BIOL 120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Chloroplast, Horizontal Gene Transfer, Autotroph
Document Summary
Key concepts: all living organisms share a number of basic characteristics we consider to be attributes of life, there is evidence for life having potentially originated from the simple chemicals that make up biological macromolecules. Homeostasis: a steady internal condition maintained by responses that compensate for changes in the external environment. Biotic: biological, often in reference to living components of the environment. Abiotic: nonbiological, often in reference to physical factors in the environment. Emergent properties: properties that a complex system has but the individual members do not have. Habitable zone: the region around a star where water would exist in a liquid state and thus be conductive to the development of life. Nucleic acids: polymers of nucleotides; rna or dna. Proteins: molecules that carry out most of the activities of life, including the synthesis of all other biological molecules. A protein consists of one or more polypeptides depending on the protein.
