Blogs

3 other containers with spiders will be placed in the cooler environment. An ice bucket and styrofoam box will be used to keep the temperature cool and the ice will be switched every 12 hours to maintain a consistent temperature. The last 3 containers will be heated by a heat lamp at roughly 30°C. All 9 spiders will be let be to make webs for 5 days. The spiders will be given food/water and the ice will be switched as needed. After 5 days, each plastic cup will be weighed.

To determine the web production in each environment, the plastic cup will be weighed at the end of the 5 days. The final weight and initial weight will be subtracted,  which will give us the weight of each spider web. The weights between the temperature groups will then be compared. Finally, a statistical test will be run to see if there is significance between the varying temperatures and spider web production.

Other experiments have been conducted that tested the color background preference in a species. The background color preference in tadpoles was tested to see if they preferred a white or black background (Moriya ,Kito ). They held the tadpoles in either a black or white container since hatching and then transferred them to the test container which was divided into white or black halves on the bottom and halfway up the walls using acrylic plates. This methodology is emulated in the design of our test boxes which will also split the tank in half and cover the floor and entire walls with the selected color  because of the spider’s ability to climb. We will be using printed poster paper to get the desired colors and cover the exterior sides of the clear tank so that the color is seen on the inside.

 

    Idealistically, a world free of congenital diseases would be a miraculous one, but the means needed to create such a world are far too severe to partake in. First, people have to decide what congenital diseases the world will be better without, and then comes the question of who is allowed or not allowed to reproduce. And does anyone have the right to restrict the ability of someone else’s reproductive success? In the past, the United States was home to a world of eugenics. According to the nature.com article on Eugenics, the American movement took place in the early 1900’s. In theory, the idea of selecting more desirable traits to rid of certain diseases sounds like a relatively good idea, until you take into consideration the means at which this would be accomplished. The eugenics movement involved many cases of involuntary sterilization and institutionalization. During this movement, we lacked the vast knowledge of genetics and genomes, so they believed certain qualities such as alcoholism, “criminality”, “feeblemindedness”, and epilepsy were traits that possessed a great genetic basis, which is not wholly the case. Also, if these were the traits thought to be undesired, which there are likely many good reasons one might not want to possess them, one can only imagine what type of traits might be considered undesirable now. In the 30’s, race was a relatively big factor in the eugenics movement. Many black families were sterilized or institutionalized, and who’s to say that within today's cultural turmoil, a similar thing might not occur? There’s not a clear line between one person might consider desirable or undesirable, a decision could not be justly drawn. Although we have greatly expanded our knowledge on genetics and natural selection since the eugenics movement, some attitudes against desirable traits may have not evolved as much, and as a result we might face a similar fight over what is or isn’t ethical in terms of selecting who can and cannot reproduce.  In the knowgenetics.org article about current day eugenics, this similar issue arises. If a certain disease if common within one ethnic group, then how do we screen all people of this ancestry without it turning into something that targets the well being of an entire population? Testing entire races might bring into play harsh stereotypes and biases against these people, as a result of testing that some people might have never wanted to be a part of. For all the good this potential genetic testing might do, I believe there will be too much ethical, political, and social backlash that will cause more harm to society than something such as down syndrome or congenital heart disease ever would.

While the closure of a Mimosa pudica plant serves as a defense mechanism against predators, it also comes at a drawback. In this state, the leaves of the plant cannot collect as much sunlight, therefore limiting its ability to photosynthesize. There has been research done to test the effects of light availability in relation to the closure time of Mimosa pudica, and it is likely the plant adjusts its closure time to depending on light availability. There is also evidence supporting that the health and state of a plant, and not the individual leaves on the plant vary the closure time in response to touch. Thus, the conditions a Mimosa pudica is grown under may affect its response rate and overall closure time.

When a water soluble substance, like Vitamin C, is present in the body at higher than threshold

plasma levels, it will be eliminated from the body through urination. The level of the substance

in the body must reach the renal threshold for this to begin to happen. In the case given in this

example, we are dealing with vitamin C which is a water soluble protein that can’t be stored in

the body. If you were to intake too much vitamin C into your body at a given time, then it will

remain in your blood stream until it is eliminated via the kidneys and urinated out of the body.

Taking the vitamins in smaller quantities in timed out intervals will allow all of the vitamins to

be absorbed into the body because the renal threshold will not be reached.

Overall objective: to observe the phototactic behavior of the common cellar spider through the effects of LED light on web formation

Specific Aim 1. Observe how LED lights hanging at three different distances from the top of three separate Ziploc container effect cellar spider web formation. The first container’s LED will be touching the top of the container, the second container’s LED in the middle of the container, the third located one inch from the bottom of the container.

Phototaxis is the directional movement of an organism towards or away from a light source. This behaviour has been observed in a wide range of organisms, from unicellular bacteria to complex multicellular organisms. Phototaxis can be positive or negative. Positively phototaxic organisms move towards the light source, while negatively phototaxic organisms move away from the light source. Each organism has its own specific biological cause for a phototactic response. The phototactic response of the common cellar spider in response to artificial light is a mechanism that is poorly understood. In this proposal, we aim to observe the phototactic behaviour of the common cellar spider using light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged in six different controlled environments, and determine if the artificial light source has any effect on the spider's web building behaviours. To do this, medium, square, Ziploc Tupperware containers will be modified with LED lights and house one cellar spider for seven days. We propose six modifications of the containers to test the spiders phototactic behaviour in various environments:(1)Different lengths of LED light insertion in the container (2)Different colors of LED light displayed (3)Different spider species used (4)Different brightness of light displayed (5)Different time exposures of light and (6)No light present in the chamber. Phototactic behavior will be quantified by measuring the distance between the LED light and the spider web (if present) and its diameter. The data from all six environments will be compiled and analyzed using an Excel spreadsheet. Understanding the effects LED light has on phototactic responses of spiders, specifically web formation, will have profound implications on our understanding of animal behavior and pave the way for future research projects.

Gray and white are made up of the same colors. They both use red, green, and blue. The difference between the two is the intensity that each color is added. For example, white is all three colors at their highest intensity (225), while gray is all 3 colors but only at an intensity of 128 each. This aim is designed to see if the spider will pick the color that is made up of the highest intensity colors, or pick the background that uses less of the colors.

The RGB color model uses the colors red, green and blue to create virtually any color. To make white using the RGB color model, all of the three colors are put to their highest intensities. To make yellow both red and green are put to their highest intensities and no blue is added. This aim will allow us to see if the spider prefers white- which is the color of the spider, or yellow which is the color the spider is able to turn to.

Due to using intermediate flight speeds for calibration purposes, pectoralis power data for cockatiels and doves are overestimated at slow speeds and underestimated at fast speeds. Apart from the pectoralis muscles, data from other relevant wing muscles was not recorded in this study, and the role of the tail in reducing power requirements at slow speeds was unaddressed. Finally, the model struggled to accurately measure drag at faster speeds due to a gap in the knowledge of the components of total drag.