Kingdoms

These are the five different kingdoms and a picture for each classification. I couldn't find a way of showing the kingdoms myself so I used an image from online.

All living organisms can be brought into one or more of five categories, those five categories being the Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia kingdoms. Those kingdoms can be broken down even further into subdivided divisions for plants, or phyla for animals. The monera kingdom is made up of prokaryotic cells such as eubacteria or cyanobacteria. The other four kingdoms are eukaryotic leaving the monera kingdom as the only prokaryotic kingdom. The protista kingdom is made up of mainly unicellular protozoans along with microscopic and macroscopic algae. The fungi kingdom consists of mainly haploid and dikaryotic cells, they are multicellular and often heterotrophic. The plantae kingdom is mainly made up of species with haplo-diploid life cycles, are often autotrophic and contain their embryo within the female sex organ of the parent plant.

Sources:
The Five Kingdoms of Life. palomar.edu. Retrieved August 31, 2011, from http://waynesword.palomar.edu/trfeb98.htm

Population

The goldfish in our fishtank are considered their own little population as they are from the same species and interact and develop in their own little environment.

A population can be classified as a group of the same type of species that live in the same geographical area. This area is usually the location that mainly inter-breeding occurs within the population. An example of a population would be a lake that holds a group of koi fish that inter-breed with eachother and reproduce to expand their population in the lake.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Homologous Structures

My cat Mya is an animal that has parts that would be considered homologous structures, one being her arms as they share common characteristics to that of humans and other creatures.

Homologous structures are body parts from different species that more or less share the same purpose, but this isn't always the case. These are considered homologous structures because the species most likely shared a common ancestor, but now they hold different characteristics. An example of some homologous structures would be the similar bone structure and allignment that humans and animals such as birds and cats have in common.

Sources:
Homologous Structures. gsw.edu. Retrieved August 26, 2011, from http://itc.gsw.edu/faculty/bcarter/histgeol/paleo2/homol1.htm

Vestigial Organs

My ugly little toe is considered a vestigial organ because it's not a necassary organ needed for me to continue on living my life.

Vestigial organs, also known as rudimentary organs are structures that seem to have served a purpose in the past, but now when closely looked at seem to serve little to no purpose. Another factor for these structures being considered rudimentary is that they have lost their past abilities to function properly. Some structures that are considered to be vestigial organs would be your wisdom teeth, tonsils and even the nipples on a man.

Sources:
A. Covey, Jon. Vestigial Organs. creationinthecrossfire.com. Retrieved August 26, 2011, from http://www.creationinthecrossfire.com/Articles/VestigialOrgans.html

Photosynthesis

These are some plants (fake as you can see), I took a picture of them because plants are among the different organisms that can perform the process of photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is basically the conversion of sunlight into natural sugars that can later be used in cellular respiration to form ATP, or energy. This process can take place in plants, some forms of bacteria and even some protistans. The process of photosynthesis is often associated with the green pigment called chlorophyll and it releases the oxygen that we humans need to survive.

Sources:
Photosynthesis. maricopa.edu. Retrieved August 26, 2011, from http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookps.html

Heterotroph

Heterotrophs are the opposite of autotrophs, rather than producing their own energy from inorganic sources they instead consume other organisms to obtain the energy from those consumed organisms. Heterotrophs are the dominant organisms of the food chain as they consume autotrophs for their stored energy. Examples of heterotrophs would be animals like birds, felines or even humans as we too eat autotrophs (fruits and vegetables) in order to receive nutrients to maintain a balanced diet.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Autotroph

This picture displays some plants (also fake), I took another picture of a plant because plants are a form of autotroph as they create their own nutrients through their bodies.

An autotroph would be considered a form of organism that has the ability to take in inorganic energy such as the energy provided from either photosynthesis or chemosynthesis and applying it to form nutrients for itself. Autotrophs can be classified on the food chain as producers and they are similar to the use of solar panels. With solar panels, the panes usually absorb the light they receive and form an energy source for whatever they are linked to. Autotrophs are extremely similar because they also capture solar energy and can apply it to themselves.

Sources:
Autotroph. biology-online.org. Retrieved August 25, 2011, from http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Autotroph

Cellular Respiration

Cellular Respiration is a process that is needed to revert stored energy into adenosine triphosphate which is also known as ATP. This process can occur in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells and revolves in three cycles which are glycolysis, the citric acid cycle and electron transport. After cellular respiration has occured in a cell, if the cell was eukaryotic it would have a maximum ATP yield of 36. Prokaryotic cells however would end up with a maximum ATP yield of 38 and this is because eukaryotic cells lose two ATP molecules when passing through the mitochondrial membrane after the process of glycolysis.

Sources:
Bailey, Regina. Cellular Respiration. about.com. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://biology.about.com/od/cellularprocesses/a/cellrespiration.htm

Osmosis

Although it's hard to see, those are little pieces of sea salt that I had piled in a plate filled with water and osmosis occured in the plate as the water was absorbed from one side of the plate to the portion with the salt found in it.

A form of Passive Transport, osmosis is the process of diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane in which the water follows the direction of a higher concentration of solute.

Sources:
Diffusion and Osmosis. biologycorner.com. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.biologycorner.com/bio1/diffusion.html

Enzymes

In this picture you can see the fire from the burner, this fire acts as an enzyme to the water in the pan helping to speed up the process of boiling the water itself.

Made up of amino acids, these catalysts are essential for creating cells and speeding up chemical reactions. Enzymes are made up of many linked amino acids that work together to speed up the functions in a cell making it possible for that cell to regulate its' tasks in a unique and specific fashion. Different cells require different numbers of enzymes, but in order for that cell to continue to function there must be some form of enzyme activity allowing these cells to perform their functions.

Sources:
Brain, Marshall. How Cells Work. howstuffworks.com. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/cellular-microscopic/cell2.htm

Base

Soaps such as this AJAX dish soap and other types of detergants are considered forms of bases.

A base is a compound that contains hydroxide ions when it is dissolved in water. Bases are also measured on the pH scale and are referred to as alkalis, these bases give solutions with hydrogen ion activity that is lower than the activity in pure water. Basic substances lie on the pH scale ranging from any substance with a pH level higher than 7.0 up to a pH level of 14, 14 being the strongest form of a basic substance. A weak base would be considered baking soda or common sea water. A stronger basic substance would be Ammonia or Lye.

Sources: 
Ophardt, E. Charles. Acids and Bases. elmhurst.edu. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/184ph.html

Acid

These lemons are a form of acid because they hold a high acidity content level.

An acid would be considered any compound that contains either hydrogen ions or hydronium ions when it is dissolved in water. Acids can be measured using the pH scale to determine how concentrated or diluted the acid is. A strong acid with the pH level of 1 or 0 would be a substance such as battery acid. A weaker acidity such as a level 6 acid on the pH scale would be found in normal range precipitation. The range of acidity levels on the pH scale are measured from 0 to 6, 0 being the strongest level of acidity.

Sources:
Ophardt, E. Charles. Acids and Bases. elmhurst.edu. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/184ph.html