lgorman's blog

Adventitious root growth is stimulated by a gaseous hormone called ethylene. While that may sound simple to orchestrate, scientists wondered how the plants decided what directions to grow the roots. In the paper, Control of Adventitious Root Architecture in Rice by Darkness, Light, and Gravity, Chen Lin and Margret Sauter describe their findings on the mechanisms behind the architecture of root growth in rice plants. They investigated this adventitious root growth in response to different light stimuli and different gravitational stimuli, and found some interesting results.

Rice, also known as Oryza sativa, is a major staple in kitchens all around the world. This semi-aquatic plant has many subspecies, yet for this experiment only the japonica and indica subspecies were studied. These suspecies are mostly grown in Southern Asia. Rice is semi-aquatic because the plants are adapted to survive and grow even when partially flooded. This ability is most commonly seen in the beautiful vistas of rice paddy fields where the rice field is flooded in order to suppress weed growth and increase rice growth. One of the reasons for the rice’s aptitude for being partially submerged is its ability to grow adventitious roots. An adventitious root is a root that grows from any organ other than a root. In the case of rice, these roots grow from the stems, which enable the plants to extend their reach into a more oxygen rich area when they are flooded.

Thomson takes it a step further by saying if the woman has bars installed but the robber still gets in through her open windows, it would be absurd to call it her fault that the robber got in. However, when women get pregnant because of malfunctioning birth control, they are often seen as voluntarily getting pregnant. Thomson also brings up the people-seed scenario, where there are people-seeds floating around outside, so you install very fine mesh screens to prevent them from getting in once you open your window. However, when one gets past the screen and takes root in your house, Thomson asks if it is your responsibility to keep the plant. The only way to really prevent those seeds from getting in, is to never open your windows in the first place. In summary, Thomson is saying that there are scenarios where the fetus has right to its mother body, and some scenarios where it doesn’t. It is impossible to make a blanket statement specifying when a pregnancy is voluntary or involuntary and when an abortion is just or unjust.  

On pages 58-59, Thomson writes about how some opponents of abortion support the independence of the fetus, and how the fetus has a right to the mother’s body when it was conceived through voluntary intercourse. People often say the only case of involuntary pregnancy comes from rape. However, Thomson writes that it is a slippery slope to choose when a woman voluntarily or involuntarily becomes pregnant, as details can make a huge difference. First, Thomson describes a scenario where a woman opens her window because her room is stuffy, which allows a burglar to get in. Thomson then says how absurd it would be to say that the burglar has a right to stay in the room now that they have gotten in, even though the women technically allowed him to get in by opening her window. Although that may be absurd, a parallel could be drawn between this situation and woman becoming pregnant.

For the group studying how the frequency of lawn mowing and landscaping affects the species richness, they will need to find areas in which lawns are mowed at different frequencies. In order to find this information, they will call the physical plant to find when areas on campus are mowed.

    Similar to the group studying lawn mowing and landscaping, the group studying species richness in relation to how recently the grass was planted will contact the physical plant in order to find out the ages of grass plots around campus. The group will find multiple areas of varying age in order to compare it to the species richness.

    Finally, the group studying species richness in relation to elevation and water runoff should find areas of high elevation in the Orchard Hill residential area, and then find areas of low elevation below the Orchard Hill residential area and study the species richness in the plots.

Once all of the groups are done, they can all compare their results to figure out which variable has the most significant impact on the plants.

For the group studying soil pH, they will use pH testing strips to find areas of differing pH. In order to use the strips, they will dig a small hole and fill it with water and insert the pH strip into the pool. The survey of the species will be recorded right next to where the pH is recorded.

    For the group studying richness of plants near vehicular traffic, they will find an area of grass right next to a road way, and then find an areas that are farther away from a road way. The groups will record the distance from which their areas are from a roadway.

    The group studying the effects of pedestrian traffic will survey an area for a 15 minute time block and record the amount of people that walk through the area. The quantitative flow of people will give the group a gradient for them to compare the species richness to.

    The group studying how different amounts of sunlight and shade affect the species will find areas that have certain known intervals of sunlight and shade. For example, the group will find an area that has 6 hours of light or shade, 8 hours of light or shade, and 10 hours of light or shade. The different amounts of light and shade will give the group values for them to plot the species richness against.

The job seminar was very interesting, it was about how they could change the spindles and what possible applications they could have. One drawback to the seminar was that there were some technical difficulties so Professor Gatlin was unable to talk for the entire time. He began the seminar by giving an overview of cells and microtubules. One of the most interesting points that he brought up was that cell structures scale along with the size of the cell, similar to how organs scale inside different species of animals. His lab had an experiment where they controlled the size of the droplets of cell extract, and they found that the spindle size correlated with the width of the droplet. He then described the future uses of his research. He proposed that he can develop layered hydrogels in order to measure the forces that are exerted by the microtubules.

I would recommend that the biology department hires Professor Gatlin. I find it very interesting that he is from a mechanical engineering background. It gives him a different perspective on how the mechanical processes of the cell transpire. He made the seminar entertaining, because he was a pretty funny guy. His power point contained many videos and animations that really helped him get his point across. I would love to have a class with him as a teacher.

Plants can grow in all types of environments and there are many factors that can contribute to their survival. Understanding how these environmental factors influence the health and diversity of different species is critical to many fields like landscaping, farming, and conservation. This research project could provide information that could help people know what species of low living plant species could thrive in certain locations of land. For example, we could find out what species that should be included in grass seed that would provide a more resistant turf in a sunny backyard with little foot traffic, or a shady plot of grass right next to a busy roadway.

German Shepherds should be the dog breed that is saved. German Shepherds are the most logical of the dog breeds to save, because of their wide variety of uses. German Shepherds can be used as police dogs, guard dogs, hunting dogs, guide dogs, and even acting dogs. This array of potential jobs would allow service dogs to still be available when other dogs go extinct. The German Shepherds could also be used to breed other breeds and try and diversify the pool of dog breeds again.

German Shepherds are an adorable species, ranging in a tan and black mix to a fully black coat. There are countless images on the internet of German Shepherd puppies tilting their heads to try and understand their owners. They are an extremely intelligent and obedient dog, which is just one of the reasons they should be the species that is saved.

The species of grasses and weeds that inhabit the ground and turf people walk on often go by unnoticed. In this experiment, we propose to study the diversity and richness of these species and figure out what variables play a major role in changing the diversity and richness. In order for the project to be compliant with eight different groups collecting data, we came up with eight different variables. These variables include: soil pH, amounts of sunlight, amounts of foot traffic and nearby vehicular traffic, and elevation in relation to water runoff. In addition to that, other variables groups could study are: frequency the area is mowed, how recently the grass was planted, and the grass’s proximity to a body of water.