Writing in Biology

Cancer is most commonly referred to as a state in which there is uncontrollable cell division. In today’s society, we try to tackle the pathways that are affected by a variety of cancers. For our project, we decided to choose lung cancer and in specifically, non-small cell lung cancer. According to the American Cancer Society about 80%-85% suffer from non-small cell lung cancer. It is very common and can be subdivided into Squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. We are focusing on Kras and its association with lung adenocarcinoma. We will also be discussing Keap1 and AATF. This type of cancer is known to be widespread and lethal. Our challenge will be in delivering a treatment that would only target the cancer cells. An idea we are looking at in this moment is to have a drug that will be delivered intravenous so that we may target the lungs via the pulmonary vein. Non-small cell lung cancer also referred to as NSCLC is a cancer which will be able to build off since it is also known to be metastatic. 

These researchers studied the heritability of secondary sexual traits in guppies. Specifically body size, fin lengths, and spot brightness, among others, were measured. To records variation in spot brightness video cameras, photography, and computers were used to analyze differences in spot hue, spot saturation, and spot brightness. The inheritance of male traits was analyzed using offspring parent regressions. The data show that male guppies show high variation in sexual traits. Furthermore, regression analysis showed a significant relationships in traits such as fin lengths, body size, and area of orange spots between fathers and sons. Therefore, indicating that these traits are likely heritable. This experiment is very relative to Endler’s experiment because it shows that these traits are indeed heritable and variable.

To be intrinsic is to be essential within itself; unlike instrumental which is to be useful to others. In a sense, every living thing has intrinsic value just in the fact that it is living because there is value in life. However, it seems that some organisms may hold more value than others. A good way to determine how high an organism’s value is, might be looking at how long it has existed on this planet and how essential it is for life on this planet. Based on this, single celled organisms like bacteria are the most intrinsic, before them no life existed and without them no life would exist. Bacteria allowed oxygen to accumulate which led to more complex organisms, or prokaryotes, to evolve. The next large step was plants and trees and their appearance seems to jumpstart the evolution of many of the more advanced organisms around today.

Humans are rather insignificant in the grand scheme and seem to contribute a much higher amount of damage than good. It is Important for humans to minimize their damage because even though we don’t have much intrinsic value. We inflict a lot of harm to intrinsic organisms. Our species has colonized much of this planet, killing plants and trees in mass amounts. We have also killed large amounts of bacteria and their like in attempts to be sanitized. I believe humans need to take a giant step back, realize our value, and start doing less harm and more good, maybe even raising our value in the process. 

Despite growing up in America, I had nobody in my house who knew English. I had already learned to speak my native language when I was in Cambodia. Khmer was all I spoke until I was 5 because my mom only knew Khmer. I had no access to everyday technology that could’ve helped me learn the language because we couldn’t afford those things. By the time I attended school, I had no idea what people were saying to me. I had to adapt on my own to the foreign language. I woke up everyday at daycare dreading going to school. I would cry everyday for my mom because I barely ever saw her. She was always working and I was always scared and lonely. I would constantly cry until I was so tired that I would fall asleep at school. My teacher somehow understood what I was feeling so she let me off the hook. Other teachers weren’t so understanding. They whispered things about me to each other with disgusted facial expressions. When students bullied me, I couldn’t defend myself because I didn’t know how to speak English. Somehow, I would usually get in trouble for what they did. I had to endure all this alone since I had nobody to talk to who would understand me. I somehow managed to grasp the language within half a year of starting school. I became one of the top students in reading, writing, and math by the time I got to first grade. I stayed in the top ranks throughout my schooling career. I took multiple AP classes and transferred the credits to Umass Amherst. 

When searching for the figure we must find for class I have multiple goals to reach and or meet. I hope to find a species that is native to the Americas and ideally something native to the northeast or Massachusetts. My hope is that by focusing my search I would be able to find the figure I look for on the campus and hopefully I can use it for my final project. In general I think I would benefit from looking up what the conservatory on campus holds and focus the search from there. Overall I am very excited for this activity because I believe it will greatly enhance my ability to complete the final project.  

I chose the the first clicker question in lecture 4 for my deep learning assignment. It asked, “The image below depicts a specific amino acid at pH = 7. It belongs in the same group as?” and the available choices were glycine, serine, arginine, and aspartic acid. The answer to this question was serine. This question was testing whether or not the student could recognize an amino acid as polar, nonpolar, acid, or basic. Once the student could recognize this, they then would have to figure out what choice was most similar to the given amino acid. In order to solve this question, the student would have to recognize that the given amino acid is polar and uncharged. This is because there is a electronegative sulfur at the end of the the R group. Once that is figured out, the student would have to figure out which amino acid was polar and uncharged among the available choices. Using Bloom's taxonomy, I would classify this question as an “apply” question. This is because it requires you to remember which amino acids among the choices are polar uncharged. It also requires you to understand how to look at an image of an amino acid and figure out that it is polar uncharged. Since you remember and understand this information, you are able to apply the knowledge in order to solve this type of question.

In the book, Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade writes about human evolution and answers many interesting questions about how we came to be as a species. One of the things he talks about is how humans lost their fur. When humans first split off from chimpanzees, they looked much more like apes than humans. However, this changed once Homo ergaster came to be. Ergaster was the first human ancestor to have an external nose and have "nakedness". Some paleontologists believe that this nakedness came from their need to sweat. It is impossible for a creature to sweat efficiently if it has fur, so it would make sense for ergaster to shed its fur in order to cool its body and bigger brain. Conversely, other scientists proposed that human ancestors lost their hair as a consequence of sexual preference. One theory behind this preference is that they would be less likely to have parasites and bugs on them if they shed their thick fur, making sexual encounters a little less risky. Darwin was a big proponent of sexual selection, and he really pushed the idea that humans preffered mates without pests crawling on them.

The Right Way to Talk Science summary –
I think that every category of academic language has its own style and to write in any kind of language takes practice. Each type of style of writing has its own “recommended” grammer, choice of words, idioms, metaphors and most importantly, stylistic device. However, there are probably more boundaries in the language of science than in any other language. The most important thing to remember is to keep your scientific writing concise, simple, and clear for the audience. You do not want to create a circle for the reader. Your purpose is to convey your knowledge to them and make them understand the purpose, significance, and what your experiment means for the future overall. What are the norms of scientific study? One way to answer this question is to study and engage in a science class. It is easy to notice that personification in scientific language is NOT scientific and is unacceptable, however in a classroom, when introducing a new topic, this kind of approach may be more helpful for the student’s understanding. One norm is to be as verbally explicit and universal as possible and another norm is to avoid colloquial forms of language and use even in speech (pg 133). Avoid sensationalism, metaphoric and figurative and metaphoric language, personalities and personification, and references to fiction/fantasy (pg 133).

In fact, all tetrapods have the same body layout, or plan. Which is yet again striking evidence for common descent. Even fish have remnants of limbs from their ancestors. Furthermore, animals share similarities in embryonic development. This abundant evidence supports another main theme in the book, that similarities between animals can be explained with common descent. Shubin makes this work of scientific literature more readable for the average person by using reasonable prose and frequent humor. Because of this, I believe this was an extremely effective book. One of the most difficult challenges a scientific author can face is having their book not be read because it is too dense and dull. Shubin wrote a novel about the evolution of the human body and made it enjoyable for the average person, a remarkable feat.

After reading the article asssigned to us this week I had multiple thoughts. Overall I found the articel quite interesting and insightful. I specifically enjoyed the analogy the author mentioned comparing a cell to a large crowd. His explanation of the activity of letting the student describe the problems a crowd would face in a public event and then relating it back to the activity and challenges a cell faces was very, very intriguing. The author did a fantastic job of showing specific examples presented in the activity, for example a problem a large crowd may face could stem from concession or food, meanwhile on a cellular level gaining nutrient is of the utmost importance and a challenge each cell faces often. This simplification of the analogy would be very useful in a intro level biology class and Im sure with a few tweaks it could also be helpful in the upper level classes.