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chapter 1 book 3
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| organism | a living thing |
| cell | the 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 behavior that occurs as a result of a stimulus |
| development | the process of change that occurs during an organism's life to produce a more complex organism. |
| asexual reproduction | a reproduction process that involves only one parent and produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent. |
| spontaneous generation | the mistaken idea that living things arise from nonliving sourses |
| controlled experiment | an experiment which only one variable is manipulated at a time |
| autotroph | an organism that is able to capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food |
| heterotroph | an organism that cannot make its own food by consuming other living things |
| homeostasis | the condition in which an organism's internal environment is kept stable in spite of changes in the external enviorment |
| classification | the process of groping things based on their similaraties |
| taxonomy | the scientific study of how living things are classified |
| binomial nomenclature | the classification system in which each organism is given a unique two part scientific name indicating its genus and species |
| genus | a classification gropping that consists of a number of similar closely related spiececs |
| species | a group of simular organisms that can mate with others and produce offsprings that can also mate and reproduce |
| prokaryote | a unicellular organism that lacks a nucleus and some other cell structures. |
| nucleus | in cells a large oval organelle that contains the cell's genetic material in the form of DNA and controls many of the cell's activites |
| eukaryote | an organism whose cells contain a nucleus |