Living vs. Nonliving6 Characteristics of Living Things

1. All living things are made up of cells (have cellular organization)

--Unicellular – one cell

--Multicellular – more than one cell

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

cellstissues organs Organ system

2.Use Energy

• Energy is needed to carry on all of the activities of living things. Energy is used for growth and repair.

• The main source of energy is the sun.

3.Grow and Develop

• Grow – to become larger in size

• Develop – to become more complex

• Living things use energy to create new cells in order to grow and develop

4.Respond to Surroundings

• Stimulus – a change in the environment

• Response – an organism reacts to the stimulus

5.Reproduce• Living things produce

offspring which are similar to the parent

6. HomeostasisHomeostasis - the ability of an

organism to maintain its internal environment despite conditions in the external environment.

Human body temperature is………

if body temperature rises, you sweat.

if body temperature lowers, you shiver.

Characteristics of Living Things

• Cellular organization

• Use energy

• Grow and develop

• Respond to change in their surroundings

• Reproduction

• Maintain Homeostasis

Life Comes From Life

• About 400 years ago people thought life could suddenly appear from nonliving material. Such as frogs sprouting from the mud in ponds. This mistaken idea is called spontaneous generation.

Spontaneous GenerationDisproved

• 1600’s Francesco Redi performed a controlled experiment to show that flies do no spontaneously arise from decaying meat.

Spontaneous GenerationDisproved

1800’s Louis Pasteur performed controlled experiments to prove bacteria do not form spontaneously from nonliving materials.

Needs of Living Things

2.Contain DNA and other Similar Chemicals

• Energy

• Water

• Living Space

• Stable internal conditions

Energy

• Living things use food as a source of energy– Autotrophs make their own food.

Autotrophs capture the sun’s energy and use it along with water and carbon dioxide to make their own food.

• Auto (self) • Troph ( feeder)

– Heterotrphs cannot make their own food. They get energy from the sun indirectly by eating autotrophs or other heterotrophs

• Hetero (other)• Troph (feeder)

Living Space• Living things need a space from which to

obtain food. Water, and shelter.• In many cases living things must compete for

this space.

Water

• Living things are composed of a large percentage of water– 92% of your blood is water

• The property of water that makes it vital to living things is its ability to dissolve more chemicals than any other material on earth.

Stable Internal Conditions

• Because conditions in the environment change significantly, organisms must be able to keep conditions within their body stable or die.

• Homeostasis is the maintenance of stable internal conditions despite changes in the surroundings.– Your body temperature stays the same even if it is

really hot outside.– Barnacles maintain moisture inside their shell even

when the tide goes out.