Section 1 a) Specification

1.1 Understand that living organisms share the following characteristics:
– they require nutrition
– they respire
– they excrete their waste
– they respond to their surroundings
– they move
– they control their internal conditions
– they reproduce
– they grow and develop. 

All species of living organisms follow the 7 life processes: MRS GREN:

M- Movement
All living organisms can move or change position. Animals have total mobility; we can walk around, lift things up, turn our heads, etc. Plants move in less obvious ways. They can turn their leaves to face the sun and open and close their flowers.

R- Respiration
All living things release energy through chemical reactions. They break down nutrients such as glucose in order to release energy and allow the organism to perform all of the other life processes.

S- Sensitivity
All living things have the ability to sense a change in their environment and react to it. E.g. A person will move their hand away from a very hot object, a plant will turn to face the sun to maximise photosynthesis.

G- Growth
All living things increase in size or cell number as the organism matures, involving chemical reactions and increase in dry mass. Animals stop growing after reaching a certain maturity, but plants continue growing until they die.

R- Reproduction
All living things have the ability to produce live offspring through sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction involves two parents, resulting in an offspring sharing both parents' DNA and characteristics, whereas asexual reproduction involves one parent and will result in an exact copy.

E- Excretion
All living things excrete harmful or toxic chemicals within the organism, e.g carbon dioxide through gas exchange in plants and animals, and urination in animals remove urea from the body. Plants can concentrate toxins into leaves when they drop them.

N- Nutrition
All living things require nutrients for energy, growth and repair. Plants can photosynthesize to create glucose for respiration, but animals and fungi must absorb or eat other organisms to gain energy and nutrients.