1. The Characteristics of Life
Cellular Organization
Reproduction
Heredity
Metabolism
Homeostasis
Responsiveness
Growth and Development

2. Cellular Organization
All life is made up of one or more cells.
A bacteria is made up of one cell, but plants and animals have even more.
How many cells do humans have?
10 to 50 trillion cells!
Each cell in the body does a special job, and working together they make an organism.

3. What kinds of cells are there?

4. Reproduction All organisms need a way to make more of themselves.
There are a variety of different ways that organisms reproduce.
Sexual Reproduction
Eggs
Live Birth
Broadcast Spawning
Asexual Reproduction
Binary Fission
Mitosis
Fragmentation

5. Heredity All organisms pass traits on to their offspring.
Your father’s nose, your mother’s hair are all traits that you have inherited from your parents.
These traits are passed on through DNA.
Every organism we know of in the world uses DNA to pass on it’s genetic code.

6. Metabolism
Metabolism is a sum of all the chemical reactions in an organism.
Metabolism is broken into two parts.
Catabolism breaks down molecules and releases energy.
Anabolism creates new molecules and uses energy.
Anabolic steroids help build proteins which are added to muscles.
All organisms require energy to do pretty much anything.

7. Homeostasis From greek, Homeo – the same, and Stasis – standing still.
Homeostasis is a stable state of conditions in an organism’s body that are necessary for life.
Body Temperature
Water balance
Blood pH

8. Responsiveness All organisms respond to things in their environment.
We call these thing that organisms respond to stimuli.
Light
Temperature
Odor
Sound
Gravity
Heat
Pressure

9. Growth and Development
All organisms grow and develop.
Development is a change in the physical or physiological make-up of an organism.
Without growth, each generation would get smaller and smaller.
Metabolism helps create the energy that fuels growth and development.

10. The Unifying Themes of Biology
Cellular Structure and Function
Homeostasis
Metabolism
Reproduction
Heredity
Evolution
Interdependence

11. Evolution
Evolution is the changes in the genetic makeup of a population over time.
Every species undergoes evolution, however, some do it faster than others.
Evolution acts on whole species, not on individual organisms.
What is a species?
A species is a group of organisms that are capable of interbreeding and can produce fertile offspring of both sexes.

12. What about hybrids?

13. Interdependence All organisms depend on other for survival.
Or, as Elton John put it, there is a circle of life and it moves us all.
The study of this interdependence between organisms and the environments in which they live is called ecology.
This is one of the reasons environmental protection is so important, just like all other animals and life, humans rely on other organisms to live and thrive.