Nucleotides consist of a _________

A. Shrink: Shrinking of a red blood cell occurs when it is placed in a hypertonic solution, where water moves out of the cell. Distilled water is hypotonic, so shrinking will not occur.

B. Swell initially, then shrink as equilibrium is reached: In a hypotonic environment, water enters the cell continuously due to osmotic pressure. Red blood cells do not have mechanisms to expel water quickly, so they do not shrink after initial swelling.

C. Swell and may burst: Distilled water is hypotonic compared to the cytoplasm of red blood cells. Water moves into the cells by osmosis, increasing internal pressure, which can cause the cells to swell and eventually lyse (burst) if the influx is excessive.

D. Neither shrink nor swell: This would occur only in an isotonic solution, where solute concentrations inside and outside the cell are equal. Since distilled water is hypotonic, the red blood cell will experience swelling rather than remain the same size.

A. Maintaining boundaries: Maintaining boundaries refers to the separation between internal and external environments, such as the plasma membrane or skin, and is not directly related to removing carbon dioxide.

B. Excretion of metabolic waste: Expiration removes carbon dioxide, a byproduct of cellular respiration, from the body. This is a primary example of excreting metabolic waste to maintain proper internal chemical balance.

C. Responsiveness: Responsiveness is the ability of the body to detect and react to changes in the environment, such as moving away from a stimulus, which does not involve carbon dioxide removal.

D. Metabolism: Metabolism encompasses all chemical reactions in the body, including producing carbon dioxide as a byproduct. However, the act of exhaling carbon dioxide specifically exemplifies waste excretion, not metabolism itself.