Inquiry in the Natural World –
Spring 2005
Student Topic Guide, Topic 9: What is Life?
… and How Does Life Use Energy?
Day 1 (Wed, 6 Apr)
Reading Assignment: J
Benington, Chapter18., What is Life?
1. Know the important special characteristics
of life and the early explanations that were put forward for them
2. Understand the difference between vitalistic
and mechanistic explanations of life, why the mechanistic approach did not
immediately overshadow vitalistic approaches, and why mechanic explanations
have prevailed.
3. Know:
a) how the idea of
life as a cellular issue changed how scientists were able to study biological
processes
b) how in vitro synthesis of
“organic” molecules changed our views of the uniqueness of the chemistry of
living organisms
c) how the fermentation controversy
strengthened the mechanistic approach to life
d) how the phenomenon of cryptobiosis
supports the idea of life as a kind of organized structure
Day 2 (Mon, 11 Apr)
Reading assignment:
J Benington, Chapter 19, How does life
use energy?
1. Know the general concepts of: a) food assimilation (including
Aristotle’s and Galen’s ideas about blood formation and distribution); and b)
food “combustion”
2. Know what kinds of evidence led Harvey to reject earlier ideas
about blood formation and distribution, and some of the questions his work
raised but failed to answer.
3. Be able to describe Lavoisier’s experiments comparing combustion
with animal respiration, and know what similarities he observed between the two
processes
Day 3 (Wed, 13 Apr)
Lecture in Murphy
Aud: How does life use energy?
Reading: Campbell,
et al., 1997, Biology: Concepts and
Connections, Chapter 5: The Working
Cell
Day 4 (Fri, 15 Apr)
Reading: Campbell, et al., 1997, Biology:
Concepts and Connections, Chapter 5 – The Working Cell
1. Appreciate the general features of the metabolic pathways
through which glucose is used in cellular respiration, and in what part of the
cell each major stage occurs.
2. Understand the major ways in which we now consider
cellular respiration to be similar to combustion, and the ways in which we
consider it to be different.
3. Understand the modern concept of “cell work,” and how the
laws of thermodynamics help us to understand the relationships between cell
work, use and regeneration of ATP, cellular respiration, and photosynthesis.
4. Know the chemical relationships between cellular respiration and photosynthesis