Objective 4  Unifying themes pervading all of biological science

Among the unifying themes commonly cited in general biology textbooks are the following:

1)  life is organized as a hierarchy of structural levels; each of these levels exhibits characteristic emergent properties.

2)  cells are the structural and functional units of life

3)  the properties that are both necessary and sufficient to describe the living state are dependent on chemical and physical laws

4)  the continuity of life is based on heritable information stored in the form of DNA

5) structure and function are correlated at all levels of biological organization

6) organisms are open systems that interact with their environments

7) although the living world is characterized by organismal diversity there is an underlying unity evident, particularly at lower levels of organization

8) evolutionary theory offers useful scientific explanations for the existence of such diversity as well as for the underlying diversity observed.