Writing in Biology

The interspecies interaction that I decided to use for my project was between a tree and the Ivy branches climbing the trees. I started my search for pictures of this interaction by walking along the West side of North pleasant st between Puffton village and UMass Amherst campus. While there were several examples of this interaction along this route, I wanted to look for a example that had a thick layer of Ivy branches going a good way up on a larger tree. The example i choose from this was a tree right in front of Puffton village. For the individual species I took a photo of the Ivy branches from approximately 1 foot away from their side to try and isolate them in a picture. For the tree I searched around for another tree in the nearby area that did not have any IVy branches climbing its trunk. For the interaction pictures I took two pictures both from around 5 ft away from the tree. The first angled downward showing the base of the tree as well as the Ivy branches coming out of the ground and climbing the base of the tree. The second was angled slightly upward, showing the Ivy branches climbing higher up the tree wrapping around the branches of the tree. After taking these 4 photos I proceeded to return home and upload them to my computer to prepare for construction of my figure.

Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of macromolecules and their fragments, based on their size and charge. The fragments are negatively charged due to the phosphate groups moving them from negative to positive. Smaller fragments move faster than larger fragments because they move more easily through the pores of the gel. Most commonly, the gel is cast in the shape of a thin slab, with wells for loading the sample. The gel is immersed within an electrophoresis buffer that provides ions to carry a current and some type of buffer to maintain the pH at a relatively constant value. The gel itself is composed of either agarose which is extracted from seaweed or polyacrylamide which is a cross-linked polymer of acrylamide.If we add the DNA fragment onto the negative side of the gel electrophoresis than the DNA fragments would move across the gel because of the DNA's phosphate backbones negative charge.

The ancient enviornments preserved in the orange rocks that form the cliffs around Bay of Fundy are those that contained lake beds, streams, and deserts. Where the fossils were found was not the normal enviornment that fossils were preserved in which was basalt, rock formed from cooked lava. But it was among this rock that a jaw was found that belonged to a creature called the Tritheledont. This animal was extremely mammal like but it still retained many reptilian traits. One way that mammal's skin differs from that of a reptiles is that mammal's skin keeps the skin moisturized unlike reptiles, the skin is a lot softer while a mammals is a lot dryer. The tritheledont have teeth that have cusps made for chewing food while the gorgonopsid does not. The gorgonospid is over 250 million years old and have giant elongated canines that are used to pierce skin.

Blood flow can be affected by restriction forces, specifically blood vessels. A smaller blood vessel diameter creates more friction between the blood and the blood vessel and restricts blood flow. When a blood vessel is dialated, the blood vessel diameter is larger and blood can flow more easily. The human body uses this technique to control blood pressure. When someone works out, blood flow is increased to the contracting muscles. In this time blood is also restricted to areas of the body that are not involved in the work out. When a person in cold, blood vessels that are not supplying blood to digestive organs are restricted. Blood vessels supplying blood to digestive organs are dialated to increase the break down of glucose. 

The studying of ecology, the ways in which different organisms interact with each other and their environments, could prove itself to be very useful in my field of study. This is because many of our medicines have been derived from other organisms directly or about what we’ve learned in these organisms’ behavioral patterns. For example, one of the most recent studies on lobsters provides evidence that humans may be able to slow down the body’s aging process by essentially reconstructing and imitating the telomerase cells found in lobsters. These cells make the lobster biologically immortal as they can live for many years if they avoid being eaten. Without our ability to study these animals’ interactions in their communities we would have never came across such an interesting study.  

The studying of ecology: the ways in which different organisms interact with each other and their environments—could prove itself to be very useful in my field of study because many of our medicines have been derived from other organisms directly or about what we’ve learned in these organisms’ behavioral patterns. For example, one of the most recent studies provides evidence that humans may be able to slow down the body’s aging process by essentially reconstructing and imitating the telomerase cells found in lobsters. These cells allow the lobster to be considered biologically immortal as they can live for many years if they avoid being eaten. Without our ability to study these animals’ interactions in their communities we would have never came across such interesting study.  

            America has drifted into dangerous territories with what we choose to eat. Most things we eat are heavily processed and generally not very good for you. Yes, food is cheaper than it used to be, but no one is buying the right products. A major factor as to why would be the Western Diet. The Western Diet is high in fat, calories, meat, sugar and carbs. All of which are not good for your health in high doses. People do need all of things, but in moderation. The ideology behind the Western Diet is Nutritionism. Nutritionism and food science lead people to think of food as nutrients. The idea is that every element of the food has some sort of benefit and or negative impact on a person. This diet is a large contributor as to why America has an astronomically high obesity rate as made evident in the book “in Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan.

Living a sustainable life can be important to having a successful future. Being sustainable means being able to live a certain lifestyle or doing a certain thing for an elongated period of time. Being able to have a lifestyle that you can live with for your adult life is important. Not being too aggressive of a consumer can help with that. I am not saying that being a minimalist is the way to go, but not being a large consumer can definitely help you save money. Two important benefits to being less of a consumer are less need to keep up with evolving trends, and greater ability to see through empty claims. These two things are easy ways to save money and maintain your life style. Less needs to keep up with trends are important. Trends are constantly changing and that can dictate a lot of what we spend our money on. This is true for many things but clothing is one of the most common. Style can change greatly and it will always continue to change because that is what makes clothing industry money. People feel the need to keep up with the latest fashions and go buy the newest clothes. Technology follows a similar pattern and can really put a dent in your sustainability because you will be buying very expensive things every now and then. Being able to see though empty claims can save you a lot of money in the long run. Being able to see what you really need and what a product can really do for you can help you make informed decisions on what you need to buy, and what is something you can live without. You can more easily spot things like trends or fads and not take part in them. Having the ability to see through empty claims and being able to avoid trends can help a person live a sustainable lifestyle then can enjoy.

Fish Species First Observations:

Lamprey has long, skinny, small circular mouth with teeth for latching onto other fish (buccal tunnel), gray with black spots, tail, holes on sides, two eyes on sides, posterior dorsal fin, caudal fin, anterior dorsal fin, jaw, nostril, tail.

Dogfish has dorsal fin, second dorsal fin, pectoral fin, snout, caudal fin, nostril, eyes on side, fin spine, gill slits, mouth, teeth, jaw.

Ratfish has gills, first dorsal fin, second dorsal fin, pelvic fin, anal fin, mouth, no teeth, eyes on side, caudal fin, nostril, jaw, pectoral.

White perch has caudal fin, anal fin, lateral line, pelvic fins, pectoral fin, chin barbels, Gill cover, first dorsal fin, second dorsal fin, gills

Sea robin has elongated pectoral fins, large ventral fins, upper jaw/jaw, gills, two short spines, 2 eyes, 10 spines, anal fin, dorsal fins,

Carp has caudal fin, anal fin, pelvic fin, pectoral fin, dorsal fin, adipose fin

Skate has spiracles, snout, eyes on top, pectoral fin, pelvic fin, caudal fin, spine, flat

Stingray is flat, two large pectoral fins, mouth on underside, two eyes on top, gray on top, lighter color on underside, tail, gills, stinger, pelvic fin, claspers, spiracles.

The morphological characters that were most useful were those that were not ancestral traits (that all the fish had), such as teeth, the anal fin, nostrils, tails, and pelvic fin to name a few. These were most useful because they allowed us to put the fish into groups that showed their relation. One morphological character that led us to believe there was an incorrect relationship between certain fish would be the spine. We related the stingray, dogfish and the sea robin together, but not the skate, which was in reality actually a relative of the stingray. The fast evolving gene is better for resolving these taxa. I think this the case because the fast evolving tree properly categorized the lamprey as the outgroup as well as matched the dogfish in the right position.

Observations are based upon the attention and gained information from something using the five senses. They are experienced first hand, and help to reach an inference. An inference is the logical explanation of the observation, or the conclusion drawn based on the evidence. It can be a second hand experience. An instance of using the two is in the scenario with the spike worms and silk worms we received on the first day of this class. When given the small plastic cups, the first thing we did was observe the mysterious object handed to us. We used our senses to see that the object was small and tan in color. We watched the object rear up on its tiny stubby legs and make its way around the edges of the cup. We noticed that one side of the object’s body was slightly darker than the rest of the body. There were several other factors about the object that we were visually able to observe. Had we physically touched the object’s body or utilized our keen sense of smell and hearing, we may have had further observations. Using these specific observations we then began to make conclusions. The big brown eyes on the darker, posterior end of the body had the visible characteristics of eyes, so using this observation and our knowledge of eyes, we could infer that they were eyes. The object was moving independently and displayed characteristics similar to a worm (the body is shaped long and has many legs), therefore we could make the inference that the object is a living organism that is or is related to a worm. Eventually using external resources online and comparing our observations of the object to real photos of worms, we could conclude that it was a spike worm. I have now been keeping the worm and carefully observing it for multiple weeks now. I have observed that the worm now has ceased its movement and grown a brown, hard exterior around the entire body. It appears to be a cocoon, and because I have knowledge that worms can alter their body composition into moths or flies, I can infer that because my worm is in a cocoon now, it is undergoing metamorphosis and will transform into either a moth or fly. I am able to make an inference based upon primary observation and also secondary knowledge.