Every card in Health and disease, Year 8: microbes and lifestyle
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- The scientific term for an organism made of just one cell
A unicellular organism
HintIt starts with the Latin for 'one'.
WhyBacteria, yeast and amoebas are examples. That single cell has to feed, respire, get rid of waste and reproduce by itself.
- Which single-celled fungus is used to make bread rise?
Yeast
HintBakers buy it fresh or dried.
WhyIt respires using the sugar in the dough and gives off carbon dioxide gas, and the bubbles make the dough swell.
- Which type of single-celled organism causes food poisoning, for example when Salmonella multiplies in undercooked chicken?
Bacteria
HintThey are far smaller than an animal cell and have no nucleus.
WhyMost bacteria are harmless and many are useful, but a few kinds make people ill when they multiply in food or in the body.
- An amoeba has no mouth or gut. How does it take in food?
It surrounds the food and engulfs it
HintIts membrane can flow and change shape.
WhyThe amoeba pushes out parts of itself around a food particle until the particle is enclosed inside, where it is digested.
- A unicellular organism has no lungs or blood. How does it get the oxygen it needs?
By diffusion across its cell membrane
HintEvery part of it is very close to the water around it, so no transport system is needed.
WhyBecause the organism is so tiny, oxygen dissolved in the water spreads into it quickly enough to reach every part.
- Rickets, in which the bones stay soft and bend, is caused by a lack of calcium or of which vitamin?
Vitamin D
HintSkin makes it in sunlight.
WhyThe body needs this vitamin to absorb calcium from food. Without it, growing bones do not harden properly.
- Anaemia leaves a person tired and pale. It is most often caused by a lack of which mineral?
Iron
HintIt is needed to make the red pigment in blood.
WhyThis mineral is part of haemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells. With too little, less oxygen reaches the muscles, so the person tires easily.
- Which substance in tobacco smoke coats the lungs and can cause cancer?
Tar
HintIt is sticky and dark brown, and stains a smoker's fingers and teeth.
WhyIt collects in the air passages and the tiny air sacs. It damages cells and makes it harder for oxygen to pass into the blood.
- Alcohol slows the messages travelling through the nervous system. What does that do to a person's reaction time?
It gets longer (they react more slowly)
HintThink about why drinking and driving is so dangerous.
WhyA slower nervous system means a longer delay between seeing a hazard and responding to it, which is why even a small amount affects driving.
- A person takes in less energy from food than their body uses, week after week. What happens to their body mass?
It falls
HintThe body makes up the shortfall out of its stores.
WhyWhen food supplies too little energy, the body uses its stored fat to make up the difference, so mass goes down.
1★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0027
2★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0028
3★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0029
4★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0030
5★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0031
6★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0032
7★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0033
8★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0034
9★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0035
10★ KS3-BIOL-HEA-0036
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