Characteristics of Life Vocabulary What makes something living or nonliving?

Adaptation The adjustment or changes in behavior, physiology, and structure of an organism to become more suited to an environment. Example: Rock Pocket Mouse

Energy (1) The capacity for work. (2) The ability to do work, or produce change. Example: In biology, energy is often stored by cells in biomolecules, like carbohydrates (sugars) and lipids. The energy is released when these molecules have been oxidized during cellular respiration. The energy released from them when they are oxidized during cellular respiration is carried and transported by an energy-carrier molecule called ATP

Homeostasis Definition: the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes. Example: Temperature control, blood sugar, heart rate

Organism Definition: an individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form. Example: Human, Dog, Cat, Otter, Llama

Stimulus & Response Stimulus Definition: Response A detectable change in the internal or external environment that influences or causes a temporary increase of physiological activity or response in the whole organism or in any of its parts. Response Definition: Biology. any behavior of a living organism that results from an external or internal stimulus.

Development the progressive changes in size, shape, and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potentials (genotype) are translated into functioning mature systems (phenotype).

Growth the process of increasing in physical size, shape, or mass.

Biology Definition: The study of life

Cell The cell (from Latin cella, meaning "small room") is the basic structural, functional, and biological unit of all known living organisms. A cell is the smallest unit of life that can replicate independently, and cells are often called the "building blocks of life"