Drafts

A jar of walnuts is turned to its side on the lawn. A squirrel propels off of the side of the tree and lurches toward it. It is gray with brown in its tail and face. It also has sprinkles of white fur. It has a bushy tail, bent in the middle so that the bottom half flaps in the air. It suddenly stops and darts in the opposite direction. It turns and hesitantly approaches the jar of nuts again. It darts to the jar and grabs a walnut. It jumps far from the jar and nibbles on the nut using both of its hands. With the nut in his mouth, it climbs back up the tree. Just then, a second squirrel approaches the jar in quick, sudden movements and reaches its arm inside to grab a walnut. It squats next to the jar and nibbles on the walnut, similarly to the first squirrel. It then darts away, across the lawn, with the nut in its mouth. The way it moves is that it jumps forward using its back legs and lands on its front arms. It's like taking little jumps forward. The squirrel scurries up the tree. 

The development of an embryo is a very unique and odd process when you really think about it. Two essentially halves of a cell come together to form a full cell with a full genome. This cell continues to divide, and along the way, these cells begin to differentiate and form different parts of the larger oganism that is being created. It's strange to think that cells that have organelles to regulate themselves and take care of themselves work together to form a greater being. They stop functioning for their own sake and begin to function for the survival and wellbeing of the larger organism it is a part of. Organs and different types of tissue are created, and these cells communicate using hormones and other cell signaling ligands. Eventually, a full human is formed that will continue to grow and develop outside of the womb. 

The family Canidae contains all species of living and extinct quadrupedal carnivores resembling the domestic dog. This includes domestic dogs themselves, coyotes, wolves, foxes, dingoes and many others. Some interbreeding can occur between coyotes and dogs, as well as dogs and wolves and wolves and coyotes. The offspring of these pairings are fully viable and usually fertile, begging the question are these three varieties of canines really separate species. The wolf, Canis Lupis, is the largest of these three species and has overlapping ranges with the coyote, Canis latrans. These ranges also unsurprisingly overlap with human settlement, meaning there is the potential for both of these species to interbreed with a person pet dog or a stray domestic dog, the species Canis familiaris. What separates these three as different species is their tendency under ideal circumstances to avoid breeding with members of the other species. Although interbreeding is possible, in a proper habitat with adequate resources and fertile mates available it will not occur. These rare hybrids only occur when there is a shortage of healthy and viable mates of the same species.

Although coyotes (Canis latrans), wolves (Canis lupus), and domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are capable of interbreeding and producing viable offspring, the article suggests that any instances of them interbreeding are brought on more by necessity for the survival of the species than by a preference for individuals of another species. For example, the article mentions that the latest hybridization event between dogs and coyotes is likely a result of female coyotes traveling into upstate New York, where a lack of coyotes was more than made up for by an abundance of feral dogs, and yet now that the coyote populations are thriving and growing, coyotes have no shortage of coyotes to mate with and so show no interest in mating with dogs. The same thing occurred a century ago when wolf populations were at a dangerous low in the Great Lakes, so they had to settle with mating with coyotes. Under normal circumstances they would not choose to breed between species, which suggests that coyotes, wolves, and domestic dogs are three separate species. 

Today I had my first lab for anatomy and physilogy 2. We pricked our fingers and drew blood into centrifuge tubes. The tubes were spun in the centrifuge, causing the plasma to rise to the top and the formed elements remained on the bottom. The formed elements consist of white and red blood cells. We then calculated the ratio of formed elements to the entire blood content. Following this lab section, the two fingers that I pricked bruised around the puncture spot. The area that had been pricked remained a red dot. Now the area is sore to the touch. It has been 4 hours since the lab, and I am wondering when the brusing will clear. 

Alpha-keratin is a type of protein found in all vertebrates to form a skin. Birds and reptiles have an additional protein called beta-keratin which is the main structure of feathers and beaks for birds, and reptilian skin and claws for reptiles. The primary feathers, known as contour feathers are the most common type of feathers found in birds. It has the long flat shape with a hollow stick called a calamus supporting the root and connecting to the rachis. Lateral barbs then branches off from the rachis creating the soft and smooth shaft of feather. The inner part of the feather serves as insulation, and the outer part is for different purposes. Barbs can be separated into three structure: barbule, barbicel, and ramus. Barbules is the thin flexible part of the feather which gives the texture. Then from that as the feather goes inward toward the body, it becomes more rigid structure to support the shape and give insulation.

    Feathers can also have a secondary structure. For example the Cedar Waxwing of North America has a modified fused barbs at the terminal with wax-like wing feather tips. The fused barbs allow water to soak the feather to reduce buoyancy but at the same time can air dry fast when coming out of water. Many water birds have feather modification specific for swimming.

Dravet's syndrome is a rare, severe, genetic epileptic encephalopathy. Most cases of Dravet's syndrome are caused by a mutation in the SCN1A gene. This gene codes for a sodium channel, voltage gated type 1 alpha subunit. In recent studies, Dravet's syndrome has been attributed to mutations in GABAergic neurons; hence, GABAergic neurotransmission is compromised. GABA is a nuerotransmitter with vast inhibitory functions. As such, seizurelike locomotor behavior and epileptiform brain activity are signs of Dravet's syndrome. In humans, the presence of one mutant allele is sufficient enough for the expression of the mutant phenotype but in zebrafish, the model organism for studying neural networks and disorders, the mutant phenotype is only observed in larvae that have two copies of the mutant allele. 

For my research lab, we were sent an article on how to make scientific writing more effective and to increase the probability of having your published article cited. The article was surprising in that the findings of how to catch a readers eye didn’t sound like typical scientific publications. The article suggested that “highly cited articles were short; used first-person narration; placed findings in context by providing a setting;...linked ideas by using conjunctions;...punctuation marks;...and consistent terminology” (Freeling 343). Often we are told when writing something scientific to add almost no personality and make it strictly factual and scientific. However, this article disproves this theory which is interesting to consider. Adding a personal attachment to the writing can make others feel like you are having a conversation with them rather than lecturing and talking at them. This article is important to keep in mind when writing in the future and I believe it may be relatable and helpful for this class. Although our textbook for this class may state otherwise, I do think this idea is important to keep in mind nonetheless.

My friends and I were Hanging out last friday and somehow the topic of anti vaccination came up. We were talking about it and came to the conclusion that there was literally zero evidence to back up the claim that vaccines give you autism. I knew that the movement started after a discredited doctor published a fabricated paper claiming that there was an association with autism and the MMR vaccine. What I didn’t know is that this was the basically the only paper to ever attempt to link both autism and vaccines. It has recently been discovered that the doctor who published the paper, Andrew Wakefield had a major conflict of interest in publishing this paper. He was in the process of developing an at home test for parents to screen their children for autism and project that he could make over 43 million dollars a year on the tests. So it appears as though he created an autism scare in order to sell his at home tests. I was getting relatively agitated during this discussion because one of my friends who is a microbiology major said that he doesn’t believe in vaccines because they don’t always work. This is coming from someone who majored and graduated with a degree in microbiology. So I don’t think the anti vaccine movement will ever really die out especially if the people who should know vaccines are incredible are some of the people saying they don’t work.

Birds have evolved to come in a variety of shapes and sizes that allow them to exploit niches in different ecosystems. Certain species may have developed different shaped wings for faster flight or sharper talons with a locking mechanism that allows them to firmly grasp their prey as they soar through the air. However birds have also adapted different visual abilities and color schemes that allow for more birds to exist within an ecosystem. Field marks are distinctive spots, colors, shapes, patterns birds have developed in a variety of forms. It is believed that they developed these in order to identify different species from one another, and recognize members of their own species. They are also used today as a means for humans to identify birds of different species. They can be found on the head in the form of an eyebrow stripe (striper over the eye), eyeline (line through the eye), a crown stripe (stripe along the midline of the head), an eyering (ring of color around the eye), and a throat patch. Field marks can also be identified on the wings of a bird through the various feather patterns, as well as in the shapes of wings (long and slender, rounded and short). Field marks then allow us to be certain of identification.