Perfect Paragraph

In this lab, the diversity of plant species in different environments were observed. The diversity of plant species were collected on a hill and a flatland. Depending on the slope of the environment, the plant diversity differed. Diversity is beneficial in an environment due to the stability it creates, making organisms more suitable for fighting disease and responding to other changes to its surroundings. An environment is healthy when it is very rich. Richness is the number of species in a community. The most common way to determine whether an environment is diverse is by calculating the Shannon Diversity Index. The Shannon Diversity Index is a method to mathematically measure a community’s diversity (Beals). This is important to biologists, enabling them to observe how rare or common a species is in an environment (Beals). Different enviornments were observed in order to see if the type of topography resulted in a difference in plant diversity. On a hill, the nutrients and soil ran down to the bottom, preventing plants from using them. The assumption can be made that there will be less diversity on a hill than there would be on a flatland due to the lack of nutrients.

In this day and age, we have access to an endless amount of information at our fingertips. While the Internet has a large amount of resources available for us to see, not everything we read online is trustworthy. In class today, we looked at a variety of different websites and determined whether or not they were reliable sources. My group was given a link to the Sierra Club Home Page, which is a non profit organization. Many of the articles or posts on the website did not have clear resources or references cited. Additionally, the appearance of the website was disorganized and had a lot of advertisements. The website appears to be very political and it seems like the creators are aiming to have as many people join and spread their movement. While the organization seemed to be supportive of the outdoors as well as science, the articles were clearly biased and did not have a reliable authors. Another group showed us the website for the Science Journal, which seemed much more trustworthy. The articles on Science had peer-reviewed articles and had references cited throughout the website. It is always important to examine sources on the website before using them to find facts because anyone can create a website and post things for the whole world to see.

Animals communicate within their species via four major modalities. The first of which is auditory signals. These are the calls, whines, and noises that each animal makes to communicate. Each noise has its own meaning behind it and context is extremely important for such situations. For example, during mating season, black-back gulls make a “mew” sound which is a sign of hunger and the desire to nuptial feed. This same sound is made by the gulls outside of mating season in order to call in back up for territorial disputes. Visual cues such as body position, colorations, and even dance or other ritualistic movements are the next modality of communication. These visual cues can be used as signs of aggression, dominance, and of course fertility. The third modality is the animal’s chemical signals. As we all know, each organism has a set of pheromones which elicit a response in a partner. This chemical signal is used to signify the beginning of mating season and the organism’s ability to mate. Lastly are tactile signals. Organisms may touch, poke or prod at each other to send a signal. An example of this once again comes from the black back gulls whose females often rub their heads on a mate’s neck to beg for food and/or sex. Each modality has unique characteristics, and all send different signals to members of the species. Therefore, it is important to analyze the situation to try and decipher the message being broadcasted.

There are multiple reasons for the resting membrane potential of a cell to be at -70 mV. The most important is that 1) the cell pumps Na+, creating an ion concentration gradient between the intercellular fluid and the extracellular fluid (aka depolarization), and 2) the cell membrane is much more permeable to K+ than to Na+, meaning it allows a lot more potassium to enter the cell than sodium (known as hyperpolarization). 

Gene mutation occurs when there is a change in the genetic material (DNA). These changes can be either spontaneous during DNA replication because they just take place and mistakes occur during DNA replication.  Sometimes they are (induced) caused by certain factors such as radiation, mutagenic chemicals (cigarette smoke) and temperature. For example, when they are hereditary and passed to their offspring, there are genetic disorders such as Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle cell anemia and Tay-Sachs. Even though, mutations are bad most of the time sometimes it could be an advantage and it could help evolution. 

The phylum of Chordata encompasses a vast and diverse group of organisms. In order for an organism to be classified as a chordate, it must possess all five characteristics of a chordate at some stage in its lifetime; though many chordate traits are lost with further development. The first of these unifying characteristics is the presence of the notochord. This is a rod which runs the length of the organisms body to provide a ridged yet flexible support structure. Chordates will also possess a dorsal hallow nerve chord. As the name suggests, this is a hallow chord which runs the length of the body and sits dorsal to the notochord. The third trait all chordates have is some sort of iodine fixing gland. In many species this may be an endostyle. For humans this is our thyroid gland. Another trait is the presence possess pharyngeal gill slits, which are located along the pharynx. Lastly, all chordates will possess a post-anal tail at some point in their lifetime.

The spider is  small, about an inch in size and very thin.  It is a white and black spider with a small body seperated into two parts.  The body kind of looks like an exclamation mark in microsoft word, the top being long and thin leavdng into a circular part.  The 8 legs are coming off of this ciruclar part and are about an inch in length but are curled up.  Each leg has two large bends and one slight bend almost making the shape of the letter n with a tail.  The legs all come off the circular part going up at amost a 90 degree angle. At the first bend in the spiders legs, there is a band of black with a stripe of whitegoing across it in the middle of the joint.  The legs are quick when he moves and allow it to get anywhere in the cup quickly. The spider doesn't like to be on the cup itself, he likes to be on the web atleast partially.   The web is not visible so it almost looks as if the spider is floating.  Shaking and tapping of the cup itself casued the spider to move away from where the tapping would be.  It was trying to get out whenever the cup was moved.  If I covered the spot where the spider was then it would move to an open part of the cup and poke at the cup.  I think it's main priority was to get out of the cup.

The relationship shown in the graph is not a relationship I would expect to find in nature.  I do not think this phenomenon is possible in nature because the graph shows that local species richness is higher than the regional species richness at all points on the line.  The two X axes are set equal to each other and the slope of the line is higher than one, making local richness higher than regional richness. Since the local area is a part of the regional area, having a local richness that is higher than the regional richness is not possible. The number of species found in the local area would factor into the number of species in the regional area, constantly making the regional species richness higher than the local species richness.

Both articles seem to have well written paragraphs that flow together. The paragraphs begin with a topic sentence and then add detail and end with a closing. The difference is in the blending of the paragraphs when looked at as a whole. The research article seems to be more abrupt at getting directly into the subject matter and the paragraphs flow together so that the topic sentence of one picks up from the end of the preceding paragraph. Taken alone, one paragraph may have less of a standard topic sentence, but the research article is meant to flow from one paragraph to another and when read this way makes sense. The review article takes more liberties in the time it takes to explain something and has paragraphs that can stand independently more often. The review does not have the same limits to cohesively represent something, like an experiment, which is what the research article has to do. The review can therefore take more time in explaining details that can stand as independent paragraphs. The separate details make separate paragraphs and these inform a more layman reader.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and human development that we are facing today. Antibiotic resistance can effect anybody, of any age, anywhere in the world. This process occurs naturally, but the misuse of antibiotic drugs by humans had accelerated the process and is causing common infections to become more difficult to treat. Infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and salmonella are beconing harder to treat with conventional antibiotics. Other side effects of antibiotic resistance include longer hospital stays, higher medical bills, and increased mortality. In order to combat this growing problem, the world needs to change the way it prescribes and uses antibiotics. Even if new antibiotics are developed, they will quickly become ineffective if the same practices used today are still in place. This behavior change does not only apply to doctors, but applies to everyone around the world. Most people are not prescribing antibiotics on a regular basis, but their behaviors can still contribute to antibiotic resistance. By reducing he spread of infections through vaccinations, hand washing, practicing safe sex, and good food hygiene, we can all do our part to limit antibiotic resistance. Researchers around the world are constantly looking for new antibiotics, but the rate we are finding them is much lower than the rate at which the current ones are becoming resistant. This is a global issue that has the potential to effect everybody on the planet, and it seems as if not enough people are talking about it or taking steps to limit it. By raising awareness about this issue, we can work together to ensure that antibiotic resistance does not get out of control.