Perfect Paragraph

I entered Morrill 4 south and went up the flights of stairs to the second level. I walked into the hallway and turned to the right, where I saw doors that led to the bridge that connects Morrill 4 to Morrill 2. If you look out at the bridge, on the left there should be a blue sign that has “Morrill 4 South” written on it. Underneath this sign is a blue radiator, where I found the spider web. If you stand facing the Morrill 4 sign and the blue radiator, the spider web is located on the bottom left side of the radiator attached to the pipe and black part of the wall. I placed a ticonderoga pencil on the ground, angled at roughly 15 degrees from the wall. I then held my iPhone, with the bottom of it resting on the ground, about 6 inches from the wall and faced it towards the spider web. I then took a photo of the spider web and the pencil with my flash on. To get a photo of the environment, I stood about 5 feet away from the blue radiator, closer to the stairwell than the doors to the Morrill bridge. I then angled my phone so I captured the blue radiator, most of the rug on the floor, the blue Morrill sign, and the left door that goes out to the Morrill bridge.

I started by thinking about different locations spider webs mights be found on campus that would be easily accessible for any person. I decided to explore morrill to find spider webs as it is a easy building to access, yet has enough low foot traffic area for spider webs to be easily found. I walked up towards the garden/court yard from North Pleasant to get into Morrill.I entered Morrill 4 North through the door directly under the walkway that connects the two sides of Morrill. As I walked in I immediately looked to my right to see the map of Morrill, noting my location for future reference. I walked down the hallway going past the two double doors at the end of the hallway. I walked down the first set of stairs to the first landing that has two doors on its left and right that allow a person to leave Morrill. I inspected the stairs I had just walked down and I noticed that on the lowest stair there was a spider web on the left side of the stairs when facing up the stairs. I used a ten dollar bill as an object for scale, placing it on the floor of the landing next to the spider web with its width very close to the wall. The bill was angled so that Hamilton’s face was able to be seen, yet the bill appeared upside down in pictures due to it’s placement. I took several photos to ensure that I would have one that satisfied me, electing to use a picture that I used flashed in. After taking these pictures I walked up the stairs and took a picture of the stairwell  from the top landing closest to the door which I had entered initially. The picture included the stairs and the door closest to the stairs. After gathering the pictures I went to Livemaps and selected the location I was at on open street maps and took a screenshot of the map with the pinpointed location. After this I gathered the pictures and the screenshot into Inkscape. I organized the pictures into a square figures with the right half dedicated to the picture of the web, and the left side organized with the picture of the stairwell on top of the Livemaps screenshot.

The top left picture of the stairwell had the values of X= 0.394, Y= 219.951, W= 340.454, and H= 250, this picture also included an arrow pointing at the location of the spider web. The conditions of the line are X=245.877, Y=265.821, W=45.519, and H=46.193. This picture also contains the letter A in a white box, with black borders, at the top left and with the coordinates X=0, Y=428.781, W=42.0, and H=41.563. The bottom left screenshot of the map had the values of X=0.394, Y=0.0, W=340.454, and H=219.951. The picture includes a letter B in a white box, with black borders, at the top left and with the coordinates X=0.0, Y=178.781, W=42.9, and H=41.563 .The right picture of the spider web had the values of X=340.847, Y=0.0, W=375.300, and H=469.951. This picture too has a letter, the letter C, in a white box with black borders with the coordinates X=340.454, Y=428.781, W=42.0, and H=41.563.

Macromolecules are large molecules that make up everything around us. These macromolecules are composed of smaller subunits known as monomers. Monomers come together to form macromolecules which are polymers of their monomer subunits. These polymers are built from monomers through a process known as dehydration synthesis (1). This happens when one monomer forms a covalent bond with another, forming a chain and releasing water as a by product. There are four different classes of macromolecules. They are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

The first class, carbohydrates, is made up of monosaccharides, which form into long chains known as polysaccharides. Carbohydrates are important to the human body system because it is where the majority of the body's energy comes from (2). The body uses these foods to make glucose, an important energy source.

The second class, lipids, are molecules that contain hydrocarbons, which make up the building blocks of living cells. Lipids are important because they store the energy that our cells need to perform daily functions.

The next essential macromolecule, called proteins, basically dictate the function of the cell. Proteins can serve as a catalyst, transport and/or store other molecules, control growth and differentiation (3).

To identify the presence of different molecules, you can use a variety of tests. For this experiment, we used the Lipid Test which consists of determining if a certain liquid will leave a grease stain (indicating it is in fact a lipid), to test for lipids, The Simple Sugar Test to test for glucose using Benedict’s solution , and lastly, the Protein test using Biuret Reagent, to identify proteins. Unknown samples in this experiment were tested with different methods describe above to identify their contents.

The Ampullae of Lorenzini are electrorecepting organs found on the snout of shark. These tiny pores enter into a mucus filled canal, fillled with glucopolysaccharides, which aids in directing the electrical signal down to the base of the canal where the sensory cells are found. The receptor cells innervate at cranial nerve 7, along with the lateral line systems fish use to detect current flow of water. Rather than sensing its environment, a shark uses it electroreception to pinpoint prey it cannot see. This is especially important due to the positioning of the eyes on the shark. They are on the side of the sharks head. Therefore, when a fish is directly in front of the shark, it cannot see it. Thus, the shark relies its ability to detect electric fields to sense what is directly in front of it.

The Ampullae of Lorenzini are extremely sensitive organs and can detect charges down to a billionth of a volt. This means that the shark can detect cell depolarizations, such as those that occur during the contraction of a muscle. However the voltage of cell depolarizations is actually a much higher voltage than what the ampullae can detect. Rather, these electroreceptors are fine tuned to be able to detect the ions flowing through the gills of other fish. So as long as a fish is alive, moving and breathing, a shark can sense it.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

 

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.

For easy replicability, it was important that the camera position was something that anyone could achieve. The web picture was taken from between the break in the bushes. This area was used because it was the closest you could get to the web without disturbing it. To include the whole web and the gift card that was used for scale, the phone was held about 1.5 feet above the web. At 1.5 feet above, the gift card that was placed on the bottom right side of the photograph was easily seen. The phone was placed completely horizontal as the web was also flat against the bush. The photograph includes the whole web, but there is also a little bit of space around the edges where there is no web and only needles from the bushes. When it came to taking the picture of the environment, the camera position was at a 90-degree angle. The position it was taken from was about 4 feet right, and 3 feet backward from the web. From this position, the image was able to include the web, all the corner bushes, some of French Hall, a wooden structure that held saplings, and the Permaculture Garden shed in the background. This angle was chosen because it allowed for a lot of nature in the picture, and not only man-made structures such as buildings.