Question | Answer |
What are all living things made of? | Cells |
Which are the vital functions that all living things can perform? | Nutrition, interaction and reproduction |
What is nutrition? | The ability of living things to obtain matter and energy from the environment |
What is interaction? | The ability to detect a change in the environment (stimulus) and make an appropriate response. Stimuli can be chemical, tactile or light and responses can be either movements or secretion. |
What is reproduction? | The ability to generate new individuals |
What is a cell? | A cell is the simplest living structure capable of acting by itself and perform the three vital functions. |
How many types of cells are there? | Prokaryotic and eukaryotic. |
What's the difference between a prokaryotic and a eukaryotic cell? | Prokaryotic cells do not have a nucleus, that is the genetic material is free in the cytoplasm.
Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus, that is, they have a double membrane that surrounds and isolates their genetic material. |
There are two types of cell nutrition ... | Autotrophic and heterotrophic |
Autotrophic nutrition | Cells capture inorganic material (carbon dioxide, water and mineral salts) and produce organic matter using energy from the Sun. It is a process called PHOTOSYNTHESIS, that can only be made by plants, green algae and some bacteria. |
Heterotrophic nutrition | Cells capture organic matter as a source of matter and energy. Organic matter is digested until it becomes small enough to be able to enter the cells. Heterotrophic cells are found in animals, fungi and protozoa, and also in many species of bacteria. |
Reproduction of living beings can be ... | Asexual or sexual |
Asexual reproduction ... | needs only one individual that can divide by binary fission, budding or multiple fission. |
Sexual reproduction ... | needs two individuals of different sex, a female and a male, and it can be internal or external. |