Question | Answer |
Natural World | Scientists use things in natural world; not theological/ religious things |
Observation | To gather physical evidence; see, hear, smell, feel, taste, etc; technology |
Objective | Not letting your beliefs or opinions get in the way; have to keep observation |
Experimentation | A controlled observation; you make it happen |
Repeated | Very important to repeat to prove or observe other variables that you cannot see |
Gathering and Organizing | To let other people use it and pass along; work is used as a foundation |
Self Correcting | Scientists always have to be able to accept new info/change views around us |
Five Ingredients of the Market Revolution | New technologies; energy; capital investment; regulation; productivity vs. wage |
Four ways in which humans degrade the environment | Pollution; habitat destruction; invasive species; over accumulation |
History of Environmental Policy | Exploration (do everything you can to get it); conservation; pollution prevention |
Ecosystem Services | Direct-shelter, medicine, food; indirect-delivered to us (mangroves, only worried about $); Aesthetic-most important, value, what we leave for the future, will probably decrease |
Pseudoscience | Use of psychobabble-words that sound scientific in misleading manner; substantial reliance difficult to verify; extraordinary claims in absence of evidence; unfeasible claims; absence of connectivity to research; no peer review; lack self correction |
What is evolution? | Any change in the heritable traits within populations across generations; random evolution; natural selection |
What is the evidence for evolution? | Comparative anatomy; embryology & development; fossil records; DNA comparisons |
How evolution works | Heredity passed from different characteristics of same species; mutations-random changes in DNA; random-all processes are based on chance; selection-those who survive |
What is DNA? | Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid; Acts of blueprint for living things; tells amino acids how to form perfect shape and structure; lives in nucleus; a molecular blueprint for a living thing, 20 amino acids |
What is a gene? | Sequence, 46 strands in DNA; 3 base pairs=4 proteins; they make proteins; length and sequence determine size of protein; special stretch of DNA that codes for something |
What is natural selection? | Process by which randomly descent is produced in modification and change; make adaptations to environment |
What is biodiversity? | The variety of life in the world or a particular habitat ecosystem |
Biodiversity is a function of: | Climate; precipitation, temperature |
Biodiversity is impacted by: | Habitat destruction; climate change; humans; over harvesting; invasive species; global trade; pesticides; pollution; medicine; you don't want to disturb the food chain |