Writing in Biology - Section 1

Animals have a variety of ways of encoding information. Firstly, for an animal to get its signal across to receptive parties, it must avoid as much interference as possible. One example of this phenomenon, known as channel partitioning, is in beach crabs. On a single beach there may be multiple species of crabs, all of whom wave their claws to attract females. By waving their claws at different intervals and frequencies, the females are able to distinguish conspecific males from heterospecific males. Signals can also be encoded based on their form, such as with begging in birds. Hatchlings have a begging behaviour that involves opening their mouths towards their parent, which correlates well with the actual act of eating, which involves the hatchling opening its beak. However, there are many signals without a relation between form and meaning, as with the extension of the dulap in anoles, which signals aggression but has no correlation with aggressive actions. Messages can also be encoded via discrete or graded methods. A discrete message retains the same form all the time, as in an alarm call. A graded message has different forms on a continuum that express different levels of a behaviour, such as in Steller’s jay which angles its crest higher if it is more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour. Signals can be encoded acoustically, such as with different times intervals in between syllables, the order of syllables and phrases, and the order of entire songs. A good example of acoustic encoding is with bird trilling. Trilling can be measured by trill rate, or the speed at which the notes are sung, and trill bandwidth, or the difference between the maximum frequency and the minimum frequency. There is a biophysical limit which prevents birds from singing beyond a certain trill rate to trill bandwidth ratio, and the closer males get to that limit, the higher females rate their quality. Lastly, messages can be encoded chemically, which occurs more frequently in mammals than other classes of species. Mammals generate an odour image, which is a scent pattern composed of different chemicals at different concentrations. Individuals generate different odour images, with chemicals differing between different species, and concentrations of species-specific chemicals being different in different individuals. This allows for conspecifics and heterospecifics to recognise each other and to leave scent-based messages in the environment. 

Nanotechnology is the branch of technology that deals with dimensions and tolerances of less than 100 nanometers, especially the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. An example of a real-world application is the invention of artificially-crafted enzymes that can convert cellulose into ethanol (wood to fuel). The benefits of nanotechnology can improve fields ranging from electronics, medical, and energy applications. “Molecular nanotechnology is especially associated with the molecular assembler, a machine that can produce the desired structure or device atom-by-atom using the principles of mechanosynthesis.” The main benefit of utilizing nanotechnology is to create a product that is lightweight and high-strength/durability. This means the product must have less mass than its reproduced-counterpart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology

https://www.nano.gov/you/nanotechnology-benefits

Phytophagy means eating of plants. It usually describes insect behavior. However, it can also be interpreted as any animal eating a plant. In this project, I took two pictures of evidence for autophagy and organized it into a figure. A map of where the evidence was found was also included.  I wrote a method on how to take that picture and someone else followed my method to make a similar figure. The result was a similar figure that had some differences in formatting, the object in the photo, and the photo quality. The biggest difference that changed how the figure looked was differences in formatting, whereas photo quality contributed to the difference but did not cause the figure to change drastically. The difference in the figure that is described in the result is due to a differing camera,  method of image export, object, and hand that was taken. Due to these differences, the two figures were similar but not completely the same.

The reason why the formatting of the figures was off is that the person who made the replica had a different default than I did, so the replica and the original is different. One of the specific ones is the big border on either side of the map. This happened because the image was exported in a different way, and as a result, the figure was different. another reason why the formatting is off because I had a different idea of what an arrow was compared to the person who did the replica. 

The second category of differences was mainly that pictures of the object in the two figures were different, as was the person holding it. because of this, there were some differences in the leaf and in the hand holding it. In addition, there was also some different background because of this there were some fundamental changes that could not be reconciled when the picture was taken. 

The third category is the difference in photo quality and lightening. This is due to the camera being used is vastly different compared between the camera that was used to take the original compared to those that were used to take the replica. 

The biggest difference in the two seems to be the formatting of the figure. The major difference of the figure being the map. the first difference is two big borders on the map, which I didn't have. the second thing about the formatting is that the replica had an arrow that was pointing up rather than down. the arrow was longer in the original figure compared to the replica, and the arrow was more narrow. The third difference is the size of the label. It appears that the original label is quite a bit larger than the replica. 

Another difference is the image itself. The two leaves are significantly different whereas the leaf in the original is more rounded, the leaf in the replica is more oval-shaped and has a lighter color compared to the darker colored leaf in the original. The hand was also different. the third thing that was different is that the original had a background that had a slight slash across the back that the replica did not have. 

The least noticeable category of difference in image quality. The image quality on the original is clearly better than that of the original, and because of this, the original is noticeably blurrier than that of the replica. In addition, the original has a more warmed toned hue compared to that of the replica. 

During my planning process when I was thinking of what I wanted to take pictures of, I immediately thought of a salad bar or a dish with salad on the plate. However, one of the major disadvantages of that would be that it would make replication almost impossible. it's hard to describe a mass of things like salad. Then I would have to describe things like how many leaves there are on the plate and which leaf faces which direction. The way that this would be the easiest to replicate is to make this as simple as possible so that there is a limited amount of variables. In addition, the way that the method is interpreted may also be different depending on the person following it, so there should be as little misunderstanding as possible. to limit those variables, rather than taking a picture of an entire salad in which each leaf would be a variable, or taking the picture of the salad bar, which would cause wide variation in angle and color, I think that having a single leaf would be the most advantageous to me because describing one leaf would be much easier than describing multiple leaves, and if I just describe taking the picture from the front of the leaf, I think that most people would understand what I mean and would take a similar picture to how I'm imagining. To make sure that the background is not a factor it would be best if it was made as descriptive as possible, like a gray background. For the stylization of the figure, it would be best if the figure was made in such a way so that everything would be the default except for the things that are changed. this would ensure that the figure is more likely to be similar, although if the person following the method does not use Inkscape or have other ideas in mind, that would change. However, there is a limit to things that I can specify, and it would be confusing if I just listed all of them. It should be enough that I list the things that I changed and just assume that the rest will be the default. 

On October 22, a headless macaque (donated by Harvard Univerity after its natural death) was placed on a piece of slate in Dr. Pérez’s Taphonomy Lab at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  When the macaque was placed in the lab, it was frozen and had a sagittal incision in its abdomen.  Weekly visits were made to the lab by the 2018 Forensic: Myth and Reality Class.  On November 26, the macaque was removed from the slate and placed directly on the ground.  Motion sensitive infrared cameras captured any movement around the body during its decomposition.  At the conclusion of the class, Kara Koziol continued to make biweekly visits to the lab to record visible changes to the macaque. 

A lot of people do not discover their “why” until later on in life. Some may never really think they are alive for a purpose, but I am a solid believer that every single person on this planet has a purpose.  The clues that our life has a purpose are in our plain view, but many do not take the time to reflect about their purpose, as many are distracted by their daily lives. I still have been in search for my purpose, and I may never find it. However, I found my “why” recently, and because I found my “why”, I will never give up my life, because my “why” is greater than any circumstance I find myself in. This story starts with the death of my sister, whom I was also named after. My sister passed away very tragically only at the age of four. I grew up always wondering why my mom was always afraid of heights, afraid of planes, and afraid of going up to the 11^thfloor of any building. Every time I would ask my mother why she was so afraid of heights, my father would always interrupt and tell me I was too young to know. Before my grandma passed away, she told me the short story, but it was not until recently where I sat with my mother and discovered the true story of my sisters passing.

A big thing I would like to see develop within neuroscience is Multiple Sclerosis in athletes, as so many current athletes are withdrawing from their sport due to this disease. I would love to do more research on it and help athletes, perhaps even swimmers just like me. Being a part of that industry would allow me a true sense of self-fulfillment and there is nothing that would make me happier than seeing someone else happy.  In hopes of taking a few steps forward towards this long-term goal of mine, I shadowed three different optometrists and one pharmacist so that I could gain experience and knowledge in the healthcare community. I think Multiple Sclerosis needs more research as it is something very specific and is so hard to research on.