Term | Definition |
oraganism | a living thing |
cell | the basic unit of structure and function in an organism |
unicellular | made of a single cell |
multicellular | consisting of many cells |
stimulus | a change in an organism's surrounding that causes the organism to react |
response | an action or change in behavior that occurs as a result of stimulus |
development | the process of change that occurs during an organism's life to produce a more complex organism |
spontaneous generation | the mistaken idea that living things arise from non-living things |
controlled experiment | an experiment in which all features are identical except one |
autotroph | an organism that makes its own food |
heterotroph | an organism tat cannot make its own food |
homeostasis | the maintenance of stable internal conditions |
classification | the process of grouping things based on their similarities |
taxonomy | the scientific study of how living things are classified |
binomial nomenclature | the system for naming organisms in which each organism is given a unique two part scientific name indicating its genus and species |
genus | a classification grouping that consist of a number of similar closely related species |
species | a group of similar organisms that can mate with each other and produce offspring that also can mate and produce |
evolution | the process by which species gradually change overtime |
prokaryote | organisms with cells without nucleus, unicellular |
nucleus | area in a cell that contains nucleic acids |
eukaryote | organisms with cells that contain nuclei |