Writing in Biology - Section 1

In-situ hybridization is a method used in many different areas of science. This is a lab technique where anti-sense mRNA probes are used to target spacific mRNA sequences in an organism. This method allows scientists to locate cells where specific genes are expressed. The mRNA sequence is targeted for a reason. Every cell in the body has the same DNA sequence, so targeting a section of DNA would label every cell. Proteins are made as a result of the central dogma; proteins are exported from the cell to other cells, so it is not possible to determine the specific cells that encode for that gene. This method allows you to pinpoint the exact cells that encode a specific gene, and count those cells. This process is very useful in genetics and neuroscience in particular. This method can be used in any area of the body and with any organism, so you can compare where one gene is expressed in different organisms. 

In one of my first drafts, my entry was about my newly purchased aloe vera plant. It was mostly in good shape besides a few brown spots on one of the sprouts. Today it has been a month since the purchase. Unfortunately, though the plant is in average shape, it is slowly dying. The sprouts contain more brown spots, and the plant has even begun to spread. At first, I thought this was because I had not watered it, but the plant itself does not need water for at least every 3 weeks. Then I thought it was because the plant wasn’t exposed to enough sunlight. Taking it outside in the sun for a few hours a day only made the plant worse. I researched and did everything I could but for some reason the plant was not healing. This leads me to believe that the pot it is in is too small and there is not enough/not the right type of soil. This week I will be buying a larger pot and also purchasing cactus soil to see if it helps better the condition of my aloe vera plant before it withers.

Goldenrods are members of the family  Asteraceae (asters) and are in the genus solidago. They are common plants in the local area, often growing on the edges of disturbed habitat such as roadsides and on the borders of agricultural fields and forests. They flower bright yellow from the end of summer into autumn and often occupy large areas of land, creating vast fields of shades of yellow, ranging from yellowish white to schoolbus yellow. Their stems are often hairy (pubescent) and have thin ellyptic leaves. Goldenrod leaves, especially  those from the Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima) are often used in teas as a decongestant. their bright flowers can be made into dye or paint. They are closely related to asters which as afformentioned share the same family with goldenrods. Asters present as daisy-like flowers usually white, yellowish, and a bright purple. Flower size can vary between aster species. They bloom around the same time as their close relatives the goldenrods. Asters are also used as a decongestant and have been used by herbalists and ancient peoples as a fever reducer. 

It's amazing to me just how much stress can affect us and our every day lives. When we feel stressed it is because our brain is releasing high levels of the hormone cortisol - the stress hormone. High levels of stress can affect how much sleep you get, and lack of sleep has been proven to have a number of detrimental effects. A combination of stress effects can lead to depression and severley limit levels of productivity.  Lower levels of productivity can lead to results in work that are less than satisfactory and may keep the cycle going of negative experiences. It is important to manage stress and try to keep cortisol levels low. While stress is just another part of life that we have to face, it's important to get to know how to manage stress levls when they get high so that it doesn't affect day-to-day life so much. Regularly taking small breaks from work and breaking tasks up into smaller portions can be an effective way to manage workloads and the stress that comes with them. While there is no end to the stress that may come our way, it is still important to acknowledge that it will be coming and that there are steps we can take to try to lower stress levels and make the best of what's in ahead of us.

At the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, Janelle Ayres and her colleagues had many mice that got sick. Ayres and her colleagues had infected mice with Citrobacter rodentium, which in turn inflamed the colons of the mice. Half of the mice lived, and half died. These mice all had an identical lifestyle, they all ate the same and did the same activities during the day. The point of this experiment was to determine what causes genetically identical mice to respond differently to certain pathogens. She realized that the mice that died, did not have sufficient iron. Thus, she decided to treat the living mice (with pathogen C. rodentium) with iron supplements. This was a rather holistic approach, as she did not go in with full war to try to use antibiotics, and drugs that can later develop resistance in the mouse. This approach supplies to the internal system of the mouse, which boosts the immunity of the mouse, rather than targeting the pathogen with an antibiotic. 

Today I got the flu vaccine. It is commomly known as influenza and can be a potentially serious disease that can be so severe that you need to be hospitlized. Millions of people get the flue every year, and so many people die from when it is too severe. I got the flu vaccine to make sure that I do not get sick during the swim season. An annual vaccine is very important to protect yourself. The vaccine can help you avoid getting the flue. Flu vaccines cause antibodies to develop in the body for about two weeks after the vaccination. These antibodies provie protection against infection with the viruses that are in the vaccine. 

I would like to talk about nutrition. Nutrition is the science that interprets the interaction of nutrition and other substancs in food in relation to maintenance and growth. I think it is a very important topic as I believe not many people know the importance of proper eating. As an athlete, I need to consume a certain amount of calories and if I do not do this, I will be burning muscles instead of burning fat. I think it is important to see a nutritionist and consider what nutrients are in the foods. For example, it is important to differentiate the good fats from the bad fats, and to know that avocado's are good fats, but McDonald's is bad fats. To know that it is better to eat many meals during the day rather than eating large meals few times a day.

Wheat is a grass grown throughout the world for its seed, and it makes up the genus Triticum. Three commonname types of wheat are Einkorn, Durum, and Bread Wheat. Einkorn, sicentific name being Triticum monococcum, is a wheat that has one seed per spikelet. A spikelet is teh absic unit of a grass flower with one or two florets on the tip. Einkorn wheat is not widely cultivated, and the glumes fit tightly around the seed, providing a seed covering. Durum wheat, scientific name being Triticum durum, is grown in Spain, Italy, and the US. Unlike Einkorn, Durum has naked seeds with no covering, and it is good for making pasta. Bread wheat, scientific name being Triticum aestivum, has several different subspecies and is used for making bread. A big difference between these three types of wheat is that they all have different chromosome counts. Einkorn has 7 pairs of chromosomes, Durum has 14 pairs, and Bread wheat has 21 pairs. 

Recently in my Animal Behavior class, we were required to listen to a podcast that discussed the bias of scientific research being done. The man speaking was speaking on behalfs of biologists that studied invertebrates. He said that when someone he knew submitted a grant proposal for an inverterbate subject, it got denied. Another scientist then replied to this news saying that it was much harder to get a grant approved when working with invertebrate organisms as opposed to vertebrates, which got a lot of immediate backlash from the surrounding researchers. The speaker said he looked into this and found a very clear-cut gap in the amount of research being done on invertebrates vs. vertebrate organisms. So much research was being performed on vertebartes because scientists feel it relates more to humans and they only care about the scientific development in relation to our own species. The podcast the went on to talk about his story and how he attempted to bring light to this issue. I do not think he got very far in his case, but it is still an issue that needs to be addressed and re-assessed. 

Plants are photosynthetic eukaryotes. Photosynthesis is the act of coverting light energy to chemical energy. Phtosynthesis evolved in bacteria, speficially cyanobacteria, and plants and algae are responsible for most of the transfer of energy in the biosphere. Photosynthetic eukaryotes first developed when an archae-like cell engulfed an aerobic bacterium. This is known as endosymbiosis and created a proto-eukaryote. This eukaryote then englufed cyanobacteria, a photosynthetic prokaryote, which then turned into a chloroplast to produce a photosynthetic eukaryote. The first cyanobacteria were like completely identical to modern-day cyanobacteria because they first used electrons from hydrogen sulfide, which later produced our oxygen-rich atmosphere. 

What is and what is not a plant is very unclear and debated. The main criteria of plants are cellulose in the cell wall, they store food as starch in plastids, they have phragmoplasts and plasmodesmata, and they photosynthesize. This creates a general idea of what is a plant, but there are some algae we consider plants that do not fit all this criteria. Nowadays, what people consider plants are mostly our modern-day land plants and green algae.