BIOLOGY 1500 OUTLINE FOR CHAPTER 2
Science, Matter, and Energy
- science
o an organized way of looking at the world and asking questions; it’s a way of finding out information.
- The Scientific Method
o Steps
§ Observation
§ Question
§ Background information
§ Hypothesis
§ Predictions
§ Experiment
§ Data collection and analysis
§ Conclusion
§ Report findings
o A hypothesis
§ Is an educated guess formulated as a statement that can be disproved.
o Types
§ Experimental method involves control and experimental group and short time spans.
§ Comparative method involves looking for natural experiments and testing hypotheses using them.
§ Modeling is a simulation of complex processes and systems.
- Theories and Paradigms
o Theory: well-supported and widely accepted hypothesis that explains a set of interconnected phenomena, and it can become a paradigm
o Paradigm: an idea or concept so strong that it guides scientists so to what questions they ask.
- Scientific laws
o A scientific or natural law is a description of what scientists find happening in nature without exception
o A statement of fact about the universe that illustrates something that is always true.
- Data
o Scientific data are facts obtained by making observations and measurements
- Things that are science (and their definitions)
o Frontier science
o Consensus science
o Fringe science
- Things that are not science (and their definitions)
o Junk science
o Pseudoscience
- Chemistry
o Matter: is any substance that has mass and occupies space
o Element: pure substance that cannot be broken down into other substances
o Atom: smallest particle of an element, cannot be broken down into smaller particles while remaining the same element
o Compounds: substances composed of two or more elements
§ Inorganic compounds: do not contain carbon combined with hydrogen, characteristic of non-living things (exception is methane CH4)
§ Organic compounds: contain both, carbons (at least two) and hydrogen, along with other elements, characteristic of living things.
o Matter quality
§ A measure of how orderly, concentrated, and useful a material is for humans
§ High-quality matter: is very pure and concentrated, very useful
§ Low-quality matter: is impure, disordered, and dilute, not useful at all.
§ Think of the sorting and recycling facilities and how they convert wastes in high quality matter through sorting and concentrating the different type matter; plastic, cardboard, glass…etc (matter quality at work)
o Physical changes
§ Alters the state of matter of a material without changing the composition of a material (example: ice to water)
o Chemical changes
§ Alter the composition such as burning wood to give off water and carbon dioxide, which is not the same as the cellulose and oxygen that was there before
- Laws of matter and energy
o Matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it can merely change form (physical or chemical change), ---there is no “away”---
o First law of thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only conserved, ---you can’t get ahead---
o Second law of thermodynamics: energy is always converted from a higher-quality form into a lower-quality form, entropy, ---you can’t break even, neither---
- Matter and pollution
o A pollution is a substance (or energy) in food, air, water, or soil that impairs the life, health, safety, or even enjoyment of living things, including humans
o Persistence is a measure of how long a pollutant lasts in the environment
§ Degradable or non persistent (example: a piece of paper)
§ Biodegradable: requires the action of living things (example: wood)
§ Slowly degradable or persistent (examples: DDT and CFC)
§ Nondegradable (examples: plastics, lead, mercury, arsenic)
- Energy
o The ability to do work and transfer heat
o Heat is very low-quality energy and consists of the random motion of molecules
o Types
§ Kinetic energy: is the energy of motion
§ Potential energy: is energy stored in a system
o Quality
§ High-quality energy: has a high capacity for work
§ Low-quality energy: has a low capacity for work
- Connection between Laws of Matter and Ecology
o Everything is connected to everything else
o Everything must go somewhere. There is no “waste” in nature and there is no “away” to which things can be thrown
o Nature knows best
o There is no such thing as a free lunch
End.