Sunday, 5 September 2010

Characteristics of Living things

Biology can be defined as the science that studies living organisms and how they interact with their environment.

All living things must carry out all of the following:
Respiration: - releases energy from food for use by cells.

Excretion: - removal of waste products of chemical reactions (metabolism).

Movement: - animals move from place to place to avoid predators and to search for food, while plants move parts of themselves to prevent damage and during growth.

Irritability (response to stimulus): - sense changes in their environment and respond to them. This helps them to detect danger and increases their chance of survival.

Nutrition (feeding): - plants make their own food while animals obtain food from their environment. This provides energy for them to carryout all the important processes in their body.

Development and Growth: - is a permanent increase in size and complexity, which ensures organisms have systems in place to perform specific functions.

Reproduction: - making of new offspring to ensure continuation of the species. This can be done sexually or asexually.

N.B. To help you remember, the characteristics spell the acronym R.E.I.N.D.e.R.

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