The core idea that makes sense of the unity and all the diversity of life is... (mc)

Question

a. the scientific method

b. inductive reasoning

c. deductive reasoning

d. evolution

e. systems biology

Answer 1

e. systems biology

Answer 2

d.  Evolution

Evolution is *precisely* the core idea that at once unifies all of biology, and at the same time explains its diversity ... it explains both the similarities and differences that we find in life.

Without evolution, life has no unity.   A dog is unrelated to a fox.  A cat is unrelated to a lion.  A canary is unrelated to a pigeon.  A kangaroo is unrelated to an opossum and both are unrelated to bats and dolphins.   They are all just separate, unrelated species that have no reason at all for commonalities.

With evolution, life has unity.   It explains why certain pairs of organisms have sequences of DNA that are letter-for-letter identical ... while other organisms share some of these sequences but not others.   It explains why humans, bats, moles, horses, and dogs all have the same basic bone structure in the forelimb, even though they have *radically* different functions.  It explains why animal hemoglobin and plant chlorophyll have so many structural similarities.  It explains why humans have a muscle (the Plantaris muscle) in their calf that has no function, but is the same muscle used in other primates for *grasping with the feet*.  It explains why we can see animals as different as kangaroos, oppossums, bats, and dolphins and find enough commonalities to group them into the same category (mammals).   And on and on.

Without evolution, there is no explanation for diversity.   There is no explanation for why we discover thousands of new species every day ... species too remote to be relevant to us, too tiny to be seen, too weird to be predicted, or living in regions so hostile (like the insanely hot steam vents on the sea floors, or buried in deep ice cores at the poles).

With evolution, diversity has an explanation.   A constant, relentless branching of life to fill every niche available.

[P.S. ... Sorry for the long answer ... but I was just apalled that people would respond otherwise.   Kids who fail to understand just how *CENTRAL* a role evolution plays in modern biology ... are vulnerable when the anti-science Creationists refer to evolution as "just a theory"! ]

Answer 3

D.

Without evolution and common descent, biology is a fractured discipline.

Answer 4

a. the scientific method