In the first chapter, the book covers the characteristics of life.

To begin, the book states

that life exists everywhere on our planet except the desolate regions of the polar ice caps. Life
comes in all shapes and sizes but they all have characteristics in common with each other. These
characteristics help distinguish the non living things from the living things, the aforementioned
characteristics are as follows: Living things are organized, they acquire materials and energy,
they reproduce, they respond to stimuli, are homeostatic, grow and develop, and have the ability
to adapt to their environment.
The first characteristic of life, which is organization, pertains to the ability of living
organisms to place themselves into a hierarchy. This hierarchy first begins with non living
things, starting with atoms, then molecules and then progressing to living things like cells. After
the cell, tissue is next, a tissue is a group of cells with a common structure and function. The next
level of organization is an organ; an organ is composed of tissues that function together for a
specific task. When multiple organs work together they form the next level of organization—an
organ system. An organism is the next on the list, an organism is made up of organ systems.
The next characteristic of life is an organism's ability to acquire materials and energy, as
everyone knows organisms need these to stay alive. Things like water, food, and sunlight, just to
name a few, are required for organisms to gain energy to work and survive in general.
The next characteristic of life is the ability to reproduce, reproduction is the process of
life being created from life.The information within an organism’s genes that are in its DNA
contain instructions that direct reproduction and cellular functions. There are two types of
reproduction, in sexual reproduction, the two parents give half of their genes, in asexual
reproduction, one parent gives all their genes.
The next characteristic of a living thing is a response to stimuli, organisms respond to
external stimuli by moving towards or away from the source. The source of stimuli can be many
different things, for example: pain, pleasure, smell of food, or sunlight. As previously mentioned,
organisms will move in response to stimuli, this movement is a large part of their behaviour
whether it is self-directed or in response to a certain stimulus. This behavior is often directed to
minimizing injury, getting food, and producing offspring
Another commonality between living organisms is the ability to try to maintain
homeostatic. Homeostasis is the act of an organism trying to stay the same, for example the
internal temperature of a human stays relatively the same with only a few fluctuations throughout
the day. Another example of this can also be seen in humans with the function of organ systems,
the digestive system provides nutrients, the cardiovascular transports these nutrients and the
urinary system gets rid of waste in the body. The nervous system coordinates the activities of the
other systems.
Another character of life that is shared between these is the ability to grow and develop.
As the characteristic would suggest, the organisms need the be able to change in their lifetime,
growth of an organism is an obvious factor—the organism increases in size. Development, much
like growth, is an obvious one too, it is all the changes the organism experiences from birth and
up until they die.
On the topic of changes and growing, adaptation is a key characteristic that living things
have in common with each other. The Earth is a harsh and dangerous place and the organisms
living in it must be able to change based on their surroundings to survive. The animals that
survive will be able to have offspring and pass on these traits to their offspring, this process of
survival is called natural selection. It happens in many creatures and several examples of it can
be seen in animals today.
 Moving away from the first segment of chapter one, the next thing the book covers is the
classification of organisms, just like the characteristics that divide living things and nonliving
things, living things are divided into more specific classes. The names of these classes are as
follows: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Domains are the
largest classifications and there are 3 different types, Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. Archaea
and Bacteria have unicellular prokaryotic cells, which means they are simple structures and don’t
have a nucleus, Eukarya are unlike the others because they have a nucleus and have a complex
structure.
Bacteria is found everywhere on Earth, mostly found in soil, water, and animals. Most
bacteria are beneficial but some of it can cause diseases, for example: Salmonella, e. coli, and
listeria. Archaea is unlike bacteria because it lives in extreme environments, places with little to
no oxygen or places that are too hot or cold for most other things to live there.
Eukaryotes are separated into four classes, each with their own traits and commonalities.
These classes are Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia, protista is made up of mostly complex
single cell organisms but some are multicellular. They gain nutrition by absorbing or ingesting
food, but some use photosynthesis. Some examples of these are paramecium, euglenoid, slime
mold, and dinoflagellate.
Fungi, the next kingdom after protista, have some unicellular, but mostly multicellular,
filamentous forms with specialized complex cells. They all absorb food to gain nutrition, some
examples of these are: black bread mold, yeast, mushrooms, and bracket fungus. The plantae
kingdom takes a multicellular form with specialized complex cells. They gain nourishment by
photosynthesizing food, some examples of this kingdom are moss, ferns, pine trees and non
woody flowering plants. The animalia kingdom is something everyone will know mainly
because we humans are in it. They have a multicellular form with specialized complex cells and
ingest food for nutrition. Examples of this kingdom are: sea stars, earthworms, finches, and
humans.
All of these kingdoms need a habitat that can sustain them, these are called biospheres.
Biospheres are zones of air, land, and water on the Earth that are inhabited by several animals,
these groups of animals are called populations and when these populations interact they form a
community. When these are all put together with the physical environment they form an
ecosystem. One of the problems ecosystems have is that they are often tampered by humans for a
profit for the humans and a loss for everything else.
This chapter also explores the scientific process, all scientists use this when trying to
prove or disprove their hypothesis. This method first begins with observations that will then be
the source of one’s hypothesis. After forming a hypothesis the experimenting will begin and
then, ultimately, give an answer that will cause a person to make a scientific theory. Depending
on the result, a person may have to go back to repeat experiments to ensure that this wasn’t a one
time fluke.
Finally, this chapter also covers controlled studies, these studies have two groups in them,
the control group and the experimental group. As the name would suggest, the control group is
the control of the study—completely untouched. The experimental group is the group that is the
recipient of the experimental part of this study, whether it be plants, people, or animals. The
control group may be plants that receive an average amount of sunlight, and the experimental
group would be given only LED growing lights.