Biology flashcards
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46 decks
- Cell Membranes and TransportRecall cards on the structure and function of plasma membranes and membrane transport.
- MetabolismRecall cards on bioenergetics, thermodynamics, ATP, and enzymes.
- Cellular RespirationRecall cards on how cells extract energy from glucose: redox and electron carriers, glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, fermentation, and regulation.
- PhotosynthesisRecall cards on how photoautotrophs capture light energy and build sugars: the overview and chemical equation, leaf and chloroplast structure, the light-dependent reactions (pigments, photosystems, water-splitting, chemiosmosis), and the Calvin cycle.
- Cell CommunicationRecall cards on how cells signal to one another and respond: types of chemical signaling (paracrine, endocrine, autocrine, direct), internal and cell-surface receptors, signal transduction and second messengers, the cellular response, and signaling in single-celled organisms.
- Cell ReproductionRecall cards on how cells reproduce: genomes and chromosome structure, DNA compaction, the cell cycle (interphase and mitosis), cytokinesis in animals and plants, cell-cycle checkpoints and their positive and negative regulators, cancer, and prokaryotic binary fission.
- Meiosis and Sexual ReproductionRecall cards on meiosis and sexual reproduction: haploid and diploid cells, the two meiotic divisions (meiosis I and II), synapsis, crossing over and chiasmata, independent assortment, how meiosis differs from mitosis, why sexual reproduction persists, and the diploid-dominant, haploid-dominant, and alternation-of-generations life cycles.
- Mendel's Experiments and HeredityRecall cards on Mendelian genetics: Gregor Mendel's pea experiments, true-breeding lines, the P/F1/F2 generations, dominant and recessive traits, genotype and phenotype, alleles and loci, homozygous and heterozygous, the 3:1 and 1:2:1 ratios, Punnett squares and test crosses, incomplete dominance, codominance, multiple alleles, lethal and X-linked alleles, the laws of dominance, segregation, and independent assortment, dihybrid 9:3:3:1 crosses, linkage and recombination, and epistasis.
- Modern Understanding of InheritanceRecall cards on the chromosomal basis of heredity: the chromosomal theory of inheritance (Boveri, Sutton, Carothers, Morgan), genetic linkage, crossing over and chiasmata, parental versus recombinant offspring, recombination frequency, genetic maps and centimorgans, three-point crosses, karyotypes and karyograms, nondisjunction, aneuploidy (monosomy and trisomy including Down syndrome), sex-chromosome variations (triplo-X, Klinefelter, Turner) and X inactivation, polyploidy, and chromosome structure changes (duplications, deletions, inversions, translocations).
- DNA Structure and FunctionRecall cards on DNA structure and function: the historical experiments identifying DNA as the genetic material (Miescher, Griffith, Avery-MacLeod-McCarty, Hershey-Chase, Chargaff), the structure of the double helix (nucleotides, purines and pyrimidines, base pairing, antiparallel strands, phosphodiester bonds, helix dimensions), DNA packaging (supercoiling, nucleosomes, heterochromatin and euchromatin), sequencing and gel electrophoresis, the semi-conservative model and the Meselson-Stahl experiment, DNA replication in prokaryotes and eukaryotes (origins, forks, helicase, primase, polymerases, leading and lagging strands, Okazaki fragments, telomeres and telomerase), and DNA repair and mutation types.
- Genes and ProteinsRecall cards on how genes are expressed as proteins: the genetic code (the central dogma, triplet codons, degeneracy, start and stop codons, reading frames and frameshifts, the Crick-Brenner experiment, the near-universal code); prokaryotic transcription (a single RNA polymerase, sigma factor and the holoenzyme, template versus coding strand, the -10 and -35 promoter consensus sequences, rho-dependent and intrinsic termination, polycistronic mRNA); eukaryotic transcription (three RNA polymerases, the TATA box and transcription factors, nucleosomes and the FACT complex); RNA processing (exons and introns, the 5' cap, the poly-A tail, splicing by spliceosomes, UTRs, tRNA anticodons); and translation (ribosome subunits, tRNA charging by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, the A, P, and E sites, prokaryotic and eukaryotic initiation, the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and Kozak's rules, peptidyl transferase, termination by release factors, signal sequences and chaperones).
- Gene ExpressionRecall cards on how cells regulate gene expression: the levels of regulation (why cells regulate, prokaryotic versus eukaryotic control, the five eukaryotic stages); prokaryotic operons (the trp and lac operons, repressors, activators and inducers, corepressors, cAMP and the catabolite activator protein, inducible versus repressible control); eukaryotic epigenetic regulation (nucleosomes, chromatin remodeling, histone modification, DNA methylation and CpG islands, imprinting); eukaryotic transcriptional control (general and specific transcription factors, the TATA, CAAT and GC boxes, enhancers and DNA bending); post-transcriptional control (alternative splicing, mRNA stability and UTRs, microRNAs, Dicer and RISC); translational and post-translational control (the eIF-2 switch, cap-poly-A looping, protein modification, ubiquitin and the proteasome); and cancer as a disease of altered gene expression (tumor-suppressor genes, p53, proto-oncogenes and oncogenes, cancer epigenetics, and gene-expression-targeted therapies).
- Biotechnology and GenomicsRecall cards on biotechnology and genomics: the basic techniques (nucleic-acid isolation, gel electrophoresis, PCR and RT-PCR, Southern and Northern blotting, probes); molecular cloning (plasmid vectors, restriction endonucleases and sticky ends, DNA ligase, recombinant and chimeric DNA, the multiple cloning site); applications (recombinant insulin and growth hormone, reproductive and therapeutic cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer and Dolly, genetic engineering, GMOs and transgenic organisms, gene therapy, Agrobacterium and the Ti plasmid, Bt crops, the Flavr Savr tomato, reverse genetics and gene targeting); mapping genomes (genetic versus physical maps, linkage analysis, RFLP, SNP and VNTR markers, cytogenetic, radiation-hybrid and sequence mapping, STSs and ESTs); whole-genome sequencing (Sanger chain termination and ddNTPs, shotgun and pairwise-end sequencing, next-generation sequencing, annotation and microarrays); and applied genomics and proteomics (pharmacogenomics, metagenomics, mitochondrial DNA, the proteome versus the genome, biomarkers and protein signatures, metabolomics and systems biology).
- Evolution and the Origin of SpeciesRecall cards on evolution and speciation: understanding evolution (natural selection and its three conditions, descent with modification, Darwin and Wallace, the Galapagos finches and the Grants' study, sources of genetic variation, adaptation, divergent versus convergent evolution); the evidence for evolution (fossil record, homologous and analogous and vestigial structures, embryology, biogeography and Pangaea, molecular and genetic evidence, gene duplication); common misconceptions (theory in science, evolution acting on populations, origin of life, goal-direction, antibiotic resistance); the formation of new species (the biological species concept, speciation, reproductive isolation, allopatric versus sympatric speciation, dispersal and vicariance, adaptive radiation, auto- and allopolyploidy, prezygotic and postzygotic barriers); and reconnection and speciation rates (hybrid zones, reinforcement, fusion, and stability, hybrid fitness, gradualism versus punctuated equilibrium).
- The Evolution of PopulationsRecall cards on population genetics and adaptive evolution: population evolution (population genetics, the modern synthesis, microevolution versus macroevolution, populations evolve while individuals do not, allele and genotype frequencies, the gene pool, the Hardy-Weinberg principle and its equations and equilibrium assumptions); population genetics forces (genetic and phenotypic variation, heritability, genetic drift, the bottleneck and founder effects, gene flow, mutation, nonrandom and assortative mating, inbreeding and inbreeding depression, clines and geographic variation); and adaptive evolution (fitness and relative fitness, stabilizing, directional, and diversifying selection, frequency-dependent selection, sexual dimorphism and sexual selection, the handicap principle and good genes hypothesis, and the constraints that keep selection from producing a perfect organism).
- Phylogenies and the History of LifeRecall cards on phylogeny and the history of life: organizing life on Earth (phylogeny and phylogenetic trees, taxonomy and systematics, the Linnaean hierarchy, the three domains, binomial nomenclature, and the parts of a tree, including rooted and unrooted trees, nodes, basal and sister taxa, polytomies, and what branch length does and does not mean); determining evolutionary relationships (homologous versus analogous structures and homoplasies, molecular systematics, cladistics and clades, shared ancestral versus shared derived characters, and maximum parsimony); and perspectives on the phylogenetic tree (horizontal gene transfer and its mechanisms, gene transfer agents, HGT in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and alternative models of early evolution, including the web-of-life, ring-of-life, endosymbiont, and genome-fusion models).
- VirusesRecall cards on viruses: their evolution, morphology, and classification (how viruses were discovered, their sizes and imaging, hypotheses for their origins, virion structure and capsid types, attachment and receptors, DNA versus RNA genomes, and the Baltimore classification groups); virus infections and hosts (the replication cycle, bacteriophage lytic and lysogenic cycles, animal and retrovirus replication, latency, viral release, acute, chronic, and asymptomatic infections, plant viruses and their transmission, and oncogenic viruses); prevention and treatment (vaccines, antiviral drugs, HIV therapy, and viruses and phages used in medicine); and other acellular entities (prions and viroids).
- Prokaryotes: Bacteria and ArchaeaRecall cards on prokaryotes: their diversity (prokaryotes as Earth's first cells, microbial mats and stromatolites, the oxygenation of the atmosphere, extremophiles, culturing and biofilms); the structure of Bacteria and Archaea (cell shapes, walls and membranes, the nucleoid and plasmids, reproduction and gene transfer, and the molecular differences between the two domains); prokaryotic metabolism (macronutrients, nutritional categories, and the nitrogen and carbon cycles); and bacterial diseases in humans (epidemics and pandemics, plague, typhoid, Lyme disease, foodborne illness, biofilms, and antibiotic resistance).
- ProtistsRecall cards on protists: eukaryotic origins (the defining nucleus, the single eukaryotic ancestor, endosymbiotic theory, and the bacterial origins of mitochondria and plastids by primary and secondary endosymbiosis); the general characteristics of protists (habitats, nutrition, motility, cell coverings, and reproduction); the major groups across the six eukaryotic supergroups (Excavata, Chromalveolata, Archaeplastida, Rhizaria, Amoebozoa, and Opisthokonta, with their representative diplomonads, parabasalids, euglenozoans, dinoflagellates, apicomplexans, ciliates, diatoms, algae, foraminiferans, radiolarians, amoebas, slime molds, and choanoflagellates); and the ecology of protists (primary production, symbioses with coral, and human diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and potato blight).
- FungiRecall cards on fungi: their defining characteristics (chitin cell walls, ergosterol membranes, hyphae, septa, mycelium, heterotrophic external digestion, and asexual and sexual reproduction through plasmogamy, karyogamy, and meiosis); the five phyla (Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Glomeromycota) plus the former imperfect fungi; the ecology of fungi (decomposition, mycorrhizae, lichens, endophytes, and symbioses with ants); fungal parasites and pathogens (ergot, mycoses, dermatophytes, and diseases of humans, bats, and frogs); and the importance of fungi in human life (food, fermentation, antibiotics, immunosuppressants, model organisms, and mycorrhizal support of plant life).
- Seedless PlantsRecall cards on seedless plants: the origin of land plants within the Archaeplastida and the four adaptations to land (alternation of generations, apical meristems, waxy cuticle, and lignin); alternation of generations, sporangia, homospory and heterospory, sporopollenin, gametangia, and vascular tissue; the green algae (chlorophytes and charophytes) as precursors of land plants; the bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses) with their dominant gametophytes and flagellated sperm; and the seedless vascular plants (lycophytes and the monilophytes: whisk ferns, horsetails, and ferns) with their dominant sporophytes, xylem and phloem, sporophylls and strobili, fronds and sori, and their ecological and human uses.
- Seed PlantsRecall cards on seed plants: the evolutionary advantages of pollen and seeds, the reduction of the gametophyte, and the fossil timeline from progymnosperms through gymnosperm dominance to the rise of the angiosperms; the gymnosperms (conifers, cycads, ginkgo, and gnetophytes) with their naked seeds, cones, tracheid wood, and wind-and-insect pollination; the angiosperms (flower structure, the carpel and stamen, double fertilization and endosperm, fruit, and the split among basal angiosperms, monocots, and eudicots); and the roles of seed plants as food, fiber, fuel, and medicine, their coevolution with pollinators and herbivores, and their part in stabilizing ecosystems.
- Introduction to Animal DiversityRecall cards introducing the animal kingdom: the shared features of animals (heterotrophy, tissues, no cell walls, the diplontic life cycle, and the five clades from Parazoa to Bilateria); sexual, asexual, and parthenogenetic reproduction; embryonic development from cleavage through gastrulation, the germ layers, metamorphosis, and the Hox genes that pattern the body plan; the features used to classify animals (symmetry, germ layers, the coelom, and protostome versus deuterostome development); animal phylogeny (Eumetazoa, Radiata and Bilateria, Ecdysozoa and Lophotrochozoa, and choanoflagellate ancestry); and the evolutionary history of animals across the Ediacaran, the Cambrian explosion, and the later mass extinctions.
- InvertebratesRecall cards on the major invertebrate phyla: the tissue-less sponges (Porifera) with their spongocoel, choanocytes, and spicules; the diploblastic Cnidaria with their cnidocytes, polyp and medusa forms, and coral reefs; the lophotrochozoan flatworms, rotifers, and nemerteans; the mollusks and the segmented annelids; the molting ecdysozoan nematodes and tardigrades; the arthropods with their exoskeleton, tagmata, and subphyla from chelicerates to insects; and the invertebrate deuterostomes, the echinoderms with their water vascular system and the invertebrate chordates.
- VertebratesRecall cards on the vertebrates and their chordate kin: the five chordate characteristics and the invertebrate lancelets and tunicates; the jawless hagfishes and lampreys and the jawed cartilaginous and bony fishes; the amphibians with their moist skin and metamorphosis; the amniote reptiles, from the amniotic egg and temporal fenestrae to crocodilians, tuataras, squamates, and turtles; the endothermic birds with their feathers, flight muscles, and air-sac lungs; the mammals with hair, mammary glands, and the three-boned middle ear across monotremes, marsupials, and eutherians; and the evolution of the primates through monkeys, apes, and the hominin lineage to Homo sapiens.
- Plant Form and PhysiologyRecall cards on plant form and physiology: the shoot and root organ systems; meristematic and permanent tissues and the dermal, vascular, and ground tissue systems; stem anatomy and modifications, primary and secondary growth, wood, and bark; root structure and zones, the endodermis and Casparian strip, and root modifications; leaf anatomy, venation, phyllotaxy, and adaptations; water potential, transpiration and the cohesion-tension theory, and phloem translocation by the pressure-flow model; and plant sensory systems, from phytochrome and photoperiodism to the plant hormones and defenses.
- Soil and Plant NutritionRecall cards on soil and plant nutrition: the essential elements and the nine macronutrients and the micronutrients, their roles and deficiency symptoms, and hydroponics; the composition, particle sizes, and formation factors of soil, humus, and the soil profile horizons; and nutritional adaptations including biological nitrogen fixation, rhizobia and nodules, mycorrhizae, epiphytes, parasitic and saprophytic plants, and insectivorous plants.
- Plant ReproductionRecall cards on plant (angiosperm) reproduction: alternation of generations and flower anatomy (the four whorls, complete vs incomplete, monoecious vs dioecious); development of the male and female gametophytes; pollination (self vs cross, self-incompatibility, and animal, wind, and water pollinators); double fertilization, embryo and seed structure, germination, and fruit types and seed dispersal; and asexual reproduction, vegetative propagation, and plant life spans.
- The Animal Body: Basic Form and FunctionRecall cards on animal form and function: body symmetry and directional terms; the physical constraints of size and shape (drag, gravity, exoskeletons, endoskeletons, diffusion and the surface-area-to-volume ratio); animal bioenergetics (energy storage, metabolic rate, endotherms and ectotherms, torpor); anatomical planes and body cavities; the four primary tissues (epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous); and homeostasis (set points, negative and positive feedback, acclimatization, and thermoregulation).
- Animal Nutrition and the Digestive SystemRecall cards on animal nutrition and digestion: dietary categories (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores); digestive-system types (gastrovascular cavity, alimentary canal, monogastric, avian, ruminant, and pseudo-ruminant); the vertebrate digestive organs from oral cavity to anus and the accessory organs (liver, pancreas, gallbladder); essential nutrients, the vitamins and minerals with their functions and deficiency diseases; ATP and energy production; the four digestive processes (ingestion, digestion, absorption, elimination) with carbohydrate, protein, and lipid digestion; and neural and hormonal regulation of digestion.
- The Nervous SystemRecall cards on the animal nervous system: neuron structure (soma, dendrites, axon, synapse) and the neuron types; glial cells (astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, Schwann cells, and others); how neurons communicate through the resting membrane potential, the action potential, and chemical and electrical synapses; synaptic integration and plasticity (summation, LTP, LTD); the central nervous system (meninges, cerebrospinal fluid, the cortex and its lobes, subcortical structures, the brainstem, and the spinal cord); the peripheral nervous system (autonomic sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions and the sensory-somatic division); and nervous system disorders (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, epilepsy, and stroke).
- Sensory SystemsRecall cards on animal sensory systems: how sensory reception, transduction, and perception work, receptor types and receptive fields, receptor potentials, the labeled-line principle, and Weber's Law; somatosensation (the skin layers and the four somatosensory receptor classes, the tactile mechanoreceptors, proprioceptors, baroreceptors, thermoreception, nociception, and two-point discrimination); taste and smell (the five tastes, papillae and taste buds, salt and sour versus sweet, bitter, and umami transduction, the olfactory epithelium and bulb, combinatorial odor coding, and pheromones); hearing and vestibular sensation (sound as pressure waves, the outer, middle, and inner ear, the cochlea and basilar membrane, place theory, and the utricle, saccule, and semicircular canals); and vision (light and the eye, refractive errors, rods and cones, rhodopsin phototransduction, trichromatic cones, retinal circuitry and lateral inhibition, and the pathway to the visual cortex).
- The Endocrine SystemRecall cards on the animal endocrine system: hormones as chemical signals and their three chemical classes (lipid-derived steroids, amino acid-derived hormones, and peptide hormones) with their solubility, transport, and half-lives; how hormones work (receptor up- and down-regulation, intracellular versus cell-surface receptors, and the first- and second-messenger G-protein, adenylyl cyclase, cAMP, and protein-kinase cascade with amplification); regulation of body processes (ADH and aquaporins, aldosterone and the renin-angiotensin system, the reproductive axis, insulin and glucagon and diabetes, the thyroid hormones and calcium regulation, growth hormone, and the short- and long-term stress responses); the humoral, hormonal, and neural stimuli and negative feedback that control hormone release; and the endocrine glands (hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, pancreas, pineal) plus secondary endocrine organs.
- The Musculoskeletal SystemRecall cards on the animal musculoskeletal system: the three skeletal designs (hydrostatic skeleton, exoskeleton, endoskeleton) and the 206-bone human axial and appendicular skeleton (skull, vertebral column, thoracic cage, girdles, and limbs); bone as a tissue (bone shapes, compact and spongy bone, osteons, the four bone cell types, ossification, growth, remodeling, and fracture repair); the structural and functional classification of joints (fibrous, cartilaginous, and the six synovial joint types) and the body movements they allow; and muscle contraction (the three muscle tissue types, sarcomere and myofilament structure, the sliding filament model, the cross-bridge and ATP cycle, excitation-contraction coupling at the neuromuscular junction, and how muscle tension and whole-muscle force are set).
- The Respiratory SystemRecall cards on the animal respiratory system: systems of gas exchange (why diffusion alone fails as body size grows, and the diversity of respiratory surfaces from skin and gills to insect tracheae and the mammalian airway from nasal cavity to alveoli); gas exchange across respiratory surfaces (partial pressure, the composition of air, and the oxygen and carbon dioxide partial-pressure gradients that drive diffusion in the lungs and tissues); breathing (Boyle's law and the mechanics of inhalation and exhalation, the pleurae, surfactant, lung compliance and resistance, restrictive and obstructive diseases, dead space, and gas exchange in amphibians and birds); and the transport of gases in bodily fluids (hemoglobin and cooperative oxygen binding, the oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curve and what shifts it, the bicarbonate buffer system and chloride shift that carry carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide poisoning).
- The Circulatory SystemRecall cards on the animal circulatory system: an overview of circulation (why bulk flow replaces diffusion as body size grows, open versus closed systems, and the evolution of two-, three-, and four-chambered hearts across fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals); the components of the blood (plasma, red blood cells and hemoglobin, alternative respiratory pigments, white blood cells, platelets and clotting, serum proteins, and the ABO and Rh blood groups); the mammalian heart and blood vessels (the chambers, valves, wall layers and coronary supply, the cardiac cycle and its conduction system from the SA node to the Purkinje fibers, and the structure of arteries, capillaries, and veins); and blood flow and blood pressure regulation (systolic and diastolic pressure, flow speed and capillary exchange, precapillary sphincters, the lymphatic system, and cardiac output).
- Osmotic Regulation and ExcretionRecall cards on how animals balance water and salts and clear nitrogenous waste: osmoregulation and osmotic balance (osmosis, electrolytes and non-electrolytes, tonicity, the ways concentration is measured, and stenohaline versus euryhaline strategies in fish, osmoconformers, and sharks); the kidneys and osmoregulatory organs (gross kidney anatomy, the nephron and its blood supply, and the three steps of urine formation including the loop of Henle countercurrent system and the juxtaglomerular complex); excretion systems of invertebrates (contractile vacuoles, flame cells, nephridia, and Malpighian tubules); nitrogenous wastes (ammonotelic, ureotelic, and uricotelic animals, the urea cycle, and uric acid, gout, and kidney stones); and the hormonal control of osmoregulation (the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, aldosterone, antidiuretic hormone, and atrial natriuretic peptide).
- The Immune SystemRecall cards on how animals defend against pathogens: the innate immune response (physical and chemical barriers, PAMPs and pattern recognition receptors including Toll-like receptors, phagocytes such as macrophages and neutrophils, cytokines, interferons and inflammation, natural killer cells and MHC I recognition, and the complement cascade); the adaptive immune response (cell-mediated versus humoral immunity, antigen-presenting cells and MHC processing, helper and cytotoxic T cells, T cell receptors, B cells and clonal selection, immune tolerance, immunological memory and vaccination, mucosal immunity, and the lymphatic organs); antibodies (their four-chain structure and gene recombination, the five immunoglobulin classes, neutralization, opsonization and complement fixation, affinity and avidity, cross reactivity, and radioimmunoassay); and disruptions of immunity (immunodeficiency, immediate and delayed hypersensitivity and allergy, autoimmunity, and pathogen evasion strategies).
- Animal Reproduction and DevelopmentRecall cards on how animals reproduce and develop: asexual modes (fission, budding, fragmentation, and parthenogenesis) versus sexual reproduction, hermaphroditism, and the genetic, chromosomal, and environmental systems of sex determination; fertilization strategies (external broadcast spawning versus internal fertilization, and oviparity, ovoviviparity, and viviparity); human reproductive anatomy and gametogenesis (the male and female organs, semen and the accessory glands, and spermatogenesis and oogenesis by meiosis); the hormonal control of reproduction (the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, testosterone, estradiol and progesterone, the ovarian and menstrual cycles, and menopause); human pregnancy and birth (implantation and beta-HCG, the placenta, the three trimesters, labor and lactation, contraception, infertility, and assisted reproduction); early embryonic development (fertilization and blocks to polyspermy, cleavage, the blastula and blastocyst, and gastrulation into the three germ layers); and organogenesis and vertebrate body formation (neural tube, somites, notochord, body axes, and left-right asymmetry).
- Ecology and the BiosphereRecall cards on ecology and the biosphere: the scope of ecology and its four levels of organization (organism, population, community, and ecosystem), species interactions, and mutualism; biogeography, endemic versus generalist species, and the abiotic factors (light, temperature, water, inorganic nutrients, oxygen, wind, and fire) that shape where organisms live, including lake turnover, upwelling, migration, torpor, and net primary productivity; the terrestrial biomes (tropical wet forest, savanna, subtropical desert, chaparral, temperate grassland, temperate forest, boreal forest, and Arctic tundra) with their climate, vegetation, and soils; the aquatic biomes (ocean zones, coral reefs and bleaching, estuaries, lakes and ponds, rivers and streams, and wetlands); and climate versus weather, the ice-core record, Milankovitch cycles, the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases, the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane and clathrate feedback, glacier and ice loss, sea-level rise, and phenology shifts.
- Population and Community EcologyRecall cards on population and community ecology: population demography (size, density, dispersion patterns, quadrat and mark-recapture sampling, life tables, and Type I, II, and III survivorship curves); life histories and natural selection (energy budgets, fecundity, semelparity versus iteroparity, and the cost of reproduction); environmental limits to growth (exponential J-curves, the per capita rate of increase, carrying capacity, and logistic growth); population dynamics (density-dependent versus density-independent regulation and K- versus r-selection); human population growth and age structure; community ecology (predation and the lynx-hare cycle, defenses and mimicry, competitive exclusion, symbiosis, foundation and keystone species, invasive species, and succession); and behavioral biology (innate versus learned behavior, kinesis and taxis, fixed action patterns, migration, foraging, communication, mating systems and sexual selection, conditioning, and kin selection and altruism).
- EcosystemsRecall cards on ecosystems: the ecology of ecosystems (freshwater, marine, and terrestrial categories; equilibrium, resistance, and resilience; food chains, trophic levels, and food webs; grazing and detrital food webs; and conceptual, analytical, and simulation models); energy flow through ecosystems (photoautotrophs and chemoautotrophs; gross and net primary productivity; trophic level transfer efficiency and net production efficiency; ecological pyramids of numbers, biomass, and energy; and biomagnification of DDT, PCBs, and heavy metals); and biogeochemical cycles (the water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur cycles, including nitrogen fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification, eutrophication and dead zones, and acid rain).
- Conservation Biology and BiodiversityRecall cards on conservation biology and biodiversity: the biodiversity crisis (genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity; how many species exist and how many are named; the equatorial gradient, endemism, and biodiversity hotspots; the five mass extinctions and the present sixth; background versus current extinction rates; and the species-area relationship); the importance of biodiversity to human life (medicines from plants and animals; crop wild relatives and seed banks; soil organisms, pollinators and colony collapse, natural pest control, and fisheries); threats to biodiversity (habitat loss, overharvesting, invasive species, and climate change); and preserving biodiversity (DNA barcoding; CITES, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; nature preserve design and island biogeography; keystone species; and captive breeding).
- An Invisible World (Microbiology)Recall cards on the foundations of microbiology. What our ancestors knew: microbes and fermentation, ancient fermented foods, early ideas of contagion and immunity from Varro and Thucydides, Leeuwenhoek's animalcules, and the Golden Age of Microbiology with Pasteur and Koch. A systematic approach: taxonomy and classification, Linnaeus and Systema Naturae, the Linnaean hierarchy, binomial nomenclature, the kingdom systems of Haeckel and Whittaker, phylogenetic trees, Woese and Fox's rRNA three-domain system, horizontal gene transfer, and Bergey's Manuals. Types of microorganisms: the size scale from the unaided eye to viruses, the metric units of length, and the defining features of bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, helminths, and viruses, along with the subfields that study them.
- How We See the Invisible World (Microbiology)Recall cards on the science of microscopy. The properties of light: wavelength, amplitude, frequency, reflection, absorption, transmission, diffraction, interference, refraction and refractive index, convex and concave lenses, the visible spectrum, dispersion, fluorescence and phosphorescence, and magnification, resolution, and numerical aperture. Peering into the invisible world: Fracastoro's seeds of contagion, van Leeuwenhoek the Father of Microbiology, Hooke and Micrographia, cork cells, simple versus compound microscopes, and Galileo and the Janssens. Instruments of microscopy: total magnification, brightfield, oil immersion, darkfield, phase-contrast, DIC, fluorescence, confocal, two-photon, electron (TEM and SEM), and scanning probe (STM and AFM) microscopes. Staining specimens: fixation, chromophores and basic versus acidic dyes, simple versus differential staining, the Gram stain, acid-fast, endospore, capsule, and flagella staining.
- The Cell (Microbiology)Recall cards on the cell. The fall of spontaneous generation: Aristotle and pneuma, van Helmont's mice, Redi's 1668 maggot experiment, Needham versus Spallanzani, and Pasteur's swan-neck flasks and Omne vivum ex vivo. Foundations of modern cell theory: biogenesis, Hooke's cork cells, Schleiden and Schwann, Remak and Virchow, the endosymbiotic theory of Mereschkowski and Margulis, and the germ theory of disease from Semmelweis and Snow to Lister and Koch. Unique characteristics of prokaryotic cells: cell shapes and arrangements, the nucleoid and plasmids, 70S ribosomes, inclusions and endospores, membranes and transport, peptidoglycan and Gram-positive versus Gram-negative walls, lipopolysaccharide, the glycocalyx, fimbriae and pili, and flagella and chemotaxis. Unique characteristics of eukaryotic cells: the nucleus and nucleolus, 80S ribosomes, the endomembrane system, lysosomes and peroxisomes, mitochondria and chloroplasts, the cytoskeleton and centrioles, cell walls and the extracellular matrix, the 9+2 flagellum, and mitosis and meiosis.