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Ch 1 Vocab
BIOLOGY
Term | Definition |
---|---|
biosphere | all living things and all the places they are found on earth |
biodiversity | the variety of life |
species | a particular type of living things that can reproduce by interbreeding among themselves |
biology | the scientific study of all forms of life, or all types of organisms |
organism | any individual living thing |
cell | the basic unit of life |
metabolism | all of the chemical processes that build up or break down materials |
DNA | the genetic material in all organisms |
system | an organized group of related parts that interact to form a whole |
ecosystem | a physical environment with different species that interact with one another and with nonliving things |
homeostasis | the maintenance of constant internal conditions in an organism |
evolution | the change in living things over time |
adaptation | an inherited trait that gives an advantage to individual organisms and is passed onto future generations |
observation | using your senses and other tools to study the world |
data | recorded observations |
hypothesis | a proposed answer for a scientific question |
experiments | testing the hypothesis |
independent variable | a condition that is manipulated |
dependent variable | the experimental data |
constants | the conditions that do not change in an experiment |
theory | a proposed explanation for a wide range of observations and experimental results that is supported by a wide range of evidence |
microscope | provides an enlarged image of an object |
gene | a segment of DNA that stores genetic information |
molecular genetics | the study and manipulation of DNA on a molecular level |
genomics | the study and comparison of genomes both within and across species |
biotechnology | the use and application of living things and biological processes |
transgenic | organisms that have genes from more than one species, or have altered copies of their own genes |