Writing in Biology

    Traditional scolding from Asian parents is very scary. Of course these methods are not only done by Asian parents, but from a traditional cultural standpoint Asian parenting have similar themes. Hitting your children for example is very common, and most of the time they will hit the children with whatever is available. Whether the parents are in the kitchen and they’re hit with a wooden spoon, or if the mother is in the bedroom and you get hit with the bedroom slipper, or if you’re outside and you get hit with the broom. Negative reinforcement is very common, and most of the time the children are belittled in hopes that the belittling will cause the child to want to prove the parents wrong. The supportive aspect is a lot less prevalent, and instead the parents will consistently belittle the kids in order to try and get them to “overcome” the belittling to become stronger. It’s very interesting that this exists, because in recent times, Western psychology dictates that the best way to raise a child is through positive reinforcement. There doesn’t seem to be as much of a focus on child psychology in Asian countries, but it’s becoming a more prevalent problem that is slowly gaining more attention.

    Swearing is considered taboo and bad habits, yet is it beneficial to swear? There has been recent studies done that show that swearing actually releases endorphins, and actually reduces stress. Swearing has even been proven to reduce pain through the release of endorphins as well, as well as triggering the fight or flight response and increasing rate heart. This reduction in pain perception and feeling better afterwards is a big benefit from swearing, yet societal standards say to not swear in order to “be polite”. Will this perception eventually change? For example, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you could not say the words “b**ch” or “sh*t” on air. That perception is changing as in recent years, and it’s now allowed to say both of those words on television. It’s interesting because it seems that the stigma behind these words are slowly fading, but other words are beginning to come about with heavier negative connotations and a new “age” of swear words are coming about. It’s interesting to think as to whether or not the release of endorphins might actually decrease by saying the same swears, between older and younger generations. An experiment could even be performed, and see if pain perception is relieved more in older generations when saying swear words that hold a heavier meaning to them.

In a study performed by Falcone et al the caloric expenditure of aerobic and resistance exercises were compared. Subjects completed 4 different exercise interventions at different intensities for 30 minutes each. The four exercises consisted of weight training (squats, chest press, shoulder press, and seated row), treadmill running, stationary cycling, and a hydraulic resistance machine. Three were 9 participants whom were all male and between the ages of 18-35. Subjects were asked to consume the same food 48 hours before each session (12).

The purpose of this experiment was to gain insight on how climate affects vegetation of the shrub Vaccinium vacillans. Different latitudes and elevations were manipulated in order to determine the role they play in growth. Latitude and elevation both impact the amount of sun light a plant receives and ultimately impacts the temperature that a plant grows in. The further a species is from the equator, or the greater the latitude, the less direct sun it receives. Oppositely, the higher the elevation the greater the amount of direct sunlight received (Gurevitch 2006). For this experiment, it was hypothesized that within a region, the vegetation at high elevation will resemble the vegetation at high latitudes. Furthermore, it was predicted that a widespread, common species will show parallel changes in abundance as elevation increases and as latitude increases in New England. 

This finding relates to the types of neurons and cortexes of the brain we have learned about this semester. The study involves mirror neurons and the cingulate cortex, two concepts we haven’t learned about in this course. However, we have learned about oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and other types of neurons in the brain. We have also learned about the visual cortex, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex, but not the cingulate cortex. The link between brain and behavior is a third way the article relates to topics discussed in this course: the brain (mirror neurons) influence this behavior of the rats (freezing and empathy). I hope we are able to learn more about mirror neurons and the cingulate cortex before this course ends, as well as more about the biological basis of empathy.

    Additional studies about mirror neurons are needed to see if they are located in other cortexes of the brain besides motor and cingulate. Although rat’s brains are similar in structure and function to humans, more studies are needed to identify additional biological empathy links in human brains. Exploring the limbic system further to elucidate the biological bases behind emotional behaviors may serve as a crucial element in diagnosing and understanding psychiatric disorders in the future.

Success for the offspring of the azuki bean weevils are determined by the oviposition preferences of the female bean weevil. The choice of the female determines the food source for the larvae, and because following pupation, the beetle does not consume food or water for the rest of its life, the initial decision is crucial. In experiments that test for preferences, it was found that the azuki bean weevil had a high preference for the cowpea legume out of five beans- cowpea, mung bean, azuki bean, kidney bean, and soybean. The number of eggs per cowpea when the female was given a choice revealed roughly 6 eggs per female on the cowpea, and zero eggs per female on the kidney bean. Those laid on cowpeas revealed a reduced developmental and adult emergence rate, suggesting that the choice was beneficial to offspring success.

The final product smelled like apple, which is different from the malodourous starting reagents. This is characteristic of esters which are often fragrant like fruit. The final product was tested under IR spectrometry, which showed that the product was the expected ester, with peaks at 2959.9 1/cm and 2873.09 1/cm. There was a lack of the broad peaks as seen with alcohols and no peaks showing signs of water as water is also a product of the reaction. This means that the product was successfully dried. The experiment could be improved if more time was allowed for the reflux and careful manipulation of the apparatus to avoid bringing water into the flask.

In the article “I Feel You: Emotional Mirror Neurons Found in the Rat,” published in Current Biology and from neurosciencenews.com (https://neurosciencenews.com/emotional-mirror-neurons-rats-11066/), the researchers found that mirror neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex respond to pain experienced by others. This article interests me because although I have learned about empathy in social psychology, I have not viewed it from the biological perspective. It is fascinating to be able to pinpoint a neuronal link to this complex social phenomenon and I hope we are able to uncover more of these links within my lifetime.

    In this study, researchers speculated that the cingulate cortex contains mirror neurons and that this is the reason why we feel pain seeing the pain of others. To examine this, researchers observed rats who were watching other rats receive an unpleasant stimulus. Rats tend to freeze when scared to avoid being detected by predators, and the researchers observed this behavior when rats watched other rats receiving this unpleasant stimulus. Upon inspection of the cingulate cortex, it was found that the observing rats activated the same neurons as the rats that received this stimulus, supporting this mirror neuron speculation. The researchers also administered a drug to these observing rats that suppressed the activity of these cingulate cortex cells and found that the rats no longer froze. This was an important find as previously, mirror neurons had only been found in the motor system.

          In this experiment, the goal was to synthesize 3-methylbutyl acetate and utilize several characterization methods to verify the successful formation of the product. The reaction was performed via esterification, using acetic acid and 3-methyl-1-butanol as reagents and sulfuric acid as the catalyst. The odor of acetic acid resembled that of vinegar, while the odor of 3-methyl-1-butanol resembled an artificial sour apple smell. The odor of the product, 3-methylbutyl acetate, resembled an artificial banana smell. This indicates that the product was successfully synthesized because 3-methylbutyl acetate is known informally as banana oil. The percent yield of the product was 84.42%. The low yield could have been a result of transfer loss from some product remaining in the reflux column. A sample of the product was used to allow for further identification via IR spectroscopy. The IR displayed an alkyl C-H stretch at 2959.90 cm-1 and a C=O stretch at 1741.80 cm-1, as well as no large absorptions above 3000 cm-1, indicating that there are no O-H containing impurities. These experimental data are consistent with the known  IR spectrum of a typical alkyl ester, which is characterized by an alkyl C-H stretch that is just to the right of 3000 cm-1 and a C=O stretch that is at about 1750 cm-1. This supports the conclusion that 3-methylbutyl acetate was successfully synthesized.

In the study, “Migratory Reed Warblers Need Intact Trigeminal Nerves to Correct for a 1,000 km Eastward Displacement” by Dmitry Kishkinev and colleagues, Eurasian reed warblers were manipulated to gain information on which cues and sensory mechanisms are used to determine east-west direction, or latitude. Specifically, the ophthalmic branch of the terminal nerve (V1) of these birds was investigated. The nerve contains magnetic senses but little is known about how it functions, so the goal of this experiment was to determine if V1 could be used by Eurasian reed warblers to determine east-west position. To test this, the warblers were captured during spring migration at Rybachy in the Eastern Baltic and displaced 1,000 km to Zvenigorod. A control group was tested, using Emlen funnels, in Rybachy and Zvenigorod. Once displaced, two experimental groups were separated into those that had undergone a V1-section operation or those that had undergone a sham section operation, and the mean group direction was determined for each group using Emlen funnels. The warblers had access to natural day length, natural celestial cues, and local odors.