Writing in Biology

There is no specific answer to why birds migrate. However, there are some factors that lead to the benefits of migration. For example, birds can escape predation in certain seasons, or find better resources such as food and water elsewhere than others. Some places are more suitable for breeding than others. Birds travel to find a place to live, reproduce, and nest. Depending on the climate or the temperature, different type of bird population appears at different timing. In unpredictable weather habitats, both migratory and non-migratory birds live together.

The data above compares Drosophila melanogaster growth and development at each gender and life stage at varying concentrations of the growth hormone, ecdysone. According to Figure 1 and Tables 2 and 3, overall, pupae are most abundant during normal conditions (control vial). In table 2 we observed 81 pupae in the control vial, followed by 61 pupae in the 10 µM vial, then 47 pupae in the 1.0 vial, then 25 pupae in the 0.1 vial. This coincides with the data in Figure 1, where pupae exhibit the largest number of flies than any other life stage, with the control vial displaying the largest number of pupae counted. In Figure 2, for the control vial and the 10 µM vial, there is a significantly higher number of females than males. This is also supported by Table 2, where there are 10 females and 3 males for the control, and 2 females and 0 males for the 10 vial. On the other hand, for the 0.1 and 1 concentrations of ecdysone, there are more males than females. In Figure 3, the females overall have a greater length than that of the males throughout all concentrations of ecdysone.

Drosophila melanogaster have been used as a model system for generations as an ideal organism for the study of development, behavior, and genetics due to their short life cycle (allows for larger fly production), ease of culture, and on a molecular level, shares many similar features and pathways with humans. Being able to produce multiple generations and view the different life cycles of the flies allows us to easily observe the effects of hormone concentration upon the growth and development of the organisms. In insects, the two hormones, juvenile hormone and ecdysone (Ponasterone A), control timing of normal molting, and formation of the pupa. (Yamanaka). Ecdysone is is a steroidal prohormone of the major insect molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone, one of many hormones which regulate growth in Drosophila. Ecdysone is essential in transforming the body plan of insects from larva to the adult fly by activating the programmed cell death of larval tissues and causing cell shape changes in the imaginal discs during Drosophila metamorphosis. Ecdysone signaling is important in morphogenetic movements that shape the first instar larva.

A simple endocrine loop is one that involved one hormone and maintains homeostasis. Most loops are stimulated by a humoral stimuli, or a change in interstitual fluid. An example of a simple endocrine loop is the parathyriod hormone. When there is a decrease in blood calcuim, the parathyroid glad acts as a sensor and control center, recognizing the change and signalling to an effort tissue. The signal is the release of the parathyroid hormone, which effects the bones, kidneys, and digestive tract. In the bones, osteoclasts break down bone and release calcium. The kidneys and digestive tract increase calcium reabsorption. Calcium levels increase in the blood until the normal level of blood calcium is achieved. A complex endocrine loop uses multiple hormones and has varied responses. For example, thyroid hormone is released when the body needs to increase metabolism. The signal goes to the hypothalamus which produces thyroid releasing hormone, which stimulates the anterior pituitary gland. The anterior pituitary glad then relases thyroid stimulating hormone which stimulates the thyriod gland to release thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone stimulates every cell in the body with a receptor for thyroid hormone to increase metabolism, heat generation, and growth and devlopment. 

    For as long as I can remember I love cafes. I go often in order to study, and I find the smell of coffee very relaxing and stimulating. It’s in my opinion one of the most perfect places you can go to in order to study. For the longest time I enjoyed going to Cafe Nero, because my friends always recommended it. The interior is nice enough that I can get my work done, but from the countless times I’ve gone, I have never had a drink there that I’ve enjoyed. Yet even though I had never gotten a drink I liked, I still ended up going because my friends have always said “Cafe Nero is great”. Then for the first time yesterday, I went to a cafe that a lot of my friends have always said wasn’t good, and for a while I have actually avoided. Yet the drink I ordered was fantastic, the ambience was nice, and I got a lot of my work done. I was pleasantly surprised that I had been avoiding this place this entire time all because of verbal marketing, and would most likely have never have gone to if I wasn’t in dire need of a place to study the other day.

What comes to mind when you think of death? At what point will you say a human being is dead. Right off the bat, I'd expect you to say that death is when the heart of the human stops beating and pumping blood through the body. If you did say that, then you aren't wrong but some scientists might object to the entirety of that definition. These days, the term "brain dead" has become more common in clinical settings. Being brain dead simply means the absence of cerebral activity. Neurological examinations, like pupillary reflex examination, have to be performed to ascertain that the patient is indeed brain dead. At this point, the patient is gone beyond redemption, though their heart can be kept active by artificial means. As such, we may expand on the definition of death to encompass the components of brain death. A patient in brain death usually still have viable organs, which can serve in transplantation. While these patients are gone, their organs may be used to give other patients a fighting chance at survival.

I know this isn’t exactly science related but it is related to physics and it was a test that I did. It was on calculating fall damage in fortnite. In fortnite you can building stairs, walls, floors, and pyramids. For my test I used walls to calculate fall damage. The first test I did was three walls up, I walked straight off the side, no fall damage. The first time I experience fall damage was from 3 and ⅔ wall height. The way I got ⅔ of a wall was by using my ability to edit the wall, you can break it into thirds. This first damaging fall dealt 11 damage, which isn’t too significant considering you get 100 health. When you jump from 5 walls high you start to experience significant fall damage, at this height I was dealt 49 fall damage. Jumping from 6 walls high deals 99 fall damage. A death fall would be from 6 and ⅓ walls high. I had a lot of fun figuring this out. I went into playground mode and got a lot of items that I could use to heal before I did the experiment. If anyone does this again and gets different numbers I would be curious to find out what they are.