This section will teach us how to:
Identify and describe the properties of life. – Living things share some common properties. According to our online reading material the properties of life are order, sensitivity or response to stimuli, reproduction, adaption, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing. These 8 characteristics characterize living things. Life displays order through the organization of the organism. Living things will either respond positively or negatively to stimuli. Then, there is reproduction. which single-celled organisms are able to do by copying and duplicating its DNA. Once the information is copied it divides equally, while many multi-celled organisms produce special reproductive cells that form new individuals. DNA, which contains the genetics, are passed down to offspring after reproduction Adaptation has to do with how a living organism “fits” into their environment and the process of natural selection allows for organisms to change accordingly to that environment. Though adaption is not constant, whenever there are changes in the environment, the population of that environment will change to maximize their reproductive potential in accordance with those new changes. Growth and development is an obvious sign of something living and it happens based on the genes which were passed by the parents. The regulation of all these complex processes happens constantly while that organism remains alive. Even small organisms need a mechanism to coordinate and regulate internal functions. Homeostasis allows an organism to keep a constant internal state or “steady-state”. A polar bear, for example, keeps homeostasis through a process called thermoregulation. Last is energy processing. All living organisms use a source of energy. Energy allows for metabolic activities to happen. Some organisms get their energy from the sun which is changed and converted into chemical energy. Other organisms get their energy from molecules taken in.
Continue reading Biology Notes Introduction to Life