UNIT I. WHAT IS BIOLOGY?

Text 1.1 The Characteristics Of Life

■ Essential targets:
By the end of this text you should be able to:
 discuss the main features of living things;
 discuss the stages of development of the science of biology.

Pre-reading
■With your partner try to match the definition with the correct
word. Guess if you are not sure! Then scan the text quickly to see
if you were right.
Exercise A.
1. feature A.
a substance in general that everything in the world
consists of
2. matter B. a useless material or substance
3. heat C. natural world in which people and animals live
4. chemical D. the smallest unit of living matter
5. cell E. outer form or outline
6. environment F. a form of energy
7. shape G. substance used in chemistry

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 8. waste H. something important or typical of a place or thing
product

■ Read the given text and make your essential assignments:

Biology is the study of life and living organisms. For as long as
people have looked at the world around them, people have studied
biology. Even in the days before recorded history, people knew and
passed on information about plants and animals.
Modern biology really began in the 17th century. At that time,
Anton van Leeuwenhoek, in Holland, invented the microscope and
William Harvey, in England, described the circulation of blood. The
microscope allowed scientists to discover bacteria, leading to an
understanding of the causes of disease, while new knowledge about
how the human body works allowed others to find more effective
ways of treating illnesses. All these new knowledges needed to be
put into order and in the 18th century the Swedish scientist Carl
Linnaeus classified all living things into the biological families we
know and use today.
In the middle of the 19th century, unnoticed by anyone else, the
Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, created his Laws of Inheritance,
beginning the study of genetics that is such an important part of
biology today. At the same time, while traveling around the world,
Charles Darwin was formulating the central principle of modern
biology – natural selection as the bases of evolution.
It is hard to believe, but the nature of viruses has become
apparent only within the last half of the 19 th century and the first step
on this path of discovery was taken by the Russian botanist Dmitry
Ivanovsky in 1892.
In the 20th century biologists began to recognize how plants and
animals live and pass on their genetically coded information to the
next generation. Since then, partly because of developments in
computer technology, there have been great advances in the field of

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biology; it is an area of ever-growing knowledge.
During the past few hundred years biology has changed from
concentrating on the structure of living organisms to looking more
at how they work or function. Over this time biologists have
discovered much about health and disease, about the genes which
control the activities of our bodies and how humans can control the
lives of other organisms. We need to understand how our activities
affect the environment, how humans can take responsibility for their
own health and welfare and how we must be careful to make
appropriate rules for the use of our genetic information.
Nowadays biologists are making fantastic discoveries which
will affect all our lives. These discoveries have given us the power to
shape our own evolution and to determine the type of world we will
live in. Recent advances, especially in genetic engineering, have
dramatically affected agriculture, medicine, veterinary science, and
industry, and our world view has been revolutionized by modern
developments in ecology. There has never been a more exciting nor
a more important time to study biology.
Biology is the scientific study of life. But what is life? When we
see a bird on a rock it may seem obvious that the bird is alive and the
rock is not, but what precisely makes the bird alive and the rock not?
Throughout history, thinkers in many fields tried to define life.
Although they have failed to provide a universally accepted
definition, most scientists agree that all living things share certain
basic characteristics:

■ Living things are made of organized structures.

■ Living things reproduce.
■ Living things grow and develop.
■ Living things feed.
■ Living things respire.
■ Living things excrete and waste.
■ Living things respond to their surroundings.
■ Living things move.

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 ■ Living things control their internal conditions.
■ Living things are able to evolve.
Non-living systems may show some of the characteristics of
living things, but life is the combination of all these characteristics.
Organization. All things are made of chemicals, but in living
things the chemicals are packaged into highly organized structures.
The basic structure of life is the cell. Cells themselves contain small
organelles that carry out specific functions. A cell may exist on its
own or in association with other cells to form tissues and organs.
Because of their highly organized structure, living things as
organisms.
Reproduction. Reproduction is the ability to produce other
individuals of the same species. It may be sexual or asexual.
Reproduction involves the replication of DNA. This chemical
contains genetic information which determines the characteristics of
an organism, including how it will grow and develop. The continued
existence of life depends on reproduction, and this is perhaps the
most characteristic feature of living things. Reproduction allows both
continuity and change. Over countless generations this has allowed
species to become well suited to their environment, and life to evolve
gradually to more complex forms.
Growth and development. All organisms must grow and
develop to reach the size and level of complexity required to
complete their life cycle. Growth is a relatively permanent increase
in size of an organism. It is brought about by taking in substances
from the environment and incorporating them into the internal
structure of the organism. Growth may be measured by increases in
linear dimensions (length, height, etc.), but is best measured in terms
of dry weight as this eliminates temporary changes due to intake of
water which are not regarded as growth. Development involves a
change in a shape and form of an organism as it matures. It is usually
accompanied by an increase in complexity.
Feeding. Living things are continually transforming one form of
energy into another to stay alive. Although energy is not destroyed

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during these transformations, heat is always formed. Heat is a form
of energy which cannot be used to drive biological processes, so it is
sometimes regarded as `wasted energy`.
Living things have to renew their energy stores periodically from
their environment, to continue transforming energy and to replace
the `wasted energy`. They also have to obtain nutrients – chemicals
that make up their bodies or help them carry out their biological
processes. Living things acquire energy and nutrients by feeding,
either by eating other organisms, or by making their own food out of
simple inorganic chemicals using energy from sunlight or from
chemical reactions.
Respiration. Living things need energy to stay alive and to do
work. Although food contains energy, this is not in a directly usable
form. It has to be broken down.
The energy released during the breakdown is used to make ATP
(adenosine triphosphate) in a process called respiration. ATP is an
energy rich molecule and is the only fuel that can be used directly to
drive metabolic reactions in living organisms.
Excretion. The energy transformations that take place in an
organism involve chemical reactions. Chemical reactions that occur
in organisms are called metabolic reactions.
Waste products are formed in these reactions, some of which are
poisonous, so they must be disposed of in some way. The disposal of
metabolic waste products is called excretion.
Responsiveness. All living things are sensitive to certain
changes in their environments (stimuli) and respond in ways that
tend to improve their chances of survival.
The degree of responsiveness depends on an organism`s
complexity: a bacterium may be limited to simple responses, such as
moving towards favorable stimuli or away from harmful ones;
people can make highly sophisticated responses to a wide variety of
stimuli which they may perceive either directly or with the aid of
technological devices.
Movement. Responses usually involve some form of movement.

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Movement of whole organisms from one place to another is called
locomotion. Plants and other organisms that are fixed in one place
do not display locomotion, but they can move parts of their bodies.
Movements of living things differ from those of non-living things by
being active, energy-requiring processes arising from within cells.
Homeostasis. All living things are, to some extend, able to
control their internal conditions so that their cells have a constant
chemical and physical environment in which they can function
effectively. The regulation and maintenance of a relatively constant
set of conditions within an organism is called homeostasis.
Homeostasis is a feature of all living systems, from a single cell to a
whole biosphere (the part of Earth containing life).
Evolution. Living things are able to change into new forms of
life. This evolution usually takes place gradually over successive
generations in response to changes in the environment.
■ Glossary of essential terms for you to know
№ English term Indonesian equivalent
1. to accept
2. to accompany
3. to acquire
4. advance
5. to allow
6. apparent
7. to arise
8. arrangement
9. to arrange
10. because of
11. blood
12. to bring about
13. capacity
14. to carry out
15. cause (n.)
16. to cause (v.)
17. certain
18. circumstance

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19. coded
information
20. to complete (v.)
21. complete (adj.)
22. to contain
23. to define
24. to determine
25. to develop
26. to describe
27. to destroy
28. dimension
29. to display
30. to dispose
31. due to
32. either … or
33. to eliminate
34. internal
35. to evolve
36. to fail
37. feature
38. to govern
39. to grow
40. gradually
41. generation
42. height
43. harmful
44. inheritance
45. to involve
46. to increase
47. in terms of
48. input of sth.
49. to include
50. law
51. matter
52. to move

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 53. to occur
54. to pass
55. to put into order
56. to perform
57. to possess
58. starch
59. to survive
60. way

■ Your Essential Assignments

I. Quick check
A. Decide if the following statements are true or false.
1.) The earliest people must have known about plants or
they would have died.
2.) The microscope allowed biologists to treat illnesses.
3.) Darwin`s theory was one of the most important in biology.
4.) The study of biology has not changed at all over the centuries.
B. What is the difference between:
1.) the growth of a crystal and the growth of a plant
2.) the movement of a cloud and the movement of an animal?

II. Fill in the missing words:

Term (verb) Noun
respond .......
transform .......
move .......
develop .......
respire .......
create .......
define .......

III. Use monolingual English dictionary and write down what

could
the words given below mean:

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nutrient; sunlight; poison; breakdown; harmful.

IV. Give Indonesian equivalents to the following English terms:

№ English term Indonesian
equivalent
1. living things share certain basic
characteristics
2. to reach the size and level of complexity
3. to measure by increase in linear dimensions
(length; heights)
4. temporary changes
5. transform one form of energy into another
6. to obtain nutrient chemicals
7. to make their own food
8. energy–rich molecule
9. sensitive to certain changes in their
environment
10. degree of responsiveness
11. moving toward favorable stimuli
12. wide variety of stimuli
13. energy–requiring processes
14. to be known as
VI. Find synonyms among the pool of words:
Pool of words Synonyms
1)
1.determine/2.start/3.change/4.alter/5.define/6.begi
n
2)
1.breath/2.initiate/3.happen/4.respiration/5.occur/6
.start
3) 1. investigation /2. dimension /3. research /4. size
4) 1.due to/2.possess/3.ruin/4.because

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 of/5.have/6.destroy
VII. Answer the following questions. Use all information given
before:
1. Have scientists provided a universally accepted definition of
life?
2. What is a living thing?
3. What is a non-living thing?
4. What can living things do that non-living things can not?
5. What do cells contain?
6. What does genetic information determine?
7. How is growth brought about?
8. Can heat be used to drive biological processes?
9. How do living things acquire energy and nutrients?
10. What do living things need to stay alive?
11. What does the degree of responsiveness depend on?
12. How do movements of living things differ from those of non-
living?
13. What is homeostasis?
VIII. Match the sentence halves. Make complete sentences:
1. Biologists are making A. those of non-living things by being
discoveries energy-requiring processes arising
from within cells.
2. Growth is accompanied B. one of the main features of living
by things.
3. DNA contains genetic C. are transforming one form of energy
information which into another.
4. Movements of living D. all living things share certain basic
things characteristics.
differ from
5. Reproduction is E. chemicals are packed into highly
organized structures.
6. To stay alive living thing F. an increase in complexity.
7. Most scientists think that G. determines the characteristics of an
organism, including how it will grow

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 and develop.
8. In living things H. which will affect all our lives.
IX. Read and translate the short text without any dictionary:
Fact of life:
The continued existence of life depends on reproduction, and
this is perhaps the most characteristic feature of living things.
Reproduction allows both continuity and change. Over countless
generations this has allowed species to become well suited to their
environment, and life to evolve gradually to more complex forms.
X. Food for thought:
a) You might be familiar with the mnemonic (memory aid)
`Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain` for remembering the colors of
the spectrum – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Suggest a mnemonic for the ten characteristic features of living
things described in this unit. You can change the order of the
features.
b) Robots can move and respond, and require energy to
maintain their organization and a constant internal environment.
How would you argue that robots are non-living objects? A robot
could be made that has all the characteristic features of living things.
Would it still be non-living?

Text 1.2. What Do Biologists Do?

■ Essential targets: By the end of this text you

should be able to:
● describe what biologists do;
●define the different levels of biological
organization;
● list the main elements of a scientific method.
Pre-reading
■ Working in pairs, discuss these questions with your partner.

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Then scan the text to find the answers and compare them with your
discussion.
1. What do biologists’ study?
2. What careers in biology can you think of?
3. What areas of biology do you consider as the most important for
human society nowadays? Give your reasons.
4. Could you name the key elements of biological investigations?

■ Read the given texts and make your essential assignments:

Part A. The levels of biological organization:
Biologists study every aspect of life at every level of its
organization, from the atoms that make up biological molecules to
the ecosystems that form the biosphere.
Here are the levels of biological organization from atoms, the
smallest components of living things, to the biosphere, the entire
living planet:
▪ Biosphere
▪ Ecosystem
▪ Population
▪ Individual
▪ Organ system: digestive system
▪ Organ: stomach
▪ Tissue: smooth muscle
▪ Cell: smooth muscle cell
▪ Organelle: Mitochondrion
▪ Macromolecules: proteins
▪ Chemical building blocks or monomers: amino acid
▪ Atoms: carbon

Part B. Aspects of biology:

Modern biology is an enormous subject that has many branches.

Specialists in some branches include:

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● molecular biologists and biochemists who work at the chemical
level, with the aim of revealing how DNA, proteins, and other
molecules are involved in biological processes;
● geneticists who study genes and their involvement in inheritance
and development;
● cell biologists who study individual cells or groups of cells, often
by culturing them outside organisms; thee investigate how cells
interact with each other and their environment;
● physiologists who find out how organ systems work in a healthy
body;
● pathologists who study diseased and dysfunctional organs;
● ecologists who study interactions between organisms and their
environment. Some focus their attention on whole organisms; others
study populations, individuals of the same species living together at
one location.
There are also biologists who specialize in particular groups of
organisms; for example, bacteriologists study bacteria, botanists
study plants, and zoologists study animals.
Biologists are employed in many fields including conservation
and wildlife management, industry, health care, horticulture,
agriculture, zoos, museums, information science, and marine and
freshwater biology. In addition, many biologists are employed as
teachers, lecturers, or research workers.

Part C. A letter to students who study biology:

Dear Students,
I am writing this letter to welcome all of you
who are about to begin your first-year course in
Biology here at the university. You might think it
is a little early for me to ask you to think about what
you will do when you leave here in three years`
time. However, our science, like any other, has so
many different areas it is impossible to study them

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all. The first thing you will have to think about is specializing. This letter is
to offer you some suggestions to think about for your future.

As you know, there are four main areas of biology that we shall
concentrate on in the coming years. Biology can be divided into zoology, the
study of animal life, and botany, the study of plant life. We shall also study
molecular biology, the study of how the building blocks of living things, the
cells, work. Another topic of interest is genetics, how biological information
is passed on from one generation to the next: that is, inheritance. You should
specialize, but you will also need to know about all of these four areas of
study. Plants and animals do not live separately from each other; all living
things are made up of cells and one of things genetics tells us is how plants
and animals adapt to the conditions around them.

So what about after the course is over and you have graduated in
Biology? Can you have a career in biology? For those who choose to
specialize in genetics or molecular biology there are important career
opportunities in medicine. At the present time, there is a great deal of
research going on in gene therapy where biologists are working with doctors
and chemists to find new ways of treating diseases. Other biologists are
looking at ways of changing the genetic composition of the plants we grow
for food; of making them more able to fight diseases and at the same time
produce more food.
We are experiencing a period of climatic change too, and this is having
an effect on the way animals and plants live. The science of ecology is
becoming more and more important; biologists who specialize in zoology are
working in many parts of the world. Some are working to protect species
like the tiger, which are seriously threatened by climate change. Others are
investigating wildlife from the smallest insects to the largest mammals,
trying to understand how they all live together. Botanists are looking at the
effect new types of food crops have on the environment and how changes in
that area can affect our general health. There is even a new area of biology
called astrobiology, which is looking at the possibilities of life on other
planets – but perhaps that is something for the more distant future.
Whatever you specialize in, as long as there is life on this (or any other)

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planet, there is work for a biologist.
Good luck and enjoy your studies!

Jean Shearer
Professor of Biology.

Part D. The scientific method:

The definition of biology states that it is a `scientific study`. This

distinguishes biology from other ways of studying life. However,
there is no single rigid scientific method that biologists use: there are
numerous ways of studying life scientifically. Nevertheless,
biological investigations usually include one or more of the
following key elements:
- observing: making observations and taking measurements
- questioning: asking questions about observations and
posing a problem
- hypothesizing: formulating a hypothesis, a statement that
explains a problem and can be tested
- predicting: stating what would happen if the hypothesis
were true
- testing: testing the hypothesis, usually by carrying out a
controlled experiment aimed at producing data that will either
support or contradict the hypothesis
- interpreting: interpreting the test results objectively and
drawing conclusions that accept, modify, or reject the hypothesis.
A biologist may start an investigation by making observations
or by using observations described by other biologists. Such
observations may be obtained directly by the senses, such as
listening to a bird song, or indirectly through instruments such as
recording the song on a computer system. On the other hand, an
investigation may start simply by a biologist having an idea that
something happens in a particular way, and then the idea will be
tested by making observations or carrying out experiments to see if

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it is valid. A hypothesis is suggested and then tested in all
investigations. One essential aspect of a scientific experiment is that
it can be repeated by other scientists working independently.
A typical hypothesis makes a clear link between an
independent or manipulated variable and a dependent variable.
Variables are conditions or factors (such as light, temperature, or
time) that can vary or may be varied. In an experiment, the
independent or manipulated variable is the one that is systematically
changed; the dependent variable is the effect or outcome that is
measured. For example, when investigating the activity of an
enzyme at different temperatures, temperature is the independent
variable that is manipulated by the scientist; rate of reaction is the
dependent variable that is measured at each temperature. Other
variables called controlled variables are kept constant or controlled
at set levels.
At the end of an experiment, the results must be interpreted as
objectively as possible. Sometimes they are so clear that it is obvious
whether they support or contradict the hypothesis. Often, however,
results are variable and need statistical analysis before conclusions
can be made. The conclusions may lead to the hypothesis being
accepted, modified, or rejected. Even if results support hypothesis, it
is accepted only tentatively because it can never be proved
completely. However, it only needs a single contrary observation to
refute a hypothesis (prove it wrong or incomplete). A hypothesis is
therefore only the best available explanation at any time. This makes
biology a highly dynamic subject and not merely a collection of facts.

A typical sequence of events in a scientific investigation:

▪ Observations
▪ Questions
▪ Hypothesis (accept, modify, reject)
▪ Predictions

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 ▪ Experiments
▪ Test experiments
▪ Control experiments
▪ Results
▪ Interpretation
▪ Conclusion (accept, modify, reject)

■ Glossary of essential terms for you to know

№ English term Indonesian equivalent
1. enormous
2. branch
3. to be involved (in sth)
4. involvement
5. inheritance
6. individual (n)
7. the same
8. species
9. to be employed
10. conservation
11. horticulture
12. in addition
13. to state
14. to distinguish
15. way
16. rigid
17. nevertheless
18. to pose a problem
19. to predict
20. to contradict
21. to draw a conclusion
22. to modify
23. to reject

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 24. to observe
25. to obtain (syn. to get, to
receive)
26. to happen
27. valid
28. essential
29. to manipulate
30. effect (n)
31. outcome
32. to measure
33. rate
34. at set levels
35. obvious
36. tentatively
37. to refute
38. merely

■ Your Essential Assignments

I. Quick check
1 What is the difference between a physiologist and a
pathologist?
2 Which is the highest level of biological organization on
Earth?
3 In an experiment in which the rate of photosynthesis of a
plant is measured at different light intensities, which is the
independent (manipulated) variable and which is the dependent
variable?
4 How can biologists help animals in the wild?
5 What is astrobiology?

II. Find synonyms among the pool of words:

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 Pool of words Synonyms
1)
1.enormous/2.valid/3.reject/4.great/5.refute/6.impo
rtant
2) 1.reveal/2.open /3. differ/4. take
place/5.vary/6.happen
3) 1. work /2.be involved /3. take part /4.be
employed
4) 1. carry out /2. experimentally /3. fulfill /4.
tentatively
5) 1. change /2. investigation /3.modify /4.research
III. Fill in the missing words:
№ Term (verb) Noun
1. employ ……
2. inherit ……
3. modify ……
4. observe ……
5. measure ……
6. predict ……
7. understand ……
8. discover ……
9. know ……
10. contradict ……

IV. Use monolingual English dictionary and write down what

could the words given below mean:
inheritance, interpretation, species, hypothesis, to refute.
V. Match the words with their definitions:
№ Word Definition
1. individual A. very strict and difficult to change
2. horticultur B. the protection of natural environment
e

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 3. rigid C. the natural world in which people, animals
and plants live
4. predict D to say that sth a person has said or written is
. wrong or untruthful
5. conservatio E. a single person or thing, considered separately
n from the class or group to which he, she, or it
belongs
6. contradict F. to say that sth will happen in the future
7. variable G the art, practice or science of growing fruit,
. flowers and vegetables
8. environme H a thing or quantity that can change and be
nt . changed

VI. Find Indonesian equivalents for the following word

combinations
№ English term Indonesian equivalent
1. Such observations may be obtained
directly or indirectly.
2. To carry out a controlled experiment
aimed at producing data.
3. Culturing cells outside organisms.
4. To refute a hypothesis.
5. Dysfunctional organs.
6. In addition.
7. An essential aspect of a scientific
experiment.
8. Factors that can vary or may be varied.
9. To draw conclusions that accept or reject
the hypothesis.

VIII. Read and translate the short text without any dictionary.
Fact of life:

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 No matter how dramatic it is, any discovery must be shared
before it can make a contribution to our scientific knowledge.
Biologists communicate with each other mainly by means of concise
reports called papers.
Typically, a paper contains the aims of investigation, a
description of the method used, the results obtained, and a
discussion of the significance of the results. The method is described
in enough detail to allow someone else to repeat the investigation.
Well over one million original papers are published in the biological
sciences each year, in subjects ranging from the behavioural
interactions of different animal populations to the analysis of
chemical reactions taking place in cells.

IX. Food for thought.

The life sciences have made an enormous contribution to
human welfare, especially through their applied branches of
medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. However, an important
part of understanding biology and the other sciences is realising their
limitations. Science does not, for example, deal with hypotheses that
are not testable. Suggest questions that might not be possible to
answer using a scientific method.

XI. Prepare a short presentation to answer the question:

‘What is biology?’ Use the information in both texts.
Talk about:
 what the study of biology includes
 the four main areas of biology
 where biologists work
 what biology informs us about

First complete these notes. Use them in your presentation.

Biology: The study of ……………………………………… .

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 There are four main areas:
………………… is about ………………………………….. .
………………… is about ………………………………….. .
Molecular biology is about …………………………………. .
……………….......is about inheritance.
Biologists work in……………………………………….,
…………………and ………………………………………… .
In conclusion, biology is about ……………………………… .

Remember to:
 read the texts again
 select information that is relevant
 add examples where you can

Speaking tips
 Speak from notes.
 Don’t write out everything you plan to say, use key words.
 Introduce each new idea clearly.

XII. Write a letter to your tutor telling him or her which areas
of Biology you would like to specialize in and why. Use these notes
to help you.
Dear Mr / Mrs (tutor’s surname),
Writing to tell you choices I have made
Specialize in (one or two of the main areas)
Reasons for choosing: interested in (plants / animals / latest
ideas /
laboratory work / your own ideas)
Possible career choices: what I hope to do when I graduate
(medicine / ecology / agriculture / your own idea)
Offer to meet and discuss choices: I would like your advice and
hope
we can …….

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Yours sincerely,
(your full name: first name + surname)
Write 100 – 140 words.

XIII. Prepare a short presentation to answer the question:

‘What is the scientific method?’
Talk about:

 What is the essential aspect of a scientific experiment?

 What is constantly changed in an experiment?
 What is to be done at the end of an experiment?

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