INTRODUCTION

MBGL101 GENERAL BIOLOGY I TO

BIOLOGY
The chemistry of life, the structure of atom, element and compounds,
chemical bonds

Asist. Prof. Dr. Gözde YÜZBAŞIOĞLU

Biology – The Study of Life
• Life arose more than 3.5 billion years ago
• First organisms (living things) were single celled
• Organisms changed over time (evolved)
• New organisms arose from older kinds
• Today there are millions of species
• They inhabit almost every region of Earth today
Biology

• Study the origins and history of life and once-living things

• Study the structures of living things
• Study how living things interact with one another
• Study how living things function
The Eight Characteristics of Life

1.Made of one or more cells

2. Displays growth

3. Grows and develops

4. Reproduces
The Eight Characteristics of Life

5.Responds to stimuli

6. Requires energy

7. Maintains homeostasis

8. Adaptations evolve over time

1. Living things are made of one or
more cells.
• Cells are the basic unit of structure and function in all living things
• All organisms are made of and develop from cells
• Most organisms are composed of many cells (multicellular)
• Cells are different (undergo differentiation)
• Cells contain specialized structures (organelles) that carry out the cell’s life
processes
• Many different kinds of cells exist
• All cells surrounded by a plasma membrane
• Contain a set of instructions called DNA (genetic information)
• Cells are highly organized
2. Displays growth
• Living things also display organization, which means they are arranged
in an orderly way.
• Specialized cells are organized into groups that work together called
tissues.
• Tissues are organized into organs.
• Organ systems work together to support an organism.
3. Grows and Develops

• Growth results in the addition of mass to an organism and, in many

organisms, the formation of new cells and new structures.
4. Reproduces

• A species is a group of organisms that can breed with one another

and produce fertile offspring.
• Organisms transmit hereditary information to their offspring
INHERITANCE
DNA
• Genetic Information in all cells
• Deoxyribonucleic Acid
• DNA contains instructions for traits GENES
• Make the structures and complex chemicals necessary for life
PROTEINS
• DNA in every body cell is exactly alike
Sexual Reproduction
• Hereditary information from two different organisms of the same
species are combined
• Egg and sperm  zygote (fertilized egg)
• Zygote contains hereditary information from both parents
Asexual Reproduction
• Hereditary information from one, usually unicellular, organism that
divides
• Resulting cells contain identical hereditary information
• Genetic information from single parent
5. Responds to Stimuli

• Anything that is part of the internal or external environments and

causes some sort of reaction by the organism is called a stimulus.
• The reaction to a stimulus is a response
6. Requires Energy

• Living things get their energy from food.

• Most plants and some unicellular organisms use light energy from the
Sun to make their own food and fuel their activities.
• Organisms that cannot make their own food get energy by consuming
other organisms.
7. Maintains Homeostasis

• Regulation of an organism’s internal conditions to maintain life is

called homeostasis
• Temperature, water content, chemical content, etc. must be
maintained
• If anything happens within or to an organism that affects its normal
state, processes to restore the normal state begin.
8. Adaptations Evolve Over Time

• An adaptation is any inherited characteristic that results from changes

to a species over time.
• Explains how many different kinds of organisms came into existence
SPECIES
• Explains how modern organisms are related to past organisms
• Explains why organisms look and behave the way they do
• Provides a basis for exploring the relationships among different
groups of organisms
Natural Selection
• Natural selection is the driving force in evolution
• Organisms that have certain favorable traits are better able to
successfully reproduce than organisms that lack these traits
• Survival of organisms with favorable traits cause a gradual change in
populations over many generations
• Also Called “Survival of the Fittest”
What is science?

• Science is a body of knowledge based on the study of nature.

• The nature, or essential characteristics, of science is scientific inquiry.
• Scientific inquiry is both a creative process and a process rooted in
unbiased observations and experimentation.
1.Uses Scientific Theory

• A theory is an explanation of a natural phenomenon supported by

many observations and experiments over time.
• The results are always the same.
2. Expands Scientific Knowledge
3. Challenges Accepted Theories
4. Questions Results
5. Tests Claims
6. Undergoes Peer Review
Before it is made public, science-based information is reviewed by
scientists’ peers.
Peer review is a process by which the procedures used during an
experiment and the results are evaluated by other scientists who
are in the same field or who are conducting similar research.
7. Uses Metric System
 Identify a Gather Formulate a
problem Information hypothesis

Methods of Science

Record and Design and

Analyze Data
Organize Data Experiment

Use conclusions to develop a new hypothesis

Draw
Conclusions
Methods of Science
• Ask a Question
• Scientific inquiry begins with observation.
• Science inquiry involves asking questions and processing information
from a variety of reliable sources.
Form a Hypothesis

• A hypothesis is a testable explanation of a situation.

• When a hypothesis is supported by data from additional
investigations, usually it is considered valid and is accepted by the
scientific community.
Collect the Data

• When a biologist conducts an experiment, he or she investigates a

phenomenon in a controlled setting to test a hypothesis.
• Controlled Experiments
*A control group in an experiment is a group used for comparison.
*The experimental group is the group exposed to the factor being tested.
Data Gathering

• Data—information gained from observations.

• Quantitative data can be measurements of time, temperature, length,
mass, area, volume, density, or other factors.
• Qualitative data are descriptions of what our senses detect.
Analyze the Data

• A graph of the data makes the pattern easier to grasp.

• Even when a hypothesis has not been supported, it is valuable.
Report Conclusions

• If the reviewers agree on the merit of the paper, then the paper is
published for review by the public and use by other scientists.
•The Chemical Context of Life
 Matter
• Matter consists of chemical elements in pure form and in
combinations called compounds; living organisms are made of matter..
• Element -- A substance that cannot be broken down into other
substances by chemical reactions; all matter made of elements.
• Life requires about 25 chemical elements
• 96% of living matter is composed of C, O, H, N.
• Most of remaining 4% is P, S, Ca, K.
• Compound -- Pure substances made of two or more elements
combined in a fixed ratio.
• Have characterisitics different than the elements that make them up
(emergent property).
• Na and Cl have very different properties from NaCl.

• Trace element -- required by organisms in extremely small quantities:

Cu, Fe, I, etc.
• Matter -- Anything that takes up space and has mass.
• Difference between mass and weight:
• Mass -- measure of the amount of matter an object contains; constant.
• Weight -- measure of how strongly an object is pulled by earth's gravity; varies
 Atomic structure determines the behavior of an element
• Atom -- Smallest possible unit of matter that retains the physical and chemical
properties of its element.
• Subatomic Particles
• 1. Neutrons (no charge/neutral; found in nucleus; ~ 1 amu).
• 2. Protons (+1 charge; found in nucleus; ~ 1 amu).
• 3. Electrons (-1 charge; electron cloud; 1/2000 amu).
• One amu approx equal to 1.7 x 10-24 g.
Atomic Number, Mass Number, Atomic Mass

Atomic mass
Mass number Approximation of the total mass of an atom
Protons+neutrons
4 Mass of 1 neutron= 1 dalton

He
Mass of 1 proton=1 dalton

2
Mass of 1 electron=almost no mass

What is the atomic mass of He?

Atomic number
The number of protons and electrons in electrically neutral atom
Examples
• 23Mg Mass number ?? Atomic number ??
• 12
• 23 12
• # of protons ?? # of electrons ?? # of neutrons ??
• 12 12 11

• 14C Mass number ?? Atomic number ??

• 6
• 14 6
• # of protons ?? # of electrons ?? # of neutrons ??
 Isotopes
• Isotopes -- Atoms of an element that have the same atomic number but
different mass number; different number of neutrons.
 Energy Levels
• Electrons are directly involved in chemical reactions.
• They have potential energy because of their position
relative to the positively charged nucleus.
• There is a natural tendency for matter to move to
the lowest state of potential energy.
• Different fixed potential energy states for electrons
are called energy levels or electron shells.
• Electrons with lowest potential energy are in energy
levels closest to the nucleus.
• Electrons with greater energy are in energy levels
further from nucleus.
• Electrons may move from one energy level to
another.
 Electron Configuration and Chemical
Properties
• Electron configuration -- Distribution of electrons in an atom's electron
shells; determines its chemical behavior.
• Chemical properties of an atom depend upon the number of valence
electrons (electrons in the outermost energy level.
• Octet rule -- A valence shell is complete when it contains 8 electrons (except
H and He).
• An atom with an incomplete valence shell is chemically reactive (tends to
form chemical bonds until it has 8 electrons to fill the valence shell).
• Atoms with the same number of valence electrons show similar chemical
behavior.
 Bonding in Molecules
• Chemical bonds -- Attractions that hold molecules together.
• Molecules --Two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds.
• Covalent bond -- formed between atoms by sharing a pair of valence electrons; common in
organic compounds.
• Single covalent bond -- Bond between atoms formed by sharing a single pair of valence
electrons.
• Double bond -- share two pairs of valence electrons.
• Triple bond -- share three pairs of valence electrons.
 Nonpolar Covalent Bonds
• Electronegativity -- Atom's ability to attract and hold electrons.
• The more electronegative an atom, the more strongly it attracts shared
electrons.
• Nonpolar bond -- Covalent bond formed by an equal sharing of electrons
between atoms.
• Occurs when electronegativity of both atoms is about the same.
• Molecules made of one element usually have nonpolar covalent bonds (H2 and
O2).
Polar Covalent Bonds
• Polar bond -- Covalent bond formed by an unequal sharing
of electrons between atoms.
• Occurs when the atoms involved have different
electronegativities.
• In water, electrons spend more time around the oxygen
than the hydrogens. This causes the oxygen atom to have a
slight negative charge and the hydrogens to have a slight
positive charge.
 Ionic Bonds
• Ion -- Charged atom or molecule.
• Anion -- An atom that has gained one or more electrons from another atom;
negatively charged.
• Cation -- An atom that has lost one or more electrons; positively charged.
• Ionic bond -- Bond formed by the electrostatic attraction after the complete
transfer of an electron from a donor atom to an acceptor.
• Ionic compounds are called salts (e.g. NaCl or table salt).
Biologically important weak bonds
• Include: Hydrogen bonds; Ionic
bonds in aqueous solutions; Van der
Waals forces.
• Hydrogen bond -- Bond formed by
the charge attraction when a
hydrogen atom covalently bonded to
one electronegative atom is
attracted to another electronegative
atom.
• Van der Waals -- charge attraction
between oppositely charged portions
of polar molecules.