Drafts

Did humans or ideas evolve first? I personally think that you can’t have one without the other, and that they co-evolved in a mutualistic way. Susan Blackmore said in her Ted Talk that culture is an imitated behavior, and I believe that our genes give are responsible. But I also think many of our shared ideas and behaviors have the power to influence our genes. I think that toxic ideas can spread in a similar way to selfish genes, and that both harm individuals. The video about tide pods demonstrates that not all ideas progress to become better over time, but rather some evolve to become worse.

Quorum sensing is something that bacterial cells can use to communicate. The signals that the bacteria produce are N-acyl-homoserine lactones or AHLs. These signals can be received by the bacterial species or different bacterial species. There are two primary genes involved in quorum sensing. There is the I gene which codes for AHL synthase and the R gene which is a transcriptional regulator. Both of these genes are very unique and serve many functions. They both have two main functions though. AHL synthase, which the I gene codes for, is responsible for producing the AHL signal that other bacterial cells will be able to receive. The AHL binds to a receptor on a neighboring cell and a transcriptional response is activated, this is where the R gene begins to function. The R gene transcribes new DNA in response to the signal being received. For example the bacteria C. violaceum produces a purple pigmented antibiotic violacein, C. violaceum only produces this antibiotic after it has received a signal from a neighboring cell telling it to do so.

I found Pearce’s description of the conflicting hydrological requirements of dams interesting and the risks brought on by these contradictions to be interesting. That dams like those on the Yellow River need to both remain full enough to feed irrigation systems, provide urban water, and generate hydroelectricity, as well as maintain low enough to catch floodwaters while catching floods require them to maintain low water levels, despite the obvious incompatibility of those two goals, leads to potentially dangerous situations. Pearce described the Banqiao Dam disaster in the Henan Province in central China as an example of one such circumstance. The dam had been experiencing a typhoon that raised the water levels and became overwhelmed by the addition of water from an upstream dam burst, until it gave way to 400,000 acre feet of water forming a wave 7 miles wide and 20 feet high. The death total, excluding the aftermath, was nearly 26,000 people. Pearce states that over ten times more were killed by the ensuing chaos and famine. The descriptions of such a devastating incident, and the danger of such incidents happening again, was both compelling and deeply concerning.

I found Pearce’s description of the conflicting hydrological requirements of dams interesting and the risks brought on by these contradictions to be interesting. That dams like those on the Yellow River need to both remain full enough to feed irrigation systems, provide urban water, and generate hydroelectricity, as well as maintain low enough to catch floodwaters while catching floods require them to maintain low water levels, despite the obvious incompatibility of those two goals, leads to potentially dangerous situations. Pearce described the Banqiao Dam disaster in the Henan Province in central China as an example of one such circumstance. The dam had been experiencing a typhoon that raised the water levels and became overwhelmed by the addition of water from an upstream dam burst, until it gave way to 400,000 acre feet of water forming a wave 7 miles wide and 20 feet high. The death total, excluding the aftermath, was nearly 26,000 people. Pearce states that over ten times more were killed by the ensuing chaos and famine. The descriptions of such a devastating incident, and the danger of such incidents happening again, was both compelling and deeply concerning.

The new england aquarium just opened a new coral reef tank. It looks absolutely incredible. The reef is set to mimic an indo-pacific coral reef. It holds 9000 gallons of water and spans from the floor to the ceiling. Coral reefs have always been fascinating to me because of how diverse and colorful they are. I have been snorkeling over a reef once and was scared the entire time. I am scared very easily in the water, I just feel like I am too far out of my element. Anything that is in the water can move easily in it, except for things that don’t belong there, like me. I love how beautiful the ocean is and how unique all of the creatures that inhabit it are. The ocean is just too big of a jump for me to make, just knowing how easy it would be for anything in the ocean to cause harm to me. On a separate note I really want to see the coral reef at the aquarium. First because I doubt I will ever be able to a reef of this nature in real, and secondly because even if I did like swimming in the ocean reefs like these may be gone by the time I have the means to visit one.  

My friend got a hamster yesterday. She lives off campus and let me come over to see it. She is a Syrian Hamster, also known as a Teddy Bear Hamster or Golden Hamster. Her nickname is Chubby until she decides what to actually name her.  The scientific name of this hamster is Mesocricetus auratus. As a member of the rodent family, she has sharp ever growing incisors. She nipped my finger after she smelt me. She has cheek pouches that expands when she eats or tries to bring food back to her little house. She fur is soft and a light brown color. Syrian hamsters are usually between 5-7 inches in length and weigh about 120 grams. As pets, they can live up to 3-4 years, and in the wild up to 2 years.  

https://f1000research.com/posters/5-1984

The poster design does seem basic with 4 columns with a straight forward flow going down each column. Each column has a specific header and the information flows nicely. Figures are also placed in the right columns based on what they show. The poster only uses the colors blue and green. The writing is in bullet points so it is easy to follow but if presented, it might distract from the presenters speech. Graphs were legible and easy to get too. 

In my opinion, the writing is very clear. In each of the four sections outlined above, the writing is organized by bullet points with one sentence following. This length of writing seems suitable for a poster. The figures are high resolution, notably the picture of the immunohistochemical expression of PD-L1 in squamous cell carcinoma. No raw data is shown. The only data shown includes four odds ratios with confidence intervals and P-values. The data for the figures is not displayed in its own chart. The bar graphs serve to visually engage the viewer to the results. Without reading the text, the viewer can see the PD-L1 expression levels in tumor cells and lymphocytes, and how this varies across tumor type.  

I believe that the poster has an attractive design. I like the use of the light blue background for the text on the sides, with the figures in the middle of the poster. The poster is easy to follow, with four headings: ‘Introduction,’ ‘Design,’ ‘Results,’ and ‘Conclusions,’ clearly marked, and flowing in this order from top left to bottom right. I like how the ‘Conclusions’ section is simply one sentence, serving as the discussion. It reads “our results provide further support for the rationale of using immune checkpoint inhibition in patients with penile SCC, especially in those with high-grade tumors.” Sometimes when I read literature, I struggle to figure out exactly what is so great about the paper. This one line does an excellent job of phrasing the significance of the paper in an understandable way. It also is a great hook, because if I were to walk up to this poster at a poster session, I may skip straight to the conclusion before deciding if I want to engage the authors or spend time studying the poster. In this case, I definitely decided that this is worth my time, which is important for the authors.  

          In this experiment, 3-methylbutyl acetate was synthesized via esterification using acetic acid and 3-methyl-1-butanol as reagents and sulfuric acid as the catalyst. The odor of acetic acid resembled that of vinegar, while the odor of 3-methyl-1-butanol resembled an artificial sour apple smell. The odor of the product, 3-methylbutyl acetate, resembled an artificial banana smell. This indicates that the product was successfully synthesized, because 3-methylbutyl acetate is known informally as banana oil. The percent yield of the product was 84.42%. The low yield could have been a result of transfer loss from some product remaining in the reflux column. The product was also identified via IR spectroscopy. The IR displayed an alkyl C-H stretch at 2959.90 cm-1 and a C=O stretch at 1741.80 cm-1, as well as no large absorptions above 3000 cm-1, indicating that there are no O-H containing impurities. These experimental data are consistent with the known  IR spectrum of a typical alkyl ester, which is characterized by an alkyl C-H stretch that is just to the right of 3000 cm-1 and a C=O stretch that is at about 1750 cm-1. This supports the conclusion that 3-methylbutyl acetate was successfully synthesized.