General Biology

(Biol. 1012)
(M.Sc in Applied Genetics)
2012 /13 E.C.

The Chemical Basis of Life

Chapter One

Introduction

The Chemical Basis of Life

 The Contents of the Chapter
 This module chapter is primarily intended for natural science
students
 to those are familiarize with basic concepts of biological
science,
 And in this chapter the you have to learn about:-
 the nature and origin of life,
 the scientific methods and
 the subject matter of biology

The Chemical Basis of Life

1.1. The meaning and scope of biology
 is the study of life and living organisms
 The Greek word „bio‟ means life and „logos‟ means study of
 In the late 1700s Pierre-Antoine de Monet and Jean-Baptiste de
Lamarck coined the term biology
 Earlier study of living things was restricted to the pure Science
like Botany and Zoology that together comprise the Biology

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 But as the time passed new branches evolved
 After the emerge of New technologies developed in pure
subjects as well as in applied fields, which gave rise to a
very broad concept of science called Biological Sciences
 Biological Sciences is an extensive study covering the
minute workings of chemical substances inside living
cells to the broad scale concepts of ecosystems and global
environmental changes

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 It is also concerned with the physical characteristics
and behaviors of organisms

 How they came into existence and what relation they

possess with each other and their environments?

 Intimate study of details of the human brain,

 the composition of our genes, and
 even the functioning of our reproductive system …etc
 are dealt in Biological sciences

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 Therefore, Biology is the science of Living Things

 That is why Biology is sometimes known as Life

Science
 The life sciences can be defined as “a systematic study
of living beings or study of nature”

 Teaching of life Science basically deals with

providing information about the latest developments
in the field of Biological sciences all over the world

The Chemical Basis of Life

1.2. The origin and nature of life
 the origin or emergence of life is one of the biggest and
most important of emergent phenomena in the world
 The mystery of life's origin is still a big debating issue
in science
 The question “what is life?”
 is so hard to answer
 To answer this why question we need to understand how
life might have originated
 There are a number of theories about the origin of life
 The next few sections give emphasis on these different
theories about the origin of life

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 The evolution of life on earth has involved the
following sequence of events
 The first living things to appear were the simplest
creatures, single-celled organisms
 Next to these came more complex, multi-cellular
organisms
 Becoming more complex meant more than just an
increase in cell number but more cells showed cellular
specialization,
 where certain cells within the multi-cellular organism
carried out specific tasks

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 Millions, even billions of years of changes of organisms
led to the living things we now call plants and animals
 this basic sequence of events is agreed upon by most
 geologists,
 paleontologists,
 biologists, and
 even theologians, one might conclude that Moses,
Aristotle, and Darwin were all keen observers and
naturalists who were able to logically assess the most
probable creation story


The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 Scientists generally concur that the time from the
formation of our solar system until now has been on the
order of some 4.5 billion years

 Based on/utilize what they call the scientific method,

which allows them to test hypotheses and theories and to
develop concepts and ideas

 Those who believe the world as we know it was created in

six days are often called creationists

 Based on the belief that the Bible is to be accepted as a

completely accurate accounting of all about which it
speaks
The Chemical Basis of Life
 Intro. Cont…
 The Major Theories on Origin of life
 there are several theories which offer their own
explanation on the possible mechanism of origin of life
1. Theory of Special Creation: according to this theory,
all the different forms of life that occur today on planet
earth have been created by God, the almighty
2. Theory of Spontaneous Generation: Aristotle, the
Greek philosopher (384-322 BC):- this theory assumed
that living organisms could arise suddenly and
spontaneously from any kind of non-living matter.
3. Theory of Catastrophism: It is simply a modification
of the theory of Special Creation

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 It states that there have been several creations of life by
God, each preceded by a catastrophe resulting from
some kind of geological disturbance
 According to this theory, since each catastrophe
completely destroyed the existing life, each new
creation consisted of life form different from that of
previous ones
4. Cosmozoic Theory (Theory of Panspermia):
proposed by Richter in 1865:- according to this
theory, life has reached this planet Earth from other
heavenly bodies such as meteorites, in the form of
highly resistance spores of some organisms

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
5. Theory of Chemical Evolution: A.I.Oparin and J.B.S
Haldane (1928-29):- this theory is also known as
Materialistic Theory or Physico-chemical Theory
 According this theory, Origin of life on earth is the
result of a slow and gradual process of chemical
evolution that probably occurred about 3.8 billion years

Nature and characteristics of life

 Life is defined as a "condition" that distinguishes
animals and plants from inorganic materials and dead
organisms

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 Intro. Cont…
 Life is comprised of processes and is a maintained state
 The most sophisticated form of life is man as a result of
this we focuses upon the nature of the life and death of
man
 Man demonstrates three lives or aspects of life: Life of the
body (physical), life of the mind and life of the spirit
 Physical life is basic existence
 Mind contributes effectiveness and scope
 Spiritual entity contributes maximum living
 Physiology: The existence of life physical is demonstrated
by the presence of functions

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
Living tissues and organisms exhibit
 Irritability: the ability to be excited or detect stimuli and to
respond thereto
 Growth and reproduction: this consists of the power of
multiplication and duplication, regeneration and differentiation
 Adaptability: permitting both change and maintenance of
balances (homeostasis)
 Metabolism: the transformation of energy and the use of
materials
 Excretion: excretion and osmoregulation regulation are two
important homeostatic processes occurring in living cells,
helping them to maintain a constant internal environment, or
steady state

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…

 Excretion is the removal from the cell of waste

products of metabolism
1.3. Scientific methods
 The scientific method is a process for
experimentation that is used to explore
observations and answer questions
 It is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge
 It is also the technique used in the construction
and testing of a scientific hypothesis
The Chemical Basis of Life
 Intro. Cont…
The scientific method has five basic steps, plus
one feedback step:
 Make an observation.
 Ask a question.
 Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.
 Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
 Test the prediction.
 Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or
predictions

The Chemical Basis of Life

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 Observation - Quantitative and qualitative measurements
of the world
 Inference - Deriving new knowledge based upon old
knowledge Hypotheses –A suggested explanation.
 Rejected Hypothesis - An explanation that has been
ruled out through experimentation.
 Accepted Hypothesis - An explanation that has not been
ruled out through excessive experimentation and makes
verifiable predictions that are true.
 Experiment - A test that is used to rule out a hypothesis
or validate something already known

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 Scientific Method - The process of scientific
investigation
 Theory - A widely accepted hypothesis that stands the
test of time and Often tested, and usually never rejected
 The scientific method is based primarily on the testing
of hypotheses by experimentation
 This involves a control, or subject that does not
undergo the process in question
 A scientist will also seek to limit variables to one or
another very small number, single or minimum number
of variables

The Chemical Basis of Life

 Intro. Cont…
 The procedure is to form a hypothesis or prediction about
what you believe or expect to see and then do everything
you can to violate that, or falsify the hypotheses
 Although this may seem unintuitive/lacking
intelligence/, the process serves to establish more firmly
what is and what is not true

The Chemical Basis of Life