Introduction to Biology

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Introduction to Biology

• Ms. Chappell
• Biology 150-009
• August 22, 2006

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Importance of Science

• Health advances
• Biotechnology
• Information technology
• Impacts today and tomorrow

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Science - A Way of Learning

• Methodical, systematic journey that builds on
  previous scientific works and that may lead to
  scientific theory.
• Theory - general set of principles that explains
  a broad process and is supported by evidence
• Theory can explain a process best and can
  withstand withering criticism.

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3 General Principles

• All scientific theories are subject to revision
• Scientific results must be reproducible
• Scientific claims or hypotheses must be
  falsifiable

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SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• OBSERVATION of some natural phenomenon that leads
  to a question
• Development of a working HYPOTHESIS (sometimes
  called an educated guess) to tentatively explain
  the observation must be based on sound logic and
  available known evidence, be testable and
  falsifiable.
• Design and conduct and EXPERIMENT that is
  reproducible.
• Draw CONCLUSIONS based on experimental results
  and statistical analyses.
• OHEC!!

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Ecology

• Study of HOW living organisms interact with other
  living organisms and their physical abiotic
  environment
• Does ecology environmentalism? NO!
• Ecosystem basic unit of study in ecology with
  all of its interacting parts a system strongly
  linking living, or biotic, factors and
  non-living, or abiotic, factors to create a
  whole.

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Where have all the sea otters gone? (Biocast 31.a)
In about a decade, sea otter numbers have fallen
in the Aleutians from 53,000 to 6000. And
researchers are stunned by the reason--killer
whales, whove shared the islands with otters for
millennia, have changed their diet and are now
dining on so many of the otters that the
population has been devastated. And why have
killer whales opted for a new menu? It seems
their normal bill of fare, seals and sea lions
are also in decline. How come? Overfishing. With
more and more of the Aleutian sea life ending up
breaded and in the frozen food aisle, theres
less food for seals, causing their population to
decline. And the whales, not anxious to go
hungry, have altered their diet accordingly. And
the story doesnt end there. Otters feed on sea
urchins, which feed on kelp. Fewer otters equals
more urchins, which means less kelp. Which will
mean-----? Who knows what? All to keep the price
of fish sticks competitive.
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Ecosystem Constituents

• Individual organism a living organism that
  interacts with other living organisms and its
  physical environment filling a specific niche
  (role or job)
• Habitat Physical place occupied by a living
  organism at a given time in a given space
• Population Members of the same species living
  together in an ecosystem (species ??)
• Community All populations of organisms in an
  ecosystem (that potentially interact)
• Biosphere Interactive collection of all the
  earths ecosystems including all living and
  non-living parts

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