Notes: Characteristics of Living Things What is Life?

What is Biology? Bio= life -ology= study of Biology= the study of life

Characteristic #1: Organization High degree of order within an organism's internal and external parts and in its interactions with its Ex: Compare a rock to an owl. A rock has a specific shape but is irregular and different rocks of the same type have different shapes. Owl is highly organized and owls of the same species have the same parts arranged in nearly the same way and interact with environment the same way.

Characteristic #2: Cells All living things are made up of at least one cell Unicellular: one-celled organisms (bacteria) Multicellular: many-celled organisms (plants and animals)

Characteristic #3: Response to Environment Organisms are able to respond to physical or chemical changes in the internal or external environment Ex: when a cat feels threatened they puff up and arch their back

Characteristic #4: Homeostasis Organisms have mechanisms that keep conditions within a specific range, despite changes in the environment Ex: our bodies sweat when our body temperature is above a specific range

Characteristic #5: Metabolism Organisms take in energy from their environment, and convert it for repair, movement, and growth.

Characteristic #5: Metabolism Heterotrophic: Organisms that are unable to create their own food. They must consume other living things as a food source (ex. animals) Autotrophic: Organisms that create their own food (ex. Plants) PHOTOSYNTHESIS!!

Characteristic #6: Growth Organisms become larger through cell division and enlargement Development: organisms become a mature adult as cells divide and differentiate (specialize). Allowing different types of cells to perform different necessary actions for the adult organism.

Characteristic #7: Reproduce Organisms can create offspring similar to themselves through heredity, the ability to pass traits on through genes DNA: (deoxyribonucleic acid) the large molecule used to store genetic data.

Characteristic #8: Evolve Populations of organisms change or evolve over time to adapt to an ever changing world