Who Cares! About Biology
Modified from Shmoop.com
WHAT IS BIOLOGY?
Biology is the study of life. As if you haven’t heard that line a hundred times before. But, Biology doesn’t stop there; you will find an amazing variety of topics and ideas on Planet Bio. Here is a little taste of what we will be investigating:
- What, exactly, does it mean to be alive? Personally, we would have a hard time imagining a life where we didn't have the ability to kick virtual butt on our PS3s, but ponies and pandas might disagree.
- How do living things "work"? What makes them tick?
- How do living things reproduce and grow?
- How do living things interact with each other? Do they friend each other and like each other's statuses? Probably not.
- Where did life come from, and how has it changed over time?
LIFE IS COMPLEX
What is Life?
Nope, you are not in Philosophy class. Even though "What is life?" is the kind of mind-draining question we could spend days talking about over espresso and chocolate-drizzled croissants, a biologist would tell you that all living things—organisms, creatures, beasties, take your pick—have somewhere between 5 and 8 characteristics in common. (Depending on who you ask) That's right; you are not officially alive if you cannot do all of the things on this list.
Living things are complex and organized.
Living creatures are well-oiled machines. Despite the nicely packaged outward appearance, living creatures have various different levels of organization that are extremely complex.
Starting at the lowest level of organization, subatomic particles, such as protons, neutrons, and electrons, make up atoms, which can combine with other atoms to form a dizzying variety of molecules. Atoms turn into molecules that get together and form cellular structures, including organelles, or as we like to call them, "mini organs."
Many different organelles work together inside a cell. The cell is the most basic functional unit of life.
In a multicellular organism, a group of cells that all share the same tasks is called a tissue, and one or more tissues form an organ. Organs are organized into organ systems, and a whole organism has many organ systems working together to get things done.
Many individuals living in the same place form a population, and all the interbreeding populations of a certain kind of living organism make up a species. When populations of different species interact, they form a community…and have lots of parties.
An ecosystem includes all the living organisms in a certain area in addition to the nonliving parts of their environment, which usually includes many different communities. Finally, the highest level of organization is the biosphere–encompassing all the living things on Earth. Phew.
LIFE USES ENERGY
Living things gain and use matter and energy. Like, "Red Bull gives you wings"?
We have established that all living critters have several levels of organization. Since you continually reorganize your impeccably kept biology notebook as if you were a squirrel hopped up on caffeine, we know you have no doubt that maintaining organization requires energy—lots and lots of energy.
Think of all the calendars, day planners, and lists that you have made in your lifetime (or haven't made, if you aren't the planning type). Organization is hard! Cells acquire matter and energy to not only maintain their structures and functions, but also to grow and reproduce. The matter and energy acquired by a living organism are used in chemical reactions, and the sum of all these chemical reactions in one living organism is referred to as its metabolism.
Living organisms get their matter and energy from the environment. Energy, on the other hand, is created either by photosynthesis or by extracting it from other living organisms. That would explain why little ol' humans like us feel mighty sluggish after going a few hours without eating.
Some living creatures—like plants and many unicellular organisms—perform photosynthesis: they convert light from the sun directly into usable energy. Other living things—like fungi, non-photosynthetic unicellular organisms, and animals—eat other living things. Not very neighborly, but hey, it’s a dog-eat-dog-food world…
LIFE IS MAINTAINED
Living things maintain a relatively constant condition, called homeostasis.
The chemical processes that take place inside cells are highly sensitive to surrounding conditions. This is because variations in temperature, pH, and concentrations of various substances, like salt, can affect the function of enzymes. Enzymes are the VIPs, or Very Important Proteins, of the protein world. They catalyze, or set in motion, chemical reactions, or processes where one set of chemicals becomes a different set of chemicals. Enzymes can alter the rates at which all those reactions occur. In rare circumstances, enzymes may stop working, which is majorly bad news for the cell that they live in.
Temperature regulation is a great example. Endothermic organisms, or those who can generate heat internally, use their metabolisms to keep body temperatures constant. Most mammals and birds are endothermic. When the ambient (environmental) temperature is a little too cold, endotherms increase their metabolism, which produces more heat. On the other hand, when the ambient temperature becomes too hot, many animals release sweat to help cool themselves. Under most environmental conditions, the body temperature in these animals remains almost perfectly constant. Nice work, endotherms.
LIFE REPRODUCES
Living things reproduce. Scandalous.
Ask most people to define success, and you are likely to hear some recurring themes: fame, fortune, making a difference, retiring by age 35 to a beachside paradise with an unending supply of delicious tropical fruits…you get the picture. But, from a purely biological standpoint, the only thing you really need to do is procreate.
Reproduction is essential for the perpetuation of life, and it is one of the traits that all living organisms under the sun share. Living organisms pass their genetic material from generation to generation, and the genetic material we are talking about here is deoxyribonucleic acid, mercifully called DNA for short. DNA resides in the nucleus of the cell and contains the genetic blueprint that controls all of a cell’s activities.
LIFE EVOLVES
Living things change over time; this process is called evolution.
Any single living organism, over the course of its life, will experience changes—for humans, unfortunately timed voice cracking is probably the most embarrassing among them—but this individual development is not to be confused with changes in populations of living things over long geologic periods. Because of the genetic variation inherent in all populations, over time, traits will change, and future generations of a population may look, behave, and function differently from their ancestors. Who knows?Some species will go extinct. New species will appear. This process is called evolution.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Biology affects your life in lots of ways. For instance, understanding how your organs and organ systems work together can help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. Learning how cells communicate with each other, how cellular processes are controlled and coordinated, and what regulates cell growth can help you understand many common diseases and identify the ways that drug therapies work. A solid appreciation for the inter-connectedness of life at the population, community, and ecosystem levels can help you learn more about the environment and how you alter it.
Ultimately, if you become knowledgeable about the science that underlies disease, environmental issues, and hot-button research initiatives, like stem cell research, you will be a more thoughtful and valuable contributor to debates that surround how this research is used and understood. Biology isn’t just for biologists: it’s useful—even fundamental—to everyone living on this lovely planet.
In addition to these practical benefits, you may find that once you know biology, you better appreciate just how beautiful, complex, and amazing the natural world is. In this sense, biology is not so different from art or poetry. A painter may appreciate a beautiful flower by painting it; a poet may garner the same appreciation by writing about it; and a biologist appreciates the flower by understanding how it works and how it came to be, even if that seems a little nerdy.
A Final word
When the going gets tough, remember: compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, you have a huge brain to body size ratio. Don't let evolution down. Use that gray matter to its full potential. You got this
“Who Cares About Biology”
Intro Article Questions: (answer on your own paper in complete sentences)
- Of the 5 questions at the beginning of the article, which 2 do you find most interesting?
- List the basic levels of organization from sub atomic particles all the way up to up to Biosphere.
- What is the most basic functional unit of life?
- What is a species?
- Describe metabolism in terms of matter and energy.
- Matter comes from the environment, but what are 2 ways that organism’s acquire the energy they need? Describe each!
- What is homeostasis?
- Why do organisms need to maintain homeostasis?
- Use temperature as an example to describe homeostasis.
- From a purely biological standpoint, what does success mean?
- Evolution is not about how individuals change but focuses on how ______change over long periods of geologic time.
- From the article, choose 3 reasons why you should care about biology.