Writing in Biology

From the photos, you can conclude that these two pictures were taken at different angles and time throughout the day. the first set of photos show a bush covered in snow half way up its branch, a tree located in a parking lot with a snow hill, and the library with the focus placed on a dead tree. The second picture tries to recreate the original copies but does not because figure a does not have the snow covering more than half the branch height as what was observed in the original, figure b has darker snow in front of the tree than the original figure b, and figure c is pictured at a different angle than the original. The format of the copied figure is not similar to the original either the figures are closed in the corner whereas the original has a more spaced out format with no mandated spacing. 

One major difference in the two sets of images is the size of the pictures within the panel. The one on the right has differnt sized images and they don't allign in the same, neat way that the left side does. This is something that probably resulted from unclear methods because the person creating the second image set was unable to recreate exactly what the first person did. 

Some differences also occur in the lighting of the pictures so they were likely taken at different times of the day, or if at the same times just on different days so the sun wasn't in the same place.

The lettering of the pictures also does not match, the letters on the right hand side are smaller but they are in the same color and font and the images are labeled correctly. The sizing and placement are just not in sync. The overall size of both panels is also not consistent and the image on the right lacks the black border. 

The bottom two pictures in each set also seem to be taken from different angles and perhaps different branches. The methods used for describing the figure set might not have been clear enough in describing these scenes.

The angles of the picture of the tree, the top two in both pictures was also taken from a different angle. 

Sexual selection is an evolutionary mechanism that pits the males and females of a species against each other. Females are often described as cryptic in their display patterns because it is not necessary to be flashy. Females are given the proverbial “choice” of mate and are therefore choosy in the males. Males compete to be flamboyant and display qualities that the female uses to appraise the fitness of the suitor and decide if this will raise the fitness of her offspring. Respectively, the “sexy son” hypothesis and “good genes” hypothesis say that a female will choose a respective mate because it of their appeal because their children will then have that same appeal for the next generation and that a female chooses a mate based on their genes because it will result in the offspring having better genes. This makes males compete for the female and the female choice decides what is deemed competatively appropriate. Some scientists suggest that the qualifier is not anything of apparent value, just what has evolved as the required quality. Put more simply, the idea of "beauty" is not a signifier of good genes at all, but rather a preference that has undergone runaway selection and as a result, no longer holds any direct correlation to the holder's fitness other than how well they fit that preference. This preference changes with the generations of females over evolutionary time and as a result, male characteristics change as well.

Sexual selection is an evolutionary mechanism that pits the males and females of a species against each other. Females are often described as cryptic in their display patterns because it is not necessary to be flashy. Females are given the proverbial “choice” of mate and are therefore choosy in the males. Males compete to be flamboyant and display qualities that the female uses to appraise the fitness of the suitor and decide if this will raise the fitness of her offspring. The “sexy son” hypothesis and “good genes” hypothesis respectively say that a female will choose a respective mate because it of their appeal because their children will then have that same appeal for the next generation and that a female chooses a mate based on their genes because it will result in the offspring having better genes. This makes males compete for the female and the female choice decides what is deemed appropriate. Some scientists suggest that the qualifier is not anything of apparent value, just what has evolved as the required quality. This changes with the generations of females over evolutionary time and as a result, male characteristics change as well.

Sexual selection also gives way to what is known as an evolutionary arms race. This is where the male and female are both evolving to counteract an adaptation that the other sex has that prohibits one sides reproductive fitness. Such examples are the development mechanical reproductive traits that prohibit the males from forcefully mating with a nonconsenting female, evidenced by the development of duck penises and vaginas, or the evolution of infanticide as a technique to enhance fitness. Infanticide involves a sexually mature adult, usually male, killing the offspring of another mature adult of the same species. This is done by the killer to become the new sexual partner of the deceased’s parent which would otherwise have been unavailable. This act raises the fitness of the killer and reduces the fitness of the victim’s parent.

What makes some people more vulnerable to addiction than others? Until recently, this was not well understood by the scientific community. An international team of researchers recently published a study suggesting that the answer may be buried in our DNA. The paper describes an ancient retrovirus present in a higher proportion among people battling drug addiction. The researchers found that drug users were 3x more likely to have remains of the HK2 retrovirus within a particular gene than people who did not use drugs. This virus was found in 34% of the drug users that were tested, compared to 9.5% of the local population. It is thought that this retrovirus affects the RASGRF2 gene, which is involved in regulating the brains dopamine levels. Dopamine helps control the reward and pleasure centers of the brain, but is also involved in addictive behavior when it is generated in high amounts as a result of drug use. The researchers have not established a causal relationship between the retrovirus and addiction, but the correlation is very strong. With further research, the way that drug addiction is handled both medically and psychologically could change drastically.

For the Spider web methods project I went to the ISB building, the side that faces the Life sciences building. I went to the back of the building where the doors are located near to the no smoking sign. I took the picture with my cell phone camera before my class started around 3:15 pm. At first it was kind of difficult to find the spiderweb because I didn’t know where to find one except for the place I had lived before on campus last year. When I saw the spiderweb I didn’t hesitate to take the picture. Additional pictures were taken in order to capture the best angle of the spiderweb because it was near the door and the window. There was a lot of people coming and going through the doors, so that was some kind of an impediment at first. For the map I opened the Umass Amherst Campus App on my phone that thankfully showed me the ISB location that I will screenshot later and save it on my phone. In class I installed Inkscape on my MacBook but at first it didn’t want to open and thankfully the professor helped me out and I was able to open the program and copy and paste the pictures I took on September 17, 2018.  I labeled the figures A)was for the spider web B)was for the environment and C)for the map. 

When I was in high school, I got my first car. It was a 2003 Ford Explorer that my father passed down to me when I got my drivers license. It was not in the best shape, but it got me from where was to where I needed to go so I did not complain much. One day while I was sitting in the parking lot of a local pizza shop, smoke started billowing from under the hood of my car and a potent chemical smell filled the cabin. A light started flashing on the dashboard indicating that my engine needed to be checked. The temperature gauge on the dashboard went into the red zone, indicating that the engine temperature was getting too high. I turned off my engine and exited the drivers seat, only to find green liquid pouring out of my car onto the pavement. My inference was that a tube of some kind had broken off of where it was supposed to be attached. The car had a fair amount of rust on it, so I thought that the metal screws holding the tube in place could have rusted away over time and reached their breaking point. Sure enough, when I opened the hood of the car, there was the anti-freeze tube swinging freely and still pouring anti-freeze fluid out of the car. It was through the observations I made and then conveying them to my mechanic that he was able to fix my car so I could drive it again. I used my basic knowledge of a car engine to make inferences on what the problem could possibly be, and then used my observations to narrow down the possibilities. To fix the car, my mechanic relied on my initial observations of the problem, his secondary observations once the car was in his shop, and then his inferences to determine what steps he would take to fix the problem.

An inference is an educated guess as to why something is the way it is. In most cases, this inference stems from a previous observation. These observations and inferences are made every day whether we are aware of it or not. Today I observed that my friend walking out of an exam had a distressed look on her face. From that observation, I inferred that the test was difficult. I did not know for a fact that the exam was difficult, however, I understood from prior knowledge that facial expressions can indicate how a person feels about an exam. In this case, my inference was correct; I confirmed my inference by asking how my friend felt about the exam. Overall, the observation that my friend was distressed and my knowledge that she had just finished an exam led me to infer that the exam was difficult. 

Just recently I learned about cancers ability to evolve and adapt to its environment. It does this by having multiple branches of highly unique sections of the tumor. Like a tree, there is a central “trunk” of cancer cells from which highly evolved cancer cells can stem from. If you were to cut a whole tumor in half, you would be able to see the distinct sections; some off colored, some highly vascularized, and others larger or smaller than the rest. These variable sections of tumors are sometimes only a few centimeters apart or on opposite sides of the tumor. This variability is why cancer is so hard to treat. A biopsy only removes a specific part of the tumor, but as we now know, there are multiple parts and different constructs of the same cancer elsewhere in the tumor. The biopsy will allude how to treat that one specific section even though a different section will not be affected by the treatment at all. Cancer is a fickle beast and one that still leaves many wondering how we are ever supposed to cure it when it appears the more we fight cancer, the more it fights back. Hopefully one day we will figure it out and hopefully its someday soon.

In the computer lab, both pictures were exported to Microsoft Word (version 15.26). Both pictures were placed side by side; the one on the left was the picture of the Lewis Hall main entrance and the picture of the right was the picture of the zoomed-in spider web. Following the placement of these picture, a screenshot of the ‘OpenMaps’ aerial view map of UMass Campus was taken; this screenshot was zoomed in so that North Pleasant Street, Thatcher Road, and all of the residential halls in between these two streets were present in the screenshot. Lewis Hall was present in the right, upper corner of the screenshot. This picture was placed above the two pictures of the spider web. Three letters were then placed on each picture: ‘A’ on the map picture, ‘B’ on the picture of the Lewis Hall entrance, and ‘C’ on the spider web picture. These letters were placed as text boxes, in font size 24 with black coloring.