Biology

Unit 1 P1.1
Every cell in your body uses food to supply energy in order to function well and stay alive. If you
eat too much, the energy is stored as fat. This is used if your body takes in less than its needed
energy intake. Food has different amounts of energy and nutrient types, for a balanced diet you
should eat:
- carbohydrates for energy
- fats for energy and making cell membranes
- proteins for cell growth, repair and energy (due to all the jobs, energy is small)
- vitamins and mineral ions (small amounts needed) for keeping healthy
- roughage (fibre) to keep the digestive system working well
- water to transport other nutrients
Milk contains carbohydrates, fats, proteins, calcium, vitamins and water - many other food types
also contain multiple nutrients. A mixture of different food usually makes your diet balanced
however if your diet isnt balanced you may become malnourished.
Small changes in diet habits that are permanent are better for losing weight than big changes
used temporarily.
People who exercise more or have a high metabolic rate (rate which chemical reactions take
place) need more energy containing foods than low metabolic rated or unfit people.
Younger people and men tend to have a faster metabolic rate than women and older people.
The greater proportion of muscle to fat in the body, the higher the metabolic rate is usually.
One gram of fat releases nearly twice as much energy as one gram of carbohydrates.

Exercise increases the use of energy from the food you eat and therefore the metabolic.
Metabolic rates usually stay up for a long time when you exercise a lot.
Your liver makes cholesterol which is needed to make cell membranes but too much is bad for
you. It can form blockages in your blood vessels which restrict blood flow and leads to heart
disease.
Eating can increase your cholesterol level, saturated fats are especially bad. These fats from
animal products - eggs, dairy, meats. Unsaturated fats lower your cholesterol levels, these are
found in plant oils. You can inherit a low
metabolism and a low cholesterol
A high level of cholesterol in the blood
increases the risk of developing plaques in
the artery walls.
The plaque reduces the space that the
blood can flow through and slows down the
blood it so it clots.
The clot can get carried along in the blood
and may get stuck in a smaller blood
vessel, blocking the blood flow.
Sometimes a clot blocks one of the arteries
that take oxygenated blood to the heart
muscle. This causes a heart attack as the muscle can not work so the heart can not beat
properly.
Diabetes can increase the risk of a heart attack. Type two diabetes makes blood sugar levels
rise high due to certain cells in your body do not respond to the hormone insulin.
Low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is bad and can cause heart disease. High density
lipoprotein (HDL) is good and it is best to have twice as much of in your body as they help
remove cholesterol from the walls of blood vessels.

Microorganisms are too small to see without a microscope. They include bacteria and viruses.
Some viruses can get inside bacteria so even bacteria becomes ill! They can cause disease.
Microorganisms that cause disease are called pathogens.
Bacteria reproduce rapidly in the body and produce waste products called toxins (poisons) that
make you feel terrible.The toxins get carried all around your body so even if they are only in the
intestines, you feel ill all over.
Viruses are reproduced in body cells until they burst out of it, destroying the cells. The viruses
then invade the other cells, destroying them too. As viruses are bursting out of your throat lining,
for example, no wonder you get a sore throat.
An epidemic occurs when a wide spread of people have a disease, a pandemic is when that
affects the entire country.
Semmelweiss discovered how to stop disease spread and recognised them. He made doctors
wash their hands in chlorine water before examining woman for birth. Infection is dangerous.

White blood cells are like defense forces. They attack and destroy pathogens that have found
their way into the body. They are part of your immune system, some surround bacteria and
ingest them. They take the bacteria into their cytoplasm and kill them.
Other white blood cells make a chemical called antibody which destroys the bacteria. Or they
make antitoxins which counteract the toxins which the bacteria makes.
Around an infected wound, some of the cells produce a chemical that signal to the phagocytes
that they are needed. Extra blood flows to the infected site, carrying more phagocytes. The
wound becomes inflamed and red as the phagocytes are doing their best to destroy the
infection before it causes too much harm.
White blood cells called lymphocytes attack pathogens by producing antibodies. Each
lymphocyte makes a different kind of antibody, each of which destroy a certain type of
pathogen. Between them, they should fight almost any type of pathogen.
Sometimes the lymphocyte make an antitoxin to kill the pathogens directly, other times they
cluster the pathogens together to make it easier for the phagocytes to kill. Antitoxins are also
very specific and work against one particular type of toxin.
Over the counter (OTC) drugs you do not need a doctors prescription for, it is for painkillers
such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. For serious pain, a doctor may prescribe you to something
more powerful. Painkillers reduce symptoms but can not cure the problem.
Antibiotics kill bacteria in your body but not any of your own cells. They do not destroy viruses
and are not at all poisonous to viruses. They only harm bacteria.
There are different types of antibiotics. This includes penicillin and streptomycin. They are
different as they do not all worj equally well against all the kinds of bacteria.
Viruses are harder to destroy as they get right inside our cells. It is practically impossible to
destroy the viruses without also destroying the cells.
Drugs that destroy viruses are called antivirals. AIDS is caused by HIV. No cure has been found
but a drug called AZT slows down the AIDS development. It does sometimes have side effects
though.
Overuse of antibiotics - especially when they are not necessary - can cause bacteria to become
resistant to them.

Bacteria are slowly becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics that used to work against
them. MRSA is a dangerous example as most antibiotics do not work against the bacterium.
Patients who are ill in hospital may not have strong disease defenses and can pick up infections
like MRSA very easily.
It is purely by chance that bacteria become resistant, not purpose. A sudden change occurs in
the DNA of a bacterium, this is a mutation and sometimes the mutation makes the bacterium
resistant to antibiotics. Then the mutated bacterium will reproduce to form a large number of
resistant bacteria. This is called a resistant strain of bacteria, the process is an example of
natural selection.
There is a race between scientists finding a new antibiotic and the bacteria mutating to
resistance.
If antibiotics can not kill bacteria, we have only our white blood cells. So everybody has to
remember to minimize the amount of antibiotic intake as this kills off all the other bacteria,
leaving just the mutated one which then has no competitors and is free to reproduce.
Staphylococcus aureus is a common, harmless bacteria which is a risk to those who have weak
immune systems or is very old/young. MRSA is an example of it, the methicillin referred to in
methicillin-resistant s.a. is an antibiotic. It is a superbug as it is resistant to so many antibiotics.

Certain white blood cells can make antibodies that destroy pathogens. Each pathogen needs a
specific antibody to destroy it. If you get infected, the correct white blood cells multiply and make
the antibody needed to destroy the pathogen which takes time and can even take too long so
you die or become ill before enough of the antibody is made to wipe out the pathogen.
If you do survive, next time you are infected your white blood cells remember how to make the
antibody and thus it is faster so the pathogens are less harmful.
You have developed immunity to the disease which prevents its effects from being nearly as
bad in future.
Most people are immunised against diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, polio and
diphtheria. You get immunised by having a small, harmless amount of the disease injected into
you, This is called a vaccination. MMR removes measles, mumps and rubella.
People used to think that the MMR jab caused autism, however this was not true and no
scientific evidence was provided to prove so, there is no link.
Swine flu is an example of a new infectious disease, it spread quickly and flu vaccines did not
protect people from it. By the time the vaccines and drugs were made to prevent the disease, it
appeared that that disease was not so deadly anyhow.

Microorganisms need to be grown safely - especially in labs and schools. Bacteria and fungi
need to grown in a liquid and jelly containing all the needed nutrients. The liquid or jelly is called
nutrient medium.
A nutrient medium is a food source for bacteria, the bacteria that grow on it is called a culture.
All equipment must be sterilised before use. Metal equipment such as a wire inoculating loop
can be held in a flame, glass petri dishes can be heated to a high temperature, liquids boiled
thoroughly, agar jelly poured into the sterile dish quickly and not touched with fingers or
breathed on. Seal the dish with tape and keep the cultures at a temperature of 25 degrees. This
is encouraging them to grow at body temperature to manipulate the body.
Petri dishes sometimes get put into an incubator and harmless bacteria are grown commercially
for example, to make enzyme - 40 degrees.

Nerves are all over your body and messages travel along them to the brain, which sends
electrical impulses to muscles, telling them what to do. Nerves contain special cells called nerve
cells. Nerves transmit information to and from the brain and spinal cord. The brain and spinal
cord make up the central nervous system.
The body contains organs which work together and communicate with each other. As well as
nerves, hormones carry information between organs. Hormones are chemicals. They are made
by certain glands. Glands are organs that make and release useful substances.
The release process is called secretion, glands secrete hormones into the blood. The
bloodstream carries the hormones around the body. The brain is very attentive and monitors
and adjusts everything. An example of a hormone is adrenaline.
In the nervous system, nerves carry information between one organ and another in the form of
electrical impulses. Hormones move around the body in a different way, hormones, made in the
glands, dissolve in the blood plasma and are carried all around inside blood vessels. Most
hormones affect just a few organs called target organs.
Adrenaline has more target organs than most and affects the heart, breathing muscles, eyes
and digestive system. You stop becoming scared of something by your liver breaking down
hormones and making the products of the breakdown return to the blood and get out of your
body by urinating.

Receptors are special cells that detect stimuli (changes in the environment). All your muscles
are effectors, an effector is an organ that does something in response to a stimulus. Glands are
also effectors - salivary glands respond to a stimulus by secreting saliva.
Stimuli examples are light, sound, touch, movement, temperature change, pressure, pain,
position and chemicals. Our head receptors have vision in the eyes, smell in the nose, taste in
the mouth/tongue, hearing and balance in the ears and touch everywhere.
Information is carried in the nervous system as electrical impulses. The cells that transmit these
impulses are called nerve cells or neurones as they are more commonly known as.
The neurones that transmit impulses from receptors to the central nervous system are sensory
neurones. The neurones that transmit impulses from the central nervous system to effectors are
called motor neurones. A motor neurone is A, a sensory neurone is B.

Rod cells are specialised cells in your retina (eye). They are very sensitive to light, if only one
photen of light falls onto a rod cell, it is enough to generate electrical impulses. This is sent
along to the optic brain, the brain uses the patterns of impulses arriving from the rod cells in
different parts of the retina to construct a picture of the world you are looking at.

A reflect action is a fast, automatic response to a stimulus. Most reflexes protect you - such as
blinking to protect the eye if something approaches it.
In any reflex action, the sequence of event is as follows:
- a receptor detects a stimulus
- the receptor sends an electrical impulse along a sensory neurone to the central nervous
system (CNS)
- the CNS sends an electrical impulse along a motor neurone to an effector. The effector could
be a muscle or a gland
- the effector does something as a response to the stimulus
The nerve impulse could go through either the brain or the spinal cord - but it will involve the
conscious parts of the brains.
A reflex arc is the pathway taken by a nerve impulse as it passes from a receptor, through the
central nervous system, and finally to an effector.
There is a gap between the end of one neurone and the start of the next, this is called a
synapse. Electrical impulses cannot jump over these gaps. Instead, when an impulse gets to the
end of a neurone, it causes a chemical to be secreted. The chemical to be secreted. The
chemical diffuses across the gap, but slower than an electrical impulse travelling the same
distance. When the chemical arrives
at the beginning of the next neurone,
it starts an electrical impulse along
that neurone.
Synapses enable us to respond to a
stimulus in more than one way. For
example, the relay neurone, in the
spinal cord, will have synapses to
other neurones that can carry nerve
impulses down from the brain. This
allows us to take conscious control
of our response to a stimulus.

Chemical reactions take place in the
cells in your body, they must happen
at the right time in the right place.
For this, the conditions around each cell must perfect and consistent. This includes:
water content, ion (salt) content, temperature, concentration of sugar in the blood.
You gain water from food and drink. This is lost in your breath, sweat and urine. Your blood has
many different substances dissolved in it. Some are ions such as sodium and chloride, both
found in salt.
Too much salt and not enough water in the blood leads to a high blood pressure. People who
eat too much salt can increase risks of having a heart attack.
The kidneys vary the amount of water and salt excreted from your body in urine to help the
correct balance of salt and water.
37 is the average body temperature as enzymes work best at this. If this temperature drops
too much, metabolic reactions happen to slowly but if it is too high then enzymes can get
damaged so badly that they stop acting like catalysts (fast chemical reactions). The bodys
metabolism is disrupted. The body gains heat from the outside e.g. the sun's infrared radiation
or touching warm objects, we also gain heat from our insides, produced when cells use glucose
in respiration. The body loses heat from radiation from the skin and from the evaporation of
sweat.
Sweating keeps us cool, sweat is made by glands in the skin which take water and ions out of
the blood to make sweat. The sweat travels up through a sweat duct and lies on the surface of
the skin. When you sweat, you lose water and ions. The water in sweat evaporates which is why
you cool down, energy transfers from the skin to the water and into the air. This cools your body
- not because it is cold.


In the menstrual cycle, an egg is released from the woman's ovaries every 28 days. Before the
egg is released, the lining of the womb (or uterus) thickens, this makes it it prepared to have a
fertilised egg embryo. If the egg isnt fertilised, the lining of the womb breaks down and it is lost
through the vagina, this is called menstruation.
The menstrual cycle is controlled by hormones, they include FSH (follicle stimulating hormone)
and LH (luteinising hormone),
secreted by the pituitary gland and a
hormone called oestrogen, secreted
in the ovaries.
At the start of the menstrual cycle, the
pituitary gland secretes FSH. This
causes the egg to mature in one of
the womans ovaries. The FSH also
stimulates the ovary to secrete
oestrogen, this makes the inner lining
of the uterus to grow thicker. The
lining grows extra blood vessels
which prepares it for the arrival of a
fertilised egg. Due to the increasing
amounts of oestrogen being secreted,
the pituitary gland is affected and
stops secreting FSH. This makes the
ovary stop secreting oestrogen and
cuts off the inhibition of FSH
secretion, so the cycle starts over
again.
Ovulation is the monthly release of an egg.

Most people go for fertility drugs if they have eggs which arent maturing. Fertility drugs contain
FSH and LH hormones. The FSH stimulates the womans egg to mature and LH stimulates it to
be released. The right dosage is very important - too little equals useless, too much equals too
many eggs, this can make twins, triplets and sometimes even more.
IVF is an alternative way, some of the womans eggs and her partner's sperm are put on a petri
dish, where they are fertilised and divide to make embryos (small balls of cells). One of the
fertilised eggs is then placed in her uterus (womb), where it grows into a fetus, as normal.
Oral contraceptives are pills with oestrogen and progesterone in them which stops FSH being
produced so the woman can not get pregnant as the eggs dont mature. The oestrogen in these
drugs makes the woman gain weight too as a negative side effect, so the amount of oestrogen
is decreased in many to reduce side effects.
Plants are sensitive to light, moisture and gravity. They have growth responses to this called
tropisms. Shoots grow towards light (positive phototropism) and away from gravity (negative
gravitropism). This helps to get plenty of light for photosynthesis. Roots grow towards gravity
(positive gravitropism) and water and away from light (negative phototropism). This anchors
them into the soil.
Plants have a hormone called auxin. It makes the cells in shoots get longer. When light shines
onto a shoot, the auxin builds up on the shady side which makes the cells on that side get
longer so the shoot bends towards the light.
Auxin is used in gravitropism as it reduces the rate of growth on the roots making the shoots
grow more slowly than the upper surface and causes the root to bend downwards.
Growers often use plant hormones to make plants grow and develop in ways that they want.
Plant hormones are also used as weedkillers as the hormones make the weeds grow quickly
then die but the grass has a different metabolism so isnt affected.

All drugs have side effects, however some are okay, such as the medical ones. Recreational
drug use is taking drugs for the change of feeling - not because they are needed. Harmful ones
include alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, cocaine and heroin. Some drugs are illegal due to the harm
they can cause, this includes cannabis as it causes mental illness.
Some people get addicted to a drug and cant manage without them. They have dangerous long
term effects. Over time, the lungs, brain and liver can be extremely damaged - the liver because
it has the job of destroying harmful chemicals in the body.
Dependence of a drug makes constant craving whereas addiction makes the person get ill if
they do not take it.

Before doctors allow a drug to be prescribed, it needs to be thoroughly tested.
First, it needs to be tested for toxics and on human cells or tissues as well as live animals - this
is for safety purposes. Next it needs to be tested on real humans to see what the highest dose
that can be taken safely is and whether all types of humans can take it safely. Finally, it needs
to prove itself worthy, this is tested on its target illness - people who have the illness. These
trials can take years and may not even result in a new drug. Even if successful, it will be at least
five years before the drug is available to patients.
If it is more effective than currently available drugs, then it may be sold commercially. The drugs
have to be tested on everyone who could be harmed by it - thalidomide was not tested on any
pregnant women and is now banned as a sleeping pill.
Placebos do not contain the drug, in a double blind trial, neither the volunteers nor the doctors
know which they are using.
Statins are drugs that help lower blood cholesterol levels. Trials showed almost no side effects
but since then, it has been found that there are side effects - painful muscles and sometimes
type 2 diabetes.

Cannabis is made from dried leaves of cannabis plants. Tobacco and cannabis can cause lung
cancer and bronchitis. It makes the users feel relaxed, happy and cheered up however young
people who smoke cannabis are expected to be more likely to develop the serious mental
disease, schizophrenia. There are cannabis based drugs licensed in the UK, however we are
still unsure if the positive effects can be achieved from them. Cannabis tends to be a leading
drug to more dangerous drugs.
Depressant examples are: cannabis and tranquillisers. Stimulant examples are: cocaine and
amphetamine. Hallucinogenic examples: LSD and magic mushrooms.
Making drugs legal can be very foolish, nicotine and alcohol alone kill more than all of the illegal
drugs put together. Drugs can be in the family history and cause even worse inherited mental
illness than before taking them - depression is an example.
Steroids stimulate the body to grow better muscles, beta blocks help you to stay calm and
stimulants increase heart rate. Performance enhancing drugs are not allowed for most athletics,
taking them when it is not necessary has long term damage.

Living organisms need resources from their environment to survive, plants need light
(photosynthesis and make food), water (keeps cells alive and transport substances around for
photosynthesis), space (roots can then spread out and leaves capture light) and nutrients (such
as nitrates from the soil).
Sometimes these are in low supplies so animals and plants have to compete for resources.
Plants fight for light by growing the tallest for example. Individuals who are best at competing to
survive, it is survival of the fittest.
Animals compete for mates and territory as well as food and water. Competing does waste
energy though, having to share resources with other organisms reduces and organisms
chances of surviving and having large numbers of offspring. Many organisms have become able
to live in places where few can survive - though this is a tough life, there isnt a need to share
resources.

Adaptations are features that plants and animals have to help them survive in their habitat.
Better adapted organisms can compete successfully for the things they need, those who are
less adapted to a habitat should either move habitat or will die.
Plants in dry areas should have long roots to get water, small leaves to reduce evaporation and
water storing tissues. Animals in dry places should be able to manage without drinking a lot of
water and preferably have large ears to help them to lose body heat and stay cool. They can
also have no insulating fat, a large stomach for water, little urine, long legs (above hot ground)
and a place to store fat so it can be converted into metabolic water.
Animals in cool places should have thick fur and layers of fat to insulate them and reduce heat
loss, they should also be white for camouflage against snow and ice.
Some organisms have thorns, poison, predator warning colours and the colours red and black
or yellow which suggests they are poisonous - even if they are not.
Extremophiles are organisms living in critical environments, sometimes only microorganisms
can survive there. Most enzymes living in hot extremophile places may lose their shape if they
get too hot so the protein molecules must be very stable.

Environments change, although this is natural it is also due to global warming, and so
organisms must either adapt to them, move or die. Some changes are caused by non-living
factors in the environment, such as rainfall and temperature which is due to global warming.
Other changes are due to living factors - such as the red squirrels which have become scarce
due to grey squirrels which were better adapted to the UK and got all the food as well as being
immune to a virus that they carried and passed onto the vulnerable reds.
There has recently been a drop in honeybee numbers. We think this is due to an increase in
parasites and an overuse of insecticides as well as climate change and a reduction in the
number of different plant species (bees only feed from certain plants that seem to have less
effective immune systems).

The composition of the air, air temperature, rainfall and of the water in streams and rivers is
being constantly measured. Oxygen meters measure the concentration of dissolved oxygen in
water, unpolluted water has a lot of dissolved oxygen. Thermometers measure temperature,
maximum - minimum thermometers record the highest and lowest temperature reached during
24 hours. Rain gauges measure rainfall, the depth of collected water tells you how much rain
has fallen. Places with very little dissolved oxygen (polluted) contain invertebrates in the water.
Polluted habitats are changed, organisms tend to move away or die, sometimes pollutant
adapted organisms move into them. If there is a lot of sulfur dioxide in the air, many species of
lichen will not be able to grow there. Lack of oxygen creates a lack of oxygen loving animals like
mayfly larvae.

Food chains show how energy passes from one organism to another, the arrows show energy
transfer from one organism to the next. The energy comes from chemicals in the food,
carbohydrates, fats and proteins have a lot of energy in them. The producer tends to be a plant
as it uses the sunlight to produce energy (carbohydrates and nutrients). Food chains start with
producers, the rest are consumers who consume food originally made by plants.
Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat other animals. Predators kill and eat other animals for
food, these animals are their prey.
Green plants capture only a small amount of energy from the light that falls onto them. This
because some light misses the leaves, hits the leaf and reflects, hits the leaf but goes all the
way through without hitting any chlorophyll or hits the chlorophyll but is not absorbed as its
wavelength (colour) is wrong.
To work out the efficiency percentage:
efficiency = (useful energy transferred/ original amount of energy) x 100
The mass of living material is called biomass. A pyramid of biomass is a square pyramid
diagram, the large the blocks indicate the bigger mass. The below squares are always bigger as
the animal above does not eat all of the below and not all of them are killed.
When the energy is transferred, some is wasted, this occurs in food chains as at each step of
the chain, energy is wasted. This is also why biomass decreases at every step of the pyramid.
Less energy means less biomass. The food chain loses energy becauses some materials and
energy are lost in the waste material produced, such as carbon dioxide, urine and faeces.
Respiration in each organisms cells releases energy from nutrients, so that the organism can
use it for movement and other purposes - much of this energy is eventually lost, heating the
surroundings.
Mammals and birds use glucose to provide energy to keep their body temperatures high, even
when the surrounding temperatures are low. This means that energy losses from birds and
mammals are greater.

Decay happens when microorganisms feed on a dead body, or waste material from animals
and plants, or food. The microorganisms include bacteria and fungi, they produce enzymes that
digest the food material which gradually breaks down and dissolves. If things didnt decay, wed
have too much waste on Earth, decay also releases substances into the soil which plants need
to grow. Microorganisms need oxygen which they use for respiration and decaying materials.
Decay works best at high temperatures as the enzymes catalyse their metabolic reactions.
Different microorganisms have different optimum temperatures but its usually 25-45 oC.
Microorganism produce spores which survive at high temperatures.
Microorganisms need moisture in order to reproduce and feed although some types can survive
when it is dry they can not reproduce, they also usually need oxygen to reproduce as that
makes them more active.

Decay releases nitrates which plants need to grow, without them plants wouldnt get so many
nutrients and wouldnt grow well. Living organisms take materials from the environment, which
returns to the environment when they produce waste or die, some animals eat these waste
materials and dead bodies. Microorganisms help to make the material decay, releasing the
substance back into the environment.
All the organisms that live in one place - a community of organisms - are constantly recycling
materials previously part of another organism. A stable community should have a balance
between the processes that remove and return materials to and from the environment.
Decay microorganisms feed on every organism in the chain, they break down most of the waste
material organisms produce and their dead bodies. Compost heaps are where microorganisms
go to digest the materials, this compost can be put onto the garden, to provide materials that
help the plants grow.

Carbon (originally) dioxide air molecules make up your body. Plants absorb carbon dioxide from
the air which they use to make carbohydrates by photosynthesis. The plant also used some
glucose (a carbohydrate) to make fats and proteins.
These all contain some of the carbon atoms that the
plant had taken from air. You then eat the plant (or
animal which consumed the plant) which goes into your
cells, where some of it is broken down by respiration.
Carbon in the glucose molecules becomes part of a
carbon dioxide molecule. Breathing out returns it to the
air.
This is the carbon cycle. Some of the dead organisms do
not decay and get buried and compressed then change
into fossil fuels, combustion of wood or fossil fuels is yet
another way that carbon dioxide is returned to the air.
Energy is being transferred as well as carbon from the
sunlight and feeding. Unlike carbon atoms, the energy
gets lost as it goes round the cycle, heating the
surroundings.
Living organisms look like their parents due to inheriting information called genes. Genes are
linked together in long chains called chromosomes. One set of chromosomes comes from the
mothers egg cell, the second from the fathers sperm. Eggs and sperms are special cells called
gametes, they join together during fertilisation, the new cell thats formed and repeatedly divides
to form a new person. Each of their cells form all of these genes.
Inherited genes control our characteristics - though some parts of the appearance like tattoo,
scars and dyed hair.
A sperm cell contains one set of chromosomes (23), as do egg cells. When the egg fertilises,
the cell has two sets of chromosomes (46), the offspring develops each body cell has two sets
of chromosomes. Our genes determine natural eye, skin and hair colour.

In males, the gametes are sperm cells, the females are eggs for animals. In flowers, the male
and female gametes (sex cells) are made inside flowers. When males and females mate, they
join - fertilisation - which produces a new cell that is the start of a new life. The new organism
contains a mixture of cells from both parents.
There is another way of reproducing, which does not require two different parents, this is
asexual reproduction. The children grow from their bodies or they are split into many pieces.
There is no mixing of genes and the new organisms have exactly the same genes as their
parent.
In sexual reproduction, the new cell that is produced by fertilisation is a zygote it divides
repeatedly to produce a little ball cells. This develops into an embryo and finally into an adult
animal. The zygote contains genes from both parents with a different mix of genes from the
parent and siblings.
Sexuality reproduction produces variety in the offspring, reproduction doesnt need two parents
as plants have flowers that produce both genders so they can fertilise themselves. Asexual
reproduction doesnt need sex cells. An individual just splits in two or a part divides off. No sex
cells are involved, there is no variation and the genes are the same as the parents. They are
genetically identical, clones. External fertilisation is when fertilised eggs the fertilised eggs
develop outside the females body, internal is the other way round.

Taking plant cuttings is a way of making new plants from one original plant, the new one will be
a genetically identical clone. Tissue culture is another way of producing lots of genetically
identical plants, a tissue is a group of similar plants. This process starts with a small piece of
root, stem or leaf tissue from the parent plant which is grown in nutrient filled jelly.
Cloning animals is harder, you can do embryo transplants which is taking egg cells and putting
them on a petri dish, adding sperm to them to fertilise. Let the zygotes divide a few times to
produce tiny embryos. Choose one embryo and split it into two or more, before its cells become
specialised. Let both embryos grow and transplant each one into the host mother, each embryo
has come from the same zygote and has the same genes.

Genetic engineering means taking a gene from one organism and putting it into another. People
with diabetes put insulin in to themselves to stop blood glucose rising too high, bacteria has
been genetically engineered to make human insulin. The gene for making insulin is taken out of
human cells and into the bacteria, the bacteria uses the gene instructions to make insulin and is
grown in huge vats until it is extracted, purified and sold for to people with diabetes.
Farmers spray herbicides over soya bean fields to kill competing weeds, this spray contains a
chemical called glyphosate. We suspect that beans have a resistant gene to the spray however
fear that the weeds will also get this gene.
People tend to be afraid of genetically modified crops, they have to be thoroughly tested before
large scale use. Pollen could land on the stigma of a wild plant related to the crop in question
then grow containing the extra added gene, this may upset food chains. Also, we worry that
humans will get negative effects from eating the crops.

Evolution is how living things constantly change over time. Charles Darwin wrote a book called
on the origin of species which suggested that species changed by natural selection, in each
generation only the best survive and reproduce. The new generation has their characteristics.
Darwin's idea was contrasting to the religious God made animals and plants idea and didnt
have a lot of scientific evidence at this point to support natural selection and evolution. Barely
anyone knew about genes let alone that they are inherited.
We know that very simple, single-celled organisms used to roam the Earth. Bacteria is one of
the few organisms that we believe to have barely evolved at all, even though it is the most
numerous and widespread on Earth today.

Natural selection works by living organisms producing many offsprings. These vary from each
other due to differences in their genes, some of which have a better chance of survival and so
are most likely to reproduce. Their genes are passed onto their offspring. Occasionally,
unpredictable mutations change chromosomes and genes. These make new forms of genes
which are usually worse than the old ones however very occasionally they help the organism to
survive easier so when the organism breeds, it has stronger offspring.
The peppered moth is a good example of how humans change animals environments for the
worse from pollutions and how they adapt. Now there are more black moths than white speckled
ones.

We arent sure how life started on Earth. Some scientists think life may have been brought to
Earth on meteors, others think it evolved deep in the ocean however everyone agrees that the
earliest life forms were extremely similar to bacteria (one simple cell).
For a hint of evolution, our arms are similar to bird and bats wings with the bones in exactly the
same place. Similarities like this suggest that birds humans and bats are closely related, we
may have had a common ancestor.
It is hard to sort organisms into separate groups. Bacterial cells look as though they have very
similar structures, inside them they are in fact the chemistry is very different, we have thus split
them into two groups - bacteria and archaea.