GCSE Biology - Characteristics of Living Things (Organisms) #3

Summary

This 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

00:00

🧬 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.

05:01

🚶 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.

Keywords

💡Organisms

Organisms are living entities that exhibit the characteristics of life. In the video, organisms include a diverse range of life forms such as animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, and even protists. The script emphasizes that all organisms share a set of common features, making them distinct from non-living things.

💡Characteristics of Living

The video script discusses the seven key characteristics that define living organisms. These characteristics are essential to understanding what makes an entity 'alive' and are the central theme of the video.

💡MRS GRAN

MRS GRAN is an acronym used in the script to help remember the seven characteristics of living organisms: Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, and Nutrition. It serves as a mnemonic device to facilitate learning and is a key part of the video's educational message.

💡Movement

Movement refers to the ability of organisms to change their position or location. The script gives examples of an entire organism moving, like a cow walking, and parts of an organism moving, such as a plant turning its leaves towards the sun.

💡Respiration

Respiration is the process of breaking down nutrient molecules in cells to release energy for metabolism. The script explains that this energy is crucial for the chemical processes that keep organisms alive, such as the continuous reactions occurring within us.

💡Sensitivity

Sensitivity is the ability of organisms to detect and respond to changes in their environment. The script illustrates this with the human body's response to temperature changes, like sweating or shivering, and plants' responses to environmental factors like light and water.

💡Growth

Growth is defined in the script as a permanent increase in size and dry mass of an organism. It is a universal characteristic of living things, from a kitten growing into an adult cat to a single-celled bacterium increasing in size.

💡Reproduction

Reproduction is the process by which organisms produce offspring of the same kind. The script mentions that this can occur through various means, such as a cat giving birth to kittens or bacteria dividing into two smaller bacteria.

💡Excretion

Excretion is the removal of waste products from metabolic processes and excess substances. The script explains that this includes getting rid of unwanted waste like urea and carbon dioxide, as well as eliminating excess water and mineral ions when they are more than needed.

💡Nutrition

Nutrition in the context of the video refers to the intake of materials necessary for energy, growth, and development. The script differentiates between how animals obtain nutrients through eating and drinking, and how fungi or bacteria absorb nutrients from their surroundings.

💡Cells

Cells are the basic structural and functional units of all living organisms. The script mentions that all living organisms are made up of one or more cells, highlighting their fundamental role in the structure of life.

💡Viruses

The script clarifies that viruses are not considered living organisms despite sometimes being referred to as such. They do not meet the criteria of living organisms because they do not grow over time and do not excrete waste, which is a key point in the video's exploration of what constitutes life.

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