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Climate change is one of the biggest threats to the planet today. One of the results of climate change is altered levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, land, and oceans. Buildup of CO2 in certain environments and different amounts can have drastic effects on the ecosystem. Continued use of fossil fuels has contributed greatly to this increase in CO2. In recent years, scientists have done research into the use of seaweed (macroalgae) as a method of carbon mitigation. Wild seaweed has great potential to sequester carbon, and an increase in agriculture of seaweed (particularly in aquaculture farms close to heavily populated land) would provide a barrier of carbon mitigation between human carbon waste and the ocean. Macroalgae can inhabit a range of aquatic habitats spanning the globe, and some species are adapted for the acidic, high-carbon environments that carbon pollution has produced. Aquaculture is a growing industry but has yet to take hold in most of the countries across the world. Seaweed aquaculture is primarily used for food, medicine, and cosmetics. Increasing seaweed production for food markets appears to be the best course in order to increase seaweed cultivation and subsequently it’s beneficial carbon-sequestering effects. Seaweed aquaculture is not an end-all solution to climate change and carbon buildup. There would need to be significant increases in aquaculture alongside reductions and reforms of the biggest CO2 production industries and locations for seaweed aquaculture to have a significant benefit. Currently, this method of carbon sequestering has gone relatively undeveloped and should be implemented world-wide where growth conditions are right as an ecologically- beneficial method of reducing carbon and CO2 buildup in the environment.  

The flu shot is often neglected, according to the centers for disease control, only 37% of Americans recieved their flu shot in the 2016-2017 season.  The flu shot changes every  year to keep up with the varying proteins on the virus. The vaccine is important for the recipient's protection against the flu, as well as everyone surrounding them. Certain individuals are vulnerable to disease, they are the elderly, infants, those recieving chemo-therapy, and individuals with an autoimmune disease. Individuals who are immunocompromised cannot get vaccines; vaccines should be administed several weeks before the individual becomes immunocompromised (if that is possible, such as several weeks before chemo-therapy). These immunocompromised individuals can be protected through herd immunity; when the majority of a population is vaccinated, the virus has a hard time infecting individuals.  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.

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.

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. 

Jasmonic acid (JA)is a hormone produced in plants that is made as a defensive response to necrotrophic pathogens, or pathogens that kill the host plant and consume the dead matter.  JA also stimulates an induction of anti-herbviroy responses. The anti-herbivory chemicals can only be produced in the presence of a wound, likely after an insect or animal starts eating. Jasmonic acid is transported through plant vasculature, but it can also act locally, meaning that where the wound is will also produce anti-herbivory chemicals. Perception of JA is through the COI1 receptor, which is located inside the cell. JA also stimulates the production of volatile signaling compounds, which can then prime other tissues and plants for attack by making them unpalatable, or poor-tasting. These volatiles are recognized by the insects or animals that eat them and turn them away from consuming the plant further.

In the early, mythic years of Rome, the military seemed intrinsically linked to Romulus and as the mythological leader, he set the tone for future evolution. Romulus supposedly tied the defense of the city to the population that established it. Romulus recruited the population of Rome by offering asylum and “a promiscuous young crowd of freemen and slaves eager for change, fled thither from the neighboring states” to join Rome (Livy 125). The influx of young, motivated men helped not only build the city, but supplied the basis of an informal military. Even though these individuals came from all different states and backgrounds, these men made up a Roman State that was “so strong that was a match for any of its neighbors in war” (Livy 125). The mythical establishment of a militia style military seemed to reflect the characteristics that Romans of the Republic desired their military to embody. This includes the characteristic of the initial Roman military being accepting of those who were willing to fight for the city. Romans of the Republic looked back and established this fable in order to reflect the ideals they hope to aspire in the contemporary military institution.

Development of a human embryo comes about in three stages: blastulation, gastrulation, and neurulation. First, the egg and sperm fuse into a zygote composed of an internal plasma membrane and an external zona pellucida. The zygote develops into a morula by cleaving internally, dividing into multiple cells without gaining volume. The cells inside the zona pellucida start compacting and differentiation begins. A mass of embryoblasts develops at the centre of the zona pellucida surrounded by a layer of trophoblasts. The embryoblasts migrate to the top half of the cell, leaving behind an empty space known as the blastocoel. This stage marks the end of blastulation at which point the embryo is known as a blastocyst. Then, the embryoblast mass develops an inner cavity called the amniotic cavity. The layer of cells directly under the amniotic cavity differentiate into epiblasts and the layer of cells under the epiblasts become hypoblasts. Collectively, these two cell layers form the bilaminar disc. Next, a group of epiblasts known as the primitive streak form along the middle of the epiblast layer. These cells will migrate downwards past the epiblast layer to form a third layer between the epiblasts and hypoblasts. The three layers of this trilaminar disc are now known as germ layers. The topmost layer is the ectoderm, the middle layer is the mesoderm, and the bottom layer is the endoderm. The ectoderm will form the nervous system and the skin; the mesoderm will form the bones and muscles; and the endoderm will form the viscera. The creation of the three germ layers is known as gastrulation.

Genetics need variation to study the function of gene products. Because “mutations are very rare events,” UV-radiation will be used to speed up “induced mutations in [yeast]” (Loomis 2019). Yeasts are great experimental organisms because they are eukaryotic and versatile (smaller genome, reproduce both sexually and asexually). Yeast comprises of two mating types, a-type yeast, and α-type yeast. Each yeast strain can self-reproduce as haploids through the process of budding (mitosis). When in the presence of each other, the a-type yeast can release a-factor pheromones that α-type yeast responds to, while α-type yeast can release α-factor pheromones that a-type yeast responds to. The two yeast strains grow out towards each other in response to these pheromones, forming a structure called a shmoo. A MATa/α diploid results from a matured shmoo (also known as conjugation). This diploid can also self-reproduce through budding (mitosis), and can also undergo meiosis when its environment is nitrogen-deprived. During meiosis of a MATa/α diploid, sporulation and crossing-over occurs, resulting in two a and two α ascospores (four total ascospores).

 Future experiments that could be done would be to: replicate the experiment, fully cross all combination of mutants and genotype the yeast colonies. The first experiment that could be done is to replicate the experiment. By replicating the experiment, the results would be more certain. Another experiment that could be done is to cross mutants with the same mating type. By doing this, the genotype of the mutants can be better determined. For example, if unknown a 1 was crossed with it self, and the resulting diploid colony grew well on YED  and MV+adenine plate but poorly on MV plate, it can be determined that, the mutation is still in the adenine pathway. Yet another experiment that can be done to confirm the site of mutation is to genotype the colonies. By extracting the DNA, and sequencing the DNA, the exact nature of the mutation, whether it is a spot mutation or a missense mutation can be determined. By doing these additional experiments both phenotypic and genotypic traits of the mutant strains can be determined.

There are three types of point mutations. There are missence mutations, nonsense mutations, and silent mutations. Missence mutations happen when there is a change of a single base pair. This tiny change causes te substitution of a different amino acid in the protein. This small letter change may have no effect, if the individual is lucky. However, it may render the protein malfunctional. An example of this would be sickle cell anemia. Second type of point mutation is nonsense mutation. This leads to an early stop codon. Unfortunately, when there is an early stop codon, the protein as a whole cannot be fully developed. This would be very bad if this protein is necessary to the individual. Lastly, silent mutation. This one is very interesting as it actually is not bad for the individual. This kind of mutation changes a base pair, but the amino acid stays the same, as some amino acids have different base pair letterings, but pair for the same protein. This being said, this has no effect on the individual