1. Technology allowed us to study the role of the brain in determining death.
2. In humans and higher animals death is defined as the cessation of brain activity. See Table 1.1 for present criteria used in determining death.
In lower animals, plants, fungi, protistans, and monerans, death is usually identified by the irreversible cessation of life functions. In some monerans death is officially described as the inability to reproduce.
3. See Table 1.2.
4. These terms are defined in the text.
5. From smallest to largest: atom, molecule, macromolecule, organelle, cell, tissue, organ, organ system, community, ecosystem, biosphere.
6. In asexual reproduction the resultant cell (or organism) is a clone of the parent. The genetic material is identical. One parent is needed. In sexual reproduction the resultant cell (or organism) has half the genetic material of each parent. Two parent cells are needed.
7. Answers will vary.
8. Natural selection allows those individuals (or populations) most readily adapted to the environment to survive -- to find food, to escape predators, etc. Those surviving individuals will reproduce, passing along those genes necessary for survival.
9. Taxonomic designations are used to identify relationships between groups of organisms. The names reflect the degree of relatedness, or the number of recognized common characteristics.
10. Monera - prokaryotic cells
Protista - unicellular eukaryotes
Plantae - multicellular prokaryotes deriving energy from the sun
Fungi - eukaryotes deriving nutrients from decomposing organisms
Animalia - eukaryotes deriving energy from chemical bonds of nutrients that make up other organisms
See Figure 1.8 for additional information.
11. Many answers possible. See Figure 1.8.
12. Bioethics is a discipline of philosophy concerned with issues of rights, morality, justice, and values that arise from biomedical research and practice.
TO THINK ABOUT
1. Brain wave, EEG, MRI, or some other diagnostic tool to detect brain activity.
2. Adaptation.
3. Homeostasis will be the most logical answer. Some students may argue for adaptation.
4. Answers will vary.
5. The android arguments could go either way. The important thing is that the students discuss the characteristics of life and what is necessary to be classified as "living."
6. In times gone past, the archaea would have been considered a remnant left over from a good science fiction novel.
7. Answers will vary. Again, the important thing is that the students develop an understanding of what life is.
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