Writing in Biology

vitamin D.

  Based on my current lifestyle, the most physical activity I involve myself in is the approximately 30 to 40 minutes of walking to class and dining halls during the day. It has always been a goal of mine to incorporate going to the gym as a part of my daily schedule. As of right now, my plan is to start small and go to the gym 3-4 times a day for about 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity. This will likely include going on the treadmill for the time or an elliptical. Another option for those days may be a fitness class which is usually one hour long with short breaks in between. Most days, I take the elevator back up to my room, however, I will begin to take the stairs instead. I believe that every small effort towards being more active will contribute to a long-term effect on my physical health.

As implied throughout the essay many of the foods that are considered the healthier options fall into various nutrient groups. For example, fish is a healthy source of protein and also a great source of unsaturated fats. Particular examples including the aforementioned highlight the idea that being health conscious when making meal choices will affect every aspect of your diet and health. Foods that are most dense in a specific nutrient most-likely contain smaller amounts of other nutrients that are just as vital to the overall health of a person. Understanding that daily food choices may positively or negatively impact my long-term health is essential, for it enables to alter my choices based on awareness.

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau explores a civilian’s duty to use their conscience, not pure legislation, to lead their actions.  Thoreau argues that the democracy of his time only makes legislation that grants the wishes of the majority by allowing them to decide what is right and what is wrong.  “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then?”. Thoreau then encourages men whose conscience finds certain laws unjust, to voice their disagreement through a number of ways.

This species is adapted for diving and swimming in water thanks to its modified rear limbs. The bones of the feet are longer than usual and can extend like a fan under water, in a similar way as its hind limbs have modified fingers that give the shape of the wings. These extended membranes are usually folded during regular flight, but can be extended as well during soaring to aid in saving energy.

The patagium, or wing membrane, contains special elastic fibers that get harder in water to help the bat swim more efficiently.

Hunting strategy:

The bat soars close to the surface of the water with the help of the wind currents like gannets. Once it sees its prey, it flies up in the air and the plunges head first into the water. With its prey in its mouth, it quickly swims towards the surface at high speed, and like a flying fish it hops in and out of the water several times until it gains enough momentum to start flapping its wings and fly.

http://blogs.bu.edu/biolocomotion/2011/10/16/bats-the-only-flying-mammal/ <- important!

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/group/flying-fish/

When a muscle lacks oxygen or requires a lot of energy in a short amount of time, will perform anerobic respiration rather than areobic respiration to produce its energy. This process involved glycolsis, in which ADP and NAD+, an oxidized electron carrier is converted to ATP, NADH (a reduced electron carrier) and pyruvate. The next step of anerobic respiration is called fermentation. In animal cells this is through lactic acid fermentation, but yeast and plants ethanol fermentation is used. In lactic acid fermentation pyruvate is catalyzed to lactate via lactate dehydrogenase. This process also oxidizes NADH to NAD+. This NAD+ may therefore be used for another step of glycolosis in order to produce ATP for the muscle to use. Unfrotunately this prcoess much less effecient than aerobic respiration which uses oxygen, and a lot less energy is produced. Lactic acid will also begin to build up in the cells.

While they seem nearly identical, they are actually quite different. If you tried to place the L amino acid on top of the D amino acid, it would be impossible for them to line up the same way. This leads to their interaction with other molecules to be different from one another. Online I found that it is still not fully known why D amino acids are so rare, but found it is manly because L amino acids tend to be more successful in nature for some reason. A cross link is a bond that links one polymer chain to another. Examples of this can be covalent bonds or ionic bonds. Here, with proteins, it would be the peptide bonds. A cross link is a bond that links one polymer chain to another. Examples of this can be covalent bonds or ionic bonds. Here, with proteins, it would be the peptide bonds. I find it surprising yet interesting that ion pairs between N and C groups as well as strong disulfide bonds and hydrogen bonding don't contribute much to the stability of a protein. Disulfide bonds are one of the strongest bonds so I would think that bonding would help stabilize the protein. However, structures and ions such as zinc are more important with helping with the stability of a protein.

Children of Holocaust survivors are frequently burdened by the responsibility of telling, or at least understanding the stories of their parents.  In Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman, Art feels as though it is his duty to carry on the story of his father’s experiences.  The author does this by writing these comic books illustrating the process of extracting the stories as well as their content.  In the film The Summer of Aviya, directed by Eli Cohen, the child of the survivor is a young girl, who accidentally learns the stories of her mother through her own spying.  The two representations of Holocaust stories are one in the same in that they both involve damaged parental figures bringing their metaphorical baggage into their relationships with their children.  

Art, the author of Maus, learned of his father’s experiences in the Holocaust through convincing him to tell his story.  Art returns to his father, Vladek’s, home often to speak about his story of the war. Vladek consistently asks Art to come over and help him with general house chores making it appear as though Vladek is desperate to spend time with Art.  Vladek’s desideratum may cause him to be more willing to tell his story, if it means that Art will be there with him. Since Art cares so much about writing the book about his father’s life, he often pressures Vladek into telling him intimate stories that he would prefer not to tell.  One way that Art persuades his father is by asking him to tell stories about his wife, who he loved very dearly. Although Vladek tries to avoid speaking about the personal details, at his heart he cares about carrying on the family story. It is evident that he cares about the representation of the history  when he freely takes out pictures of his relatives, and tells their individual stories, one by one. Aside from the snooping Art does in attempt to find his late mother’s diaries, Art does not need to pry to get stories from his father.

This species of flying fox has adapted to hunting fish by plunging into water, just like gannets and other diving birds.

It has a highly adapted aerobic metabolism, with an unusual amount of mitochondria, capillaries, and cardiovascular system.

Its wings have a high aspect ratio for speed and soaring, as well as for saving the cost of flight.

Once it catches its prey with its mouth, it comes up to the surface by paddling its adapted hind limbs, which resemble those of other swimming mammals like sea otters.

In the surface it swims with its wings towards the closest shore, where it consumes its prey.

E-site: the ribosomal site harbouring deacylated tRNA on transit out from the ribosome. Describe reading frame and then mention when the ribosome knows what is the correct reading frame . Starts with AUG in P-site

-mention direction of ribosome reads mRNA (3’ to 5’ or vice versa)

-then introduce tRNA and function. point out anticodons and anticodon loops

-use tRNA, amino acid , mRNA, and ribosome manipulatives

-form the peptide bonds(discuss the location of amino and carboxyl groups involved) and mention the dehydration reaction

-ribosome reaches stop codon and the disassembly of the ribosome and release of polypeptide and mRNA

-highlight important of termination

-discuss genetic code and exceptions

The order of Gobiifromes contains 210 genera and 1,700 species of fish and are some of the smallest known vertebrates. Gobies are primarily marine fish, although they occasionally wander into adjacent freshwater areas. Their pelvic fins are united and form a sucker, which is used to adhere to objects such as plants and rocks. There are some species of sandy substrate dwelling goby which form a symbiotic relationship with shrimp. These shrimp are blind and unable to defend themselves. They will however, dig burrows in the soft sandy substrate in which both organisms may live. In return, the goby alerts the shrimp of incoming danger. There are also species of reef dwelling gobies which exhibit bidirectional sex change. Generally these fishes are protogynus and transition from female to male. Scientist have induced the opposite transition to occur by removing a female in the presence of males. The largest male present will then transition to a female. Likewise when two males were placed in the same area, the largest transitions to female. This is supposedly to have a matching pair of male and female. However it is unlikely this would occur in the wild, as the gobies would be more likely to migrate to a new area as this is more energy efficient.

As part of the comparative study of the control of eye movements by secondary eyes, we will have to develop different methods for each species. For example, we have an eye tracker developed particularly for salticids. For other species, we will illuminate the retinas with IR light and then capture the reflection with an IR camera in order to see the movement. We will use eye-masking techniques, already developed in our laboratory, to understand the role of the secondary eyes, if any, in principal eye control.