Chapter 1

Introduction: Biology Today

PowerPoint® Lectures for

Campbell Essential Biology, Fifth Edition, and
Campbell Essential Biology with Physiology,
Fourth Edition
– Eric J. Simon, Jean L. Dickey, and Jane B. Reece
Lectures by Edward J. Zalisko © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
THE SCOPE OF LIFE
The Properties of Life
• Biology is the scientific study of life.
• The study of biology encompasses
– a wide scale of size
– a huge variety of life, both past and present.

• There are 7 properties associated with life.

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Figure 1.1a

(a) Order (b) Regulation

(c) Growth and development (d) Energy processing

Figure 1.1b

(f) Reproduction

(e) Response to the environment (g) Evolution

All Living Things…..
▪ Are organized and complex
▪ Obtain energy and nutrients
- Autotroph or Heterotroph
▪ Reproduce - using DNA

▪ Regulate their internal environment

• Maintain homeostasis
▪ Grow and Develop
▪ Respond to the environment
Life at Its Many Levels

• Biologists explore life at levels ranging from the

biosphere to the molecules that make up cells.

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Cells and Their DNA

• The cell is the level at which the properties of life

emerge.
• Cells are the lowest level of structure that can
perform all activities required for life.
• All organisms are composed of cells.
• Cells are the subunits that make up multicellular
organisms such as humans and trees.

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Cells and Their DNA

• All cells share many characteristics.

– All cells are enclosed by a membrane that
regulates the passage of materials between the
cell and its surroundings.
– Every cell uses DNA as its genetic information.

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Cells and Their DNA

• We can distinguish two major types of cells:

1. The prokaryotic cell is
– simpler and usually smaller and
– characteristic of bacteria.

2. The eukaryotic cell is

– subdivided by internal membranes into different
functional compartments called organelles and
– found in plants and animals.

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Figure 1.4

Prokaryotic cell (bacterium) Eukaryotic cell

• Smaller Organelles • Larger
• Simpler structure • More complex
• DNA concentrated in structure
nucleoid region, which is • Nucleus enclosed
not enclosed by membrane by membrane
• Lacks most organelles • Contains many
types of organelles

Nucleoid
region Nucleus

Colorized TEM
Cells and Their DNA

• All cells use DNA as the chemical material of

genes, the units of inheritance that transmit
information from parents to offspring.
• The chemical language of DNA
– is common to all organisms
– consists of just four molecular building blocks with
names that are abbreviated as A, G, C, T.

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Figure 1.5

The four
chemical
building
blocks of
DNA

A DNA molecule
Cells and Their DNA

• The entire “book” of genetic instructions that an

organism inherits is called its genome.
• The nucleus of each human cell packs a genome
that is about 3 billion nucleotides long.

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Life in Its Diverse Forms

• Diversity is a hallmark of life.

– The diversity of known life includes about 1.8
million species that biologists have identified and
named.
– Estimates of the total number of species range
from 10 million to over 100 million.

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Grouping Species: The Basic Concept

• Biodiversity can be beautiful but overwhelming.

• Categorizing life into groups helps us deal with this
complexity.
• Taxonomy is the branch of biology that names and
classifies species.
– It formalizes the hierarchical ordering of organisms
into broader and broader groups.

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The Three Domains of Life

• The three domains of life are

– Bacteria
– Archaea
– Eukarya

• Bacteria and Archaea have prokaryotic cells.

• Eukarya have eukaryotic cells.

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The Three Domains of Life

• Eukarya include
– Kingdom Plantae,
– Kingdom Fungi,
– Kingdom Animalia, and
– Protists (multiple kingdoms).

• Most plants, fungi, and animals are multicellular.

• Protists are generally single-celled.

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The Three Domains of Life

• These three multicellular kingdoms are

distinguished by how they obtain food.
– Plants produce their own sugars and other foods
by photosynthesis.
– Fungi are mostly decomposers, digesting dead
organisms.
– Animals obtain food by ingesting (eating) and
digesting other organisms.

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Figure 1.8

BACTERIA
DOMAIN
Kingdom Plantae
ARCHAEA
DOMAIN

DOMAIN EUKARYA
Kingdom Fungi

Kingdom Animalia

Protists (multiple kingdoms)

THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE

• The word science is derived from a Latin verb

meaning “to know.”
– Science is a way of knowing, based on inquiry.
– Science developed from our curiosity about
ourselves and the world around us.

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THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE

• There are two main scientific approaches:

– Discovery science is mostly about describing nature.
– Hypothesis-driven science is mostly about
explaining nature.

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Discovery Science

• Science seeks natural causes for natural

phenomena.
– This limits the scope of science to the study of
structures and processes that we can observe and
measure directly or indirectly.

• The dependence on observations that people can

confirm demystifies nature and distinguishes
science from belief in the supernatural.

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Discovery Science

• Verifiable observations and measurements are the

data of discovery science.
– In biology, discovery science enables us to
describe life at its many levels, from ecosystems
down to cells and molecules.

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Discovery Science

• Discovery science
– can stimulate us to ask questions and seek
explanations and
– uses a process of inquiry called the scientific
method, consisting of a series of steps that provide
a loose guideline for scientific investigations.

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Hypothesis-Driven Science

• Most modern scientific investigations can be

described as hypothesis-driven science.
– A hypothesis is a tentative answer to a question—
an explanation on trial.
– Although we don’t think of it in those terms, we use
hypotheses in solving everyday problems, like
figuring out why a TV remote fails.

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Hypothesis-Driven Science

• Once a hypothesis is formed, an investigator can

use logic to test it.
– A hypothesis is tested by performing an
experiment to see whether results are as
predicted.
– This deductive reasoning takes the form of
“If…then” logic.

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Figure 1.15-3

Experiment
does not
support
Revise. hypothesis.

Observation Hypothesis Prediction

Question Experiment
The remote The With new
What’s Replace
doesn’t batteries batteries, it
wrong? batteries.
work. are dead. will work.

Experiment
supports
hypothesis;
make more
predictions
and test.
Theories in Science

• What is a scientific theory, and how is it different

from a hypothesis?
– A scientific theory is much broader in scope than a
hypothesis.
– Theories only become widely accepted in science if
they are supported by an accumulation of extensive
and varied evidence.

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Theories in Science

• Scientific theories are not the only way of “knowing

nature.”
• Science, religion, and art are very different ways of
trying to make sense of nature.

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