Repaso de Biologia: 1.1 Levels of Organization The world of life shows increasingly inclusive levels of organization.

-Making Sense of the World If we are interpreting the distant past correctly, the first humans lived in small bands that did not venture far from home. Safety, danger, and resources that did not expand beyond the immediate horizon comprised their world. Much later in time, human populations dispersed all around the globe. They soon had a lot to observe, think about and explain. Today, even the far reaches of the known universe holds clues to our world. Scientist, clerics, farmers, astronauts, and anyone else who is of a mind to do so try to explain the sense of things. Interpretations differ, for no one person can be expert in everything learned so far or have foreknowledge of all that remains hidden. If you are reading this book, then you are starting to explore how a subset of scientist, the biologist, think about things, what they found out and what they are up to now. Alternative ways of explaining the world are avaible in books for nonscience classes, such as those dealing with philosophy and religion. -A Pattern in Biological Organization Nature- The external world in its entirety. Biologists are interested in its forms of life, past and present. They have studied life all the way down to interacting atoms and all the way up to the impacts of organism o global scale. In doing so, they have discovered a great pattern of organization. The pattern starts at the level of atoms. Atoms- the smallest units of natures fundamental substances. At the next level, atoms have combined into larger units called molecules. The pattern molecules reaches the beginning of life as certain molecules are assembled as cells. Molecules of life= Complex carbohydrates, complex fats and other liquids, proteins, DNA and RNA. In nature, only living cells can make them. Cell= is the smallest unit of life. 1. Capacity to survive and reproduce on its own. 2. Given raw materials 3. Energy source 4. Information encoded in its DNA. 5. Suitable environmental conditions. Each kind of organism, or species, consists of one or more cells. In multicelled species, cells form tissues, organs and organ systems. Often there are trillions of specialized cells that interact directly or indirectly in the task of keeping the whole multicelled body alive.

The population is the next level of organization. It is a group of the same species in some specified area. Fields of poppies in a valleys or schools of fish in a lake are such groups. The next level is the community. It includes all populations of all species in a specified area. A community inside an underwater cave in the Red Sea, a forest in Argentina, or populations of tiny organisms that live, reproduce, and die quickly inside of a flower for examples. The next level of organization is the ecosystem, or a community interacting with its physical and chemical environment. The highest level, the biosphere, includes all regions of Earths crust, waters, and atmosphere in which organism live. Life is more than the sum of its parts. At each successive level of organization, new properties emerge that are not inherit in any part by itself, as when living cells emerge from lifeless molecules. The interactions among parts generate emergent properties. Nature shows levels of organization, from simple to the increasingly complex. Lifes unique characteristics emerge as atoms and molecules interact and form cells. They extend from interactions among cells to populations, communities, ecosystems and the biosphere.

Diagram: A.) Atom= Elements are fundamental forms of matter. Atoms are the smallest units that retain am elements properties. Electrons, neutrons and protons are its building blocks. This hydrogen atoms electron zips around a proton in a spherical volume of space. B.) Molecule= Two or more joined atoms of the same or different elements. Molecules of life are complex carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, DNA and RNA. Only living cells now make them. C.) Cell= Smallest unit that can live and reproduce on its own or as a part of a multicelled organism. It has an outer membrane, DNA and other components. D.) Tissue= organized array of cells and substances that are interacting in some task. Many cells (white) made this bone tissue white from their own secretions. E.) Organ= Structural unit made of two or more tissues interacting in some task. A parrotfish eye is a sensory organ used in vision. F.) Organ system= Organs interacting physically, chemically or both in the same task. Parrotfish skin is an integumentary system with tissues layers, organs such as gland and other parts. G.) Multicelled organism= Individual made of different types of cells. Cells of most multicelled, including this Red Sea parrotfish, are organized as tissues, organs and organ systems. H.) Population=Group of single celled or muticelled individuals of the same species occupying a specific area. This is a fish population in the Red Sea. I.) Community= All populations of all species occupying a specific area. This is part of a cora reef in the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern end of the Red Sea. J.) Ecosystem= A community is interacting with its physical environment. It has inputs and outputs of energy and

materials. Reef ecosystems flourish in warm, clear seawater throughout the Middle East. K.) The biosphere= All regions of Earths waters, crust, and atmosphere that hold organism. In the vast universe, Earth is a rare planet. Without its abundance of free- flowing water, there would be no life. 1.2 Overview of Lifes Unity Life isnt easy to define. It is just too big and it has been changing for 3.8 billion years. Even so, you can characterize it in terms of its unity and diversity. Heres the unity part: All living things require inputs of energy and materials; the sense and respond to change, as when they adjust conditions in their body; and they reproduce with the help of DNA. But they differ in the details of traits. Diversity part: variation of traits -Energy and Lifes Organization Cells are the smallest units that are alive. To stay alive they get energy from the environment and converts it to forms that help them do work, such as constructing and organizing molecules into cell parts. Energy= the capacity for doing work. Whether a cell is free- living or a tiny bit of a multicelled organism, its organization would end without continuous inputs of energy. Higher levels of organization (populations, communities, and ecosystems) also would fall apart in the absence of energy inputs from the environment. Producers= Make their food from simple materials in the environment. Plants and other photosynthetic types use sunlight energy to construct sugars from carbon dioxide and water molecules. They use the sugars as packets of energy and as building blocks for making complex carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Consumers- Animals and decomposers. They cannot make food; they eat producers and other organisms. Decomposers break down the remains of organisms to simpler raw materials, some of which become cycled back to the producers. We are outlining a series of energy transfers from the environment, through producers, then on to consumers and back to the environment. It is a one-way flow of energy, because all of the energy that enters the world of life in a given interval eventually leaves it. WHY? - At each transfer step, a small amount escapes as an unorganized form of energy: heat. All organism are participants in this continuos, directional flow of energy. -Organisms Sense and respond to change All organisms are alike in another way. They sense change in their surroundings and make controlled, compensatory respond to them. They do so with the assistance of receptors. Receptors- Molecules and structures that detect stimuli, which are specific kinds of energy. Different receptors can respond to different stimuli. A stimulus may be sunlight energy, chemical energy, or the mechanical energy of a bite.

Activated receptors trigger changes in the activities of organisms. As a simple example, after you finish eating an apple, sugars leave your small intestine and enter your blood. Think of the blood and the fluid around the cells as the bodys internal environment. The composition and volume of the fluid must be kept within the range that your cells tolerate. Too much or too little sugar changes the composition of blood, as happens with diabetes and other medical problems. Normally when there is too much sugar your pancreas secretes more insulin. Most living cells in your body have receptors for this hormone. It stimulates cells to take up this sugar. When enough cells are doing so, the blood sugar level returns to the normal range. AS conditions in the internal environment change in potentially harmful ways, receptor- driven mechanism kick in and return conditions to the state that cells can tolerate. Homeostasis= is the name for this state, and its a defining feature of life, Organism Grow and reproduce Organisms grow and reproduce based on information in DNA, an nuclei acid. DNA is the signature molecule of life. No chunk of granite or quartz has it. DNA holds the information about building proteins from a few kinds of amino acids. Each protein has a particular amino acid sequence, which is the start of its particular shapes and properties. Protein building information is vital for cell growth and reproduction. Proteins have many structural and functional roles. Important kinds function as enzymes, the cells main worker molecules. With enzymes cells, split and rearrange molecules exceedingly fast. Without enzymes there could be no more complex carbohydrates, complex lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. There could be no cells, no life. In nature, an organism inherits DNA( the basis of traits) from its parents. Inheritance- The acquisition of traits after parents transmit their DNA to their offspring. Reproduction= The actual mechanism by which parents transmit DNA to their offspring. For trees, humans, and other large organisms, The information in DNA is used in ways that guide growth and development (the transformation of the first cell of the new individual through orderly stages). The outcome is a multicelled adult, Typically with tissues and organs. Lifes levels of organization start with a one-way flow of energy from the environment, through producers and consumers, and back to the environment. Organisms interact through this one-way flow of energy and through a cycling of raw materials. Organisms maintain their organization by sensing and responding to change. Many responses return conditions in the bodys internal environment to a range that cells can tolerate, a state called homeostasis. Organisms reproduce and grow based on information encoded in DNA, which they inherit from their parents.

1,3 If so much Unity, Why so many Species? Although unity pervades the world of life, so does diversity. Organisms differ enormously in body form, the functions of their body parts and behavior. How many species are with us today? Estimates range as high as 100 million. And 99.9 percent of all species that ever lived are extinct. So far, we have named approximately 1.8 million species. For centuries, many scholars have been organizing information about lifes diversity. Carolus Linnaeus, a naturalist, came up with the strategy of giving each species a two- name part. The first part designates the genus. A genus is a grouping of one or more species characterized by certain traits, at least one of which is unique to them. The second part of the name designates a particular species within the genus that has at least one trait no other specie has. Scarus gibbus is the formal name for the humphead parrotfish. A different species in its genus is named S. coelestinus (midnight parrotfish). This example also shows that you can abbreviate the genus designation after you spell it out the first time. Later, evern more inclusive groupings were devised, such as phylum, order, kingdom and domain. These are rankings of classification systems, which simply are ways to organize knowledge about relationships among species. Observable traits are still markers, but so is a richly expanding base of molecular evidence of descent from a shared ancestor. Most biologist now favor a classification system having three domains: Bacteria, Archae and Eukarya. Protist, plants, fungi and animals make up domain Eukarya. Bacteria (singular, bacterium) and archaeans are prokaryotic cells. These singled celled organism dont have a nucleus, which is a membrane-enclosed sac that, in all other species, encloses DNA. Of all organisms, they show the greatest metabolic diversity. Different species are producers and consumers in near- boiling water, frozen dessert rocks, sulfur clogged lakes and other exceptionally harsh environments. Experimental evidence suggests that the first cell on Earth faced similarly hostile challenges to survival. Structurally, the protists are the simplest organisms that are eukaryotic, which means their cells contain a nucleus. Different kinds are producers and consumers. Many are single cells, larger and more complex than prokaryotes. Some are tree size, multicelled seaweeds. Actually, protists are so diverse that they are being reclassified into a number of separate major lineages. Cells of species we called fungi, plants and animals are eukaryotic. Most fungi are multicelled, and not all of them from mushrooms (the reproductive structures for species that grow mostly underground). Many are decomposers. The secrete enzymes that digest food outside their body, then individual cells absorb the bits.

Nearly all plants are multicelled and photosynthetic. They make their own food by using sunlight as energy source and atoms of carbon dioxide and water molecules as building blocks. All animals are multicelled consumers that ingest tissues or juices of other organisms. Herbivores are grazers, carnivores eat meat, scavengers eat almost anything edible and parasites pilfer nutrients from a hosts tissues. All animals grow and develop through a series of stages. Most of them actively move about during at least part of their lives. On the basis of observable traits and molecular evidence of shared ancestry, we rank species in ever more inclusive groupings. The largest groupings are domains: Archae, bacteria and eukarya (protist, plants, animals and fungi). 1.4 An evolutionary View of Diversity How can organism be so much alike and still show tremendous diversity? A theory of evolution by way of natural selection is one explanation. Individuals of species shared certain traits, which are aspects of their physical form, function, and behavior. Rarely are individuals exactly alike; they differ in the details. Except for identical twins, for instance, the 6.4 billion individuals of our species (Homo sapiens) vary in height, hair color, and other traits. Variations in most traits arises through mutations, or changes in DNA, which offspring inherit from their parents Most mutation have neutral or bad effects. Some cause a trait to change in a way that makes one individual of a population better adapted than others prevailing conditions. That is, its bearer might have an easier time securing food, a mate and so on, so it has a better chance of reproducing and passing on the mutation to offspring. What is the outcome? Consider it how naturalist Charles Darwin, expressed it: First, a natural populations tend to increase in size until its individual compete more and more for food, shelter and other dwindling environmental resources. Second, those individuals differ from one another in the details of their shared, heritable traits. Third, bearers of adaptive forms of traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, so those forms tend to become more common over successive generations. This outcome is called natural selection. Consider how pigeons vary in feather color, size, and other traits. Say that pigeons breeders prefer black, curly tipped feathers. They select captive birds having the darkest, curliest tipped feathers and let only those birds mate. In time no birds in their captive populations have light, uncurly feathers. By culling through many traits, breeders have developed well over 300 varieties of domesticated pigeons. Pigeon breeding is a case of artificial breeding. One form of a trait is favored over others in an artificial environment under contrived, manipulated conditions. Darwin saw that breeding practices could be an easily understood model for natural selection, a favoring of some forms of a given trait over others in nature. Just as breeders are selective agents that promote reproduction of certain pigeons, different agents act on the range of

variation in the wild. Among them are pigeon- eating peregrine falcons. The swifter or better camouflaged pigeons are more likely to avoid falcons and live long enough to reproduce, compared to not so swift or too flashy pigeons. When different forms of a trait are becoming more or less common over successive generations, evolution is under way. Evolution- Heritage change is occurring in a line of descent. Body form, function, and behavior are mostly heritable traits. Different forms of a trait arise through DNA mutations. One may be more adapting to others to prevailing conditions. Natural selection is an outcome of differences in survival and reproduction among individuals of a population that vary in one or more heritable traits. Evolution, or change in line of descent, gives rise to lifes diversity. 1.5 The Nature of Biological Inquiry -Observations, hypothesis and tests To get a sense of how to do science, you might start with practices that are common in scientific research: 1.)Observe some aspect of nature and research what others have found out about it, then frame a question or identify a problem related to your observation. 2.) Develop a hypothesis: a testable explanation of the observed phenomenon or process. 3.) Using the hypothesis as a guide, make a prediction( a statement of what you should find in nature if you were to go looking for it. This is often called if-then process.) If gravity does not pull objects toward Earth, then it should be possible to observe an apple falling up, not down from a tree. 4.) Device ways to test accuracy of predictions, as by making systematic observations, building models, and concluding experiments. Models are theorical, detailed descriptions or analogies that might help us visualize an object or event that has not been, or cannot be, directly observed. 5.) If your tests do not confirm the prediction, check to see what might have gone wrong. It may be that you overlooked a factor that had impact on the results. Or maybe the hypothesis isnt a good one. 6.) Repeat the tests or devise new ones, the more the better, because the hypothesis that withstand many tests have a higher probability of being useful. 7.)Objectively analyze and report test results, as well as the conclusions you drew from them. You might hear someone refer to these practices as the scientific method, as if all scientist march to the drumbeat of a fixed, absolute procedure. They do not. Many observe and describe some aspect of nature and leave the hyphotesizing to others. A few are lucky; they stumble upon information that they are not even looking for. However, scientist do have something in common. It is a critical attitude about testing ideas in rigorous ways that are designed to disprove them. Careful observations are a logical way to test the predictions that flow from a hypothesis. So are the experiments, or tests carried out under controlled conditions that researchers manipulate. Such tests are carried out in nature and in laboratories, and they remove irrelevant factors that might skew the factors. -About the word theory

1.6 The

Suppose a hypothesis has not been disproved after many years of rigorous tests. Scientists use it to interpret more data or observations, which often involve more hypotheses. When a hypothesis meets these criteria, it may become accepted as a scientific theory. After testing a scientific theorys predictive power many times and in many ways in the natural world, researches have yet to find evidence that disproves it. That is why the theory of evolution by natural selection is respected. It has been used successfully to explain a diverse number of questions about the natural world, such as how life is diversified, how river dams can alter ecosystems, and why antibiotics can stop working. Perhaps a well-tested theory is as close to the truth as we can get. For instance, after more than a century, of many thousandths of tests, Darwins theory holds, with only minor modification. Yet we cannot prove it holds under all possible conditions, because doing so would take an infinite number of tests. We can say that a theory has a high probability of not being wrong. Even then, biologist keep on looking for information and devising tests that may disprove its promises. The willingness to modify even an entrenched theory is a strength of science, not a weakness. Scientific inquiry into nature involves asking questions, formulating hypotheses, making predictions, testing predictions, and objectively reporting the results. A scientific theory is a time tested intellectual framework that is used to interpret a broad range of observations and data. Scientific theories remain open to rigorous test, revision and tentative acceptance or rejection. power of experimental tests