| A | B |
|---|
| organism | a living thing |
| cell | the basic unit or structure and function in an organism |
| unicellular | made of a single cell |
| multicelluar | consisting of many cells |
| metabolism | the combinations of chemical reactions that organisms use to build up and break down materials |
| stimulus | a change or signal in the environment that can make an organism react in some way |
| response | an action or change in behavior that occurs as a result of a stimulus |
| development | the process of a change in an organism's life to produce a more complex organism |
| asexual reproduction | reproductive process that involves only one parent and produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent |
| sexual reproduction | a reproductive process that involves two parents that combine their genetic material to produce a new organism which differs from both parents |
| spontaneous generation | the mistaken idea that living things arise from non living things |
| controlled experiment | an experiment in which only one variable is manipulated at a time |
| autotroph | an organism that is able to capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use it to produce its own food |
| heterotroph | an organism that cannot make its own food and gets food by consuming other living things |
| homeostasis | the condition in which an organism's internal environment is kept stable in spite of changes in the external environment |
| classification | process of grouping things based on similarities |
| taxonomy | the scientific study of classifying organisms |
| binomial nomenclature | the classification system in which each organism is given a unique, two-part scientific name indicating its genus and species |
| genus | a classification grouping that consists of a number of similar, closely related species |
| species | a group of similar organisms that can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce |
| prokayote | a unicellular organism without nucleus |
| nucleus | large oval organelle that contains the cell's genetic material in the form of DNA and controls many of the cell's activities |
| eukaryote | organisms whose cells contain a nucleus |
| evolution | change over time; the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms |
| branching tree diagram | a diagram that shows probable evolutionary relationships among organisms and the order in which specific characteristics may have evolved |
| shared derived characteristics | a characteristic or trait, such as fur, that the common ancestor of a group had and passed on to its descendants |
| convergent evolution | the process by which unrelated organisms evolve similar characteristics |
