Writing in Biology

    In general, it can be agreed upon that order and law is required in order to run a successful business or maintain stability in society. Yet is this always the case? For example, a grocery store throws out tons and tons (literally) of food every single day. Grocery stores throw out over 43 billion tons of food annually. That food can be used in order to feed the homeless or feed people who don’t have enough food for groceries. Yet due to laws and liability issues, large grocery stores like Market Basket are not allowed to do that. I think it’s undeniable though that the food is being put to waste, and should be used better. In 2010, there was a lot more advocating for a change in the system, and allowing the food to be distributed to homeless shelters in order to prevent such wastefulness. There was a lot of talk of trying to pass a bill that would allow the grocery stores to be protected in case someone were to eat something that gave them food poisoning. Although a lot of health risks and problems may arise from people eating the food, as long as they consent to the food that they eat and know where it’s coming from, then there should be no liability issues present. Personally, I don’t see how that bill never passed and why we’re allowed to watch so much food go to waste.

The Bombay Phenotype is a genetic trait in which the given indivdual expresses no A or B antibodies in their blood resulting in the O blood type. This is due to another third antigen H on the surface of the blood cell which effects the ability of the A and B antigens from forming. If a individual is double recessive for this H antigen, hh, it will result in none of the H antigen being produced. Since this H antigen is required for the formation of the A and B antigens, if no H antigen is produced regardless of the genetype the cell will be unble to generate any A or B antigens resulting in the O blood type. This means that it is possible for an AB parent to have offspring O blood type as long both parents are at least heterozygous for this h antigen.   

Canis latrans, Canis lupus, and Canis lupus familiaris are three different species. According to the article, Yes, eastern coyotes are hybrids, but the ‘coywolf’ is not a thing, by Roland Kays mentions that Canis latrans are hybrid species composed of three genetic swapping among the three types of Canis groups. Each type of them have a separate ratio of how much each gene it is composed of. The article writes that the three species are biologically possible to interbreed with one another but preferably not to mate with each other. I think this is the vital part which supports that these species are no longer the same because within a population, species will not have an urge to kill one another within the group. However, the fact that these three species will exhibit enmity is a strong evidence that they are separate.

           The last statistics class I took was AP Stats in my senior year of high school. The AP credit I entered UMass with satisfied my biology major statistics requirement. However, statistics have come up in many of the other classes I have taken at UMass. I remember my high school teacher saying there were two categories of statistics, which were exploratory and inferential. Exploratory statistics was for describing variables, and included things like mean, median, mode, variance, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics was for finding differences or relationships between variables, and involved things like t-tests and chi-square. I remember t-tests and chi-square involved p values. I’m pretty sure p values represent the probability of getting whatever results you observed if the null hypothesis is true, with the null hypothesis being that there is no difference or relationship among whatever variables you’re testing. The conventional p value is 0.05, representing a 95% confidence that you can reject the null. However, in my Genomics and Bioinformatics class that I am taking this semester, my professor made the distinction between statistical significance and biological significance by explaining that some results may not conform to the 0.05 p value, but that does not necessarily mean they should be disregarded, because the 0.05 p value is only convention and does not represent some mathematical absolute. She said that depending on the research question, the 0.05 p value may not be valuable. I also remember there are type one and type two errors that can come up related to the null hypothesis. One of the errors involves rejecting the null when the null is true, and the other involves accepting the null when the null is false, but I don’t remember which is which. 

Outside of my studies, I enjoy working out as I believe an individual’s health is crucial. During the winter here in New England, I love to take road trips to different mountains and ski. In the spring and summer, you will usually find me hiking, biking or kayaking. I do try and spend as much time outside during these few months, as we only have a limited time to enjoy the outdoors with our terribly cold weather, of course. If I do have the chance to join a research lab this summer, being able to hike the Alps and cruise along Lake Constance is definitely on my list! Alongside these activities, I have a passion for photography. Coming from a family of travelers, I’ve learned to embrace culture and language. I am more than grateful to be fluent in Arabic and beginner in German, however ideally, I would like to improve my German in which I think surrounding myself with locals will help. I am available beginning 20 May and am willing to stay until 10 August, and would love the opportunity to work alongside prestigious research faculty at the University of Konstanz. 

When comparing DNA sequence of species, scientists understand better the evolutionary relationships that they could not find simply by looking at morphology. Evidence of DNA is changing and taxonomy is helping them fix the classification of species evolving from common ancestor. Ever since Charles Sibley introduced the DNA-DNA hybridization, DNA efficiency becomes more accurate for classification. He took a egg white protein to analyze its enzyme using this technique. Today, this technique is used by numbers of scientists to improve the use of taxonomy.

For the straight edge, there was definitely sight of diffraction because there was light in the area in which there was supposed to be a sort of shadow region of the observed object. The intensity was less than in the other areas, but there was still light visible. For the edge/opaque disks the general existence of there being a dot in the center translated, but there was still light everywhere. For the circle, where a dark center is observed, that translated into the projection of a laser. So there was a dot in the center that was darker, but not completely light-less. Diffraction is occuring in these cases because it occurs when light bends around a sharp edge. 

The goal of this experiment is to learn how to accurately linearize nonlinear data. The nonlinear data will be extracted by looking at wavelengths of atomic spectra from hydrogren. Atomic spectra are spectral lines projected by light. The skill of being able to calculate the wavelength of an emitted photon using both initial and final quantized energy levels will also be acquired. Recognizing graphs in terms of equations and shapes, linearizing data and completing data anaylsis will all be benefiical when thinking about ones future in science. 

Enzymes work to speed up the rate of reactions. They do so by lowering the activation energy, or the energy needed to reach the transitition state. Activator and inhibitors can increase or decrease the activity of enzymes. Inhibitors decrease the activity of enzymes. They can be classified as reversible or irreversible. Reversible inhibitors are not permanent changes to the enzyme. They include: competitive, uncompetitive, mixed, and noncompetitive (which are a type of mixed). Competitive inhibitor binds to the same place as the substrate, or the active site. Inhibition can be overcome at high substrate concentrations. Vmax is not effected but Km increases. Uncompetitive inhibitors bind to the enzyme-substrate complex and cannot be overcome at high substrate concentration. Vmax and Km decrease. Mixed and noncompetitive inhibitors can bind to the enzyme or the enzyme-substrate. They decrease the Vmax and do not change the Km. Irreversible inhibitors cannot be removed from the enzyme, instead the whole protein would have to be denatured.