Jmu Bio 140 Exam #1 Vocab - Ch. 1, 2 & 6 Questions With Correct Answers

observation CORRECT ANSWER the act of viewing the world around us experimentation CORRECT ANSWER a disciplined & controlled way of asking & answering questions about the world in an unbiased manner hypotheses CORRECT ANSWER a tentative explanation for one or more observations that makes predictions that can be tested by experiments or additional observations variable CORRECT ANSWER the feature of an experiment that is changed by the experimenter from one treatment to the next test group CORRECT ANSWER the experimental group that is exposed to the variable in an experiment control group CORRECT ANSWER the group that is not exposed to the variable in an experiment scientific inquiry CORRECT ANSWER a deliberate, systematic, careful & unbiased way of learning about the natural world theory CORRECT ANSWER a general explanation of natural phenomenon supported by a large body of experiments & observations the first law of thermodynamics CORRECT ANSWER ~the law of conservation of energy ~energy can neither be created nor destroyed ~only transformed from one form into another the second law of thermodynamics CORRECT ANSWER the principle that the transformation of energy is associated with an increase in the degree of disorder (entropy) in the universe entropy CORRECT ANSWER the amount of disorder (or the # of possible positions & motions of molecules) in a system cell CORRECT ANSWER the simplest self-reproducing entity that can exist as an independent unit of life deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) CORRECT ANSWER ~a linear polymer of 4 subunits ~the info archive in all organisms