mkomtangi's blog

Those who argue in support of this view, state that the development of a fertilized egg into to baby is a continuous process and that any attempt to pinpoint when and where personhood begins is unnecessary. Once the sperm and egg meet the an embryo must be protected. Catholic, Orthodox, and conservative Protestants are strong supporters of this view. Those who argue against this claim that an embryo that has not been implanted into the uterus does not have the psychological, emotional or physical properties associated with being a person, it is an organic material with a status no different from other body parts.

Stem cell research, specifically embryonic stem cell research, poses a moral dilemma to the respect and value of human life, the topic of debate is whether or not the embryo being used has the status of a human person. Many see the embryo as a person or having the potentiality of becoming a person, but this argument is further deconstructed as to what defines personhood, is it defined through mental capabilities or is it a physical state of being. Those who argue in support of this view, state that the development of a fertilized egg into to baby is a continuous process and that any attempt to pinpoint when and where personhood begins is unnecessary. Once the sperm and egg meet the an embryo must be protected.

This project called for the creation of a multipanel figure depicting a flower on campus in its occurring habitat. The purpose behind implementing this project allows for participants to learn the importance behind replicating another experiment, which is plays a large role in science. If the project or experiment contains a well structured, organized, and detailed methods section, those who are replicating the project will easily be able to follow the instructions presented and with great effort replicate the exact outcome gotten from the original model.

This project called for the creation of a multipanel figure depicting a flower on campus in its occurring habitat. The purpose behind implementing this project allows for participants to learn the importance behind replicating another experiment, which is plays a large role in science. If the project or experiment contains a well structured, organized, and detailed methods section, those who are replicating the project will easily be able to follow the instructions presented and with great effort replicate the exact outcome gotten from the original model.

The purpose of this project was to search for plants on campus that could be used to create a multipanel figure that would later be followed step by step another student using a methods process. The flower chosen for this project was the Camellia-Japonica Debutante, which can be found in the Dufree Conservatory outside of Morrill 4. In this paper we will identify how the flower imagery was created and replicated and what steps could be modified or improved to get better results on both ends.

The plant I chose to photograph was the Camellia-Japonica Debutante, I photographed this plant in the Durfee Conservatory located across from Morrill 4 and is open from 10am to 4pm, Monday through Friday. The plant can be found in the Bonsai-Camellia house towards the right side of the room facing the window. The flower is a singular white plant surrounded by bushels of leaves and soil, similar to the structure of a grown tree. The photo was taken at 2:36pm when the sun was at the highest point for the day casting a ray of light across the room, the photo was taken in portrait form, with my hand gracefully holding the flower stem to capture the flower in its wholeness. I also captured the name of the plant which is labeled below the plant on a bench-like structure. To capture the name, I held my phone camera sideways to capture more of a landscape portrait and I stood above the label getting a top view of the name to capture everything in one shot.

I was very astonished when I first stumbled across this article. I had no idea that antibiotic resistant bacteria had a growing population in aquatic life. However, I am not surprised that is happening. Our over use of antibiotics has caused a negative cycle in the world of bacteria and medicine, the more we over-prescribe and abuse the use antibiotics, the higher the chance that bacteria will soon become resistant to it. Now we are no longer just endangering our well-being but the well-being of other creatures, I am not too entirely sure about mechanism of exposure of the bacteria to sea mammals, but I would hypothesize that would factor would be pollution and invading the habits of these mammals. Hopefully scientists will be able to find a way to reverse the effects of this problem, but this is fine example of how we need to be more cautious of our use of antibiotics and look of alternative solutions. 

Recently, scientists have been discovering that land based pathogens that are infecting humans, cows, and even cats, have also been discovered to be infecting the sea mammal population, as large numbers of dolphins, sharks, and seals have been washing up ashore dead or dying. Researchers have found that these strains of bacteria, commonly infecting people, are resistant to bacteria. For example; a harp seal containing the bacteria Chryseobacterium indologenes to was resistant to 13 out of the 16 drugs tested by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Cape Cod. This is very alarming as surfers, fishermen, or anyone else who is active in ocean water can be exposed to these bacteria through open wounds or from oven digesting the water. Scientists such as Christopher Solomon describe these sea mammals as “swimming petri dishes”, as they hold the potential to nurture and transform these diseases until they re-emerge back into the human population even more advanced and resistant to antibiotics.

I found this article to be very intriguing, I personally have an interest in pediatric health in relations to gene expression, so this article definitely sparked my interest. The mindset and goals of the researchers was very inspiring, they are doing all that they can to increase the life-span of these newborns without burdening the babies or their families. Researchers offered counseling and consent to the parents of the newborn and conducted the research under regulations and ethical guidelines. You can tell there was a very strong moral stance taken with this project. Due to the outcome of the diagnostic testing, parents can now make better decisions about genetic counseling, reproductive choices, and future family planning. The results have also attributed to avoiding expensive and pointless clinical care for the newborns, and the university is overseeing preconception screenings that will detect autosomal recessive disease genes in couples who want to start a family. I hope to see more groundbreaking research such as this in the future of science and medicine.

From these figures I can observe that the plant is growing and at every new stage of growth a picture is taken to document it. From these three figures I can infer that the the growth of the plant is being documented for record, possibly a science experiment. I notice that at each stage of growth for the plant that the leaves become fuller and fuller, the progression from figure a to figure b is a clear sign of fullness in the plant. The height of the plant also increases as it grows, I noticed a particular spurt of growth when comparing figures b and c. The stems of the plant are also growing as well, as they are expanding their width and leaves seem to bloom on the end of what now appears to be branches to this miniature tree that is growing, this can clearly be observed in the last figure, figure c. In the transition from figure b to figure c, the tree has shifted its form to becoming more vertical, allowing for the tree to stretch its branches out more and take up more acquired space.