NCSU Biology 181 Final Exam, Questions and answers. Graded A+. latest Update.

NCSU Biology 181 Final Exam, Questions and answers. Graded A+. latest Update. Characteristics of Life - -The seven characteristics of life include: responsiveness to the environment; growth and change; ability to reproduce; have a metabolism and breathe; maintain homeostasis; being made of cells; passing traits onto offspring Discovery Based Science - --is a scientific methodology which emphasizes analysis of large volumes of experimental data with the goal of finding new patterns or correlations, leading to hypothesis formation and other scientific methodologies -Collect and analyze data, not hypothesis driven. -Ex: Testing drugs to determine usefulness in various diseases Discovery Based Science vs. Hypothesis Based Science - -- Discovery based science is results that have been found from actually having carried out the experiment or investigation. -Hypothesis based science is an educated guess by a scientist of what will happen during an experiment or investigation. (Prove long before the discovery) Hypothesis Based Science (Scientific Method) - --Scientific Method: Series of steps used to answer questions logically -Hypothesis driven -Usually tested with a controlled experiment -Results should be repeatable Five Steps of the Scientific Method - -1. Make observations - question things! 2. Formulate a hypothesis 3. Design and perform a controlled experiment 4. Analyze Results 5. Draw conclusions (accept or reject hypothesis), present results Hypotheses (3 formats) - --Question: Does the color of light affect plant growth? -Conditional Statement: The color of light may affect plant growth. -If . . . then Statement: If plant growth is related to the color of light, then some colors of light will produce greater growth than others Hypotheses - --Hypotheses must state a relationship in order to not just be a prediction -Hypotheses must also be falsifiable -The real strength of a hypothesis is not evidence in favor of it, but situations which could falsify it, not doing so! Controlled Experiment - --Both a control and a variable -Control: Used as a baseline measure, identical to variable group except does NOT receive treatment in question -Variable: What is altered, measured, or manipulated in an experiment Independent & Dependent Variable - -In an experiment, the independent variable is the variable that is varied or manipulated by the researcher, and the dependent variable is the response that is measured. An independent variable is the presumed cause, whereas the dependent variable is the presumed effect. -Can be more than one dependent variable but only one independent variable per experiment Prayer Case Study - Why Not Good Science? - --Could not control all variables Deductive Reasoning (Specific to General) - -Deductive reasoning is a logical process in which a conclusion is based on the concordance of multiple premises that are generally assumed to be true. Deductive reasoning is sometimes referred to as top-down logic. Its counterpart, inductive reasoning, is sometimes referred to as bottom-up logic. Inductive Reasoning (General to Specific) - -Inductive reasoning is a logical process in which multiple premises, all believed true or found true most of the time, are combined to obtain a specific conclusion. Inductive reasoning is often used in applications that involve prediction, forecasting, or behavior. - The first part of the scientific method is inductive, the rest is deductive. Evolution - --Evolution is change in heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations. -Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including the level of species, individual organisms, and at the level of molecular evolution. Lamarck - -Lamarck was struck by the similarities of many of the animals he studied, and was impressed too by the burgeoning fossil record. It led him to argue that life was not fixed. When environments changed, organisms had to change their behavior to survive. If they began to use an organ more than they had in the past, it would increase in its lifetime. If a giraffe stretched its neck for leaves, for example, make it longer. Its offspring would inherit the longer neck, and continued stretching would make it longer still over several generations. Meanwhile organs that organisms stopped using would shrink. Darwin - -It was Darwin's genius both to show how all this evidence favored the evolution of species from a common ancestor and to offer a plausible mechanism by which life might evolve . . . Natural Selection Wallace - --Wallace came to similar conclusions -Wallace and Darwin together presented their ideas on natural selection and adaptation in 1858 in London Darwin's Theory (Variation and Competition) - -Organisms over-reproduce: 1. Individuals vary, some variations are heritable 2. Resources are limited 3. Organisms with most favorable traits for a given environment have the most reproductive success, and those traits are passed on to next generation -The theory of evolution is known as "descent with modification," through variation and natural selection Natural Selection (A process, not goal-oriented) - --Environment, forces of nature that "select" individuals with traits that favor reproductive success --Process that causes evolutionary change is natural -Over long period of time, this process of natural selection leads to adaptation --A population's characteristic change --Better able to survive and/or reproduce=affects evolution of populations and species Evidence for Evolution - -FACT!! -Mechanisms for how evolution occurs is strongly supported theory Fossil Record (Layers) - --As one looks farther up, at younger and younger rock layers, the fossilized plants and animals become more and more familiar until they are a lot like organisms that are around now. The organisms also tend to become more and more complex. -From this, Darwin concluded that organisms have not remained the same since earth's beginning, and that they have changed a lot, gradually becoming more and more complex. He also realized that as new species arise, other ones become extinct. Fossil Record (Ancient Remains) - --Darwin and scientists today have discovered that the ancient organisms whose remains they find look like organisms alive today because they are the living organisms' ancestors or evolved from a common ancestor -Today, fossils are still being studied to find out more about life in the past and its relation to life in the present. They provide valuable information about evolution and how life formed. Unlike in Darwin's time, now scientists can date these fossils and remains to get a more exact picture of when different organisms evolved. Vestigial Structures - -Vestigiality refers to genetically determined structures or attributes that have apparently lost most or all of their ancestral function in a given species, but have been retained through evolution. Artificial Selection - -Long before Darwin and Wallace, farmers and breeders were using the idea of selection to cause major changes in the features of their plants and animals over the course of decades. Farmers and breeders allowed only the plants and animals with desirable characteristics to reproduce, causing the evolution of farm stock. This process is called artificial selection because people (instead of nature) select which organisms get to reproduce. Comparative Anatomy - -the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). Comparative anatomy has long served as evidence for evolution; it indicates that various organisms share a common ancestor. Homologous Structures - -structures (body parts/anatomy) which are similar in different species because the species have common descent. They may or may not perform the same function. An example is the forelimb structure shared by cats and whales. Analogous Structures - -structures similar in different organisms because they evolved in a similar environment, rather than were inherited from a recent common ancestor. They usually serve the same or similar purposes. An example is the streamlined torpedo body shape of porpoises and sharks. -Convergent Evolution! Biochemical Evidence of Evolution - -By studying the basic biochemistry shared by many organisms, we can begin to piece together how biochemical systems evolved near the root of the tree of life. Embryology - -Embryos of many different kinds of animals: mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc. look very similar and it is often difficult to tell them apart. Many traits of one type of animal appear in the embryo of another type of animal. For example, fish embryos and human embryos both have gill slits. In fish they develop into gills, but in humans they disappear before birth. This shows that the animals are similar and that they develop similarly, implying that they are related, have common ancestors and that they started out the same, gradually evolving different traits, but that the basic plan for a creature's beginning remains the same. Biogeography - -study of how species are scattered across the planet, and how they got that way Species - -Can breed and produce fertile offspring Populations - -Same species, same place, same time -Natural selection works on individuals, yet populations evolve