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Chapter 3
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organism | A living thing. |
| Cell | A basic unit of structure and function in living things. |
| Unicellular | Made of a single cell. |
| Multicellular | Consisting of many cells. |
| Metabolism | The combination of chemical reactions through which an organism builds up or breaks down materials. |
| Stimulus | Any change or signal in the environment that can make an organism react in some way. |
| Response | An action or change in bahavior that occurs as a result of a srtimulus. |
| Development | The process of change that occurs during an orgainism's life to produce a more complex organism. |
| Asexual reproduction | A reproductive process that involes only one parent and produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent. |
| Sexual reproduction | A reproduction process that involes two parents that combine their genetic material tp produce a new organism which differs from both parents. |
| Spontaneous generation | The mistaken idea that living things arise from nonliving sources. |
| Controlled experiment | An experiment in which only one variable is manipulated at a time. |
| Autotroph | An organism that cannot make its own food and gets food by consuming other living things. |
| Heterotroph | An organism that cannot make its own food and gets food by consuming other living things. |
| Homeostasis | The condition in which an organisms internal environment is kept stable in spite of changes in the external environment. |
| Classification | The scientific study of how living things are classified. |
| Taxonomy | The scientific study of how living things are classified. |
| Binomial Nomenclature | A group of similar organisms that can mate with each other to produce offspring that can also make and reproduce. |
| Genus | A classification grouping that consists of a number of similar, closely related species. |
| Species | A group of similar organisms that can mate with each other to produce offspring that can also make and reproduce. |
| Prokaryote | A unicellular organism that lacks a nucleus and some other cell structures. |
| Nucleus | The central core of an atom which contains protons and neutrons. |
| Eukaryote | An organism whose cells contain a nucleus. |