Water is the key to life, without it we

simply wouldn't exist. It has certain

properties that make the molecule so
essential to biology such as its polarity
and composition.
Hydrogen bonding is a strong
intermolecular force that is formed
between an atom of hydrogen of one
molecule and an atom of either nitrogen,
oxygen or fluorine.

For marine life water is not just the medium of
transport but it is the source of oxygen for the
organisms' respiratory needs. Water enters a
fish through the buccal cavity and the
increased pressure causes the water to pass
through the gills.
Countercurrent. This is a very important
mechanism in most fish (not all fish utilise this
mechanism) as the dissolved concentration of
oxygen in water is very low.
Thus, to maximise the absorption of the oxygen
from water into the bloodstream of fish, the
countercurrent mechanism is used.

Oxygen is transported around the body in the red
blood cells. The oxygen combines with the
haemoglobin to form oxyhaemoglobin, which
dissociates back to its constituent parts when
oxygen is needed for respiration. Carbon dioxide
also needs to be transported out of the body
safely.
Carbonic acid. The equation for this reaction is:
CO2(g) + H2O(l) ---> H2CO3(aq) Carbon dioxide (gas)
+ water (liquid) ---> carbonic acid (aqueous)
This reaction is catalysed by the enzyme carbonic
anhydrase. Eventually the carbonic acid will dissociate
into hydrogen ions (H+) and hydrogencarbonate ions
(HCO3-).

Water is important for all biological
organisms including members of the
taxonomic Kingdom, Plantae.
Water is absorbed from soil by the roots
of a plant and this water contains many
nutrients. The water travels up the xylem
vessels into the leaves.
Transpiration. In both mesophytes (plants
which exist in neither really wet or really dry
areas) and xerophytes (plants which exist in
arid conditions) the control of transpiration is
important.

Photosynthesis is the process by which
plants use carbon dioxide, water and
photon energy (light energy) to form
sugars such as glucose.
One of the first photosynthetic reactions
to take place is the splitting of water by
light.

Photolysis. The reaction that illustrates the
process of photolysis is: H2O + photons
(light) ---> (2)H+ + (2)e- + (1/2)O2.

Water is an important molecule in the
process of digestion as it is used to break
down large polymers, such as proteins
and carbohydrates, into small monomers,
such as amino acids and
monosaccharides.
Hydrolysis. Hydrolysis begins with the
dissociation of water into hydrogen ions (H+)
and hydroxide ions (OH-).
In protein digestion the water helps to cleave
the polymer along with a specific protease
enzyme.

The nephrons of the kidney are fantastic
structures. The nephron is the site of
many different processes and are
responsible for the filtration of the blood.
A part of the nephron known as the
collecting duct has a wall that has a
variable permeability.
Antidiuretic hormone. Antidiuretic hormone
(ADH) is secreted from the posterior pituitary
gland and regulates the amount of water
present in the urine.

Humans maintain their body temperature
using a number of homeostatic mechanisms.
Sweating is one example whereby a mixture
of water and some dissolved substances is
released from the sweat glands onto the
surface of the skin.
Evaporation. The cooling of the skin comes
when the sweat is evaporated. The human
species is one of the sweatiest that we know of.

Many theories have been put forward over
the years that aim to explain how water
travels up the xylem of a plant.
Cohesion-tension. The cohesion-tension
theory is what underlies the concept of
transpirational pull.
When two water molecules within a xylem
vessel form a hydrogen bond between them,
a column of water is formed from the leaves
right down to the roots.

Environment, the complex of physical,
chemical, and biotic factors that act upon an
organism or an ecological community and
ultimately determine its form and survival.

Ecology is relationships between organisms
and their environment (ie other organisms or
abiotic factors). Organism-organism,
organism-resource, organism- abiotic
interactions.


Environmental deals with the environment
mostly-atmosphere, other abiotic factors and
than looks at the effect on organisms. So
Environment-Organism interaction.

People have long been curious about living
thingshow many different species there are,
what they are like, where they live, how they
relate to each other, and how they behave.
Living organisms are made of the same
components as all other matter, involve the
same kind of transformations of energy,
and move using the same basic kinds of
forces.

DIVERSITY OF LIFE
There are millions of different types of
individual organisms that inhabit the earth
at any one timesome very similar to
each other, some very different.
Biologists classify organisms into a
hierarchy of groups and subgroups on the
basis of similarities and differences in their
structure and behavior.

HEREDITY

One long-familiar observation is that
offspring are very much like their parents
but still show some variation:

Offspring differ somewhat from their
parents and from one another.

CELLS

All self-replicating life forms are composed
of cellsfrom single-celled bacteria to
elephants, with their trillions of cells.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF LIFE

Every species is linked, directly or
indirectly, with a multitude of others in an
ecosystem.

Plants provide food, shelter, and nesting
sites for other organisms.

FLOW OF MATTER AND ENERGY

However complex the workings of living
organisms, they share with all other natural
systems the same physical principles of
the conservation and transformation of
matter and energy.

EVOLUTION OF LIFE
The earth's present-day life forms appear
to have evolved from common ancestors
reaching back to the simplest one-cell
organisms almost four billion years ago.