AQA Biology - Core

All the Key Points of AQA Core Biology

?

Co-ordination and Control

  •  Control of the body's functions and responses involves hormones (chemical) and the nervous system (electircal impulses)
  •  relflex actions are responses that are rapis and automatic
  •  reflex actions do not involve the brain
  •  the cycle takes 28 days with ovulations about 14 days into the cycle
  •  the cycple is controleed by three hormones - FSH, Oestrogen and LH
  •  the contraceptive pill contains oestrogen that prevents pregnacy
  •  FHS can be given to a women to help her to produce eggs
  •  It is very important that the internal conditions of the body are kept within certain limits
  • water and ion content, as well as temperature and blood sugar level, are all carefully controlled
1 of 8

Healthy Eating

  • a healthy diet is made up from the right balance of the differnt foods that you need
  • you are malnourished if you do not have a balanced diet
  • if you take in more energy that you need you may become fat, and this may result in health problems
  • if you eat more food than you need you will put on weight
  • if you are very fat you are said to be obese
  • 'fast food' is food that has already been prepared. It often contains too much fat and salt
  • too much fast food is likely to result in health problems
2 of 8

Drug Abuse

  • all drugs can cause problems whether they are illgal or legal
  • many drugs are addictive. If you try to stop taking them this can result in severe withdrawal symptoms
  • there are both legal and illegal drugs
  • there are both medicinal drugs and recreational drugs
  • some legal drugs can be used illegally
  • alcohol is a legal drug that can be bought by those over 18 years old in th UK
  • alcohol does cause erious health problems for some that use it
  • alcohol is recreational drug
  • smoking tobacco is legal
  • the use of tobacco causes a range of health problems and will prbably lead to an early death
3 of 8

Controlling infectious disease

  • pathogens are microoganisms that cause infectious disease
  • it is best to stop pathogens getting into your body in the first place, e.g. having no cuts on the skin or trapping pathogens in the mucus in your nose
  • if pathogens do get in, then the white blood cells help us to defend ourselves
  • antibiotics can be used to kill bacteria
  • it is much more difficult to kill viruses
  • if a pathogen chanages by mutating or through natural selection, then it will be very difficult to control
  • a new medicine must be effective, it must be safe and it must be able to be storsed for a period of time
  • new medicine are tested in labs to see if they are toxic and on human volunteers to see if they work
  • you can be immunised to help stop you getting a disease
4 of 8

Adaption for Survival

  • if animals were not adapted to survive in the areas they live in, they would die
  • plants must be adapted to live in a variety of climates, including deserts
  • plants must be able to survie being eaten by animals
  • animals compete with each other in amny different ways
  • the most successful ones survie and pass on their genes to the nest generations
  • plants compete for a number of resources
  • successful plants have structures and habits that allow health growth
5 of 8

Variation

  • information from parents is passed to the offspring in the genes
  • they are two types of reproduction - sexual and asexual
  • there are very important difference between sexual and asexaul reproduction
  • Asexual does not involve the fusion of sex cells
  • and sexual does
  • individuals identiacal to their parents are known as clones
  • it is much more difficult to clone animals than it is to clone plants
    • this is beacuse embroyo tanspnats are used to clone animals. In this process, embroyo are split into smaller groups of cells than each group is allowed to develop in a host animal
  • scientists can clone animals using fusion cell cloning and adult cell cloning
  • there are benefits and risks associated with animal cloning
  • genetic engineering is used to ensure that organisms have desires characteristics
  • new or altrenative genes are added to the chromosomes
  • genetic engineering is the subject of much debate
6 of 8

Evolution

  • we are unsure of when life began on Earth
  • However fossils help us to decide when life began, although it is proving very difficuly to find any really good evidence
  • there are two main theories of evolution. They are those of Lamarck and darwin
    • Lamarck - acquired chararcteristics can be passed on to the nest generation
    • Darwin's theorgy - small changes took place over time (natural selection)
  • Much evidence now points to the theory of Dawin being the correct one
  • Organisms of a species all vary from one another
  • Some organisms are more likely to survive and breed as they have 'better' charateristics. This is known as 'natural selection'
  • Many species have evolves and then become extinct in the life of the earth
  • 'Extinction'means that all of the species has been wiped out
  • There are a number of changes that can cause a species to become extinct
7 of 8

How people affect the planet

  • the human population is increasing rapidly. So we use up more resources and produce more waste and pollution
  • Sulfur dioxide is mostly responsible for acid rain
  • clouds blow across countries, so those producing acid rain often cause problesm for someone else
  • It is now widely beleives that the atmosphere on the planet is warming up due to our activites
  • it is also agreed we should do something about it. However not everyone agrees
  • if we continue to use up the Earth's resources then they will run out
  • lichens are indicators of level of pollution in the air. Freshwater invertebrates are indicators of pollution in freshwater
    • the more lichens the cleaner the air
    • Freshwater invertebrates work in the same way
  • in the development of new housing for increases in the population it is importance to use, as fully as possible, areas that have already been used for building and redevelop them.
  • this helps is making development sustainable
8 of 8

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Biology resources:

See all Biology resources »