Writing in Biology - Section 1

The powerful and expansive Egyptian empire we know of today originally had a very humble beginning. Prior to the unification of the Egyptian people, many small groups existed across the vast nile river. Today we know there were 42 of them known as nomes. Of these nomes 22 were in 'Upper' Egypt, geograpically found in southern Egypt and 20 in 'Lower' Egypt found in the north. This upper and lower denomination comes from the formation of the nile river. The niles source flows from central Africa to the mediteranean sea, the only major river to travel south to north in the northern hemisphere. Thus the elevation change places the source higher than the delta and southern Egypt becomes 'Upper' Egypt.

The nomes in these two regions had very different cultural make-ups. Upper Egypt used strong political organizations to control their land and people. Status symbols created to revere gods and powerful figures demonstrated their wealth. They built large buildings and burial tombs as they placed great value in the afterlife. Elaborate mortuary rituals took place here in order to have the best possible chance at the life beyond ours. Shared communities grew into clustered villages surrounded by their farmland and produce.

Lower Egypt developed a culture much less involved in religious afterlifes. Their commerce was based primarily in metallurgy and long distance trade, therefore their commerce became their symbol of wealth. Afterlife carried little meaning in these societies. Instead they emphasized living the present and living this life as best they could. As for where they lived, disperesed villages grew around material pockets such as gold and lapis lazuli.

For over 2000 years this way of life ruled over this northern African land until a person named Narmer conquered and unified all 42 nomes across Egypt.

As we get closer to flu season it is important to think about getting the flu shot. The strain of the flu changes every year and therefore the vaccine changes to keep up with the changing proteins on the virus. The vaccine is so important for so many reasons. I myself used to forget or not bother to get the yearly vaccine, but now I make sure to get it every year to protect myself and everyone around me. Individuals who are immunocompromised cannot get vaccines because that will result in sickness. These immunocompromised individuals can be protected if the majority of individuals around them are vaccinated. If the majority of a population is vaccinated, the virus has a hard time infultrating the population, and it is virtually impossible for an outbreak. Therefore everyone should keep up with their flu vaccines to prevent contraction of the virus for themselves, as well as immunocompromised individuals who cannot recieve the vaccine and rely on others for protection. 

From the inception of Rome as city, military and violence was ingrained in Roman culture. A society made primarily of men, most Romans had to have military experience in order to survive in the city. As the city grew and the government expanded, not everyone was capable nor had the means to gain a military background. Therefore, people who came from wealthy backgrounds that were able to afford the expsenive equipment and time away from home stepped up as the Roman military. Since Rome had no official organized army, these group of men who led these military expeditions to expand personal wealth as well as Roman wealth had to be honored by the government in order to encourage more of this action. This was evident by the establishment of the concilium centuria where the calvary was the class with the greatest number of votes, eventhough they had the smallest population in Rome. Honor and glory in Roman politics therefore became intrinsically tied to military success. If one wanted to be a successful Roman politicain, he had to build his own army and bring back a triumph to Rome. This would eventually escalate to the point that politicains would make up wars in order to gain more glory. 

The original figures photographs consist of one photograph taken indoors and 3 other photographs taken outdoors. They are brighter photographs with fewer shadows on the subjects. The replicated figures photographs were all taken indoors. This resulted in higher contrast in the subjects and darker photographs. The angles of the photographs also differed. The original figure took the photographs from the eyeline of the observer. The replicated figure took the photographs from over the shoulder and from the eyeline of the observer. The set-up of the shots also differed in organization. Each figure showed the progression of eating the salad in different stages. The original figure shows the leaves being eaten with the leaf represented in every shot. The replicated photograph showed a more distracted view of the leaf in each shot. The third categorization of observed differences are in the subjects in the figure. The original figure had a male subject while the replicated figure had a female subject. The leaves in the original figure were completely bare while the replicated figure had the leaves covered in dressing. The utensils also differed in each figure. The original figure used a plastic white fork while the replicated figure used a metal fork. 

Within New England, vegetation at higher elevations will resemble vegetation at higher latitudes. This can be shown by the abundance of Vaccinium vacillans at different elevations and latitudes in three sites in New England; Mt. Norwottuck, Amherst, Massachusetts (42o 18'N, elevation 400 m), Plum Creek, Amherst, Massachusetts (42o 19'N, elevation 60 m), and Deer Brook, Swanton, Vermont (44o 06'N, elevation 50 m). Descriptive statistics show that the number of individuals found at a higher elevation of 400 meters at 42o 18'N is not significantly different than that of the number of individuals found at a higher latitude of 44o 06'N but lower elevation of 50 meters. It is also shown that the number of individuals at a lower elevation of 60 meters and a latitude of 42o 19'N is significantly less than the number of individuals at the latitude of 42o 18'N which was at a higher elevation of 400 meters. Figure 1 shows the similarities of the mean number of individuals at the Mt. Norwottuck site as compared to the number of individuals at the Deer Brook site. The standard error, t-test, and P-value of these sites can also be seen in Table 2 to support the statement that vegetation patterns in higher elevations mirror the patterns of vegetation at higher latitudes in the same region.

Though plants are sessile organisms with unmoving cells, the inside of plant cells is in constant motion. Cytoplasmic streaming is a phenomenon exclusive to plant cells wherein organelles will migrate around the cell at speeds that exceed most intracellular motion. This motion is controlled by myosin motors that travel along an actin filament network. Though microtubules are the main scaffold for protein motors in animal cells, plant cells favour their actin network. Additionally, through a series of experiments, it was shown that streaming didn’t require the cooperation of the microtubule cytoskeleton nor did it need continuous production of actin monomers. Thus, actin filaments can maintain cytoplasmic streaming simply through disassembly and reassembly of recycled monomers. There are three non-mutually exclusive theories regarding the mechanism of cytoplasmic streaming. Active streaming theory suggests that myosin motors on actin filaments move the organelles around the plant cell. Passive streaming theory posits that the bulk of organelle movement around the plant cell is driven by a cytosol stream produced by the movement of only a few organelles. Endoplasmic reticulum anchor theory states that organelles are bound to the endoplasmic reticulum and that myosin motors move the endoplasmic reticulum, thus dragging the organelles anchored to it. Research has provided evidence for all three of these theories, and it has yet to be shown if they contribute to streaming in equal part or if there one model predominates.

A recent story about a man on an airplane that was saved by a celebrity doctor has given rise to the news of a parasite (tick) that is able to make you allergic to red meats. “The "hygiene" hypothesis, now several decades old, suggests that with no parasites to fight, the immune system doesn't know when to quit and ends up targeting allergens.” The symbiosis between parasites and humans is not well understood. Common allergens such as peanuts, bees, pets, and trees are able to be detected within the immune system while parasites are not. This suggests that the body purposely does not hurt the parasites and turns this response off, or parasites are now equipped with ways to alter our immune system. The relationship between a parasite-fighting immune system and the cause of an allergen must come down to similarity within the molecule composition and protein structure. “Using blood serum from parasite-infected people in Ghana, experimental studies finally revealed the first known example of a pollen-like protein present in a parasitic worm that gets targeted by IgE.” This reveals that future technology in immunotherapy (desensitizing the body from allergens) may prove to be beneficial as long as we know the protein causing the allergy.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-do-humans-have-allergies-parasite-infections-trigger-180957101/?no-ist

Vegetation generally grows in a pattern which is determined by climate. Climate is an enduring weather pattern over a given area. Due to the longevity of those weather patterns, vegetation growth is limited to what plants can tolerate those long-term weather conditions. These patterns can also hold true when comparing altitude and elevation to latitude. Altitude and elevation vegetation patterns mirror latitude vegetation patterns. To determine whether climate governs vegetation the abundance of Vaccinium vacillans from three different sites were recorded. Vegetation within a region at high altitudes should resemble that of vegetation at high latitudes. It was predicted that abundance of Vaccinium vacillans will show analogous changes as elevation and latitude increase.

In metazoa, increases in morphological complexity usually correspond with increased modularity within early development regulation. This regulation corresponds to development genes, specifically hox genes. Hox genes have a history of duplication in multicellular life, both in whole genome duplications as well as tandem duplication of specific hox genes. These duplications allow for a modular structure of the body, with repeated parts that are individualized in each species. Examples of these indlude vertebrae, appendages, and even the modular nature of the limb itself.

Across many land plants, similar cells and cell structures relating to similar functions can be identified. One of which being vascular components. A plant's vascular system can be broken down into two major groups, xylem, and phloem. Xylem are plant cells designed to transport water from the roots to the shoots via a suction pump of sorts. As the plant uses its water at a sink, place where water is used, it creates a low-pressure zone which in turn creates a pressure gradient. This gradient of high to low is what ultimately runs the movement of water in a plant. Xylem can be found near the inside of plants and in woody plants, they are actually dead. As a part of their development, they die so the plant doesn't need to spend much energy on them and it can gain structure from having many tightly packed xylem.

Phloem are the food transport cells of a plant. These are living cells whose main purpose is to facilitate the transport of sugars and foodstuffs from the leaves where sugars are created to sinks, where sugars are used, such as shoot apical meristems, root meristems, and cambial meristems. As a side, meristems are undifferentiated cells who create mature cells to replace older ones. Phloem are entirely hollow, to allow for efficient transport, however, still require 'helper' cells connected by plasmodesmata to house the necessary organelles for them to survive. Xylem and phloem work together to form the vascular system found in all vascular plants.