Study Questions:

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Study Questions 1) Define biology and science.
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• Study Questions
• Define biology and science.
• - Biology The scientific study of living
  systems
• - Science Observations, study, and
  experimentation of the physical universe in order
  to describe the structure of the physical
  universe and the causes of physical phenomena

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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls).
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). Many things are happening at any one
time in the physical universe some of these
things cause other variables in the universe to
change but some things are changing and have no
effect on changes occurring in other
variables. Two variables (or events) are
correlated if one changes in some regular way as
the other changes in some regular way. In a
linear correlation, for instance, one variable
may increase as another variable increases
(positive or direct correlation) or decreases
(negative or indirect correlation). In a
correlation, one variable may be CAUSING the
change in the other or NOT. All we know from a
correlation is that, as one variable changes,
another does, too. Causality mean that changes
in the first variable are having an effect on the
second, and are responsible for the changes we
see in the second variable.
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). The first step of an experiment is
observation which really means identifying what
variables correlate with changes in your variable
of interest. These correlates are likely
candidates for the variable that may be CAUSING
the changes in your target variable that you are
trying to explain. In an experiment, you hold
other variables constant (controlling their
effect on the target variable), and you
manipulate the presumptive causative variable
(independent variable). If you see a change in
your target variable, you can be confident tha
the change in the independent variable caused the
change in the dependent, target variable (because
you limited the potential effect of other,
potentially causal variables).
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? This is almost a circular
application of the definition of science. If a
statement is not falsifiable with data from the
physical world, then it is not answerable using
the tools of science. As such, it is not a
scientific question.
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? 4) If statistics determine the
probability that chance caused a pattern, how are
they used in science to determine whether that
pattern was caused by the independent variable?
(from lab). If chance causes a pattern, then it
is wrong to attribute that pattern to the causal
effects of your independent variable. With
statistics, we measure the probability that
chance caused the pattern. If this probability
is high, then it is dangerous to concluded that
your independent variable caused the pattern
(because the chance that you are wrong in
reaching this conclusion is high). If the
probability that chance caused the pattern is
low, then you can be more confident that you
manipulated independent variable was responsible
for the pattern. Usually, you want to be at least
95 sure that, if you say there is a causal
relationship, you are right. This means that you
would only make this claim if the probability
that chance could have caused the pattern is less
than 5 (p lt 0.05).
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? 4) If statistics determine the
probability that chance caused a pattern, how are
they used in science to determine whether that
pattern was caused by the independent variable?
(from lab). 5) How is the term 'theory' use in
science? How is it misused by the public? In
science, proper use of the term Theory refers
to a tested explanatory model of how the physical
universe works. In common parlance, theory is
often used to suggest an untested statement oh,
thats just a theory. Science has a different
word for an untested statement
hypothesis. Critics of science particularly
critics of The Big Bang Theory , Evolutionary
Theory or the Theory of Climate Change often
exploit this ambiguity by saying that these are
just theories.
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? 4) If statistics determine the
probability that chance caused a pattern, how are
they used in science to determine whether that
pattern was caused by the independent variable?
(from lab). 5) How is the term 'theory' use in
science? How is it misused by the public? 6)
Describe why scientific creationism and
"intelligent design" are not scientific
ideas. Proponents of these ideas say that the
complexity of living systems could not have
occurred by natural processes, and that a
conscious, supernatural designer must be
responsible creating life by supernatural means.
Well, we cant test the existence of
supernatural agents, and no data from the
physical world can be used to prove or disprove
the existence of a supernatural designer, so that
is an untestable, unscientific premise. Thus,
the entire idea, that depends on this assumption
is ultimately untestable by science (and so is
not scientific).
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? 4) If statistics determine the
probability that chance caused a pattern, how are
they used in science to determine whether that
pattern was caused by the independent variable?
(from lab). 5) How is the term 'theory' use in
science? How is it misused by the public? 6)
Describe why scientific creationism and
"intelligent design" are not scientific ideas. 7)
Describe the two limitations of science. -
science is limited to studying the physical
causes of physical phenomena. - science is
limited methodologically, to the manipulation of
physical variables.
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? 4) If statistics determine the
probability that chance caused a pattern, how are
they used in science to determine whether that
pattern was caused by the independent variable?
(from lab). 5) How is the term 'theory' use in
science? How is it misused by the public? 6)
Describe why scientific creationism and
"intelligent design" are not scientific ideas. 7)
Describe the two limitations of science. 8)
Explain reductionism. We can learn about a
complex system by defining its component parts
(subsystems) and figuring out how they work.
However, a complex system is more than the
additive sum of its parts, because when the
subsystems are working together within the
system, they may interact and be able to do new
things together that they couldnt do separately.
These are emergent properties that are
unpredictable by reductionism, alone.
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Study Questions 1) Define biology and
science. 2) How do correlation and causality
differ? Relate this to the difference between
observations and good experiments (and the use of
controls). 3) Why must hypotheses be falsifiable
to be scientific? 4) If statistics determine the
probability that chance caused a pattern, how are
they used in science to determine whether that
pattern was caused by the independent variable?
(from lab). 5) How is the term 'theory' use in
science? How is it misused by the public? 6)
Describe why scientific creationism and
"intelligent design" are not scientific ideas. 7)
Describe the two limitations of science. 8)
Explain reductionism. 9) Why is the comparative
method so useful in biology? Why should we expect
things to be similar? The comparative method is
so useful because all organisms are similar to
one another to varying degrees so the
comparative method should work. This similarity
occurs because all organisms are related to one
another by varying degrees of common ancestry.
This has allowed us to use other animals as model
systems for how human genes, cells, and
physiological systems work.
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Study Questions 10)Place these entities in their
correct order, from small to large molecule,
atom, cell, organelle, organ, organism Atom
molecule organelle cell organ
organism. Now obviously, above the molecular
level, this only applies for single organisms.
The cells/organs of some organisms are actually
LARGER than some other multicellular organisms
with their own cells and organs. So, many worms
are parasites of larger animals, and infect
single organs like the stomach, intestine,
muscles, or bloodstream. In addition, bacteria
are single cells that are smaller than some
organelles in eukaryotic cells.
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Study Questions 10)Place these entities in their
correct order, from small to large molecule,
atom, cell, organelle, organ, organism 11) What
two types of reproduction do many living systems
perform? Asexual reproduction means the
production of new cells that have the same genes
as the original cell. Multicellular organisms,
like plants, fungi, and animals, are doing this
all the time to grow and also to replace damaged
cells. Sexual reproduction means the
production of a new set of genes this can
involve the production of a new cell, too (like
when a sperm and egg fuse), or not. Many
bacteria exchange genes. This is a type of sex
because it creates new combinations of genes, but
no new cells are produced.
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Study Questions 10)Place these entities in their
correct order, from small to large molecule,
atom, cell, organelle, organ, organism 11) What
two types of reproduction do many living systems
perform? 12) Why are living systems dependent on
energy transformations? Explain in the context of
the two laws of thermodynamics. To be alive
means to make things if just to replace what is
naturally breaking down over time. This requires
that living things take in energy and matter as a
source for the material and energy they need to
make things, because things cant be just CREATED
out of nothing. However, the matter in the
universe is not always in the forms that are
needed by living things so they cant just
absorb stuff they have to change it. In
addition, they must absorb more than they
ultimately make, because these transformations
are not 100 efficient.
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Study Questions 10)Place these entities in their
correct order, from small to large molecule,
atom, cell, organelle, organ, organism 11) What
two types of reproduction do many living systems
perform? 12) Why are living systems dependent on
energy transformations? Explain in the context of
the two laws of thermodynamics. 13) Distinguish
between three types of response, making sure to
describe the biological scale at which these
responses occur. Within an organism, organs
systems respond physiologically to changes in
other subsystems and changes in the environment.
So, during puberty, the skeletal system responds
to hormones secreted by the endocrine system.
Organisms can respond to the environment
behaviorally when you leave this room, you take
all your organ systems with you it is an
organismal response. Finally, As the result of
some organisms dying and others living and
reproducing, the characteristics of a population
can change over time. This is an evolutionary
response at the population level individuals
dont change (they live or die), but the
populations they belong to do.