The Living World

Importance of NCERT for NEET

High Relevance: 70-75 out of 90 Biology questions in NEET are directly from NCERT.
Revision: At least 10 thorough readings of NCERT are recommended for scoring 600+ in NEET.
Highlighting: Use red and yellow highlighters to denote importance and probability of questions.

Ernest Mayer: Called "Darwin of the 20th Century"; known for his work on biological species.
Notable Mentions: Photos of significant figures like Ramdeo Misra and Katherine Esau appear in NCERT.

Defining Properties: Metabolism, Cellular Organization, and Consciousness.
Non-defining Properties: Growth and Reproduction (due to exceptions like mules, sterile workers).
Distinct Differences: Living beings possess metabolism, growth, reproduction, ability to sense environment (consciousness), self-replication, etc.

Types of Growth: Increase in mass or number; involves cell division in multicellular organisms.
External Growth: Non-living entities like mountains grow externally; hence, not a characteristic of life.

Asexual Reproduction: Methods include spores in fungi, budding in yeast and hydra, fragmentation in mosses, etc.
Sexual Reproduction: Distinct from asexual; involves complex processes.
Exceptions: Some living beings, like sterile humans and mules, do not reproduce; hence not a defining property.

Chemical Reactions: Thousands of reactions occur in living beings; indicative of life.
Isolation: Metabolic reactions in labs are not living themselves but represent living processes.

Environmental Response: Most complex feature of living beings; varying from plants to humans.
Unique: Humans exhibit self-consciousness distinctly.

Purpose: Identification, nomenclature, and classification of organisms.
Books: ICBN for plants, ICZN for animals.
Binomial Nomenclature: Genus and specific epithet; e.g., Mangifera indica for mango.

Hierarchy: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
Representation: Groups and their traits (e.g., humans: domain: Eukarya; kingdom: Animalia).

Herbarium: Storehouse of dried plant specimens; includes details like date, place, and collector's name.
Botanical Gardens: Houses living plant specimens; notable ones include Indian Botanical Garden, Royal Botanical Garden.
Museums: Preserve skeletons and specimens; useful for quick reference.
Geological Parks: Exhibits animals in natural habitats; studies behavior and food habits.
Taxonomical Keys: Used for identifying plants and animals; analytical in nature.