Transcript The Life Processes - Valhalla High School

The Life Processes
Characteristics common to all living
things.
What does it mean to be alive?
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As we have seen, defining
life hasn’t always been the
easiest thing to do.
For example, things like
viruses appear to be alive,
but they DO NOT carry out
all 8 life processes.
For something to be
classified as living it must
be able to carry out all 8 life
processes.
In no particular order, here
are the life processes.
Nutrition
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The obtaining and processing of
food materials.
Some organisms are heterotrophs,
and need to eat other organisms
for energy.
Others are autotrophs and are able
to make their own food.
Those amazing autotrophs
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Most of you know that plants use light
energy to create sugars through the
process of photosynthesis.
However, photosynthesis is not the only
type of autotrophic nutrition on earth.
Some types of bacteria carry out
chemosynthesis.
They convert chemicals with would be
poisonous to us in to usable energy.
Life at deep ocean
hydrothermal vents is only
possible because of
chemosynthetic bacteria.
Transport
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The intake and distribution of materials
throughout an organism.
Complex animals, such as humans, use organ
systems to carry out this life process.
Single-celled organisms carry out transport
using their organelles and a type of
cytoplasmic streaming called cyclosis.
cyclosis animation
Respiration
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The release of energy from food by
oxidation.
We need both food and oxygen to get the
energy we need to carry out all of the life
processes.
All living things, all of them must carry out
respiration 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week.
Riddle…what do you call an organism that
does not respire?
DEAD!!
Excretion
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The removal of metabolic wastes from an organism.
Metabolic wastes are waste products that are created
within your cells.
The life processes all have two things in common.
They all require energy, and they all produce wastes.
Urine, sweat and CO2 are all examples of metabolic
wastes removed from our bodies by excretion.
Synthesis
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The combining of simple molecules to form a
more complex molecule.
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants
create sugar (C6H12O6) by combining CO2 and
H2O in the presence of light.
Protein synthesis occurs when amino acids and
bonded together to form proteins, such as
hormones and antibodies.
protein synthesis animation
Regulation
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The coordinated response by a living
organism to a changing environment.
Shivering when you are cold, or sweating
when you are hot are both examples of
regulation.
In the video, they referred to regulation
as “sensitivity”.
Simple organisms, like amoebas will
move away from areas which are too hot
or too cold.
Growth
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The increase in the size of an
organism.
In humans, we reach our adult
size and stop growing.
In other organisms, such as trees
and crocodiles, individuals will
continue to grow throughout
their lives.
The bigger the tree (or
crocodile) the older it is.
Reproduction
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The ability of living things to create more on
their own kind. Reproduction is necessary for
the species, but not the individual organism.
Reproduction can be asexual (one parent) or
sexual (two parents).
We will learn more about this in future units.
2 more vocabulary words.
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While these are not technically life processes they are
related.
Metabolism: The sum total of all the life processes.
Homeostasis: The ability of an organims to maintain
a stable internal environment.
An organism that does not maintain homeostasis will
become sick. If it remains out of homeostasis for an
extended period of time, it will die.