GCSE Biology - Characteristics of Living Things (Organisms) #3
Summary
TLDRThis video script explores the seven defining characteristics of living organisms, using the acronym 'MRS GRAN' to remember them: Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, and Nutrition. It clarifies that while non-living things may exhibit some of these traits, only living things possess all seven. The script also distinguishes that viruses, despite being commonly referred to as organisms, do not meet the criteria for being considered living due to their inability to grow and excrete waste.
Takeaways
- 🧬 All living organisms share seven key characteristics, which can be remembered using the acronym 'MRS GRAN'.
- 🚶 Movement is the ability of organisms to change their position, either as a whole or in part.
- 🔥 Respiration is the process of breaking down nutrients to release energy for metabolism.
- 🌡️ Sensitivity is the ability to detect and respond to changes in the environment, which can also be viewed as an organism's control over its internal environment.
- 🌱 Growth is a permanent increase in size and dry mass, which can vary from organism to organism.
- 🐾 Reproduction is the process by which organisms create more of their kind, such as cats having kittens or bacteria dividing.
- 🚰 Excretion is the removal of waste products from metabolism and excess substances that are not needed.
- 🍽️ Nutrition is the intake of materials necessary for energy, growth, and development, which can be through eating, drinking, diffusion, or active transport.
- 🔬 Living organisms are composed of one or more cells, which will be discussed in a separate video.
- 🦠 Viruses are not considered living organisms as they do not meet all seven of the characteristics, such as the inability to grow over time and excrete waste.
- 📚 The video encourages viewers to visit a revision site for practice questions on science and math topics.
Q & A
What are the seven key features that all living organisms have in common?
-The seven key features are movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion, and nutrition.
What is the acronym used to remember the seven key features of living organisms?
-The acronym used is 'MRS GREN'.
Can non-living things exhibit some of the features of living organisms? Provide an example.
-Yes, non-living things can exhibit some of these features. For example, a crystal can grow and a car can move.
What does the feature 'movement' refer to in living organisms?
-Movement refers to the ability of organisms to move. This could be the whole organism, like a cow moving its body, or parts of an organism, like a plant turning its leaves towards the sun.
What is respiration in the context of living organisms?
-Respiration is a set of chemical reactions that occur in cells to break down nutrient molecules like sugars and release energy for metabolism.
What does 'sensitivity' mean for living organisms?
-Sensitivity refers to the ability to detect and respond to changes in the internal or external environment. This can involve detecting changes like temperature and responding to them by actions like sweating or shivering.
How is growth defined for living organisms?
-Growth is defined as a permanent increase in size and dry mass. This can be seen in organisms growing larger, such as a kitten growing into an adult cat or a bacteria increasing in size.
What is the process of reproduction in living organisms?
-Reproduction is the process of making more of the same kind of organism, such as a cat having kittens or bacteria dividing into two smaller bacteria.
What does excretion refer to in living organisms?
-Excretion refers to the removal of waste products of metabolism and substances that are in excess of requirements, like urea and carbon dioxide, as well as excess water and mineral ions.
How do living organisms obtain nutrition?
-Nutrition involves taking in materials for energy, growth, and development. For animals, this means eating and drinking, while for fungi or bacteria, it means absorbing nutrients from their surroundings.
Why are viruses not considered living organisms?
-Viruses are not considered living organisms because they do not meet the seven requirements for living things, such as growth over time and excretion of waste.
What is metabolism?
-Metabolism refers to all the chemical processes that occur within an organism to keep it alive, including all the reactions happening inside the organism.
What is the significance of cells in living organisms?
-All living organisms are made up of one or more cells, which are the structural units of life. This will be explored further in another video.
Outlines
🧬 Characteristics of Living Things: An Overview
The video introduces the characteristics of living things, also known as organisms. It emphasizes that all living organisms, whether animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, or protozoa, share seven key features, which can be remembered using the acronym 'MRS GREN': Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, and Nutrition. It also highlights that non-living things might exhibit some of these features, but only living organisms possess all seven.
🚶 Movement and Respiration Explained
Movement is the ability of organisms to move, either as a whole, like a cow walking, or in parts, like plants turning leaves toward the sun. Respiration involves chemical reactions in cells to break down nutrient molecules, such as sugars, to release energy for metabolism, which includes all processes that keep an organism alive. Respiration provides the necessary energy for these processes.
🌡️ Sensitivity and Control Mechanisms
Sensitivity refers to the ability to detect and respond to changes in the environment, both internal and external. For example, humans sweat or shiver in response to temperature changes. Plants also respond to environmental factors like water and light. This point can sometimes be referred to as 'Sensitivity and Control' due to the organism's ability to control its internal environment by responding to changes.
📈 Growth and Reproduction Essentials
Growth is the permanent increase in size and dry mass of an organism, such as a kitten growing into an adult cat or a single bacteria cell increasing in size. Reproduction is the process of producing more of the same kind of organism, like cats having kittens or bacteria dividing into two new cells.
♻️ Excretion and Its Importance
Excretion involves removing waste products of metabolism and substances in excess of requirements. This includes getting rid of unwanted waste products like urea and carbon dioxide, as well as excess substances like water and mineral ions that the organism sometimes needs but must expel when they are in surplus.
🍽️ Nutrition for Energy and Growth
Nutrition is the intake of materials necessary for energy, growth, and development. For animals, this typically means eating and drinking to obtain nutrients and energy. For fungi or bacteria, it involves absorbing nutrients from their surroundings through diffusion or active transport. These seven features are shared by all living organisms, which are also composed of one or more cells.
🦠 Viruses: Not Quite Living Organisms
The video clarifies that viruses do not count as living things because they do not meet the seven criteria of living organisms. For instance, viruses do not grow over time or excrete waste, disqualifying them from being considered as living organisms. The video concludes with an invitation to visit a revision site for practice questions on science and math.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Organisms
💡Characteristics of Living
💡MRS GRAN
💡Movement
💡Respiration
💡Sensitivity
💡Growth
💡Reproduction
💡Excretion
💡Nutrition
💡Cells
💡Viruses
Highlights
The video discusses the seven key characteristics of living organisms, using the acronym 'MRS GRAN'.
Non-living things can exhibit some characteristics of life, but only living things possess all seven features.
Movement is the ability of organisms to change location or position, including both full-body and partial movements.
Respiration involves chemical reactions in cells to break down nutrients and release energy for metabolism.
Metabolism encompasses all chemical processes within an organism necessary for its survival.
Sensitivity is the detection and response to changes in the environment, including temperature and light.
Sensitivity and control are related, as organisms can regulate their internal environment by responding to changes.
Growth is the permanent increase in size and dry mass of an organism, from a kitten to an adult cat or a single cell to a larger one.
Reproduction is the process by which organisms create more of their kind, such as cats having kittens or bacteria dividing.
Excretion is the removal of waste products of metabolism and excess substances, including urea, carbon dioxide, water, and mineral ions.
Nutrition involves taking in materials for energy, growth, and development, which can be through eating, drinking, diffusion, or active transport.
All living organisms are composed of one or more cells, which will be discussed in a separate video.
Viruses are not considered living organisms as they do not meet the seven characteristics mentioned, such as growth and excretion.
The video provides a comprehensive overview of the defining features of life, essential for understanding biology.
The importance of recognizing that not all characteristics are exclusive to living organisms is highlighted.
The video suggests a revision site for practicing questions in science and maths, accessible via a provided link.
The video concludes with a reminder of the unique characteristics that differentiate living organisms from non-living entities.
Transcripts
[Music]
in today's video we're going to be
looking at the characteristics of living
things
which we can also call organisms
so basically we're going to cover the
set of features that all living
organisms have in common
whether it's an animal a plant a
bacteria a fungi or a protocolist
now there are seven key features that
you need to know about and help you
remember them we can use the acronym mrs
gran
where each letter stands for one of the
features they need to know
so those are movements respiration
sensitivity
growth reproduction
excretion and nutrition
one thing to say before we start is that
non-living things may also have some of
these features
for example a crystal can grow and a car
can move
but the important point to remember is
that only living things have all the
seven features
so if you start with movement this one's
pretty self-explanatory
it just refers to the ability of
organisms to move
and that could be a whole organism like
a cow moving its entire body as it walks
around a field
or it could be something like a plant
that only moves part of its body
for example when it turns its leaves
towards the sun
next up we have respiration
this is a set of chemical reactions that
take place in our cells in order to
break down nutrient molecules like
sugars and release energy that we can
use for metabolism
and if you haven't heard of metabolism
before it just refers to all of the
chemical processes that occur within an
organism to keep it alive
so basically all the reactions that are
going on inside us all the time
and respiration is what provides the
energy that's needed for all those
reactions
for sensitivity we can describe this one
as the ability to detect and respond to
changes in the internal or external
environment
so this is the idea that we can detect
things like changes in temperature
which we can then respond to
by doing something like sweating or
shivering
but all other organisms can do this as
well
for example plants can detect water
light intensity temperature
and a lot more and they can respond to
each of them
something to point out here though is
that you might sometimes see this point
as sensitivity and control
as the responding to changes part can be
thought of as an organism's ability to
control their internal environment
so basically by detecting any changes
and then responding to them they can
control their internal environment like
their temperature their water levels
their ph levels all that kind of stuff
next we have growth which is also fairly
self-explanatory and it just means that
organisms can grow and get larger
or in technical terms we could describe
it as a permanent increase in size and
dry mass
with dry mass just meaning the mass of
an organism once you remove all the
water
so for a cat growth could mean going
from a kitten to an adult cat
or for bacteria which is just a single
cell it just means going from a smaller
cell to a larger cell
then we have reproduction
which we can describe as the process
that makes more of the same kind of
organism
like a cat having kittens
or a large bacteria dividing into two
smaller bacteria
next we have excretion
you might not be as familiar with this
one but basically it just refers to the
removal of the waste products of
metabolism
and also substances that are in excess
of requirements
so if you break this down the first bit
means getting rid of waste products like
urea and carbon dioxide which we produce
but i don't really want then this other
bit refers to getting rid of things that
we do sometimes need
but only get rid of when we have more
than we need
so this would include things like water
and mineral ions
we need water and mineral ants to
survive
but sometimes we have too much of them
so we have to get rid of the excess that
we don't need
then finally the last feature on our
list is nutrition
which is the taking in of materials for
energy growth and development
so for most animals that basically means
eating and drinking to get all the
nutrients and energy that we need
whereas for a fungi or a bacteria it
would mean absorbing nutrients from the
surroundings by either diffusion or
active transport
and that's it these are the seven
features that all the living things have
in common
and anything that meets all of these
criteria can be called an organism
one other thing that all living
organisms have in common though is that
they're made up of one or more cells
and we'll take a look at these
structural cells in another video
also remember that viruses don't
actually count as living things
even though some people call them
organisms they're actually not because
they don't meet the seven requirements
we just mentioned for example they don't
grow over time
and they don't excrete waste in any way
so they're not considered living
organisms
anyway that's everything for this video
so i hope that was helpful for you
if you want to practice questions on
this or anything else in science or
maths then head over to our revision
site which you can access by pressing
the link in the top right corner of the
screen
otherwise have a fantastic day
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