CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Biology Today

PowerPoint® Lecture Slides for

Essential Biology, Second Edition & Essential Biology with Physiology

Neil Campbell, Jane Reece, and Eric Simon

Presentation prepared by Chris C. Romero

Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Biologists have
identified about 1.7
million species of
living organisms

• All organisms share

a common chemical
language for their
genetic material,
DNA
Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Scientists have 
determined the complete 
DNA sequences of 
humans, puffer fish, 
mosquitoes, and rice

• Amoebas, molds, trees, 
and people are all made 
from similar cells

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 • So, what is Biology?

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THE SCOPE OF BIOLOGY
• Biology is the scientific study of life
– Life is structured on a size scale ranging from the
molecular to the global
– Biology’s scope stretches across the enormous
diversity of life on Earth

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 A view of
Earth from
space

A Central Park
woodland Approaching
Central Park (the
red rectangle in
the middle of
this photo)
An eastern
gray squirrel
Figure 1.2.1
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Life at Its Many Levels
• Biologists explore life at levels ranging from the
biosphere to the molecules that make up cells

Cells Nucleus within cell

Cells in squirrel

DNA

Figure 1.2.2

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Hierarchy of Life
• Biosphere
– Consists of all the environments on Earth that
support life
– Examples include most regions of land, bodies of
water, and the lower atmosphere

• Ecosystem
– Consists of all the organisms living in a particular, as
well as all the non-living physical components of the
environment with which the organisms interact

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 Sunlight
• The dynamics of
Ecosystem
any ecosystem
depend on two Heat
processes
– Cycling of
Consumers
nutrients Heat
(such as animals)

– Flow of energy Producers

(plants and other
photosynthetic Chemical
organisms) energy (food)

Figure 1.3
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 Hierarchy of Life
• Community
– The entire array of organisms inhabiting an
ecosystem

• Population
– An interacting group of one species

• Organism
– An individual living thing

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 Hierarchy of Life
• Organ System
– Consists of several organs that work together in
performing a specific function
– Examples include circulatory system, digestive
system, or nervous system

• Organ
– One or more groups of tissue coming together to
form a functioning unit

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 Hierarchy of Life
• Tissue
– A group of similar cells combined to form a
functioning unit

• Cell
– A unit of living matter separated from its
environment by a boundary called a membrane

• Organelle
– A structure that performs a specific function in a cell

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 Hierarchy of Life
• Molecule
– A cluster of atoms held together by chemical bonds

• Atom
– The smallest particle of ordinary matter

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Cells and Their DNA
• The cell is the lowest level of structure that can
perform all activities required for life

– All organisms are composed of one or more cells

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• We can distinguish two major types of cells

– Prokaryotic

– Eukaryotic

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• The prokaryotic cell is simple and contains no
organelles
Nucleus
• The eukaryotic cell (contains
DNA) Eukaryotic cell
Prokaryotic cell
is more complex
and contains
organelles
DNA
(no nucleus)
– The nucleus is the
Organelles
largest organelle
in most eukaryotic
cells
Figure 1.4

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• All cells use DNA as the
chemical material of genes
– Genes are the units of
inheritance that transmit
information from parents to
offspring

• The language of DNA contains

just four letters
– A, G, C, T

Figure 1.5
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• Genetic engineering and biotechnology have
allowed us to manipulate the DNA and genes of
organisms

Figure 1.6
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Life in Its Diverse Forms
• Diversity is the hallmark of life

– The diversity of known life includes 1.7 million

species
– Estimates of the total diversity range from 5 million
to over 30 million species

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Grouping Species: The Basic Concept
• Biodiversity can be
both beautiful and
overwhelming
• Taxonomy is the
branch of biology
that names and
classifies species
– It formalizes the
hierarchical
ordering of
organisms
Figure 1.7
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The Three Domains of Life
• The three domains Domain Bacteria Domain Archaea

of life are
– Bacteria

– Archaea Domain Eukarya

– Eukarya

Kingdom Protista Kingdom Plantae

Kingdom Fungi Kingdom Animalia

Figure 1.8.1
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• Bacteria and Archaea are both prokaryotic domains

Domain Bacteria Domain Archaea

Figure 1.8.2
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• Eukarya
includes at Domain Eukarya
least four
kingdoms

– Protista
Kingdom Protista Kingdom Plantae

– Plantae

– Fungi

– Animalia Kingdom Fungi Kingdom Animalia

Figure 1.8.3
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EVOLUTION: BIOLOGY’S UNIFYING THEME
• The history of
life is a saga of a
restless Earth
billions of years
old
– Fossils
document this
history

Figure 1.10
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• Life evolves
– Each species is one twig of a branching tree of life
extending back in time
Giant Spectacled Sloth Sun American Asiatic Polar Brown bear
panda bear bear bear black bear black bear bear

Ancestral bear
Figure 1.11
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The Darwinian View of Life
• The evolutionary
view of life came
into focus in 1859
when Charles
Darwin published
The Origin of
Species

Figure 1.12
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• Darwin’s book developed two main points

– Descent with modification

– Natural selection

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Natural Selection
• Darwin was struck by the diversity of animals on
the Galápagos Islands
• He thought of adaptation to the environment and the
origin of new species as closely related processes
– As populations separated by a geographic barrier
adapted to local environments, they became separate
species

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• Fourteen Medium
ground
Cactus
ground
finch
Small
tree finch
Medium Woodpecker
tree finch finch

species of
finch

Galápagos Large Small

Large
cactus
ground
Vegetarian Large Mangrove Green Gray
ground ground warbler warbler
finches
finch tree finch finch
finch finch finch finch finch

have beak
shapes Sharp-beaked
ground finch
adapted to
suit their Seed-eaters Cactus-flower Bud-eater
-eaters
Insect-eaters

environ- Ground finches Tree finches Warbler finches

ments

Common ancestor from

South American mainland Figure 1.13
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Darwin’s Inescapable Conclusion
• Darwin synthesized the concept of natural selection
from two observations that were neither profound
nor original
– Others had the pieces of the puzzle, but Darwin could
see how they fit together

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• Fact 1: Overproduction and struggle for existence

• Fact 2: Individual variation

• The inescapable conclusion: Unequal reproductive

success
– It is this unequal reproductive success that Darwin
called natural selection
– The product of natural selection is adaptation

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• Natural selection is
the mechanism of
evolution 1 Population with varied inherited
traits

2 Elimination of individuals with

certain traits

3 Reproduction of survivors

4 Increasing frequency of traits that enhance Figure 1.14

survival and reproductive success
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Observing Artificial Selection
• Artificial selection is the selective breeding of
domesticated plants and animal by humans

Figure 1.15
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Observing Natural Selection
• There are many examples of natural selection in
action
– The development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is
one

Figure 1.16
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• Darwin’s publication of The Origin of Species
fueled an explosion in biological research
– Evolution is one of biology’s best demonstrated,
most comprehensive, and longest lasting theories
– Evolution is the unifying theme of biology

Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings