Writing in Biology

                 The complete set of chromosomes possessed by an organism is called its karyotype. An organism’s karyotype is usually presented as a picture of metaphase chromosomes lined up in descending order of their size. Karyotypes are prepared from actively dividing cells, such as white blood cells, bone marrow cells, or cells from meristematic tissues of plants. After treatment with a chemical (such as colchicine) that prevents them from entering anaphase, the cells are chemically preserved. They are then burst open to release the chromosomes onto a microscope slide, and the chromosomes are stained and photographed. The photograph is then enlarged, and the individual chromosomes are cut out and arranged in a karyotype. For human chromosomes, karyotypes are routinely prepared by automated machines, which scan a slide using a video camera attached to a microscope, looking for a chromosome spread (a group of chromosomes that are well separated). When a spread has been located, the camera takes a picture of the chromosomes, the image is digitized, and the chromosomes are sorted and arranged electronically by a computer.

Cancer is very scary, however it’s mechanics are incredibly interesting. A cell acquires a mutation that causes it to bypass multiple checkpoints in cell division and divide uncontrollably. The scary part about cancer is that it can happen anywhere and in any tissue. Cancer can also happen for any reason at all. You can be the most healthy person in the world and your cells can make a mistake which leads to uncontrollable division. The worst part is your body doesn’t know to target these cells. Your body provides the cells with energy for them to divide at expedited rates. Your body can’t tell them apart because they are technically your cells, there is nothing that jumps out at the immune system and says hey we aren’t supposed to be here. There are really good drugs to combat cancer. But even with modern techniques and medicine it is still incredibly hard for cancer to be completely beat. And even if the cancer is beat it can come back or it can even come back in a different location of the body. It is honestly incredible that with the amount the cells in our body divide that more cancerous mutations do not develop at all.

German Shepards should be saved with the vaccine. Like many other breeds, they can be household companions that are known for their loyalty to their owner. Many german shepards love their owners so much that they might have separation anxiety after being away from them. The devotion of german shepards to their owners makes it easy for them to make a valuable, inseparable bond to their owner. For this reason, I think we should choose German Shepherds to save. They possess qualities that make humans feel more loved and less lonely. Not only are German Shepards a man’s best friend, but they also have valuable skills that can be exploited to assist humans. Their vigilance, obedience, and ability to focus makes them a good candidate as service dogs. In addition, they are often used by the police to sniff out drugs or human remains.

One of the coolest videos I have ever seen in a science course was in highschool. It was a timelapse video of a seal that had died getting eaten by other animals in a coral reef. Within a minutes small animals started picking away at the carcass then a few bigger animals passed by and took big chunks out of the seal. The coolest part of the video for me was seeing the starfish walk over and begin to eat the seal carcass. I didn’t even know that starfish were carnivorous, now thinking about it though it makes sense that they are. I managed to find the video on youtube to rewatch it. It really is incredible how the organisms in the coral reef don’t let a carcass go to waste. There was another really cool video of a whale carcass that had fallen to the bottom of the sea. Sharks had clearly taken big pieces before it even hit the ocean floor. Once it did deeper dwelling sharks began to take pieces of whale then came the eels. The eels ate away at the carcass until only bones remained. The circle of life was really beautifully captured in both of these videos. In death these animals gave other life.

Our results yield an outcome that refutes the prior hypothesis we had made. Because a lower Shannon Index results in a higher species diversity, we would have expected that the Sylvan area would have a lower number than Orchard Hill. Our results give us a Shannon Index for Sylvan that is higher than that of Orchard Hill, telling us that the area around the Hill has a higher species diversity than Sylvan. While these results don’t match our expectations, there are a few explanations as to why. First of all, the area around Orchard Hill may be more ideal for plant life (ex. less predators, easy access to rain). From the blind eye, we pointed the stream in Sylvan out as a huge factor favoring species diversity- yet other factors may have also been in effect. Another reason for our results can be due to the method and how the experiment was conducted. This experiment was very open to human error, and the results may not have been completely correct. Identifying, counting, and making sure to stay in the area allotted was difficult to do; and it was hard to collect data without injuring the environment around us by trampling over everything. We had originally set out to get at least 15 different species from each area, which ended up being tough to do.

In the study, “Complex movement patterns by foraging loggerhead sea turtles outside the breeding season identified using Argos-linked Fastloc-Global Positioning System” by Antoine M. Dujon and colleagues, the coastal foraging of loggerhead sea turtles was observed. The goal of this study was to gain further information on how loggerhead sea turtles use different neritic foraging sites at multiple scales. Using Argos-linked Fastloc-Global Positioning System, 24 turtles were tracked and recorded. These turtles were selected from a group of 57 turtles that had been tracked due to the duration and multilocational movements. They were monitored for a mean of 6.0 (+/- 4.5) months in the Adriatic Sea and Gulf of Gabes. The two different scales used were site and patch level. Site level being defined as non-overlapping large-scale habitats, and path level being defined as high-use areas within sites. The patches used in a site were similar in nearshore and offshore sites.

The assumed myristic acid was analyzed using hydrolysis and then by melting point. The melting point of the product was found to be 53 °C. This is slightly lower than the expected melting point of myristic acid of 54.4 °C however found within a narrow range alluding that the product may have been relatively pure. The yield obtained for myristic acid was 86.6% which is rather high. This relatively high yield may have been obtained by not adding excess liquid because adding too much liquid would result in loss.

    Dog Day Cicadas are one of the most common species of cicadas found in the United States. Research has shown that they use a specific mating call in order to attract females in hopes of performing reproduction. The sound is created by the panels beneath their wings, known as tymbals. The panels vibrate rapidly, and the sound is then intensified by the cicada’s mostly hollow abdomen. The main mating call is a high-pitched drone that lasts about 15 seconds, starting off softly and gradually growing louder into a crescendo, and then tapering off by the end. The sound is eerily similar to the sound of an electric saw. Female and male cicadas can also create sounds using their wings, but this sound is different and distinct. The reasoning for using this sound is unknown. We would like to determine whether or not this signal is also a part of the mating call, or is instead used in a different manner. Cicadas are not known for communicating anything other than their desire to mate, and our team would like to determine what else Dog Day Cicadas are trying to communicate. Resources available include data from the Texas A&M Forest Services, studies done by the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and other research journals done by the University of California, Irvine.

    Have you ever stopped to consider just how much we are affected by marketing everyday? Back in 2011, it’s estimated that the number of advertisements we see a day are at least 500, if not more. They can be subtle, such as the logo on someone’s shoes, versus something that’s very obvious, such as a billboard or a TV commercial. There are some brands that even utilize the fact that they’re hard to distinguish, and maximize that secrecy to make their brand stand out, such as Acne studios. We’re constantly exposed to different brands and marketing tactics and are never consciously aware of it. Take a look at headphones specifically. What is the first pair of headphones that comes to your mind when you think of the word “headphones”? Most people think of Beats by Dre, but other examples include Sony, Bose, or HyperX. These are the 4 main headphone brands that are dominating the market, yet the one that’s selling the most (by far) is Beats by Dre. This is due to the fact that their marketing team is heavily focused upon, and their brand name was able to score a deal with Apple, who also value marketing heavily. By making Beats such a widely known brand, people associate Beats as “very great headphones”, even though the reality is that they’re purposely weighted for no good reason, and the bass is amplified for every song that goes through them. They’re honestly a very awful pair of headphones for their price tag, yet they still dominate the market because of how widely known they are.