Is a Virus a living thing? Are viruses alive or not? To figure out this question we first have to know‚ what defines a living thing. According to the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary‚ life is in particular “an organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism‚ growth‚ reaction to stimuli‚ and reproduction.” For about 100 years‚ scientists have repeatedly changed their mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons‚ then as life-forms‚ then biological chemicals‚ viruses today are thought
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The effect of mutations on living organisms Mutations occur when there is a change in the base sequence on the DNA strand. Most mutations have absolutely no effect due to them occurring in the introns‚ or the “junk DNA”. However some mutations occur on the exons‚ and these are the ones that can be potentially harmful to the organism‚ although in some exceptional cases random mutations can be beneficial‚ and pressured mutations are almost always beneficial to the survival of a species. Harmful
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vitamins and minerals as a biological catalyst‚ which lowers the activation energy for a reaction to occur. Each individual type of enzyme does a specific job‚ and they do not die‚ they are reused. For example‚ catalase is an enzyme found in almost all living cells that will break down hydrogen peroxide and turn it into water and oxygen. The breakdown of Hydrogen peroxide happens when it gets released from metabolism‚ and Materials: Yeast Solution 4 Test tubes Graduated cylinder 1 Bottle of Hydrogen
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a good report on fungus - The kingdom of Fungi contains single-celled and multicellular organisms that absorb nutrients for food. Fungi‚ together with bacteria decay and decompose organic matter. Some fungi can be parasitic and cause serious diseases in plants and animals. Though considered an individual kingdom today‚ traditionally fungi were classified as plants with no stems‚ leaves‚ or chlorophyll. About 100‚000 species of fungi are known. Most fungi are made of protoplasm-containing tubes called
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How microscopes have contributed to our understanding of living organisms There are 2 types of microscopes these are; light microscope and electron microscope. Light microscopes use a beam of light however the resolution is lower than the electron microscope so the image is not clear‚ however they can view living organisms. These types of microscopes are used in schools to view simple cellular structures‚ which is good to teach simple biology Mitosis and meiosis can be seen with light microscopes
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NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF VIRUSES The Nature of Viruses Viruses are sub-cellular agents of infection that must utilize the cellular machinery of bacteria‚ plants or animals in order to reproduce. Composed of a single strand of genetic material (DNA or RNA) encased in a protein capsid‚ a virus is too small to be seen by standard light microscopy; indeed‚ most are less than one hundredth the size of a bacterium. Specific proteins on the viral capsid attach to receptors on the host cell; this
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of living organisms‚ the solvent (water) would have net movement across a selective permeable membrane. Osmosis only occurs when a membrane such as that of a cell is permeable to water molecules but not to specific solutes (Tortora & Derrickson 2014). Certain simple molecules such as oxygen‚ water and carbon dioxide can travel across the cell membrane by osmosis‚ a passive process similar to other forms of diffusion (Hill 2007). Not merely is it vital to several processes in living organisms‚ it
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Differences and similarity of living at home and living away from home. In western world‚ people tend to move out from their domicile home from the age 18 because it is part of their culture which they must learn to live by themselves. For eastern world‚ some people slightly change their way of culture to the western culture whereas the other people still follow their traditional path; to live with family. Home is a place of domicile where people live together in a group of family. At some moment
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Amongst many problems that living organisms face‚ one of the biggest is the change in the temperature of the environment. Why is this a major problem for living organisms? A change in the temperature of the environment disrupts many of the body’s enzymes and regulatory proteins‚ changing their shape and perturbing their function. However‚ organisms have taken two different approaches to tackling this problem we call this organisms endotherms and ectotherms but in this essay‚ we will talk about an
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The importance of carbohydrates in living organisms Carbohydrates contain carbon‚ hydrogen and oxygen in the ratio of 1.2.1.. There are many different types of carbohydrate‚ all of which are useful to living organisms. The most important carbohydrate is probable glucose. Glucose is a monosaccharide and is the monomer unit which makes up more complex polysaccharides. Two glucose molecules can be joined in a condensation reaction‚ whereby water is removed‚ for example to produce maltose‚ a disaccharide
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