Writing in Biology

“We are formed by our environment, and our environment is formed by us”. Mammals are influenced by climate, changing geography, and plants, and the influence their surroundings. One example of this is the Columbian mammoth, which adapted to its surroundings over time and lived 5 million—4,500 years ago. The primitive species of mammoths had fewer ridges on their teeth while newer species evolved with more ridges as more abrasive foods because available. Woolly mammoths, related to Columbian mammoths, had long fur to insulate it from the cold since it lived in an ice age. Another example of the environment affecting a species and the species affecting the environment are horses in North America. The Spanish re-established horses in North America in the 1500s after they had gone extinct 8,000 years before. The original North American horses underwent evolution over time as their environment changed, and they grew larger as forests turned into grassy plains. Today, there are concerns about mustangs damaging the biotic crusts of the grasslands, causing erosion. Sometimes, this two-way evolution is not a positive development.

At the end of this experiment, it will illustrate what kinds of environments the insects thrive in within the buildings examined. This proposed project will provide insight into the Morrill buildings that students, professors, or visitors of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst visit on a daily and the diverse sets of insect or creatures that habit within them. In addition, it will enable colleagues to study window sills and take note of what they inhabit and how these conditions contribute to an infested place of organisms. This proposal suggested locations of studies is situated in a convenient place on campus where most biology students are present and have interactions on the daily basis. Overall, using this approach will benefit students into understanding the types of organisms they coexist with on a daily basis.

It is of high belief that exercising helps burn calories therefore helps lose weight. However, recent data has been aimed to disproving this belief. The claim is that exercise will not help lose weight and can infact cause an increase in weight. It was stated that the majority of calorie burn is in the basal metabolic rate, or energy used in resting bodily functions, followed by energy used to break down food. It was viewed that calorie burn from exercise makes up only about a quarter of total calorie burn. As much as this seems to be a good portion, there come consequences with calorie burn from exercise. Many consume food after doing physical activity, where the first claim comes. Many eat large portions of food after exercising, many to be unhealthy food. An hour of calorie burn can be easily matched with 5 minutes of eating unhealthy food. Many intake more calories than they need post exercise with counters their physical exercise burn. The second claim is that many feel tired and lazy after working out and therefore slumping and being much more inactive than if they did not work out in the first place, this then prevents more calorie burn to aid in weight loss. A healthy diet is key to weight loss, physical activity alone will not induce weight loss if not connected with a proper diet.

It is known that physical activity has many positive impacts on ones body, both physically and mentally. It can boose your immune system, strength, endurance and even help against depression and other illnesses. Many do physical activity to be fit and to feel good about themselves. Some, do it because it is a matter of life or death. Many Americans and people all over the world are overweight and are at risk of dying young due to their activity and eating habits. Many of these people believe that they can soley lose the weight they need by being physically active. This is not true. To lose weight, one needs to be physically active and eat the right food. One cannot be active for an hour a day and then eat junk food for all meals, this defeats the purpose. One needs to get the right amount of macro and micro nutrients for their needs as well as being physically active to get results. Different amounts of these nutrients is dependant on the results they want as well as level of activity. Macro nutrients consist of Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins. Carbohydrates make up the majority of the meals with about 40-60% and can be attained through grains, potatoes, fruits and vegetables. Fats are second highest with 20-40% which are supposed to be healthy fats, not fast food, such as avocado, nuts, seeds and fish. Proteins are to make up 14-17% and are to be lean such as chicken breast. Healthy diet and sufficient physical activity will get you the results you want with proper research and preparation. 

It has been a common technique in ecology to use indicator organisms to evaluate certain aspects of an ecosystem. It is shown that certain species thrive in particular environments, so by finding what the diversity is in a location aids in answering questions about the area.

Biodiversity can be used as an indicator of environment. Aceres (2010) shows the benefit of testing multiple locations and how the wildlife diversity can reflect how recently the land was tampered with. The Winner (1980) surveyed the population differences of different insects near rivers suspected of metal pollution. Their results showed a vast difference in the species found in the polluted water versus clean. Gaufin had a similar experiment that used aquatic invertebrates to measure water pollution.

For the motility portion of the motility and chemotaxis lab, I hypothesized that there would be movement seen for Proteus mirabilis, however there would be no movement for Staphylococcus aureus. I expect these results to occur because the motility agar contains tetrazolium salt, which in its oxidized state the salt is colorless, however when living bacteria is present within the media they reduce the salt content of the medium causing a purple color to display. Therefore when a living organism comes in contact with the salt, the medium will turn purple, this will allow the tetrazolium salt to act as a tracer for movement of the bacteria. This indicates that proteus mirabilis is a living organism and will move from the point of inoculation and spread throughout the medium, displaying a purple color; while the non- living bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus will only grow at its point of inoculation, revealing the purple color on in the site of inoculation.

I would expect to find both amino acids and glucose in hepatic portal circulation. This is because both of these nutrients would not yet have been absorbed by the small intestine and they are vital for body function. I would not expect to find many lipids in hepatic portal circulation because they would have already been absorbed into lacteals. After nutrients have been absorbed into the hepatic portal, they enter the liver, where some glucose is stored as glycogen, before the nutrient rich blood is sent to the heart to be circulated around the body. This allows for cells to receive nutrients through the bloodstream.

In the article “Experimental evidence for a mismatch between insect emergence and waterfowl hatching under increased spring temperatures,” it states that insect emergence is mainly driven by temperature. This article shows that even changing a few degrees of temperature will affect whether insects will thrive or not. This information can be used to take into consideration the variation in temperature within both Morrill buildings and within the different floors. If the weather is hotter, there will be more insects or organisms present. If the weather is colder, there will be less. Therefore, if the temperature inside a certain part of the building is hotter, there will be more organisms present. If the temperature is colder, there will be less.

A549, H460, H1650 are non-small cell lung cancer lines

1. % mitotic cells compared to control through siRNA transfection

2. Knockdown using lentiviral shRNA

3. Western blot; cells synchronized at G1/S, released for varying times

   1. p-TBK1 activated 4 hours post release

   2. Maximal TBK1 phosphorylation= maximal Histone H3 phosphorylation

D) BX795 inhibits TBK1; control cells at 9 hours post release had pH3S10, but treated cells didn’t

E) TBK1 depleted by siRNA transfection, no pH3S10 (small band at 9hr, not mentioned in paper)

F) PLK1 is mitotic kinase, may be substrate of TBK1;Testing if overexpressing PLK1 can overpower depleted TBK1, but it can’t rescue from TBK1 depletion; TBK1 must target other proteins to modulate mitosis