Drafts

To make the figure, I imported the four pictures into Pages. I clicked on each picture and dragged the corners to resize the pictures so that they each had a width of 3 inches, and also cropped each image to a width of 3 inches. I arranged the pictures in a square by putting the picture of the apple alone in the top left corner, the picture of the subject alone in the top right corner, the picture of the interaction in the bottom left corner, and the apple alone after the interaction in the bottom right corner. I dragged the cursor to select all four pictures at once, right-clicked and selected “Group” to make the four individual pictures into one single image. I inserted a text box in the lower right corner of each photo. In each text box I typed a label for each image: “a.”, “b.”, “c.”, “d.”. Each letter was lowercase and followed by a period, in 15pt Times New Roman font, and had a centered alignment. I arranged the letters such that the picture with the apple alone was  “a.”, the picture with the subject alone was “b.”, and the pictures with the interaction and the aftermath of the interaction were “c.” and “d.” respectively. I selected a text box, opened the “Format and Style Options” tab in the upper right corner of the document, then selected “Style”, and from the available options I picked the shape style with the black background and white text. I repeated this for each text box. I moved each label to be flush against the lower right corner of its respective picture, and resized the labels so that they each had a width of 0.60 inches and a height of 0.54 inches. I used the cursor to select the entire image, right-clicked and selected “Group” to integrate the labels into the final image. I went to File, “Export to” and selected “PDF”, setting the image quality to “Best”. I opened the .pdf file that was generated, and used the crop tool in the toolbox to select just the image and crop it. I saved the image—now without the white document background—and the figure was complete.

If it were up to me, I would allow genetic modifications only for disease prevention but I wouldn’t go a step further. To those who consider that unnatural, I would argue that humans have already defied natural evolution in many ways. According to the article “Pro and Con: Should Gene Editing Be Performed on Human Embryos?” we have prevented so many people from naturally falling sick and dying through advances in medicine such as antibiotics. Technology such as Crispr-Cas9 offers a more advanced way to prevent diseases, by editing DNA itself. In my opinion, gene-editing should be the go-to treatment for single gene disorders because it is tackling the issue straight from the source. Clinical trials for sickle cell anemia for example are already underway and have resulted in success with patients reported to show no more signs of the disease (according to the NYT article on sickle cell anemia).

However, I think there should be a limit to genetically modifying humans. Using gene-editing to select for desirable traits to increase reproductive fitness or make life easier for us in general can come with dire consequences. For one thing, genes are not always good or bad, but rather they can be a mix. Genes that cause people to be schizotypal or psychotic may confer advantages such as creativity and open-mindedness, according to the Time article “How Gene Editing Could Ruin Human Evolution.” The article also points out that influential people such as Carrie Fisher, David Foster Wallace and Kurt Cobain have made a positive impact on the world despite them all having psychiatric risks. Selecting for favorable traits is a complex process because it comes at the cost of another trait that could be beneficial. On a more personal note, artificially choosing genes to make a designer baby would take away from a person’s individuality. According to the wired article, “becoming a parent would turn into almost an intellectual exercise” or “project” that would focus on designing a baby rather than naturally giving birth to one. I think it’s important to appreciate our differences and flaws rather than trying to change them.

Vertebrates and invertebrates have different structures that allow them to respire in water. Gills are a common structure that help an organism respire. Gills are respiratory sturctures that are fan like shapes with thin cuticular walls. Both vertebrates and invertebrates have gill like structures. Mostly all of the fish in the ocean are equipped with gills. As for invertebrates, many marine worms have gill like structures. As for other marine invertebrates, Echinoderms have thin walled gills that are extensions of body cavities. Sea cucumbers have respiratory trees and clams have gills that are aided by flagella. Some of these structures are much more efficeint than others. The more active the organism typically the more effiecnt the respiratory system is. Marine vertebrates typically have a set of structures that include an operculum, gill arches, filaments, and lamella. The operculum is the gill cover which provides protection. The lamella help with the diffusion of oxygen between water and blood.  

The CNS plays a role in the time we wake up. There are several genes that are involved in circadian rhythm. The retina in the eye is used to see how much light there is in the environment. The light is used to let the body know what time of day it was. Scientists believe that “night owls” are at a higher risk for mental diseases such as schizophrenia, yet there is no significance evidence that support this claim. A correlational study was conducted with the experiment participants to see whether they were a “morning or a evening person”. The body clock cycle is longer than 24 hours and the eyes are used to set the body on track with the 24 hour cycle. Though our bodies are influenced by our diets and what we do on the daily with artificial light. The light from screens affects the hormone level and core body temperatures on the sleep and waking patterning.

I am the most driven by animal studies, whether that be animal behavior, the interactions between each other and the environment, and the evolution of different species. Personally I am keeping my options open after college in which area I work in, however I plan to work with animals in some aspect of research or rehabilitation. For research I am primarily interested in birds, especially raptor species, so would find it fascinating to study how birds are able to stand such extreme temperatures or how certain species are able to spot another member of its own species from a quarter of a mile way and know it is a female. Every part of this field relates to ecology because in order to understand these wild animals species, for instance why they migrate annually from location A to location B, we need to first understand the behavior or the animal itself and also the balance between the abiotic factors and the biotic factors. Perhaps it is migrating because there are not enough available resources in location A for a mother to nurse her young. We would need to understand what resources the animal needs in order to survive in a particular environment, as well as the climates it is able to withstand. Different environmental pressures may cause the individuals to move. And then this migration itself may also prove to be essential for other species to exist. It is a balance. However if some human activity disrupts this migration, is it essential we understand these interactions between species so that we may take the proper actions to counter it. I also feel that personally if I go into a wildlife rehabilitation field, I would need knowledge in ecology to be able to release a particular species into the correct environment, and also understand if the individual is fit to be released into its natural ecosystem.

There wasn’t much knowledge on what LSD does to the brain. Using an MRI, scientists observed how LSD can change the brain. Participants of the experiment were either given the drug or a placebo. Then a comparison between the two was made. Scientists examined the and compared the connectivity between the two brains. The CNS was looked at which includes the brain and the spinal cord. It was found that there was more information being sent between the thalamus to the posterior cingulate cortex. There was a decrease of information being sent to the temporal cortex. Depressive orders were found to have a high level of signaling between the thalamus and the temporal cortex. Since it was found that LSD can slow down the signaling to the temporal cortex, LSD might be considered as a medication for depressive disorders.

Two methods were used to arrive at our final predicted protein sequence for the RZW gene of Brachypodium distachyon.  The first method was an ab initio method.  The program FGENESH was used.  FGENESH analyzes genomic DNA and comes up with the most likely protein sequence, based on common characteristics of introns and exons.  For example, introns start with the nucleotides GT and end with AG. The program also recognizes the start codon, ATG, and the stop codons: TAG, TAA, and TGA.  The second method used a program called Phytozome. Phytozome is a DNA library, so it compares the genomic sequence of the RZW gene to known DNA sequences in B. distachyon.  It compares the genomic DNA to expressed sequence tags (ESTs), which are overlapping sequences derived from cDNA clones.  Because Phytozome compares the RZW gene to known cDNA sequences, its predicted protein sequence is more trustworthy than that of FGENESH.  

For the issue of what kinds of artificial selection on humanity should b e tolerated , I beleive that we wshould tolerate almost all forms, excluding purposly harmful selection. First reason I beleive we should tolerate this is due to the immense benfits of allowing such selection. IN fighting disease , the immune system can be genetically modifided to be able to counteract specific problems. An example of this was shown in the Genetic engineering video in  which they talk about China testing genetically modifying immune system cell to be able to deal with lung cancer. In addition to these diseases, gene editting can also be used to cure genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia and HIV. In the New York times article, it talks about how sickle cell patients live in constant pain with treatments of monthly blood transfusions to help relieve symptoms but after an experimentaly gene therapy test some patients sympoms disappeared. The last benifit of this selection is that gene editting technology has recently seen a huge decrease in costs and ease in use from the introduction of CRISPR. As our knowldge and technology on this subject will only increase, gene edtting could turn into an affordable method to provide care t o a large number of illnesses.

Protein's have complex structures because a protein's structure determines its function, and there are many functions for proteins within the body. There are 20 biological amino acids, and there are endless combinations of these amino acids that will result in different proteins. A protein's structure has four levels. The primary structure of a protein is the linear sequence of amino acids. This involves peptide bonds between the amino and carboxyl groups of amino acids, building a polypeptide chain. The secondary structure is the structure of the backbone that is created. It involves hydrogen bonds that stabilize alpha-helices and beta-sheets, which are different secondary forms a polypeptide can take. The secondary structure does not include the R groups of the amino acids; however, the tertiary structure does. The tertiary structure involves all the electrostatic interactions that can occur between amino acids in the protein, including the chemistry of the R groups. This will finalize the final structure of the overall protein, which can be globular or fibrous in form. R groups can be nonpolar, polar and uncharged, positively charged, or negatively charged. Depending on the proximity of these groups, different structures can result. Finally, the quaternary structure is only relevant to proteins that are made up multiple polypeptides, or subunits. It is the interaction between the different subunits within the overall protein. This level of protein structure also involves all types of electrostatic interactions.