Biology 1500 Outline for Chapter 2

Biology 1500 Outline for Chapter 2

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.