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Chapter 1 Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Biosphere | all organisms and the part of Earth where they exist |
| Biodiversity | variety of life within an area |
| Species | group of organisms so similar to one another that they can breed and produce fertile offspring |
| Biology | scientific study of all forms of life |
| Science | the knowledge obtained by observing natural events and conditions in order to discover facts and formulate laws or principles that can be verified or tested |
| Organism | any individual living thing |
| Cell | basic unit of life |
| Metabolism | all chemical processes that synthesize or break down materials within an organism |
| DNA | molecule that stores genetic information in all organisms |
| System | changing, organized group of related parts that interact to form a whole |
| Ecosystem | collection of organisms and nonliving things such as climate, soil, water and rocks, in a area |
| Homeostasis | regulation and maintenance of constant internal conditions in an organism |
| Evolution | change in a species over time; process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their ancestors |
| Adaptation | inherited trait that is selected for over time because it allows organisms to better survive in their environment |
| Observation | using the senses to study the world; using tools to collect measurements; examining previous research tools |
| Data | observations and measurements recorded during an experiment |
| Hypothesis | proposed explanation or answer to a scientific question |
| Experiment | process that tests a hypothesis by collecting information under controlled conditions |
| Independent Variable | condition or factor that is manipulated by a scientist during an experiment |
| Dependent Variable | experimental data collected through observation and measurement |
| Constant | condition that is controlled so that it does no change during an experiment |
| Therory | proposed explanation for a wide variety of observations and experimental results |
| Measurement | a determination of the dimensions of something using a standard unit |
| accuracy | a description of how close a measurement is to the true value of the quantity measured |
| precision | the exactness of a measurement |
| microscope | tool that provides an enlarged image of an object |
| gene | specific region of DNA that codes for a particular protein |
| molecular genetics | study of DNA structure and function on the molecular level |
| genomics | study and comparison of genomes within a single species or among different species |