Chapter 1.
1. What kind of research activities does an animal physiologist do?
2. Why is Physiology said to be an integrative science?
3. What are some examples of physical laws or concepts that relate to various
physiological processes?
4. Describe some sub-disciplines of Animal Physiology
5. What is the difference between the terms, adaptation, acclimatization, and acclimation?
6. Llama blood has a very high affinity for oxygen. Is this an example of physiological
adaptation?
7. What are "neutral" mutations?
8. From a biological viewpoint, what is the primary overall purpose of all the various
physiological processes in an animal?
9. Which usually has the higher salinity - seawater or body fluids of most aquatic
animals?
10. Which physiologist coined the term "homeostasis", and earned a Nobel prize
for his research in this area?
11. What is the difference between an osmoconformer and an osmoregulator?
12. Give an example of an animal that is an osmoconformer?
13. What does the term "peer review" mean as applied to publication of
scientific literature?
14. What is the difference between negative feedback and positive feedback. What are some
biological examples of each type of feedback?
15. What is the difference between "animal rights" and "animal
welfare"?
Chapter 2:
1. Water-breathing animals usually regulate acid-base balance by modifying the elimination
of what substance?
2. Air-breathing animals usually regulate acid-base balance by modifying the elimination
of what substance?
3. What is the August Krogh principle?
4. Why are sea robins useful in the study of comparative cardiovascular physiology?
5. What are radioisotopes and how are they used in biological research?
6. What are monoclonal antibodies, how are they produced, and how are they used in
biological research?
7. What is recombinant DNA?
8. What are "transgenic" animals?
9. How are micropipettes and microelectrodes made and how are they used?
10. What is a microtome?
11. What is "in vitro" cell culture?
12. Why is serum often added to "in vitro" cell culture media?
13. What is chromotography, and how is it used in physiological research?
14. What are differences between Southern blotting, Northern blotting and Western
blotting?
15. What are some factors that can be simultaneously measured in the study of the striking
behavior of snakes, and how are these factors measured?
Chapter 3:
1. Which scientist conducted experiments showing that organic compounds essential for life
could be formed by electrical discharges in a primitive atmosphere?
2. What was the first organic molecule to be experimentally synthesized from non-living
mineral substances?
3. Which is more reactive -- flourine or chlorine -- and why?
4. What is the maximum number of electrons that can occupy the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd orbital
shells of atoms?
5. Why do smaller atoms tend to form more stable bonds with other atoms?
6. What is the typical mutation rate in terms of mutation per replications of genes?
7. How does a 10 mM NaCl solution compare with a 10 mM glucose solution in terms of
colligative properties?
8. What is the difference between the terms "voltage" and "current"?
9. What are the units of "current"?
10. How would you define the terms "capacitance", "resistance", and
"conductance" ? In what units are each of these terms usually expressed?
11. What does the term apoenzyme refer to?
12. What is the difference between "competitive" and "non-competitive"
enzyme inhibition?
13. What is the Lineweaver-Burk equation, and what is it used for?
Chapter 4
1. What is the estimated cell membrane area in the chimpanzee brain in comparison with the
area of a soccer field?
2. What are three primary types of lipids found in cell membranes?
3. What does the term "amphipathic" mean, and which lipids in cell membranes are
amphipathic?
4. Who first proposed the "fluid mosaic model"?
5. If an animal cell runs out of ATP, would you expect it's volume to increase or
decrease? Why?
6. The antibiotic, nystatin, is an example of an ionophore. What are ionophores?
7. What are uniporters, symporters, and antiporters?
8. What are seven important features of active transport that are listed in this chapter?
9. What features, other than size of the ion, that are important in governing selectivity
of ion channels?
10 What are coated pits, and with what protein are they coated?
11. What evidence has lead to the idea that microtubules and microfilaments are involved
in the process of exocytosis?
12. What is an Ussing chamber, and what is it used for?
13. What evidence shows that active transport of Na+ and K+ occurs only on the serosal
membrane of epithelial cells?

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