Intro to Biology – Cornell Notes
Clues/Questions
Notes
 The first life form probably arose on Earth more than 3.5 billion years
ago.

The first organisms (living thing) were most probably a single cell.
Over time, organisms changed, evolved, and diversified.

Biology – the science of life- is the study of all living things.

Even though the science of biology is varied (microscopic structures
of cells  global interactions of millions of organisms) there are 6
unifying themes of biology:
-
cell structure and function
stability and homeostasis (keeping internal conditions, e.g.,
temperature, water content stable)
reproduction and inheritance
evolution
interdependence of organisms (ecology)
matter, energy, and organization (photosynthesis, metabolism)

This quarter we will focus on cell structure & function and
reproduction & inheritance.

The cell is the basic unit of life.

All organisms are made of and develop from cells.

Some organisms are composed of only 1 cell (unicellular organisms).

Most living things we see around us are multicellular organisms
(composed of more than 1 cell).

Cells are small, but highly organized.
- They contain specialized structures that carry out the cell’s life
processes.

There are many different types of cells, but all cells are similar in
several ways:
-
they are surrounded by a membrane
they contain a set of instructions necessary for making new
cell parts and new cells (genetic info)
CA Content Standard: Biology
1. The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on a variety of chemical reactions that occur in
specialized areas of the organism’s cells.
 C. Goddard-May

New cells produced by unicellular organisms are virtually identical to
the parent unicellular organisms that produced them
IN CONTRAST…

Mature multicellular organisms (which also begin their lives as one
cell) contain not only many cells, but also many different kinds of
cells

Differentiation – when cells become different from each other as they
multiply
New vocabulary:
Organisms
Biology
Cell
Unicellular
Multicellular
Differentiation
CA Content Standard: Biology
1. The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on a variety of chemical reactions that occur in
specialized areas of the organism’s cells.
 C. Goddard-May