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In this specific study, the researchers are trying to correlate the cavitation effect on a popping bottle to brain injuries. Cavitation is when water at rest is all of a sudden sped up with a force of acceleration, causing a destructive wave to shatter the bottle or container that the liquid is sitting in. Similar to liquid trapped inside a bottle, the brain is surrounded by fluid, so a hit to the head could cause a similar effect to our brains. Our brain is essential to almost every function that happens throughout our body and during a concussion your brain is damaged or bruised. Although one concussion might not cause long term damage, repeated amount of concussions can cause long term memory loss and diseases like CTE, like we see many football players having. With this information, researchers are able to create better safety equipment to minimize the amount of trauma our brain sustains. In conclusion, if the force of the hit to the brain is above a certain margnitude, there is no safety equipment that researchers can create to protect the person.

In the article, Non-native species and rates of spread: lessons from the brackish Black Sea, there are mostly level 2 headings. These headings include the usual headings, like abstract, discussion, and acknowledgments. In addition to that, it contains other level two headings, like “Rate of secondary spread within the Black sea” and “Vertical spread”. These headings provide more specific sections of the results piece of the article. The first paragraph of the introduction section starts out broad to get the reader engaged and then it gradually becomes more specific. However, in the individual sections that include the results of the experiment, the information does not start out as broad. In these sections, the author jumps right into the data. This article follows the IMRAD format that was described in chapter 7. At the beginning of most paragraphs, there is a topic sentence which informs the reader what the author will be discussing. This is especially helpful when the author is describing different species in the results, like B. improvisus and P. antipodarum. Finally, this article had concise paragraphs with good flow, similar to the examples that were given in chapter 3. 

The purpose of the methods project is to test whether one's written experiment is sufficient to be replicated by another party. This is an important skill to have in the field of biology because any work that is published needs to be able to stand alone; there is no explaining what you've done, only the paper is able to guide someone else. This project needs to be reasonable enough for someone to try, detailed enough for someone to understand and thorough enough for someone to reach the same results.

The novel Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin explores the origins of humanity. Shubin makes it clear from the start of the novel that humans have changed over time through evolution, and the fossil record has secrets of our past hidden inside of it. Even though only a miniscule fraction of organisms are fossilized, fossils can be used to glimpse into the past and study our ancestors. Shubin focuses on how similar humans are to other animals, both morphologically and genetically. For example he highlights that all animals have heads, even fish, a trait that can be adequately explained through common descent. It is by far more likely that having a head is a shared trait, than it is that it independently arose in numerous recent lineages. This is one of the main themes of the book, highlighting similarities humans share with other animals. Darwin used the same method in On the Origin of Species, but here Shubin can built off of Darwin’s foundation by using modern discoveries.

This week we had to read Chapter 3 and 7 from the “Writing in the Biological Sciences” text. In my opinion, the most important factor to remember when writing is to always write with the reader in mind. After you have already formulated your hypothesis, performed all the necessary experiments and research, it is time to focus on who is going to be reading your writing. Ask yourself: “what is the most important piece of information you would like to convey to your audience?” Remember to write clearly. For instance, the first paragraph of this chapter mentions that we need to take into account how the reader is going to interpret our writing. If we were trying to appeal to a feeling or evoke some kind of emotional response from our reader then we would lean towards using fancy, and flowy language and phrases. However, when trying to communicate scientifically, that kind of writing is unecessary and instead it makes more sense to use precise, clear language that is easy to understand and is correctly worded. It is important to establish importance in a sentence as well. Depending on where a certain phrase is placed and what punctuation is used, it can be viewed as something negative or as something positive. Old information is placed at the beginning of a paragraph and new information that needs more emphasis, is placed at the end of a sentence. Last, but not least, we need to remember to use past tense for observations, unpublished results, and specific interpretations and to use present tense for general rules, accepted facts and established knowledge.

The abstract sections of each of the articles were about a paragraph long. The textbook writes that the overall structure of the abstract should conform to the following outline: “content: question/purpose, experimental approach, results, interpretation/answer, significance” (pg 115). Considering that both of the abstracts are only a paragraph long compared to the other sections (the introductions are several paragraphs long), it seems kind of impossible to accomplish this. Yet, the writers of both articles were able to provide a thorough paragraph with all essential parts included. The article from the Ecology Letters journal contains the topic sentence as the first sentence and there is a logical flow of ideas. It is organized by giving the background sentence first (the known), the two sides of argument. Then, what the researchers are trying to accomplish (the unknown), their approach, the conclusion they came to and last but not least, their interpretation of their results. The other article’s abstract is somewhat different since it is not necessarily an experiment but rather just an interpretation of several other experiments in order to answer their hypothesis. There is no topic sentence, but the first 4 sentences provide the reader with a background that gives the purpose and of their research so, they could be seen as topic sentences of significancy. There is no experimental approach because this is not an experiment but they do state that they are going to approach their hypothesis by reviewing (comparing and contrasting possibly) the invasion histories of several species. There is a logical flow of ideas and overall, the abstract is well organized.

In the article titled, “Origin matters: widely distributed native and non-native species benefit from different functional traits,” there are a variety of headings and it follows the IMRAD format as discussed in our book. This contains an Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion section and sometimes an abstract is included. Since the paper is formatted this way it aids readers in identifying a particular section they want. In choosing such a format it shows that the paper illustrates structure and organization. Their abstract addresses the topic they will be addressing and what they were looking to find in the studies performed. This research paper also shares similar features that are included in the article, “Non-native species and rates of spread: lessons from the brackish Baltic Sea.”

The level one headings in both articles include the usual of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. In Olenin’s article, there are level 2 headings within the Introduction such as “Rate of secondary spread within the Baltic Sea”. In Knapp’s article, there are level 2 headings within the Materials and Methods such as “Species Selection.”

Each section is structured with paragraphs. The abstract summarizes the whole article including the results of the scientific study in one paragraph. The introduction introduces terminology needed in order to understand what the article will be talking about. It includes background and the question the article is looking to answer. Materials and Methods describes the procedure that was done for the study. The results report all the main findings. The discussion includes interpretation of the findings. The first paragraph in each section plays a role in introducing background needed to be known by readers in order to understand why the scientists did what they did for the studies and experiments.

There are topic sentences in the paragraphs of the articles. There are logical flows of ideas. The ideas are organized from a big picture into more detailed information in order to understand the topic and research. Once all the details are put together logically, each paragraph ends with a closing sentence to continue on to the next paragraph or section.

The organism being observed consists of a body and tail structure covered by a translucent coating. The length of both the tail and body are roughly 15mm and the height of the body is roughly 3mm. The organism is able to move in a wave-like manner, utilizing its ability to contract and expand as well as six leg-like stumps on the bottom of the organism that seem to provide added traction. The six legs counted on the bottom of the organism also seem to provide stabilization and help to turn the organism over when on its back. Also observed through the translucent underside of the organism were white intestine-like organs lining the body, that could have digestive or nervous system functions. Despite being able to move, the organism seemed to lack direction and some sensory skills, moving around the perimeter of the container primarily, and frequently running into the edge. The organism is clearly aware of its surroundings however, when the container was shaken or moved, the organism stopped moving and only resumed when presumed safe. This stopping of movement when in presumed danger could be an important mechanism for evading the detection of predators. Many questions remain about the development of the organism as well as its habitat, place in its ecosystem and sensory and physiological capabilities. 

One specific paragraph in Non-native species and Rates of Spread that flows exceptionally well is that regarding the New Zealand mud snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum. First the authors give background on the migration of the mud snail over time, then going into specifics on rates and dates. They then go into the significance of this non-native species and its distinction from others in the area. In Origin Matters, one paragraph that was written very clearly was that regarding the multiple models they used in the experiment. They provided sufficient details and descriptions for a methods paragraph and also clearly stated the purpose for using multiple models in their experiment.