OLD TEST QUESTIONS fall 2013 From your jargon notes: 21) If a geneticist can transfer a gene from

one individual into another, and the gene works just fine, then the two individuals belong to the same species. 22) horses and donkeys are the same species, because they can mate with each other and have offspring 23) humans and apes are described by evolutionary biologists as members of the same species, which is one of the reasons why evolutionary biology is controversial in society. 24) among humans, Eskimos would be classified as the same species as African Bushmen even though they are different shapes, different colors and eat very different kinds of food. From both lecture and book (Ch 1): ecological jargon questions: 26) An ecologist might describe a cluster of small lakes existing on the same mountain as a community of lakes 27) the city of Austin, its air, its rivers and the organisms that live in it might be described as an ecosystem 28) A community has high species richness when most species that it contains are very rich.. 29) The population density of an individual rabbit can be measured by bringing it into a laboratory, carefully examining it and measuring its density. A biologist might use such measurements to conclude that two rabbits have different population densities. 30) When a news article says that the human population of Grist Mills, Wisconsin contains 3,208 people, the article is using the word population in the same way that ecologists do, when they us it as biological jargon. scientific technique: 31) In lecture we heard about an experiment in which flies were either kept away from meat or allowed access to it. The meat was later examined for the presence of maggots. Your textbook would describe the idea that flies cause maggots as an hypothesis. 32) Your textbook would describe this experiment (seeing where the maggots appeared) as testing a prediction. 33) When results of an experiment are as expected, an hypothesis can be proven to be true. 34) According to your text, it is possible in some cases to use the scientific method to determine what is morally right and what is morally wrong. From lecture notes on cause, correlation and scientific technique: 86) Data showed that alcohol consumption was positively correlated with lung cancer, when all people were considered together without regard to what else they might be doing. We can conclude from these data that the alcohol causes the cancer. 87) In principle, the basic hypotheses of astrology cannot be tested scientifically, which is why astrology is not regarded as a science, unlike astronomy. 88) It isnt possible to do a single experiment to test directly that the current increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing the current warming of the earths climate, which is one reason why this subject has remained controversial.

89) Although it is possible in principle, it isnt legal to do a single experiment to test whether smoking increases cancer risk in humans. 90) Male widowbirds with longer tails have better mating success. So its possible that females prefer males with longer tails. But its also possible that males with longer tails are more healthy, and that females are responding to their health, not their tails. Unfortunately, it isnt possible to do an experiment to tease apart these possible causes of the greater mating success of long-tailed males. From lecture: statistical analysis 76) If we are told that use of cellphones is highly significantly correlated with development of brain tumors, the term highly significantly means that we can be confident that the correlation is real in a general sense and not just an accidental feature of the samples of people that were chosen for the study 77) Statistical analysis is normally used to help discover the cause of a correlation, so we could use it to ask whether a correlation between use of cellphones and brain tumors is caused by a direct influence of phones on tumor development, or by a different cause, such as eating steamed broccoli causing people to BOTH develop brain tumors AND spend more time on their phones (complaining of broccoli-boredom, perhaps?). 78) If we are told that use of cellphones is significantly correlated with development of brain tumors, the term significantly means that rates of cancer in phone users must be at least twenty times as high as in non-users. 79) The BBC tells us that the significance of the correlation between phone use and cancer is borderline. This could mean a significance of 0.005 (1/200) or even 0.001 (1/1000). 80) In order to ask whether there is really a correlation between phones and cancer, you would in fact test the hypothesis that there is NO such correlation From the climate science notes: 36) Record LOW temperatures are still being recorded even though the overall climate is warming. 38) If trees have sufficient water and soil nutrients (eg compounds of nitrogen and phosphorus) then the extra Carbon Dioxide that humans are adding to the atmosphere will make those trees grow BETTER, it acts as a fertilizer, so there is a positive effect from our burning of fossil fuels! 39) Carbon dioxide is currently measured in parts per million, so it is a tiny fraction of the atmosphere, less than one percent, even with the additions that we humans have made. 40) The lower atmosphere (troposphere) is cooling and the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) is warming, exactly what we would expect from an increase in the greenhouse effect If two chromosomes are homologous: 68) They can exchange genes during crossing-over 69) if they are in the same individual and the individual is an F1 in a Mendelian cross, then they not only have the same loci, they also have the same alleles 70) they pass together into the same gamete at the end of meiosis

From your organic chemistry lecture notes: 31) If broccoli is not labeled organic, you cant be sure that it contains organic chemicals. 32) Organic chemicals can only be made by living organisms, they cant be made in a lab by a chemist tinkering with compounds that are not organic (that is, inorganic chemicals). 33) Every molecule of carbon dioxide contains the same number of carbon atoms and the same number of oxygen atoms, so, the same chemical formula, CO2 34) Each molecule of DNA contains the same number of hydrogen atoms and each DNA molecule contains the same number of carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms may not be equal to the number of hydrogen atoms 35) If you label the proteins of a bacteriophage (a virus that attacks bacteria) with radioactive atoms you will be able to tell that those proteins enter the bacterium that is being attacked.