Drafts

A disease that was once essentially eradicated from the nation is making a very scary come back. Measles is a highly infectious disease. It infects pretty much anyone that it comes in contact with. It is able to do this because the virus particles are especially small and travel in droplets like spit and mucus through the air. If is so infectious that if someone who is infected with it sneezes in a room anyone walking into the room within the coming hours will very likely contract measles. There is an outbreak currently in oregon and washington that is very concerning just because measles is so contagious and there is a large population of people who haven’t been vaccinated against measles in that area. The government is trying to track the cases of people with measles and measles has made it’s way into a lot places. For example an infected person went to a Portland trail blazers game exposing thousands of people in a relatively confined area. An infected person has visited the airport infecting thousands more. This is a really scary virus and many people have now been exposed. The number of sick people is currently around 45 which is way higher than the normal 1 to 2. This virus was effectively eliminated from the United States but now due to anti-vaxxers and unprotected world travelers it has made it’s way back and will definitely cause a lot of harm to those infected.

The article that I read had an abstract section that gives the reader a little background information on what it is about. The main point of the article was to figure out how urban birds tend to produce smaller and lighter offspring than rural birds. The introduction section talks about how human populations are growing and migrate to urban areas and how this change is having an impact on urban birds. I learn that “in general, life-history theory predicts that adult birds under threat of predation will reduce offspring feeding rates and consequently have reduced nestling growth rates”. I was surprised to find out that urban birds tend to reproduce less because of fear of predation, why not rural birds? because rural birds would have a greater chance of eating by their preys than urban birds.

The invention of smartphones has led almost everyone to be constantly connected, whether that be through messaging or social media platforms. People have implemented time during the day to check applications on their phones to the point where it becomes automatic. Moreover, there’s a pressure to be caught up on people's’ lives and to have read the latest updates. The thought of not having a smartphone is no longer imaginable in today’s society as the age range of individuals with devices also widens. Although phones have provided major facility and convenience to everyday life, they are unfortunately a distraction for most. As for students. smartphones are being brought everyday and being continually checked. An entire lecture or an entire meal cannot go on without checking ones phone. An healthier way to continue the use of your phone on a daily basis while lowering the distractions, is to set designated times during the day when one can check his or her phone. These periods of time should not extend for over 30 minutes and should not be right before bed to avoid interference with being able to sleep. Overall, even the slightest efforts to look up from one’s screen and instead admire the people and places around them is insightful.

Tiktaalik is a monospecific genus of extinct lobe-finned fish. It is monospecific because Tiktaalik roseae is the only species classified under the genus. It lived during the Late Devonian Period about 375 million years ago, and although it generally had the characteristics of a lobe-finned fish, it also had traits similar to tetrapods. Not only did Tiktaalik have gills, scales and fins, like a fish, it also had rib bones, lungs and a mobile neck. It also had intermediate features, such as radiating, fish-like fins coupled with a functional wrist joint, and a half-fish, half-tetrapod ear region. Because of its amalgamation of features, Tiktaalik is referred to as a "transitional fossil": while not an ancestor to any living animal, it is evidence of the intermediate forms that bridged the evolutionary gap between fish with fins and animals with arms and legs.

Tobacco use in teenagers causes paranoia and disturbances in their lives. Scientists attempted to answer this question by factoring in socio-economic status and gender. Scientists formed a study in which 3700 teenager twins were used as subjects in the study. One of the twins were smokers while the other one wasn’t. This allowed for the scientists to eliminate most of the differences between the subjects. It was found that the twin that smoked had more paranoia and was hallucinating more. Paranoia is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Having imbalances would affect how the neurotransmitters are sent throughout the brain. Parents had also noticed that there was disorganized thinking and a lack of motivation.

          Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is a documentary made by Mark Kitchell and inspired by the book of the same name by Philip Shabecoff. Shabecoff named the book after the phrase used by a forest ranger to describe the look in the eyes of a wolf he had killed, which awakened the ranger’s understanding of his role in the “web of life” and the consequences of chipping away at that web. The film chronicles the environmental movement of the last half century, told through five acts, each with a central story and character. These acts include David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon, Lois Gibbs and Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals, Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals, Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest, and Bill McKibben and his 25-year effort to address climate change. Woven throughout these main stories are shared themes like environmental justice, valuing the land simply for the land’s sake, and humanity’s place as simply one strand in the web of life. Vivid archival footage offers viewers first hand insights into the stories and informative interviews shed light on the events in larger context. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature.

A keystone species is defined as an organism that helps to define an entire ecosystem. No other species can fill its ecological niche, and without it the ecosystem would be very different or cease to exist. Passenger pigeons are an example of one keystone species that once filled the skies. They once made up about 25-40 percent of the total bird population when Europeans first discovered America. This would be nearly half, if not more than the current human population. Passenger pigeons were a keystone species because they influenced forests by both enriching them, and also by acting as  a dominating force which must have manipulated their ecosystem with their vast and sky-blackening migrations. I think that we should prioritize keystone species above other conservation to a certain degree because it can be argued that every species has an important role. Sadly, it is usually hard to tell what species are keystone species until it is too late, which is why we should conserve as many species as possible because any of these could be keystone species.

Most biochemical reactions occur in aqueous environments, meaning that these reaction occur in water. Seeing as these biochemical reactions involve organic molecules, the interaction of water with these molecules have to be taken into account. You see, water reacts differently between polar/ionic molecules and non-polar molecules. Ionic and polar molecules have their bonds easily interrupted by water and individual atoms/ions end up surrounded by water molecules. In contrast, water molecules cannot disrupt non-polar bonds and so surround entire molecules. This leads to the clumping of non-polar molecules. Separate clumps of non-polar molecules tend to aggregate due to the stability achieved when water molecules are most entropic. To limit the the amount of water molecules surrounding individual non-polar molecules, all non-polar molecules in the aqueous environment are clumped together. This is referred to as the hydrophobic effect. It plays an important role in protein folding and structure formation.

A B. distachyon leaf was frozen using liquid nitrogen and then ground up.  DNA extraction buffer (DEB) was added.  DEB contains 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a detergent which binds and solubilizes lipids found in the cell membrane.  DEB also contains 25 mM ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA), which chelates metal ions that enzymes, such as DNases, require to function, thereby inhibiting their function.  DEB also contains b-mercaptoethanol, a disulfide bond cleaver to further inhibit protein function [1].  Potassium acetate (KOAc) was used to precipitate proteins and carbohydrates while nucleic acids remained soluble.  100% isopropanol was used to precipitate the nucleic acids from the salty solution.  The pellet was rinsed with 70% ethanol to remove sodium.  The pellet was resuspended and stored in 50 mL T₁₀E₁ buffer, which contains 10 mM Tris and 1 mM EDTA.

The 50 uL of solution was split evenly, and one sample was digested with RNase A, an endonuclease that cleaves the phosphodiester bonds of single stranded RNA at C and U residues [2].  ½ dilutions of both RNase treated and RNase untreated DNA were prepared using 10 mM Tris.  DNA samples were prepared for gel electrophoresis using glycerol, Bromophenol blue, and Xylene cyanol.  Glycerol is a heavy molecule that ensures DNA sinks in the gel wells.  Bromophenol blue migrates faster than Xylene cyanol, which allows visualization to ensure the samples run adequately but not off the gel [5]. A 0.9% agarose gel was run at 100 volts for 30 minutes.  Agarose forms pores suitable for size separation of nucleic acids [3].  SYBR Safe DNA Gel Stain was used in the gel as a safe alternative to ethidium bromide [4].    

    Every once in a while, I will look through home decor and interior design. Recently, the rustic mediterranean aesthetic has become the trend and in almost every type of design in this category, there exists a pile of old books stacked up in some corner of a room. The idea is that the books are supposed to fill in “empty” space by giving the space meaning.
    Yet all of these books are books with worn down spines, all with covers in earthy tones with white, gold, or black texts. These books that are supposed to add “depth” to a room when in my personal opinion, add a “shallowness” instead.
    The reason why I believe so is because I believe the people who put these kinds of texts in their houses for an aesthetic, have no idea what the books are about; let alone what the title of the books even are. I believe books only add a depth into your library when you have read the book and know what the books lying in your house are about. I would much rather see books like Calvin and Hobbes lying around knowing that whoever’s house it is, knows how much Calvin hates his babysitter--or have a marketing book lying around and they can discuss viral marketing schemes or the importance of word of mouth marketing with me.
    If I were to pick up a novel in someone’s house and it reads “Amadeus and the Python”, I’m going to have questions. I find it ironic that if I pick up an object that’s supposed to make you look smarter and more sophisticated, you respond otiosely with “oh I just bought those because they look nice, I don’t read”.