Writing in Biology

The Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) that was created from the product produced two major peaks outside of the fingerprint region. One peak obtained two spikes, one at 2959.90 and the other at 2873.09. This peak resembles the C-H bonding on the product’s structure. The second peak outside of the fingerprint region occurred at 1739.87. This peak resembles the double bond between the carbon and oxygen atom in the product’s structure. Within the fingerprint region, there was one meaningful peak occurring at 1465. This peak resembles the C-C bonding within the product’s structure.

While I have learned about the cell cycle many times in high school as well as college, I never realized how complex this cycle truly is. I was aware of checkpoints and the steps, but there are so many different "switches," mechanisms, and regulations to make sure cells going through replication come out normal. It amazes me that even though the cycle is so complex, for the most part, our cells and we come out fairly normal and function properly. I guess the many regulations prevent errors from occurring, but it still is amazing! I wasn’t sure what nucleating microtubules was or its purpose, so I looked it up. Microtubules nucleation is the process in which tubulin alpha-beta heterodimers begin aggregation to form an oligomeric tubulin structure, also known as a microtubule seed. The microtubule seed then eventually forms into a microtubule. This means that microtubule nucleation is the initiating step in the formation of a microtubule when there are no microtubules present.

In nearly every living species, temperature influences physiological and biological processes in the body. Spiders are ectothermic organisms, meaning they are unable to regulate their body temperatures relative to their environment. Because of this, changes in temperature can have a large impact on their metabolic rate and overall activity (Barghusen et al). It has been found that even winter active spiders will make less effective webs or no webs at all at temperatures 2° colder than the temperature they are accustomed to. Having a less effective, or no, web greatly reduced feeding, which could be detrimental for spiders (Aitchison 1984). Since web production is a large part of spider activity and survival, we decided to focus our project on how varying temperatures influence web production. Past research has found that spiders in lower temperatures tend to use less spiral silk than spiders in warmer temperatures (Vollrath et al). Our project focuses on how temperature influence the weight of webs.

There are many reproductive strategies that fish use. For instance, many fish species reproduce through polygyny, where 1 male will have multiple partners. With this method, the female partners usually choose the territory, not the male. A male will determine and defend its territory and build nests which the females will visit or say in. This of course depends on how sutible the nest or territory is. Fish which are polyandrous have 1 female which reproduces with multiple males. An example of this is the anglerfish. The female in this species is very large. Males are tiny tadpole looking fish, which latch onto the female. Eventually these males become parasitic and literally fuse with the female, becoming a sort of male gonad on the female. This even goes so far as to share the same ciruclatory system. Whenever th female wants to reproduce, the male is signaled and sperm is released into the eggs, fertilizing them.

During the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle, along with the growth and DNA synthesis, part of the cell’s preparation for M-phase includes the duplication of centrosomes. Centrosomes are the microtubule organizing centers in cells and create the spindle poles during M-phase. Microtubules are protein fibers made of tubulin and along with actin and intermediate filaments, make up the cytoskeleton. Not all microtubules are the same and the differences give polarity and directionality to the fibers. They are made of subunits of alpha and beta tubulin. The microtubules extend from the spindle poles of the centrosomes on either side of the cell during M-phase and overlap in the center where other proteins hold them the overlapping units together, thereby stabilizing the spindle system. This utilizes kinetochore microtubules and interpolar microtubules. Meanwhile, the third type of microtubules, aster microtubules, connect to the cell cortex with other proteins.

In this lab, 3-methylbutyl propanoate was synthesized via a reflux of an 3-methyl-1-butanol and propanoic acid. The reflux was performed with the intention to remove the excess water from the solution. The product was weighed 1.12 g and obtained a sweet, banana/pineapple scent. The percent yield was 70.88%. Although this is a relatively high percent yield, it is not 100%. Some reasons as to why the percent yield was not as high as expected could be due to loss of product during transfers between glassware, not allowing the water to completely evaporate in the reflux reaction, or not thoroughly mixing my solutions before and after the reflux reaction. By not allowing the water to fully evaporate or not mixing the solution completely, impurities may have remained in the product, causing a low percent yield.

Some fish species reproduce through a method of parthenogenesis called gynogenesis, in which a female will produce an already fertilized and viable egg. This method may be observed in Poeciliopsis monocha and Poeciliopsis lucida. Normally there is a breeding population of diploid fish of each of these species. However, there is also a triploid population of female only monocha-lucida-lucida fish (MLL). These fish produce triploid MLL eggs. Oddly enough, even though there is no genetic transfer between egg and sperm, a diploid lucida sperm is still required in order to activate the MLL egg. Once activated, this egg will develop into a female MLL adult. The fish that comes from this egg is always a triploid female, a genetic clone of its mother and all the fish in its lineage before it.

Nowadays there are genetic investigations that identifies any risk of diseases. By doing this, it allows for people to select a better medication and to be able to get a better personalized care. Gathering this genetic information, it facilitates doctors to choose a better medicine and the correct dose with less side effects for the patient. In many countries around the world the study of genetics in their population successfully identified the risk of developing hypertension. Another example is an indication of surgeries that reduces the risks after finding that a patient may have any mutation in the genes that may develop into breast cancer.

Currently it exists many genetic tests for the diagnosis of many diseases and with the help of new technology, it accelerates great findings to be able to catch diseases early and  hope for treatment. 

Nowadays there are genetic investigations that identifies any risk of diseases. By doing this, it allows for people to select a better medication and to be able to get a better personalized care. Gathering this genetic information, it facilitates doctors to choose a better medicine and the correct dose with less side effects for the patient. In many countries around the world the study of genetics in their population successfully identified the risk of developing hypertension. 

Putting up a finished project onto a poster board to present has been a part of science forever. Some things constitute a good poster while others bad, and some combination land most posters in between. A scientific poster can be viewed as good to different people for different reasons, like the opinion of the article or the subject matter being discussed. These are important but also some things across the board that make a good poster.  Such as, the title must sum up the experiment is an understandable way. The bear minimum requirement for the title should be that, but a good title will also intrigue the reader and almost trap them into wanting to read the rest. The title “ Using zebrafish larval models to study brain injury, locomotor and neuroinflammatory outcomes following intracerebral haemorrhage [version 2; referees: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]” is a basic title, just getting the point across, barely simplifying it. Compared to this title, “Are we aiming to miss in translational autoimmunity treatments?[version 1; referees: awaiting peer review]”, which involves the reader and tries to grab their interest with a question.  Another important aspect of a poster is the display of the data, if it is hard to see or make sense out of, the reader is more inclined to lose interest. Having the entire project be displayed in such a manner that someone who has no clue on the subject can generally figure it out is the aim. This means using words that are not unique to the field of study or if used explaining them in everyday terms. Another good key for quality posters is length, if the poster is too long it can scare readers away and if too short make them not see the point in the project. Many good things contribute to the quality of posters, these are just a few.