Biology 1020 Midterm 1 Vocabulary
Evolution: descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present-day ones.
Biology: the scientific study of life.
Emergent properties: new properties that emerge with each step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arrangement and interaction of parts as complexity increases.
Systems biology: an approach to studying biology that aims to model the dynamic behavior of whole biological systems based on a study of the interactions among the systems parts.
Global climate change: increase in temperature and change in weather patterns all around the planet, due mostly to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels from the burning of fossil fuels.
Eukaryotic cell: a type of cell with a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles.
Prokaryotic cell: a type of cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles.
DNA: a double-stranded, helical nucleic acid molecule, consisting of nucleotide monomers with a deoxyribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
Genes: a discrete unit of hereditary information consisting of a specific nucleotide sequence DNA (or RNA in some viruses).
Gene expression: the process by which information encoded in DNA directs the synthesis of proteins or, in some cases, RNAs that are not translated into proteins and instead function as RNAs.
Genome: the genetic material of an organism or virus.
Genomics: the study of whole sets of genes and their interactions within a species, as well as genome comparisons between species.
Bioinformatics: the use of computers, software and mathematical models to process and integrate biological information from large data sets.
Negative feedback: a form of regulation in which the accumulation of an end product of a process slows the process.
Positive feedback: a form of regulation in which the accumulation of an end product of a process speeds up the
Biology: the scientific study of life.
Emergent properties: new properties that emerge with each step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arrangement and interaction of parts as complexity increases.
Systems biology: an approach to studying biology that aims to model the dynamic behavior of whole biological systems based on a study of the interactions among the systems parts.
Global climate change: increase in temperature and change in weather patterns all around the planet, due mostly to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels from the burning of fossil fuels.
Eukaryotic cell: a type of cell with a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles.
Prokaryotic cell: a type of cell lacking a membrane-enclosed nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles.
DNA: a double-stranded, helical nucleic acid molecule, consisting of nucleotide monomers with a deoxyribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
Genes: a discrete unit of hereditary information consisting of a specific nucleotide sequence DNA (or RNA in some viruses).
Gene expression: the process by which information encoded in DNA directs the synthesis of proteins or, in some cases, RNAs that are not translated into proteins and instead function as RNAs.
Genome: the genetic material of an organism or virus.
Genomics: the study of whole sets of genes and their interactions within a species, as well as genome comparisons between species.
Bioinformatics: the use of computers, software and mathematical models to process and integrate biological information from large data sets.
Negative feedback: a form of regulation in which the accumulation of an end product of a process slows the process.
Positive feedback: a form of regulation in which the accumulation of an end product of a process speeds up the