Genome entry #3 Life

To introduce this chapter, Ridley talks about the importance of RNA. It came before DNA and what makes these RNA and DNA are protein sequences. RNA is needed to create DNA. Francis Darwn believed that gene make up the pieces of our life. The two future inverters of DNA models are CRick and James Watson. One worked in a naval mine and the other at University of Chicago. Osward Avery discovered DNA as the chemical manifestation of heredity. Also that RNA came before proteins and that it DNA is a pattern written in words of the Alphabet. RNA and DNA are very important in the make up of life, it is what creates life. We are different from each other only because of RNA and DNA. As minor as that seems, it makes a huge impact on every living organism.

Genome entry #2 Fate

Our gene is very different from other people's genes. It is different because in our genes there are 3 different varieties of genes. ACG, AGC, GCA can be made. These can all repeat in many different ways, the max would be 35 times. If it repeats more than 35 times it means that something is wrong with your gene. Either you have a syndrome or your chromosome is messed up. The Wold-Hirschorn syndrome is a syndrome that lacks a short arm of chromosome number 4. Wexler's daughter had that syndrome and her father decided to try and find a cure for this disease. However the more he researched the more he discovered about this syndrome that is not very known in human society.

Genome entry #1 Intelligence

In Intelligence Robert Plomin and his colleagues did studies about specialized kids that are gifted. These kids are 12-14 years old. These students are the top 1% in their school. He wanted to see how their intelligence differ among humans. A blood test was done to test the intelligence. He discovered that the smart people have different kinds of genes, everyone has a different kind of IGF2R in their gene's pattern. Sternberg believe that there are 3 different kinds of intelligence, the first is analytic, creative and practical. Spearman later noticed that one student can excel from one subject but may do poorly on another subject, different from other students. Intelligence is different among different kinds of people, some believe that it is nurture and some believe that it is nature. Both are quite debatable.

Extra Credit: Feedback on Semester 1.

In your blog please give me some feedback on last semester


What topics really confused you?
I was really confused on Transpiration.

What topics do you feel very clear on?
I felt very clear on Ecology and and Cellular Respiration

What lab/ activity was your favorite? Why?
My favorite lab was the lab on Chromotography because I got to see how the pigment of the flower changes. Also I liked the pond water lab as well because we got to create our own pond water habitat.

What lab/activity was your least favorite? Why?
My least favorite was probably the jello lab because it was a failure and it did not work out.

If you could change something about the class to make it better, for instance the type of homework (not the amount) what would it be and why?
I would not want to have online simulations or blogs, more in class assignments and assign us pages to read because if it is not specifically assigned, it will not be as important as it can be if it was assigned.
 

Time,. Love Memory Analysis

In Time, Love, Memory, the concepts that it tried to give was that in biology evolution, genetics, and mating are key concepts in this book. Developing a way to test of the genetics of a fruit fly was genius, it also showed how mating these different flies can help create different other flies that have different traits and characteristics. For example, the fruit flies that were crossed had many different sort of mutations, and it took a long time for it to finally produce a fly that had the right kind of mutation they wanted. The result was a fruit fly with white eyes. By crossing these flies, evolution, genetics and mating all played a major factor. Antoher example was testing whether these flies favored the dark or lighter side. By testing it, they needed a jar that seprated two sides, one is the dark side and the other one is the lighter side. Many flies in the end like the light. In this book it talks about how the body and human organs can always be a surprise and each and everyday there is something new to be discovered. For example, with the brain, the discovery that the corpus collusm was a big deal did not hit home till an experiement was tested. In order to test out what these two hemisphere had to do with the other, the scientists dissected the brain of a cat, and a frog. These operations caused the animals to act different and by doing so, it showed through their actions. Humans and animals are alike and thus, we can relate to these sorts of operation. Genetics eventually lead to evolution. We always learn to adapt to change and to do so, we would learn to survive what is to come in life. This book is very eye opening and teaches us about biology is a novel and about experiments that we never thought was possible. 

On Societies Of Organism article

Lewis Thomas speaks about termites in his article. He states that termites have a life of its own, minding its own business and eating things it sees in its path. Such as wood or bacteria. They are apparently swimmining by itself and untouched. This way of describing a termite makes one feel as if a termite is just another organism, it is innocuous and harmless.Humans are similarly alike. They mind their own business and each of us have our own lives to attend to. We work and eat and sleep everyday just to survive. We do not want to be bothered like a termite. Thus, we are somewhat resembling a termite's life. Termites work together to bring a house down, like termites humans can collaborate to get things done faster, termites and humans are basically 1 organism that can be deadly to just about anything if it comes together.

Fear of Pheromones article

In the Fear of Pheromones post, Lewis Thomas speaks about how pheromones can be carried out through air. However, the discovery of pheromones have been made a while back. It is basically chemical odors made by animals that are carried through air to attract a mate. Thomas questions why we would want to release pheromones into the air as a way of communication. Thomas makes observations about bio related topics like pheromones and he sounds a bit comical as to say. He is quite the observant himself. Pheromones are released by animals, however, it is to be believed that humans do not release this sort of odor.