Writing in Biology

After collecting data of the observed behaviors and placing them into behavioral categories, we concluded the categories to be normal, innate behaviors of young foals. Each behavioral category is seen multiple times in the total 48 minutes and 55 seconds of footage and a total number of 65 individuals behaviors were documented. The playful behavioral category had 11 specific behaviors performed by the foals that were described and documented (Table 1). The aggression category shows 9 different behaviors of the foals (Table 2). The feeding behavioral category had a total of 10 unique foal behaviors (Table 3). Locomotion behavioral category of the foals had a total of 7 behaviors (Table 4). The grooming behavioral category had the most classified behaviors with a total of 15 (Table 5). The affection behavioral category had the least amount with 3 behaviors (Table 6). The behavioral category of observation had a total of 8 behaviors listed (Table 7). By weeding through the repetitions and similarities of the collected behaviors, we were able to formulate a well organized set of tables and learn about the constant signals that Morgan horses use to communicate.

These seven categories were broken down into playing, aggression, feeding, locomotion, grooming, affection, and observation. The playful category includes behaviors such as chasing bucking, nipping, or behaviors that displayed foal excitement. Aggressive behavior was categorized by actions such as ears back, pursing lips, pushing and any behavior in which the foal appeared agitated. The foals spent a large amount of time feeding, either grazing in the grass or nursing from the mares, which prompted a feeding category. Running, trotting, cantering, rearing, and other types of movement that changed of location of the foals were classified under locomotion. Grooming movements such as tail swatting, mane shaking, itching, etc.are innate behaviors of the foals, occuring often and seemingly unknowingly to the foal. The foals showed affection to the mare through behaviors such as necking and nuzzling. Observation included behavior such as surveying, sniffing, sticking their head through the fence and any behavior that involved the foals assessment of their surroundings. There is one table for each category that we organized, and at least three behaviors in those categories. Every table lists the behavior and is accompanied by its description, and a still image of the horses performing the behavior.

As female foals grow, like the foals observed here, they continue to practice behaviors that their mothers preform. When they reach about 4 months old, they begin to break away and behave on their own gradually. One way that they do this, is by grazing more often, as opposed to nursing (Crowell-Davis, 2007). The foals’ large amount of time alone indicates there independence from their mothers and can be an important sign of growth for the young females (Crowell- Davis, 2007). The other behaviors that they do on their own, grooming and observation, are also significant to their growth because it also shows how independent and aware they are. It shows the higher mares that soon the foals will be able to fend for themselves.

The structure of the human brain is one of the most complex organs in the body that is continuously researched for a deeper understanding of its function. Communication within the brain occurs between numerous neurons that transmit messages electrically within a neuron and chemically between neurons. Messages travel down a neuron from the dendrites that receive a message and then through the axon towards the synaptic cleft where the chemicals are dispensed. The synaptic cleft is a designated area for chemicals to be released from a neuron and transmitted to the next. Chemicals bind to the corresponding receptors of the upcoming neuron to be stimulated and continue its path throughout the brain. Chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine are transmitted throughout the brain via neurons. Serotonin relates to sleep, eating, and mood, which are critical for human well-being.

    It’s generally agreed upon that in order to close the achievement gap, we need to give opportunities to those who are poor, and are living in environments that pose a threat to their child’s education. The achievement gap is the gap in success in schools between high-income and low-income students. In my personal opinion, the reallocation of government spending (specifically demilitarization) to areas with poor education systems, would greatly increase educational opportunities, the quality of education, and create jobs for more teachers. During 2015 alone, the U.S spent roughly 600 billion dollars in military spendings. If we were to cut military spending in half, that would give education systems 300 billion more dollars to use, and still leave the military with 300 billion spending dollars. The large increase in educational spending will allow teachers to use better equipment, have more public resources at schools, and possibly even pay teachers a better salary. It’s important to note that the military also tends to “max out” on the budget in order to maintain the budget. For example, the military has lots of extra ‘disposable’ equipment that is bought in order to continually perpetuate this idea that the military “needs this amount of money” in order to continue functioning. The budgeting habits used by the military is constantly overlooked, yet when scrutinized it’s very apparent that the spendings are not being used efficiently. By allocating the taxpayers’ money elsewhere, we can generally increase the quality of education, and the achievement gap will eventually shrink due to better education systems.

The authors use both mice and rats in their experiment. Mice are used because their genome is largely similar to the human genome. Rats were used because their genome is 92% similar to mice. Rats were also used because they are larger than mice, which makes them a good model organism for examining retinal circuitry. The authors first cloned melanopsin cDNA in rat cells to show that the protein sequence is nearly identical to that of mice. Then they generated specific antibodies targeting melanopsin to show the subset of cells that contained the protein. Tau-lacZ targeting shows the projections of melanopsin positive cells to the SCN and other regions of the brain. Lastly, they used a combination of immunofluorescence and Lucifer Yellow to show that intrinsically photosensitive RGC’s were melanopsin positive.

The objective for this study is to understand the mechanism of non-visual reflexes such as regulation of the circadian clock and pupillary reflexes. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a site for photoentrainment in the brain. A portion of light-sensitive retinal ganglion cells protrude into the SCN. The authors hypothesized that melanopsin is a photopigment on the retinal ganglion cells (RPG’s) that generate action potentials to the brain in response to light, and play a role in photoentrainment. Although it was known that some RPG’s are photosensitive, the reasons for this phenomenon were unknown. It was also known that rods and cones are not photoentraining receptors. Provided this context, the reason for the study was to understand the function of RPG photosensitivity, and to use them to study the pathway that gives rise to photoentrainment.

There are five major functions of sleep as defined by neuroscientists. These are energy conservation, reinforcement of ecological niche, body restoration, brain restoration, and memory consolidation. There are four major brain regions that are responsible for sleep. The basal forebrain causes slow wave sleep via GABAergic projections to the hypothalamus. The brainstem, specifically the reticular formation, activates forebrain to wakefulness via acetylcholine and norepinephrine. The pons induces REM sleep via GABAergic and glycinergic projections to the spinal motor neurons to suppress motor activity. The hypothalamus coordinates the circadian rhythm and switches between states of sleep via hypocretin projections to the other three brain regions aforementioned.

Childhood for humans is considerably a lot longer than for other mammals including our closest living primate relatives. There is a long period of immaturity in humans even when taking into consideration our relatively long lifespans. However, stretching out the maturation may have given humans a unique evolutionary advantage. Humans and chimpanzees split off between six to seven million years ago and have been evolving separately ever since then. Early human fossils showed that humans had short growth periods which are a lot more similar to chimpanzees nowadays then modern-day humans. There is slow maturation in children nowadays that is linked to human’s emergence in society, this long period of maturation allows for an extended period of education. Humans are able to learn more and develop their brains better than other primates allowing them to “live slow and grow old.”