Study Guide 1
Last revised: Monday, August 27, 2001
Topic: Introduction to the
Cell
Text reading: Ch. 1; Ch. 7
(pp. 102-107)
Chapter 1. Read through the chapter to get a good overview of major themes in biology. Be able to answer the following questions.
Chapter 1. Read through the chapter to get a good overview of major themes in biology. Be able to answer the following questions.
- Arrange the following terms in sequence from smallest to largest: organism, molecule, organelle, tissue, community, atom, cell.
- What is "reductionism?" If you wish to explain how a cell is capable of motility by a reductionistic explanation, what kinds of data would you need? Can you think of other ways of explaining cell motility that are not reductionistic?
- What are "emergent properties?" Identify 3 properties of a cell that are not present in cell molecules. Identify 3 properties of a human being that are not present in cells alone.
- All living systems, be they as diverse as bacterial cells, mushrooms, or termites, share certain properties in common. Identify at least 5 of these properties (Hint: see how many you can enumerate before you look in your text!)
- Cells are the units from which all living organisms are made. What two kinds of cells have been discovered? How do they differ? In what ways are they alike?
- All cells use DNA. Why is DNA so important?
- It is convenient to group organisms into different categories (domains, kingdoms, etc.) for effective study. The broadest category recognized today is the domain. How many domains are there, and what organisms belong in each domain?
- Prof. T. Dobzhansky, a famous biologist of the 20th century, observed that "nothing in biology makes sense without the theory of evolution." Suggest at least 3 ways in which evolutionary ideas explain things that would otherwise be inexplicable.
- What are the characteristics of "science" that distinguish it from other ways of knowing? This is not a simple question -- scholars continue to debate this issue. Still, there are some basic ideas that are characteristic of most scientific work. Review the discussion on pp 13-18 carefully. Note the interplay of hypothesis, prediction, and experiment. What is meant by the "hypothetico-deductive" method? Is it theoretically possible to prove any hypothesis with absolute certainty?
- What does the term "theory" mean in science? How does this differ from everyday usage of this term?
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