Biology: What Is the Study of Life?

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Biology What Is the Study of Life?
http//www.ohio.edu/plantbio/staff/showalte/BIOL2
010120Summer/Wiley20Powerpoints/pruitt_ppt_ch01.
ppt
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Why Study Biology?

• Two important reasons for studying Biology
• Biology is relevant to our everyday experience
• Medical advances
• Addressing needs of growing human population
• Challenges of decreasing rate of biodiversity
• Biotechnology advances

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Why Study Biology?

• Biology can be controversial
• Examples
• Dealing with endangered species?
• Use of human fetal tissue in biomedical research?
• Safety of irradiated foods?

Figure 1-1c
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What is Biology?

• It is the study of life.
• Branch of science
• A way of understanding nature.
• A human endeavor
• An attempt to understand, explain, integrate and
  describe the world of living things.

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What is Life?

• Living organisms
• Highly organized and complex.
• Are composed of one or more cells.
• Contain a blueprint of their characteristics.
• Acquire and use energy.
• Carry out and control numerous reactions.

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What is Life?

• Living organisms
• Grow.
• Maintain constant internal environment.
• Produce offspring.
• Respond to environmental changes.
• May evolve.

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Biology is a Branch of Science

• Both an activity and body of knowledge.
• A way of understanding the natural world.
• Scientists make predictions and test those
  predictions.

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Major Themes in Biology

• Evolution by Natural Selection
• Inheritance
• Cells
• Biological Classification
• Bioenergetics
• Homeostasis
• Ecosystems

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How is Biology studied?
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Scientific Method

• Begins with observations about our surroundings.
• Next, ask questions about the phenomena we are
  observing.

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Scientific Method

• Followed by generating a hypothesis.
• Tentative explanation to the question.

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Scientific Method

• Testing
• Scientists perform tests to determine the
  accuracy of their hypothesis.

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Scientific Method

• Explanation
• It is a hypothesis that has passed the widest and
  most comprehensive series of tests.
• Still subject to review and consideration.
• May be elevated to a theory well demonstrated
  principle.