process
• Experiments are testable, falsifiable and repeatable
• Is impartial and doesn't make ethical or moral judgments

• Descriptive (specific to general)
• Inductive reasoning: deriving generalizations from a large number of observations, often lead to experiments to understand why these things occur

• Experimental (general to specific)
• Deductive reasoning: logic flows from general premises to the specific results we should expect if the premises are true

• Quantitative- measured
• Qualitative- observed 

Using a generalization to describe something after many observations, often lead to experiments to understand why these things occur

(specific to general)

• Observation/Question
• Hypothesis
• Experiment
• Analysis
• Conclusion 

• Science can only test things that are manipulatable
• Whatever happened initially you cannot go back and test
• You cannot eliminate all possiblities because you cannot go back and test it

• Organisms are composed of this
• Anything that takes up space and has mass
• It's made up of elements

Substances that cannot be broken down to other substances by chemical reactions

Its properties depend on the structure of its atoms

Combination of two or more elements

Has characteristics that are different from either of the individual elements

• It depends on the number of electrons that are in their outermost shell
• The innermost can hold 2
• The next shell can hold 8
• They meet up with another element to fill their outer shells based on different types of bonds

• Covalent
• Ionic
• Hydrogen 

• 2 atoms share a pair of electrons
• The strongest chemical bond
• Can be single, double, or triple bonds

• One atom steals away an electron from another atom
• two ions with opposite charges attract eachother, the attraction hold them together (ex NaCl, Na is positive and Cl is negative)

• A hydrogen atom that is already covalently bonded to an electronegative atom is attracted to another electronegative atom
• Weakest chemical bond
• Often between polar molecules (unequal sharing)

• Reduction reaction
• Oxidation reaction 

• Hydrogen
• Oxygen
• Nitrogen
• Carbon 

• Polar, has hydrogen bonding between molecules
• High specific heat (takes a large amount of energy to change its temperature)
• Less dense as a solid
• Good solvent 

• The amount of H+ in a solution
• 10 fold change between each number (ex. 3 is 10x more acidic than 4)
• 0-14 scale
• Acidic: 0-6
• Neutral: 7
• Basic: 8-14

• Main building block for all "organic" molecules
• Has 4 electrons in its outer shell
• Typically forms 4 covalent bonds
• Very stable 

• Many small compounds linked together to form large compounds
• Polymer made up of many small monomers

• Carbohydrates
• Lipids
• Proteins
• Nucleic Acids 

All made of glucose

• Starch
• Cellulose
• Glycogen 

"Food storage" molecule that can be broken down for energy

A biological carbohydrate polymer

• Polymer that is used as a structural component of cell walls (what wood is made of)
• Very tough b/c way it's glucose monomers are linked allows for bonding between various cellulose polymer strands

Stored energy source (in human liver and muscles)

Its glucose chain is branched

• Fats
• Oligomers (few): unlike polymers (many) they are limited in size
• Hydrophobic: insoluble in water

• Fatty acids
• Triglycerides
• Phospholipids  

• Form of Lipids
• Long chains of C-H
• Can be saturated or unsaturated 

• Normally found in animals and a few plants
• Solid at room temperature
• Fatty acids 

• Normally found in plants
• liquid at room temperature
• Fatty acids 

• Form of Lipids
• One glycerol and 3 fatty acid tails

• 1 glycerol + 2 fatty acids + phosphate
• Make up cell membranes
• Hydrophobic bottom (fatty acid tails)
• Hydrophyllic top (phospholipid head) 

• Amino group + carboxyl group
• assembled by dehydration into larger peptides
• Mixture of these determines the shape of the protein 

• Formed by specific amino acid bonds
• Determines the proteins function
• Small alteration in structure- alteration in function 

• A change in the shape of a protein, usually causing loss of function
• Caused by changes in protein's environment (pH, temperature, salt concentration)

• Enzymes, Antibodies, Structural proteins, Storage proteins, Contractile proteins, Transport proteins, Hormones (Receptors) 

Polymers of nucleotides (DNA and RNA)

DNA: Deoxyribose

RNA: Ribose

• Adenine (A)
• Guanine (G)
• Thymine (T) - in DNA only
• Cytosine (C)
• Uracil (U) - in RNA only 

Type of nitrogen base

-Cytosine

-Thymine

-Uracil

Can only bind with purines

Type of nitrogen base

-Adenine

-Guanine

Can only bind with a pyrimidine

• A-T (U) (Purine-Pyrimidine)
• G-C (Purine-Pyrimidine)

One base (nucleotide) translates to another (in RNA) which translates to a specific amino acid

Transcription to Translation

Its what DNA's double helix of complimentary strand is packaged into

Each one corresponds to a specific protein

• It's being translated into proteins that are carrying out work in the cell
• Purpose: each cell has the same DNA, it determinds which cell will be a skin cell or a muscle cell 

Assembly & breakdown of polymers is done by 2 chemical reactions that involve the addition or subtraction of water

• Dehydration: assembly of polymers
• Hydrolysis: breakdown of polymers

• All organisms are composed of cells
• Cells are the smallest living things
• Cells arise only from pre-existing cells