Writing in Biology

I took statistics freshmen year, so it has been three years. I do not remember much, but I do remember doing probabilities, means, medians, range, standard deviations, and standard error. I know probability has to do with the odds of somethig occuring. I remember there were different ways to caculate the probabilities based off of what the question was asking. I also remember looking at sets of numbers and calculating the mean and determining the range and median of the given values. I also remember finding standard deviation and standard errors. I remember that you have to use standard error to caclulate standard deviation. I also do not specifically remember the equation for standard deviation, but I remember it being long. I also remember that the standard deviation tells how far off a number is from the mean (I think I'm not positive). 

          Intelligent design is the theory that life, or the universe, did not originate by chance, but rather was designed and created by some intelligent entity, with many of the proponents expressing belief that the designer is the Christian deity. Intelligent design advocates assert that natural selection could not create the complex biological systems observed in living organisms, because such elaborate and interdependent anatomy must be the deliberate product of an engineer, not random variation and cumulative natural selection as Darwin theorized. In contrast, biological evolutionary theory describes a gradual change in allele frequency within a population through natural selection and various other mechanisms. In this theory, random mutation results in new variation, the environmental pressures on organisms select for those with the most advantageous traits by allowing them to better survive and reproduce, and this natural selection works alongside other mechanisms to cumulatively cause change in species over time. The key distinction between this and intelligent design is that biological evolution is random and operates blindly, with no foresight or end goal. Meanwhile, intelligent design is entirely based on the idea that an organism’s form follows a deliberate blueprint sketched out by a provident entity who is responsible for the creation of all life. (Discovery Institute)

     The experience that lead me to the idea that medical school is for me came from the volunteering experience at Sturdy Memorial Hospital. I volunteered as a junior nurse and would help the patients and nurses with anything they needed.  The experience of helping each patient and how much they appreciated it made me realize that helping people recover is what I want to do. Having the opportunity to watch and help the nurses with their daily tasks really helped me realize that helping people heal is what I’m passionate about.  Being able to improve someone’s situation is what I would take pride in, and the University of Massachusetts Medical school would allow me to pursue and reach that goal.

Enzymes are relatively complex. They can function in many different ways. There are many enzymes however they are almost all meant to interact with just one substrate. The main point to enzymes is that they lower activation energy of a reaction, whether or not that reaction is exergonic or endergonic. Enzymes only affect the free energy of the transition state, this means that enzymes only have the ability to lower the activation energy of a specific reaction in which they can bind to that substrate. Enzymes don’t affect the free energy of either the products or the reactants, this is what makes them so complicated. It only affects the energy it takes to get the reactants to the product stage. The start and end state of the reaction will always be the same regardless of an enzyme being present. Additionally enzymes don’t affect the concentration of products or reactants. What this means is that the concentration of products and reactants will always be the same no matter if there is an enzyme present in the reaction. What all of this information means is that enzymes can’t affect the favorability of a reaction, it can’t make it more or less favorable, it can only speed up the reaction in order to get all reactants to be products.

The Congo basin is home to the second largest rainforest covering over 500 million acres, and is one of the most important wilderness areas left on earth. Some of the specific species which are endangered as a result of deforestation, exploitation of lumber, illegal poaching and trade include forest elephants, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lowland and mountain gorillas which inhabit the forests. Logging roads (built for easier transportation of goods) have shown to increase bushmeat hunting by improving access for hunters, and by increasing local demand and facilitating wildlife trade out of local villages. And when the population of species decrease, the plant population struggles for species of trees that rely on animals to move their seeds around in order to maintain a stable population. More than 60 percent of Africa’s forest elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the ivory trade.

I have multiple ideas for the proposal project coming up, and when deciding which to pursue, there are many factors to consider. Each group within the class needs to be able to research or explore a different aspect of the organism(s) and come to their own conclusion. The topic should be interesting, and it should be something relatively accessible for students at UMass Amherst. Whatever we observe or research also needs to be available early-mid April, which is when we will be conducting the actual project. One idea is to observe the ducks and geese at the UMass pond. Individuals can record the temperature outside, the number of geese and ducks on the water, the number of geese and ducks on land, the number of young and adults, and the time of day. This will give us insight into the duck and geese behavior and maybe be able to make conclusions about the population present on different days and at different times of the day. Another idea is to observe human behavior at bus stops. The control can be that we all observe a single bus stop, perhaps Haigis Mall. We can record the temperature, weather conditions, number of people waiting outside, the clothing of the people waiting, the activity of the people waiting, and so on. Perhaps we can make some conclusions about how students behave depending on outside conditions. 

Migration and navigation are characteristics that are innate, however, there are some learning components as well. That is why the young must learn the small techniques from the experienced birds to know how to navigate themselves in the air. Birds will use the same route from home to the migration location so through experience, the young bird must follow the route and remember it from heart. Through annual migration, the young will attain migratory tools to improve their navigation and they will less likely be lost. The best example is the Baby Indigo Buntings. They are not capable of navigating themselves from birth. So adults will teach them how to look at the star and orient themselves prior to their first migration. The baby bird will practice navigation one month before departure and learn how to look at the bright starts.

Geomagnetic field is produced by the earth and gravity. The pressure caused by this magnetic field can also help birds to orient. For many years, ornithologists have conducted numerous experiments to see what is the relationship between birds and magnetic field is. Then they have found evidence that in some cases, if the pigeon carried a magnet with them, they cannot orient themselves as they would without a magnetic. From all experiments, it is now known that birds will use this magnetic compass in addition to the sun and stars to navigate itself.

Specific traits are based on evolutionary history called characters shared as common ancestors. In classifying birds, Thomas Huxley had the idea of arranging the bones of the avian bony plate, a skeletal partition between the nasal cavities and the mouth to assemble a grouping. Since Huxley set a foundation, scientists started adding more detailed characteristics such as muscles, vocalization, and toes to the group of birds but in more specific details.

After the characteristics are grouped properly, birds can be present in different orders. Orders can be branch out from common ancestors with unique characters that are easy to distinguish from the rest. Songbirds, member of Passeriformes have unique morphological traits. The more complex traits are, there is a better chance that the species won’t be related. Foot structure of birds is one of many examples that prove how species are related. As years go by, technology makes it clearer and easier to find similarities and differences among species because not only the physical anatomy and morphologies but also DNA sequencing plays a big role in birds classification.