Perfect Paragraph

The authors mentioned early in their introduction that there have been eleven hypotheses suggested regarding the purpose of stotting in Thomson’s gazelles.  They theorized that a gazelle’s probability of stotting may change depending on the type of predator pursuing them, if they are singled out by the predator, or their physical condition.  For one prediction, the authors identified two types of predation styles, stalking and coursing, and compared the incidence of stotting between the two. They theorize the purpose of stotting in response to a coursing predator would be to demonstrate a gazelle’s ability to outrun them making the chase futile. Another predition tested was the difference in probability of stotting when approached by African wild dogs, a coursing predator, and how the way the dogs approached a gazelle might change its rate of stotting.  An additional predition the authors tested was how the proportion of stotting in a gazelle might make that animal more or less likely to be chased by African wild dogs.  Their last prediction was that stotting rates were an indicator of each individual’s health.

The plant that was photographed was the Blc Momilani Rainbow, otherwise known as “The Gypsy”. The plant was photographed in the Vine House of the Durfee Conservatory. The conservatory was entered from the rear entrance (opposite the street). The plant was located near the middle of the left wall of the second room. The plant was photographed from a distance a few feet away so the entire plant could be captured, as well as an up close shot that captured only the flower itself. 

Many of the discrepancies between the two figures relate to the details of the flower on the plant. Based off of the fact that the images of the flower appear so different, along with the fact that the flower present in the center of Fig. 1a is no longer present in Fig. 2, it becomes clear that the flower for Fig. 1 was no longer present at the time Fig. 2 was taken. The attempt to follow the methods was unable to take a picture of the same flower, and so took a picture of a different one. This was the result of  a variable which was not controlled for, public access to the plant. Roughly one week passed between the taking of the two pictures, during which time the conservatory containing the plant was open for public access. In future experiments, it would be wise to pick a plant kept somewhere more secure, without the possibility of tampering.

Part A both figures holds the widest discrepancy between the two figures. Figure 1A shows a flower with a bloom pointed at a 45° angle with respect to the ceiling of the conservatory. Figure 2A depicts a bloom at a 90° angle with respect to the ceiling of the conservatory. Part B of both figures displays a little discrepancy between both figures. Part C both figures varies slightly with respect to the outlining of the states within the United States, and the highlighted portion of florida. Figure 1C displays a map in which the states of the United States are outlined with borderlines, and the state of Florida is highlighted in red. Figure 2C does not contain state borders within the United States, and the state of Florida is colored grey along with the rest of the United States. Additionally, differences in font are noted for the figure labels in each figure.

    I went to the conservatory located near Morrill I N. It is in between that building and berk. It was my first time there so it was actually kind of cool seeing lots of plants there. It was like a greenhouse filled with plants. I used a small wooden door that had a sign that said "open 10-4 pm". The first room I entered was small and cool in temperature yet warmer than outside as it was very windy and chilly. The next room was very warm and it was like a tropical grassland as my glasses fogged up by its warm temperature. The plant I found was in the first room I entered which was on the cooler side, as soon as I entered I looked to the right to find this lovely pink flower with yellow seed-looking things in the middle of it. It reminded me a bit of the traditional korean flower as it is pink and has some stuff in the middle as well. I found it interesting that a beautiful flower like that was in the colder room instead of the warmer room near it with a small bridge in it. I saw some coy fish in the little pond that they had in the other room, however my plant was in the room before going into the room with the pond.

he organism I decided to picture was found in the Durfee Conservatory, which is located between University Health Services and Morrill II. The exact address is 210 Stockbridge Road and it is open to the public 10am to 4pm, Monday through Friday. I went to conservatory at approximately 11am on a Friday. The entrance I used was the one closest to Morrill II, with a wooden sign outside of it that reads "Durfee Conservatory Visitors Welcome". Once inside the organism was found directly to the left of the entrance in a square pot. The name of the plant is Camellia Japonica Jarvis Red, it had a structure that was very similar to a small tree with green leaves and a few blossoming pink flowers. Once I found the plant and identified the name I returned to the door and placed my left hip on the shelves grounded to the wall and took a picture at eye level or approximately five and a half feet off the ground. Using my Iphone camera, I was sure to capture the full pant while specifically focusing on capturing the two blooming flowers in the picture as well. Then I squared my shoulders to the side of the plant facing Morrill II, so now my back was to the entrance wall. I then located the lower of the two flowers on this face of the plant, cleared away the branches in order to see the flower head on and took the second picture, once again using my Iphone camera. I was sure that the flower took up the majority of the screen and that individual structures of the flowers were identifiable. Once all the pictures were gathered the figure was created and it soncsisted of three panels, labeled A, B and C respectively.

Scientists were originally set out to determine the migration patterns of the northern saw-whet owl in southern Ohio, luring them with audio-recordings to attach a tracking band to them. However, upon a closer look on them, they are able to spot something more fascinating. Owls are known for their large eyes and keen sense of hearing to be able to spot prey and predators during the night time due to their nocturnal habits, and have been able to successfully thrive due to this evolutionary adaptation. Taking a closer look at the owl, if one parts the feathers of its ear opening, as it does not have an external ear structure, one can see the eyeball of the owl. This can be achieved due to the enlarged eyeball and the unusually large earhole that the owl possesses. The eye makes up about 5 percent of their body mass, and their earholes are un-proportionally large which made it easy for the scientists to take a look at the eyeball from the internal ear. I believe this is one of the most important adaptations an owl has evolved to since their sense of hearing and eyesight have to be very good to be able to live in the environment that they do and in the hours that they are active. Most owls thrive in forests and hunt during the night which make it easy for one to not see a branch, hit one and get injured. Knowing one can access the eyeball through the year could aid us in understanding more about the eyeball of an owl as well. 

First, I traveled to the Durfee Conservatory located behind the Morrill buildings to find a plant to photograph. After walking through the first room of plants from the front of the greenhouse and into the second room, I began to assess which plant stood out to me the most. On the far left in the middle of the wall, I found a flowering potted plant. One type of flower was white and pink, and the other was light orange and pink. I used a ruler to measure the proportions of the different areas of the plant. The plant had thick stems approximately 25 centimeters long that were partially white. The leaves were approximately 20 centimeters and the flowers themselves varied in size but averaged at 12 centimeters. From the tag in the soil, which was placed backwards in the pot so that the name was not showing in the picture, I discovered that the plant was the Cattleya ‘War Paint’ flower. I then took two different pictures. The first was a picture of the entire plant and its pot and the second was an up close picture of a white and pink flower with some leaves and petals of other flowers in the background. I then left to create my figure at home.

Yonath, Steitz, and Ramakrishnan dedicated over 20 years to discovering the structure of the ribosome. Using X-ray crystallography provided tremendous hurdles for Yonath when trying to figure out the atomic structure of the ribosome, which is a complex structure containing two subunits each with thousands of nucleotides of RNA and 32 and 46 proteins respectively. However, using ribosomes taken from bacteria living under tremendously harsh conditions in the dead sea, a high-salt environment, helped to provide the stabilization needed to  obtain a detailed mapping of the atomic structure. Still problems persisted, and it was Steitz who used both images generated by Yonath and electron microscopy from Joachim Frank that provided the information needed. After years of collecting additional data, and the structure of the small subunit of the ribosome from Ramakrishnan, it was finally possible to map the functionality of the ribosome at the atomic level.

Singer is a utilitarian, so he believes that people should follow actions that bring the most good to the world. Therefore, Singer argues that the quality of a child’s life is paramount when it comes to parents deciding if their child should live or die. For example, Singer brings up the disease spina bifida, a disease that, “the lives of the worst affected children are so miserable that it is wrong to resort to surgery to keep them alive” (188). In this situation, the parents would not want the child to live because the child would be in such awful pain. Consequently, there is no reason to keep a child with this condition alive. When it comes to children with a less debilitating disease, Singer proposes how infants are replaceable.

Following his utilitarian views, Singer argues that it could be better to kill a child with a non-major disability if it meant replacing it with a normal child who will be capable of experiencing and giving more happiness. Singer writes that society treats fetuses as replaceable and considers birth as the moment when the being has moral standing. However, he disagrees with this view, saying that if society is going to treat fetuses as replaceable, then society should also treat newborn infants as replaceable too. Ultimately, since infants are replaceable and their value is extrinsic of themselves, it is wrong to equate them to normal human beings in terms of moral standing.