• Question: what is homeostasis

    Asked by jjfarooq to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Homeostasis is keeping things in balance. For the body, if we do exercise our temperature rises. We start to sweat to help keep us cool and return us into balance or homeostasis. The body is usually very good at responding to change because it works best when its in balance.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Tim. Homeostasis is the ability of an organsism to maintain an internal equilibrium by adjusting it’s physiological processes.

      It’s like putting a car on cruise control. When a car is put on cruise control it has a set speed limit that it will travel. At times this speed may vary by a few miles per hour but in general the system will maintain the set speed. If the car starts to go up a hill, the systems will automatically increase the amount of fuel given to maintain the set speed. If the car starts to come down a hill, the car will automatically decrease the amount of fuel given in order to maintain the set speed. It is the same with homeostasis- the body has a set limit on each environment. If there is a change, the body will sense and automatically try to fix the problem in order to maintain the pre-set limits.

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Hah! One of the few biology questions I know…

      ‘Homeostatis’ is the balance that the body tries to achieve. Note that it is the balance itself, not the process of achieving that balance (which is called ‘regulation’). Often homeostasis refers to the chemical balance, such as the right pH or something like hormone balance. However, it can also be used to refer to larger systems, such as the balance of an entire ecosystem.

    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      It’s how we keep things in balance so that everything can work in the best conditions. So, for instance if you have an infection, your fever can rise to help get rid of it (more below), if you have a tsunami that hits the caost of Japan, it doesn’t all stay on the coast of Japan….most of the water will go back to the ocean where it came from, and you can also see hoeostasis in allsorts of non-scientific things around you, like with a one-in-one-out policy at a crowded club. If the club is filled to maximum and you keep letting people go in, then eventually it will overfill and uhhhh explode. Can’t think right now of other non-scientific examples but maybe one of you guys can?

      OK fever. Body senses there is an infection say in the lungs. Cells in the lung will produce chemicals that can flow through the blood to the brain and act there on the temperature regulating centre. Your fever will rise and because viruses can do their work best at around 37C/98F, they won’t be so good at doing their job (which is to get into cells where they can have little virus babies that smash open the cells when there are too many of them). This will stop them dividing for a little while until more effective parts of the immune system can kill them fully, and fever will then go down. This is an example of homeostasis because to keep the body virus-free, it sometimes needs to react and change (temeprature in this example) but as soon as possible it will get temperature back to its favorite homeostasis.

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Already answered well by Team Chromium…

      What do you think homeostasis is — do you think it is important?

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