Writing in Biology

Since the web I chose was large and relatively flat, I decided to only focus on the right most portion of it. To take the photo, the camera was held about one foot above it and pointed directly downwards; this way the camera was horizontally parallel with the web, with the screen facing upwards. A quarter held between the pointer finger and middle finger of my left hand, was held at the level of the web and positioned so that it would show up at the bottom left corner of the photo, with little finger showing. Flash was turned on. Once a satisfactory photo was taken, I moved back towards the bike rack. I then positioned myself between the windows of the Student Union and the second pillar of the bike rack structure coming from the web location. The camera was pointed directly at the location of the web and the shot was framed so that the air filtration unit was at the center. The second photograph was then captured.

 

There are currently four FDA approved treatments for glioblastoma multiforme. They are all drugs that cover a pretty broad aspect of cancer mechanisms: Temozolomide is one of them and it is an alkylating agent, meaning it attaches an alkyl group to the guanine of DNA and effectively disrupts its ability to copy itself. The problem with this approach is that it will affect more than just cancer cells and this lack of specificity makes it detrimental to the rest of the body as well.  Bevacizumab is another FDA approved treatment for GBM. It inhibits angiogenesis, which means that it is good for stopping the metastasis of cancer. It is actually considered a relatively safe drug in general, but there are definitely still side effects including blood-clotting, allergic reactions, retinal detachment, etc. It slows tumor growth in GBM patients, but it doesn’t increase the survival rate. Lomustine and Carmustine are the other two FDA approved GBM treatments and they are both alkylating agents as well. With all of these treatments in mind, brute-force approaches seem to be the only thing they will approve, and specificity is not really brought into the picture. Without that I believe that these treatments will only briefly prolong the inevitable.

Inference allows you to put pieces of evidence together to come to a logical conclusion. Recently I noticed that there were relatively frequent puddles of water that would appear in the basement of the house that I rent. It only happened when it would rain outside, and the size of the puddle would vary based on the amount of water we would get on a given day. This let me rule out that it wasn’t some sort of internal leak and that the water had to have come from the outside. As it continued to occur, I saw that there was always a large wet spot on the wall adjacent to the puddle on the floor. The wet spot lead directly up to a window at the top of the wall. With this information in mind, I figured that the water had to be coming in from that specific window some how. Following this thought, I checked the outside of the house where the small window was located. Covering it was a plastic rain guard riddled with cracks and holes. When I looked into the area where the rain guard was supposed to cover, I saw there was a build up of water. With all of this information in mind, I was able to confidently say that this was the source of the water in my basement.

I was having a lot of trouble downloading Inkscape, despite extensive trouble shooting, following tutorials, and a trouble shooting thread on Reddit. I kept running into technical difficulties so I decided to try something else. I downloaded an app called “iDoodle” on my iPhone and tried drawing circles and arrows onto my different photos on the app, but they looked a bit messy and unprofessional. I looked up how to insert arrows and circles on Microsoft Word and found that it was relatively easy, so I chose to use Microsoft Word. I found a picture of the campus map on google by searching “Umass campus map.” I found a picture that was already cropped to a fitting segment that included the Student Union and the Biology Computer Resource Center, so I chose to use this image as my part A. I pasted it into a Word Document. For part B, I pasted the picture I took of the Student Union, and circled the pot that I found the spider on by clicking “Insert,” “Shapes,” and then “Oval” on Word, and then unfilling the oval so that it was just an outline that I could place around the pot (rather than a solid oval that would block the pot.) I changed the color of the oval from white to red. Next, for part C, I added the picture I took of the pot for reference. I added two thick red arrows pointing toward the precise location of the spider web on the pot, in between the two ridges where it was nestled. I added the arrows by clicking, “Insert,” “Shapes,” and then “Arrow.” I changed the font to red and the size of the arrows to be thicker. Lastly, I added the photograph that I took of the spider itself. I created another red oval and placed it directly around the spider, but I manipulated it by dragging the edges with my cursor so that the oval was more of a circle, which was better suited for the shape to put around the spider. I then created a textbox in the upper left corner of each of my images, filled in each textbox to have a solid white fill, and typed “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D,” respectively in each box. I bolded the font and made it size 48, then put a space before each letter to center the letter in the text box. I took a screenshot on my MacBook (pressing Command+Shift+4) to save it as a PNG.

In order to obtain a picture of a spider, I had to find a spot where it would be likely for a spider to build a web. I went through a couple failures first. I left the Biology Computer Lab and exited Morrill, then headed to the right continuing down North Pleasant Street to the building Hasbrouck. I entered Hasbrouck through the entrance off of North Pleasant, and went straight down  the stairs when I got inside and down to the basement floor of Hasbrouck. Hasbrouck is an older building and I knew that they had a couple vending machines right up against the corners of the wall in the basement, which I thought would be a prime spot for spider webs. Unfortunately, I did not have any luck. I exited Hasbrouck through the basement exit and went straight outside to the Lincoln Campus center, and continued walking straight until I walked out of the building. I checked the vegetation outside of the campus center, but failed to find spider webs there. I continued walking straight and then took a left and headed to the front side with the entrance (side facing inward toward campus, not toward the ILC) of the Student Union, where I noticed there was a big black pot containing a plant in front of each of the four columns attached to the building by the entrance. I went to the one that was closest to me, at the end nearest the Lincoln Campus Center. I first checked the vegetation itself, but did not see a spider. I then crouched down and checked the small space between the back of the pot and the column itself, thinking that would be a good spot for a spider web to be nestled. I did not see one, but as I turned away I noticed a spider on the pot itself. The pot had vertical ridges around its circumference, and the web was nestled in between two of of them that were actually right above a small patch of other vegetation that was just growing on the ground. I crouched back down so that I was directly parallel to the spider. I extended my arm out so that iPhone Camera was about 4 inches away from the spider and zoomed in on my camera 1/4 of the maximum level of zooming in. I focused the camera by tapping my iPhone screen a few times until it was focused and took a picture. I then took a picture of the pot full of vegetation for reference, and another picture of the whole front of the Student Union Building.

An inference is an educated guess as to why something is the way it is. This inference usually stems from an observation that makes you question a circumstance. For example, 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 my inference was true, but I know that it is typical for someone walking out of a difficult exam to have a frustrated look on their face. In this case, my inference was correct; I confirmed my inference by asking how my friend felt about the exam. 

While sitting down on the bottom step of the stairs, a picture was taken of the spider web in the hole of the stair railing. A UMass Id card was placed right beneath the spider web to act as a scale for the web size. The IPhone camera was tilted upwards so that the background of the picture was a green tree; this dark background created great contrast that could be used to make the spider web show up, despite it being bright outside. After a picture was taken that captured the small spider web, another photo was taken 10 steps backwards from the Lewis Hall main entrance. This picture was angled slightly to the right, so that the Lewis entrance sign was at the top left of the picture, and the stairs and right side railing was at the bottom left of the picture. This picture would be used to understand where the spiderweb was located.

During synaptic communication, an action potential arrives at at an axon terminal causing depolarization. This depolarization leads to opening of the voltage gated Ca2+ channels which allows Ca2+ to enter the cell. The introduction of this calcium triggers exocytosis of synaptic vesicle contents,  so the neurontransmitters are released and they diffuse across the synaptic cleft. They bind with the receptoors on the post synaptic cleft, this binding initiates a response in the post synaptic cell. Communication begins with an action potential and this potetential creates a chain reaction that ultimately leads to a response in the post synaptic cell. This signal can also be stopped in a couple different ways. Neurontransmitters can diffuse out of the synaptic cleft, others are degraded by enzymes, and some are taken out of the synaptic cleft by reuptake channels. 

Komodo dragons live in the island of Flores, in Indonesia, and apart from being one of the heaviest lizards (~ 70 kg) they are also one of the few with a venomous bite. They are usually unsuccessful in actively hunting prey, specially when trying to bring down animals much bigger than them like water buffalo (300-550 kg). Nonetheless, once a komodo dragon bites a water buffalo it is just a matter of patience and tracking down with the sense of smell, to find a few days later the carcass of the buffalo ready for feeding.

People used to think that due to their scavenging nature, Komodo dragons have deadly bacteria in their saliva from the decaying flesh on which they feed, which could eventually induce sepsis in another prey if bitten. But researchers have discovered that Komodo dragons have venom in their saliva, which is designed for exsanguination by causing blood pressure to plummet, inhibiting coagulation, and inducing shock in the victim. Still, water buffalo are too big for bleeding to death from a Komodo dragon bite injury on just flesh. On the other hand, clean water is scarce in the island of Flores, which forces the buffalo to live in warm waters swarming with bacteria that enter through the open wounds inflicted by the Komodo dragons and cause the actual sepsis that leads to their death.