AP Biology Objective 1 Flashcards

7225716496	Biosphere	The entire portion of Earth inhabited by life; the sum of all the planet's ecosystems.	0
7225716497	Cell	A basic unit of living matter separated from its environment by a plasma membrane; the fundamental structural unit of life.	1
7225716498	Community	An assemblage of all the organisms living together and potentially interacting in a particular area.	2
7225716499	Controlled Experiment	A component of the process of science whereby a scientist carries out two parallel tests, an experimental test and a control test. The experimental test differs from the control by one factor, the variable.	3
7225716501	Ecosystem	All the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving (abiotic) factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment.	4
7225716502	Emergent Properties	New properties that emerge with each step upward in the hierarchy of life, owing to the arrangement and interactions of parts as complexity increases.	5
7225716505	Evolution	Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from present-day ones; also the genetic changes in a population over generations.	6
7225716506	Gene	A discrete unit of hereditary information consisting of a specific nucleotide sequence in DNA (or RNA, in some viruses). Most of the genes of a eukaryote are located in its chromosomal DNA; a few are carried by the DNA of mitochondria and chloroplasts.	7
7225716507	Hypothesis	(plural, hypotheses) A tentative explanation a scientist proposes for a specific phenomenon that has been observed.	8
7225716508	Natural Selection	A process in which organisms with certain inherited characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than are organisms with other characteristics.	9
7225716509	Organ	A structure consisting of several tissues adapted as a group to perform specific functions.	10
7225716510	Organ System	A group of organs that work together in performing vital body functions.	11
7225716511	Organelle	A membrane-enclosed structure with a specialized function within a cell.	12
7225716512	Organism	An individual living thing, such as a bacterium, fungus, protist, plant, or animal.	13
7225716513	Population	A group of individuals belonging to one species and living in the same geographic area.	14
7225716514	Producer	An organism that makes organic food molecules from CO2, H2O, and other inorganic raw materials: a plant, alga, or autotrophic bacterium.	15
7225716516	Theory	A widely accepted explanatory idea that is broad in scope and supported by a large body of evidence.	16
7225716517	Tissue	An integrated group of cells with a common function, structure, or both.	17