Exam 1: The Nature of Science and the Characteristics of Life

Which of the following statements is true?

Through the process of _______, a group of organisms can develop new characteristics over time.

Which of the following statements is true?

Because the distinction between life and nonlife is an arbitrary one, not all biologists agree on what things should be considered living; one group, the _______, appears to be right at the boundary between life and nonlife.

Living organisms must be able to sense and respond to both their internal and external _______ in order to survive.

Although rare, rock fragments of Mars have reached earth after having been blown into space during meteorite impacts, and could possibly have transported organisms like nanobacteria with them. What type of organism would support this hypothesis?

Ecologists use food webs to diagrammatically or verbally represent

Having first developed a _________, scientists can then propose testable predictions.

Which organism might harvest energy from iron?

Some questions fall outside the realm of science; which of the following questions could not be answered using the scientific method?

Once experimental data verifies a prediction the hypothesis is considered proven.

In the biosphere energy moves from the sun first to producers, then to consumers, and then to __________.

Homeostasis is the ability to detect and correct disturbances that develop within an organism; which of the following illustrates homeostasis?

Multicellular organisms are constructed from many types of specialized cells. Why might this be more advantageous than being a single-celled organism?

DNA is one of the features common to all known forms of life;

The figure below represents the steps in the scientific method. Dr) JoAnn Burkholder believes the wrong strains of Pfiesteria were used by independent laboratories looking for fish-killing toxin.What step in the figure above would her contention represent?

Advantageous features that evolve over time and help an organism survive or reproduce are called _______.

In the scientific method observations are followed most often by___________ and then ___________.

Dr. Burkholder hypothesized that Pfiesteria was associated with the massive die-offs of estuarine fish. Her hypothesis was supported when

Stanley Miller simulated Earth's ancient atmosphere and exposed it to "lightning" to test whether