• Spontaneous generation/Abiogenesis - It was once believed that

complex living organisms such as mice, maggots, etc. could arise

spontaneously from nonliving matter.
• Biogenesis - is the belief that life originates from preexisting life.
• Francisco Redi (Italian physician) took the flesh and cooked it so that
no organisms were left alive. He placed the flesh in three jars. One jar
was covered with parchment, one was covered with muslin and third
one was left open.
• Lazzaro. Spallanzani (1765 A.D.) poured hay infusion in eight bottles
and boiled all of them. Four of them were loosely corked while other
four were made air tight.
• Louis Pasteur (1864) showed that minute organisms like protists and
bacteria arise from pre-existing organisms of the same kind. He took a
flask almost half filled with sugar and yeast.
• Svante Arrhenius – popularized the idea that life arose outside the
earth.
• Cell is the basic unit of life.
• Divine Creation - The oldest hypothesis that life came from a divine
being is the most widely accepted belief. It is believed that life forms
and everything in the universe were created through a supernatural
power rather than naturalistic means.
• The belief that life arose from nothing but the power of a divine being
is called creationism.
• Creationist – the people who believed that everything was made by a
god in a six day period.
• Some scientists believe that the first life came from a spontaneous
origin or life evolved from inanimate matter. Before life could evolve,
simple molecules combined to form complex ones. The energy that
drove these chemical processes may come from lighting or some form
of geothermal energy, culminating in the evolution of cells from simple
to multicellular forms.
• Panspermia proposes that a meteor or cosmic dust may have carried
to Earth significant amounts of organic molecules, which started the
evolution of life. In 1966, a meteorite that was found in Antarctica,
suggested that it has been ejected from Mars possibly by a collision
 with an asteroid. The meteorite contained presence of complex organic
molecules and small globules, which resemble those found on Earth.

An individual living creature is called an organism.

There are many characteristics that living organisms
share. All living organisms:
 respond to their environment - An individual living creature is called
an organism. There are many characteristics that living organisms
share. All living organisms:
 grow and change - All living organisms have the ability to grow and
change.
 reproduce and have offspring - All living organisms must have the
ability to reproduce. Living things make more organisms like
themselves.
 have complex chemistry
 maintain homeostasis – internal balance
 are built of structures called cells - If you look closely at any organism,
you can see that it is made of structures called cells. Organisms that
are very different such as ferns, fish, and elephants all look similar at
the cellular level.
 pass their traits onto their offspring - All organisms possess a genetic
system that is based on the replication and duplication of a long
molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
 has metabolism to perform different life processes - The sum of all
chemical processes that maintain the living state of an organism is
called metabolism.

 An adaptation refers to the process of becoming adjusted to an

environment.

 The sum of all the chemical reactions in a cell is metabolism.

 The transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring is called

heredity.
In addition to the characteristics, life science is unified by
certain themes. These seven general themes are,
 Levels of organization - For multicellular organisms, the level of
organization is more complex. Groups of cells form tissues and
different tissues form organs. Different organs comprise an organ
system with specialized function. An organism is made up of different
organ systems with individualized but coordinated functions.
 The flow of energy - Energy is used by organisms to grow and do work.
Without it, life stops. Almost all the energy that living things need is
obtained from the sun. Plants capture the energy from sunlight and use
it to make complex molecules in a process called photosynthesis.
 Evolution - The theory of evolution helps explain how all kinds of
organisms came into existence. It explains why organisms look the
way they do and how organisms of the past are related to the
organisms alive today.
 Interacting systems - Living things interact with each other and with
the environment. A living community is highly structured and
interdependent.
 Structure and function - A relationship exists between structure and
function at all levels of biological organization. In biology, structure is
always related to function.
 Ecology - Ecology is the study of complex communities of organisms in
relation to their environment. Organisms need the physical
environment to survive. They need substances like water, nutrients,
and gases from the environment.
 Science and society - Knowledge from biological science can be applied
to specific problems in the society to improve human life.
 Reproduction is the process of how living things produce offspring
(babies).
 There are two main reproductive methods: Sexual and Asexual
 ASEXUAL Reproduction - only requires one parent. Trait information
from the parent is passed down to the offspring. The offspring is
therefore an exact copy of the parent.
 FISSION - The splitting of a unicellular organism into two or more
separate daughter cells.
 BUDDING - Budding is a form of asexual reproduction that results from
the outgrowth of a part of a cell or body region leading to a separation
from the original organism into two individuals.
 FRAGMENTATION - Fragmentation is the breaking of an individual into
parts followed by regeneration. If the animal is capable of
fragmentation, and the parts are big enough, a separate individual will
regrow from each part.
 PARTHENOGENESIS - Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual
reproduction where an egg develops into a complete individual without
being fertilized.

 SEXUAL Reproduction - Higher forms of animals reproduce through a

process involving sex cells or gametes produced by the parents.
 Fertilization – is the union of egg cell and sperm cells.
 External fertilization occurs mostly in aquatic environments and
requires both a male and female organism to release or broadcast
gametes into their surroundings.
 Animals that use internal fertilization specialize in developing and
protecting an egg. Sometimes the offspring itself is encased in an egg
upon its birth and sometimes it hatches from an egg before it is born.
 Oviparity - The fertilized eggs are laid outside, where they receive
nourishment from the yolk.
 OVOVIVIPARITY - The fertilized eggs are retained in the female’s body
where they receive nourishment from the yolk. The eggs are laid right
before they are hatched
 VIVIPARITY - The offspring are born directly instead of hatching from
the eggs. They receive nutrition from the mother. This can be seen in
mammals.
 Hermaphrodite – am organism having both male and female sex
organs or other sexual characteristics.