The Life Processes essays

The Life Processes essays The best way to distinguish a living organism from a non-living organism is to determine whether it does or does not have a metabolism. A metabolism is the ongoing interrelated series of chemical interactions taking place in living organisms that provide the energy and nutrients needed to sustain life. Regulation, Growth, Nutrition, Excretion, Synthesis, Transport, Respiration, and Reproduction are the processes that make up the metabolism and are known as lifes processes. Regulation, also known as homeostasis, helps the body maintain a stable internal environment. If for some reason this stable environment is disconcerted, the organism will no longer be able to stay alive. Growth is the process that regulates the development and increase in size of an organism. Growth is extremely dependent on Nutrition. Nutrition is the process that utilizes food in order to grow. It is made up of three parts, Ingestion, Digestion, and Egestion. Ingestion is the taking in of the food, Digestion is the break down of the food from larger to smaller molecules, and Egestion is the undigested waste. Excretion is the life process that deals with wastes, after food is utilized for nutrition, the products no longer needed exit the body. Synthesis is the chemical process of smaller molecules evolving into larger molecules. Transport, the fifth life process, controls the movement of nutrients in and out of cells. The circulatory system is an organized transportation unit found in complex living organisms. Respiration is the process that releases energy from food with the help of ATP. The last life process is Reproduction. Reproduction allows for an organism to make its own kind to prevent extinction. There is asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction, two cells from different organisms combine to produce a new being. In asexual reproduction, the newly born organism has only one parent. ...