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Why do birds migrate? scientists did not have a solid explanation on how or why do birds migrate, but based on discoveries and technology, scientists determine that birds migrate from one place to another depending on the seasons. When it is cold, they migrate from colder temperature to warm places and they also avoid dry places where it does not rain often. When migration season happens in North America, birds have the tendency to move from North to South direction. It is known that most migratory birds breed in the south and returns to the north because of warmer weather, better resources such as food, and mates to help them prepare for breeding season. The two major seasons that birds migrate are spring and fall. However, during the winter most birds die because of the cold, diseases or starvation, and that is why some birds reproduce many offspring in a year. Migration is the most efficient way for birds to survive and reproduce.

Certain species that defy expectations of sexual gender are important in helping biologists understand reproductive mechanisms. Not all species fit perfectly into the definitions of specific species concepts like the morphology or biological species concepts. The reproductive mechanisms for numerous species of lizards, fungi, and microbes differ drastically from mammalian mechanisms of reproduction. Certain species will reproduce sexually but do not fail to produce offspring even in the absence of the opposite sex. This is common in lizards that will lay eggs with no need for fertilization from the male counterpart. The viability of the offspring are high. Other traits that defy the biological species concepts include hybrids that are able to produce fertile and viable offspring with other hybrids but somehow, unable to cross with the parental species. These are instances in which the expectations from sexes and reproductive success are unable to fit perfectly into the human made concepts to understand nature.

Alzheimer's disease is a disease that destroys memory cells and affects mental functions. Alzheimer’s disease is derived from the increase in the buildup of amyloid plaques. Amyloid plaques cause disconnections between nerve cells. The disconnections can alter and affect a person’s thinking, memory and behavior. Scientists believed that if the plaques are removed then the memory cells would not be destroyed. Deep brain stimulation was attempted to see if it would help with Alzheimer's, especially with the plaques. The devices were implanted into the fornix, which is a fiber bundle between the hippocampus and hypothalamus. The use of deep brain stimulation increased glucose metabolism. After the testing, it was found that the increase in glucose metabolism had no effect on the disease. Therefore, the use of deep brain stimulation was not a good option as an alternative.

The goals of this project was to be able to construct a methods section was to be able to create our own multipanel figure on our own, be able to create a methods section to explain how the figure was created, and compare our create figure with another figure created by somebody else following our methods. By analysing the differences between the two figures we will be able to find what parts of our methods are unclear when replicating. The subjects of that I chose for my figure were the trees covered in Ivy branches along the West side of North Pleasant St. I chose this interaction since both were plant species there was very little chance for there to be a significant change resulting in the same example not being able to be photographed for the replicate figure. Also even if there had been some sort of problem resulting in the specimen not being there for the replicate, there were many other examples alongside the road that could also be used. When selecting my specimen, I wanted to make sure that it had a thick layer of Ivy that covered a large area of the tree to make sure it was very noticeable in the figure.

The two multi-panel scientific figures created by the original student and the second student showed several observational differences. Upon initial observation, the replicate figure is significantly darker in color than the original figure. Although they both display a yellow-tinted background color, the replicate figure has a dark yellow-orange color, while the original figure has a light, yellow-beige color background. Similarly, both figures contain the three essential images of the interaction between the Sweet Olive tree and the English Ivy. The first photo is taken of the English Ivy strand, the second of the Sweet Olive tree, and the third photo captures both species interacting with one another from a farther distance. All three photos of the replicate figure capture nearly-identical images of the original figure. However, in the replicate photos, the sun appears to be setting, as the sun is setting at a different angle than in the original photos. Additionally, the arrows used on the third photo to signify the two species from the replicate photo are both pointing towards the left direction. To contrast, in the original photo the blue arrow is pointing in the right direction and the red arrow is pointing in the left direction. The text above the actual photos is identical in both figures. However the photos in the replicate figure appear to be significantly smaller in comparison to the original figure.

In my mammalogy lecture last week, we learned about zoogeography and its effect on early and present day marsupials. First off, zoogeography is a method to describe the local and global distribution of species based on the environment. There are seven zoogeographical regions around the world. They are: Nearctic (modern day North America), Neotropical (South America), Ethiopian (Africa), Oriental (Southern Asia), Australian (Australia), and Palearctic (Eurasia). With the topic of marsupials, we discussed evolution and their historical regions. Most marsupials today are only found in Australia, with the exeption of the opossum and the colocolo, but millions of years ago they were in modern day Antartica and all over north and South America back when the continents were connected. When the continents split, the isolation and change in climates led to extinction of early marsupials in Antartica and most of North and South America. 

Language is a system of communication either written or spoken used to express ideas from one to another. We are constantly using this form of communication without proposing questions about how it was formed or when it had started. Our desires, questions and feelings are all communicated through a language that all help us understand the world around us. Our language would be classified as one the most important assets as human beings, although most of the time the concept of language is overlooked. Without these languages, forming relationships would be unimaginable. Different languages are the equivalent to the role of covalent bonds holding hydrogen atoms together. These bonds are essential in keeping these atoms together, just as a language is essential in building and forming bonds between people. Within these bonds are the connections that these people have in relation to both their identity and cultural values.

A new study, published in Nature Sustainability, shows satellite images displaying the leafy cover across the globe which has grown by 2.3% per decade since the 1980s. A main driver is the “fertilization effect” which is brought about by humans burning fossil fuels. When plants take up more gas, in this case, CO2, they produce more food and create new leaves. Researchers also found that planting more trees and crops is aiding in the growth. China and India have contributed to approximately a third of the greening since 2000, mainly by forests and farms. The satellite images revealed that only five percent of the vegetated areas are browning.

Anaerobic metabolism has vast effects on the body during exercise. At 90-100% oxygen consumption the body burns mostly carbohydrates and very little fat. This is why extreme anaerobic exercises are not recommended for burning fat. Fat is primarily burned at about 20% oxygen consumption. As movement and exercise intensity increases the body’s core and peripheral systems go through very different changes. The core systems stay consistent while the peripheral system is compromised. Blood pH stays at 7.4 until about 90% oxygen consumption. Ventilation steadily increases with oxygen consumption linearly until about 80% where it rises rapidly. Venous oxygen tends to decrease gradually as oxygen consumption increases while arterial oxygen stays consistent the entire time. The distribution of oxygen also changes when exercising. At rest a vast majority of the blood goes to the brain and the kidneys. Meanwhile during activity 85% of the blood supply goes to skeletal muscles.

The Methods Project is a tool to show us, as a class, how important it is for the scientific community to conduct research with procedures that allow for an experiment to be replicated and achieve the same results. For the methods project, we had to make a figure showing an interaction between two species around us. I choose to use Dunfree Conservatory as a space to find one. There is a pond there with koi fish with plants surrounding it and I noticed that the fish sometimes nibble on the plants that either grow in the pond or happen to fall in. Seeing as the building was an enclosed, emperature controlled environment where the plants and the pond are maintains without much outside influence, I thought it would be a perfect area. That helped with the control factors of this project as the both the fish and plants are stuck in one area for easy access and the outside weather wouldn’t affect them.