Writing in Biology (Brewer)

In the present world, there are approximately 20,000 species of bees. One of the most resourceful is the Honey Bee. Today, Honey Bee's are also domesticated and cultured for every day use. They play a huge role in pollination of the different types of plants and flowers here today. There are many bee keepers today that raise colonies of these insects to better the plant diversity and generations. They also collect honey and beeswax for human use.
There is however a problem with these bee's. Accidentally, many years ago in Brazil, the new species of honey bee has appeared. These are also known as Africanized bee's or "Killer Bee's".
These Africanized bee's are extremely aggressive and are resistant to a numerous amount of diseases. They have migrated from South America all the way to North America infesting and devastating the original Honey Bee's wealth.
Collapsing of the Honey Bee's colony can also be devastating to the population due to disease and parasites that have found their way into the hives. Because of this, Honey Bee's have developed defense mechanisms in order to control unwanted visitors arriving to their hive. They have been known to sting and kill any unwanted intruders and will also release pheromones to signal for other bee's of the colony to help out.

There is a great difference between the apes and hominids. Apes can be found in trees and also on the land while hominids are exclusively terrestrial. Apes are not fully bipedal like the hominids. Hominids also have a unique characteristic that shows pair bonding with another member and also having a home base, where apes lack that certain developmental trait. It has been shown that apes are not very good with food sharing, while hominids have been shown to care and share food with other members of the group. This is also a development of social groups. Hominids such as the Homo habilis, were discovered with the first making and use of tools and also fire. Apes have not found the ability to make and use tools. Scientific studies also show that the apes have a much smaller brain than the hominids resulting in these vast differences between the two groups.

The earliest primates were lemurs also known as Prosimians. Lemurs have a wet nose and are nocturnal and have a nocturnal eye also. A second group of Prosimians is the Tarsiers which have a dry nose. They are nocturnal also but lack the nocturnal eye which is why they have developed big open eyes.
Another group of Primates is the Anthropoids which consist of monkeys, humans and apes. They have developed much larger brains, but also have a reduction in their sense of smell.
New World monkeys are mostly arboreal, live in the tropics and are herbivores. The old world monkeys are semiterrestrial and are omnivorous. They are much larger than the new world monkeys.
A new group has risen after millions of years called the Hominoids which humans and apes are a part of. They have a much larger body size and lack a tail. The behavior of this group is more complex than the previous groups due to psychological evolution. Also, the infancy dependency time has been extended due to a longer life. These appeared in our world around 7 millions years ago.
Chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans. They have social groups and can interact with one another. It has also been observed that sometimes, the chimpanzees will mourn the death of another chimp. This shows developmental characteristics of the brain and we could possibly determine the evolution of the human brain from these previous groups.

Flowering plants are also known as angiosperms. They came into play around the cretaceous period and have been dominant on land ever since. It is very difficult for them to grow in certain places because of the environment such as oceans, mountain tops and the poles. These flowers have reproductive organs and also have the ability to attract pollinators for fertilization. Angiosperms are also vital for human existence because most of the agricultural crops in the world are angiosperms and can also be used for medicine. Unlike other plants, angiosperms consist of an endosperm which helps provide nourishment for the growing embryo, one of the most innovative evolutionary occurrences on the planet.

Sean B. Carroll presents the public with an excellent book containing some of the most remarkable achievements in science. This piece of literature, titled "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of the Species", is extremely informative for people who do not have a background in the sciences but wish to learn about some of the most important discoveries of our natural history and about our origin as a species. The three part of this book, The Making of a Theory, The Loveliest Bones and the Natural History of Humans. In the first section, the reader is immersed into the world of Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace and Henry Bates. The first section of Carroll’s book “Remarkable Creatures” explains the timelines of Darwin, Wallace and Bates in their expeditions throughout much of the unexplored world. Darwin’s journey began on the HMS beagle where he is described to have struggled with extreme seasickness but made astonishing discoveries. The second section explains some of the expeditions in search of proof to Darwin’s theory of The Origin of the Species. The second section entitled “The Loveliest Bones” explains the progression of fossils supporting the Origin of Species theory presented by Darwin. The third part of this book follows the journey to deciphering human origins.

The evolution of tetrapods starts with the fish. The fish has evolved over millions of years into what are now four limbed organisms. It is said that the legs and arms of todays tetrapods have evolved from the fins of fish. Alfred Sherwood Romer stated that the tetrapod limbs evolved on land. This theory was denied by Jenny Clack who has hypothesized that in fact the limbs evolved in water first. The fish proceeded to progress with evolution once they have evolved into amphibians which were then able to go on land, further evolved into limbs with digits. This discovery was huge in the theory of evolution. Missing links such as the Caecilians were discovered and have backed up the theory of limbs of tetrapods evolving in water first rather than land.

There are many different phyla of mollusks. The firs that I would like to talk about is the Aplacophorans. These are the mollusks that bear no shells. These were also one of the first invertebrates. They were wormlike with a chitinous radula that would help them with eating particles in the ocean.
The next group is the Polyplacophorans which translates to the bearer of many shells. They were known for tightly clasping on rocks. Their shells consisted of 8 overlapping dorsal plates and also consisted of a radula for feeding. Their heads are rudimentary which did not consist of any eyes or tentacles. They had a broad foot and would creep along the ocean floor to get around.
The Monoplacophorans meaning one shell bearers, had a single dorsal shell a radula and also a rudimentary head. These creatures also had a fleshy foot which helped them move along the ocean floor.
The pelecypods are also known as bivalves. These are commonly known as clams, muscles, scallops and oysters. They consist of 2 lateral hinged shells with no radula. These are the first mollusks who have eyes and also gills used in filter feeding.
The gastropods are the most common consisting of snails and slugs. They have a coiled shell which is secondarily lost later in life and also a head with eyes and tentacles.
Cephalopods are also considered mollusks even though the species in that group consist of octopus, and squid. They are the most developed mollusks which have a head, and complex eyes. They are very intelligent and active. Cephalopods also use a foot-water jet propulsion to move themselves around to hide from prey and capture their food. The giant squid is the largest invertebrate ever found.

Tip growing cells in plants are very important to life. Without these, plants would have no way to function. For example, pollen tubes are able to deliver sperm to the ovule for fertilization. The root hairs of a plant increase the surface area allowing for more nutrient uptake which then transitions to a higher fitness and survival rate for the plant. For a cell to grow only at the tip, you will have to have a cell wall which will allow growth of the cell at the apex and not on the sides of the wall. Cellulose is secreted to the sides of the cell wall which will in turn create a solid barrier and will prevent growth in that direction. With the help of the protein actin, the apex will be allowed to grow and expand.