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Life on earth is so complex and interconnected it makes little sense to study any individual species when trying to understand the bigger picture. On a daily basis, any given species across the globe interacts with other species within its surrounding habitat. These sorts of interactions are broadly classified as symbiosis, which can then be separated into subcategories of specific interaction types. Some of these interactions observed by scientists include predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism, and competition. Every individual, regardless of species, does their best to survive and reproduce by any means necessary and these five relationships are a testament to that. Overall in each case either both, one, or neither species involved in the interaction benefit. In mutualistic relationships, one species provides another with a resource and vice versa, competitive relationships tend to harm both species as neither can reach their full potential resource claim, and predation benefits one species at the complete expense of another.

The human eye is very much like the lens and screen you used in lab. When you look at an object the rays of light from the object are refracted through the lens cortex of the eye and an image is formed on the retina (screen) at the back of the eye. But for many people the image that is formed may not be clear. For nearsighted (myopic) people the image forms in front of the retina. For farsighted (hyperopic) people the image forms behind the retina. Fortunately there are many ways to correct vision problems so images form correctly on the retina. Essentially all methods involve changing the focal length of the eye by either adding another lens (eyeglasses or contact lenses) or directly changing the lens’s focal length through techniques like laser surgery.

Species that interact in a given time and place can be defined as a community. Ecologists across the globe study these communities, specifically the type of species, physical environment, and the interaction between them to better understand how these communities work. In order to study a community, a scientist defines the parameters of inclusion. Scientists ask specific questions when looking at a community and including absolutely every organism would be impractical. Therefore parameters are set so only the most important species are included to conduct appropriate research. The subsequent naming of the community is decided by the biological and physical characteristics present. A community found on a mountain may be considered a mountainous community while a coral reef is defined by the biological organism coral. Within a community, every species has a role or niche and can then become grouped further by what it consumes and what consumes it. A group of species who use the same resources is known as a guild and a functional group is a group of species that perform similar tasks. These labels allow ecologists to produce food webs or interaction webs to easily understand the types of relationships found in a community. 

There are many hormones plants release to stimulate growth, defense and other mechanisms needed for a plant to survive and reproduce. The main hormone resposible for growth is gibberllin. This hormone is produced in the plant cells plastids, where they are then transported to the endoplasmic reticulum. The receptor responsible for recognizing this hormone to be able to transport it into the endoplasmic reticulum is DELLA. With gibberellin located in the endoplasmic reticulum, this allows for gene transcription to be turned on, resulting in the elongation of a plant. The gibberellin hormone was important during the green revolution which is thought to have saved over a billion lives worldwide. 

As global temperatures rise, phenological changes have occurred causing flowering times of plant species to occur earlier than previously recorded in the past (Bartomeus, Ascher, Wagner, Danforth, Colla, Kornbluth, Winfree, 2011). The New England Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon, is not an exception to this phenomena. Cranberries act similar to wild plants in the event of phenology differing in warmer temperatures. Since cranberries have been an important part of New England culture, cultivators have kept records of cranberry growth and production. Cranberry cultivators have been spraying fungicide on the crop when 10% of the flowers have bloomed. This quantifies timing of cranberry flowering over the years. The earlier flowering times of cranberries affects not only cultivators, but other species that interact closely with cranberries. Cranberry shoots and leaves are an important food resource for the bog copper butterfly, Lycaena epixanthe. As global temperatures rise, the concern for earlier flowering times affecting both human cultivation and other species interactions continues to grow.

Our modern era of the anthropocene has had a hand in many of the ecological changes in the biosphere of the earth. Many of those changes are notably damaging to the environment based on the standards for pollution, genetic and species diversity, and gloabal climate change. People are very people-centric in the concerns about and research of these impactful and virulent changes. Often, the first things we notice are the ones that affect us the most, which is sensible considering that to notice changes that don't affect us, we have to be actively searching for the affects in the environment, which we might not do unless we have already seen that changes are occurring. This however is a very irresponsible way to gage humanity's impacts on the world. We have the specialization and resources to actively seak the effects of environmental degredation and climate change, and when we use them, the severity of the changes are revealed. Specifically when it comes to extinction rates and species diversity, the changes are astronomical. We have seen two major mass extinctions in the world so far, and now we are entering into a third. 

I find it interesting how Roman rulers follow a similar, cyclical pattern over time. A strong, diplomatic ruler will be in command and have complete trust of the Empire, like Augustus or Trajan. These rulers create buildings and events that benefit the public in addition to having a healthy relationship with the senate. In the case of Trajan and many other Roman rulers, when it came to pick an heir he never quite fully endorsed an individual. Hadrian rose to power nonetheless and fell into the downfalls of princeps that previously followed great rulers. Like Tiberius, Hadrian attacked the senate and any insubordinate military officers. He also separated himself from Rome, residing in a  "massive villa he built for himself at Tivoli". Again, Hadrian follows all the steps of a reckless and apathetic princep that passed poor rulers took. By ignoring the senate and the people of Rome Hadrian intensified his bad reputation. 

When plants form leafy branches, the branch grows from the base of an axillary bud. This bud contains an axillary meristem that drives cellular division at the base of the branch as grows it outwards. This is an iterative process that repeats hundreds of times and allows plants to have multiple sets of the same organs: leaves, branches, etc. Because every branch happens near the axillary bud on the stem of the plant, the locations that branches grow from are highly predictable. In roots however, branching occurs very differently. Roots only have the apical meristem at the end of the root and do not contain axillary meristems to grow branches. Instead, the branches grow out from the stem of the root from the pericycle tissue in the vasuclarture of the root, so branches can grow out from any location of that vasculature. This causes branching patterns in root to be unpredicatable as they do not rely on a specific stem cell organ to cause the branching. Also, roots contain root hairs that are often confused for branches. Root hairs are different as they are created from single cells that grow out in organized directional growth to increase the surface area of the root, increasing with it the ability to uptake water and nutrients. 

The nuclear envelope in eukaryotic cells has an extremely important job: organizing and protecting the genetic material of a cell while allowing it to be manipulated as needed to allow for proper life sustaining functions. Most people learn about the nucleus of a cell in their first basic biology course in middle school, yet the actual functions of the nucleus are often obscured and simplified beyond the truth. The nuclear membrane consists of thousands of proteins embedded in the lipid bilayer that act as pores for enzymes, transcription factors, and other signaling molecules to pass through. The nuclear envelope itself has a significant involvedment in the cellular cytoskeleton as the location and movement of the nucleus is highly regulated. Nuclear lamina are the intermediate filaments proteins around the nuclear membrane. The lamina has two types of proteins that do not co-localize. Type A is associated with the nuclear pore protein complexes specifically and type B is restricted to the organizing fibers, and is constitutivly expressed and can always be detected in nuclei (Xie).

Xie W, Burke B. Nuclear networking. Nucleus. 2017;8(4):323–330. doi:10.1080/19491034.2017.1296616

Modes of inhertiance can vary greatly depending on what gene is being expressed.  In sex influenced traits, autosomal traits are influeced by the sex of the individual.  For example, in the gene that leads to baldness, it is dominatnt in men.  This means if they have the big "P" they are going to have the trait for baldness.  In females, the trait is recessive.  This means it is much less likely for the female to exibit the trait.  They would need to big "P"s to exhibit the trait.  Although the trait is not coded on the sex chromosomes, Y and X, it is influenced by the traits expressed.  Due to the difference in inhertitance, there is a probability a man would exhibit the trait is larger than a female exhibiting the trait.