Biology 1 Lecture 1

The Concept of Life

How can the events in space and time

which take place within the spatial boundary
BIOLOGY 1 Lecture 1 of a living organism be accounted for by
physics and chemistry?
Concept, Manifestations, Theories of - Erwin Schrdinger, What is Life (1944)
Life
JRey 16-17 2nd Sem

Lecture 1 The Concept of Life

Life is a self-sustaining chemical system

A. Concept and Manifestations of Life
capable of Darwinian evolution.
B. Methods in the Study of Biology
- Gerald Joyce (Scripps Research Institute)
C. Origin of Life

The Concept of Life

What is life? Only three simple words, and yet

out of them spins a universe of questions that are
no less challenging. What precisely is it that
separates the animate from the inanimate? What
are the basic ingredients of life? Where did life first
stir? How did the first organisms evolve? Is there
life everywhere? To what extent is life scattered
across the cosmos? If other kinds of creatures do
exist on exoplanets, are they as intelligent as we
are, or even more so?

- J. Craig Venter, Life at the Speed of Light (2013)

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

The Concept of Life

life is a particular set of processes that characteristics

result from the organization of matter of life emerge
from an
life resists a organisms
simple, one- organization
sentence
definition

yet we can
recognize life
by what living
things do

Manifestations and Characteristics of Life 2. Metabolism and Homeostasis

energy utilization

organisms
take in
energy and
transform it to
do work

2. Metabolism and Homeostasis

1. Organization and Order

living things have a complex organization

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

3. Reproduction 6. Variation, change, and evolution

organisms produce their own kind

4. Growth and Development 6. Variation, change, and evolution

heritable programs (DNA) direct pattern of

growth and development

African wild Coyote Fox Wolf Jackal

dog

Thousands to
millions of years
of natural selection

Ancestral canine

Physical entities with some of the characters of

5. Irritability and movement living organisms: viruses

capable of response to environmental stimulus obligate intracellular parasites

made up of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein coat
sometimes wrapped in a membranous envelope

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

Physical entities with some of the characters of

living organisms: viroids
1. Spontaneous Generation

plant pathogens composed of molecules of

naked circular RNA only several hundred
nucleotides long
Electron microscopic picture of potato
spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd)
living organisms could develop
spontaneously from nonliving matter
from the time of the Greeks until the 19th
century it was common knowledge that
life could arise from nonliving matter
Aristotle (384 322 BC) thought that
some of the simpler invertebrates could
arise by spontaneous generation
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/oct01/k3
145-1.htm

Physical entities with some of the characters of

living organisms: prions
1. Spontaneous Generation

infectious forms of protein that may In 1668, Francesco Redi made a simple
increase in number by converting related experiment to demonstrate that maggots
proteins to more prions do not arise spontaneously from decaying
matter.

decaying
meat

Microscopic image
of a tissue sample
from human brain maggot
showing a clump of s decaying
infectious prions meat

Theories on the origin of life 1. Spontaneous Generation

1. Spontaneous Generation Theory In 1745, John Needham, claimed that

microbes develop spontaneously from
2. Biogenesis
nutrient fluids.
3. Special Creation
4. Biogeochemical Theories

5. Interplanetary or Cosmozoic Theory

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

1. Spontaneous Generation 2. Biogenesis

In 1765, Lazzaro Spallanzani, showed
that nutrient fluids heated after being Rudolf Virchow 1850s
sealed in flasks did not develop microbial
living organisms: simple or complex arise
growth.
only from preexisting living organisms

doesnt answer the question how life

began on earth

Needhams set- Spallanzanis set-

up up

1. Spontaneous Generation 3. Special Creation

In 1862, Louis life on earth was created by supernatural

Pasteur force or being
experiments
provided the final each species represented a separate act
argument to of creation
disprove the God said, Let the land produce
theory vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees
on the land that bear fruit with seed in it,
according to their various kinds. And it
was so. Gen 1:11

Pasteur broth 3. Special Creation

experiments
rejected the idea
of spontaneous God said, Let the water teem with living
generation creatures, and let birds fly above the earth
across the expanse of the sky. 21So God
created the great creatures of the sea and
every living and moving thing with which
the water teems, according to their kinds,
and every winged bird according to its
kind. Gen 1:20-21

Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

chemical and physical processes in Earths primordial environment eventually

produced simple cells
3. Special Creation
this occurred in four stages:

based on faith (1) the abiotic synthesis of small organic molecules

(2) joining these small molecules into polymers

cannot be subjected to scientific inquiry or
be tested in any lab (3) origin of self-replicating molecules

(4) packaging of these molecules into protobionts

Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

4. Biogeochemical Theory

life may have evolved from inorganic matter

traces possible events of the formation of

biomolecules under primitive earth
conditions to the evolution of the cell and
various cell processes
most scientists favor the hypothesis that life
on Earth developed from nonliving materials
that became ordered into aggregates that
were capable of self-replication and
metabolism

between 4.0 billion years ago, when the Earths crust began to solidify, and
3.5 billion years ago when stromatolites appear, the first organisms came
into being
In the 1920s, A.I. Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane
independently postulated that conditions on the early
Earth favored the synthesis of organic compounds from
inorganic precursors.

The reducing environment in the early

atmosphere would have promoted the
joining of simple molecules to form more
complex ones.

Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey tested the Oparin-Haldane

hypothesis by creating, in the laboratory, the 5. Interplanetary or Cosmozoic Theory
conditions that
had been postulated
for early Earth.
life originated - distant planet
the most important reason for invoking an
extraterrestrial origin for life, probably in a
hydrothermal habitat, is that such an origin
provides a greater timespan for early
evolution than has been available on Earth
Panspermia is applied to the possible
dispersion of life throughout the galaxy
Directed panspermia describes the deliberate
seeding of life on Earth by intelligent beings
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Living cells may have been preceded by protobionts, aggregates of abiotically

produced molecules.
5. Interplanetary or Cosmozoic Theory

If Earth was the cradle for life, the time

interval between its origin and the existence
of the living carbonaceous chondrites (LCC)
appears incomprehensibly short
In view of the apparent complexity of the
LCC, particularly in terms of biochemistry, it
would be reasonable to allow perhaps 4
gigayears for its evolution from the
primordial cell

major debates also concern where life evolved

- shallow water or moist sediments
- deep sea vents

Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

Scientific Method

The Nature of Science Scientific Process

Deductive Reasoning Observation - Careful observation of a process or

Examining individual cases by applying accepted general
phenomenon
principles. Hypothesis - Guess concerning the observation
May generate multiple hypotheses.
Prediction - Expected consequences of a correct
hypothesis

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The Nature of Science Scientific Process

Inductive Reasoning Experiment - Test of a hypothesis

Discovering general principles through examination of specific Controlled Experiment - All factors influencing the experiment
cases. (controls) must be kept constant.
Conclusion - Draw a conclusion from the results
Reject or fail to reject hypothesis

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required for reproduction or display

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Biology 1 Lecture 1

Theory and Certainty

Theory - set of hypotheses that have been thoroughly

tested over time, and generally accepted by the scientific
community
acceptance is always provisional
to the general public a theory is synonymous with a guess due to
lack of knowledge

Limitations of Science

Scientific study is limited to area that can be observed and

measured

o cannot be used to address all questions

o bound by practical limits
- temporal and spatial considerations

Biological Methods
techniques or procedures that are used to study living things

include experimental and computational methods, approaches, protocols

and tools for biological research

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