Drafts

Although it still remains in an elementary state, the study of human eugenics is an area of science with arguably the most life-changing potential. Scientists in the “pros and cons of genetic engineering in humans” article refer to the crispr-cas9 technology as mankind’s way of playing god, which is certainly a valid claim. With such advanced technology arising, scientists question, in terms of scientific advancement, when do we as a people raise the white flag and say that enough is enough? Can such advancements lead to our downfall as a species? As this technology becomes more readily available we thereby obtain the ability to end natural selection as we know it. There will be absolutely nothing ‘natural’ about it. In other words, if it becomes lawful to “create the perfect baby”, which eventually grows into “the perfect human” who can avoid nearly all hardship, we directly threaten our ability as humans to comfortably survive on Earth.

As awful as it sounds, just as it is natural in the wild to see animals hunt, it is also natural to see those same animals die; whether it be through capture or disease; in order for the circle of life to continue, animals must come and die. Now, we as humans can be very fortunate that our intelligence has evolved; so that we have learned how to preserve our species. However, allowing the expansion of crispr-cas9 technology on an unregulated spectrum could have some dramatic effects. For example, in a preliminary phase, scientists are looking to different species of lobsters and jellyfish especially at their telomerase nucleotides. As it stands right now, lobsters are essentially biologically immortal and unaging. While it would in some ways advantageous for humans to never show signs of aging, this would result in more moral and ethical issues that society would have to deal with; Such as, how much do these treatments cost? Who could afford them? (ect.). Also thereby alluding to a larger economic gap; a major problem present U.S society.

Further research may be necessary in order to completely understand the behavioral tendencies of foals. There seems to be variation in the category of play behavior depending on the context of who the foal is with. More research needs to be done on the difference in behaviors between foals in the presence of their mother, compared to with another foal. Perhaps a study should be conducted, as well, in which foals of different breeds interact with one another to interpret the variation in behavioral categories among different breeds. The most crucial element of the future research  on this topic is sample size. It is essential to study the behaviors of enough horses, of all ages, breeds, sexes, and domestication to fully compare or contrast. Dahl et al. (2018) introduced a new tool in capturing enough data through bio-logging via inertial sensor techniques, which eliminates the necessity to record hours and even days of footage. This could be extremely helpful in the future of the study of horse behavior.

There is plenty of support in the results showing a difference in behavior based on who the foal is in contact with, or physically close to. Foals spend a considerable amount of their time displaying feeding behaviors and grooming behaviors (Figure 1). These two types of behaviors are seen very often in all contexts: alone, with mother, and with foal. However, when comparing these two behavioral types between foals alone and foals with other foals, it is clear that foals spend substantially more time feeding and grooming when they are alone, rather than with another foal (Figure 1). It can be hypothesized too, that foals will perform more feeding behaviors when in the presence of the mother as well, because nursing will also play a role in the feeding category. The foals also spend much of their time doing observational displays, such as surveying, sniffing, rotating ears, and standing still. These behaviors are very common in all contexts but more specifically when they are alone (Figure 1). Out of the three categorized individual bouts scored the playful bout, the bucking bout, and the standing still bout, the standing still bout occurs most often when the foal was alone with a proportion of 0.05. The playful bout occurs slightly less at 0.02. The foals spent the least proportion of time in the bucking bout at 0.01 (Figure 1).

The poster I have decided to review is titled “DIFFERENCES IN SPATIAL CONSERVATION PRIORITIZATION: A MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS IN THE NEOTROPICS”. I would say the design for this poster is attractive because it has a lot of useful diagrams and figures. Also everything is spaced out well. The pictures are lined up well and all the fonts make sense. There are also many different colors on this poster that make it more attractive. All the sections are on this poster and labelled clearly with the right information underneath it. Also all the sections are in order wither top to bottom or right to left which makes this poster very easy to follow. Important info is clearly labeled and put in bold so it’s easy to find.

The mechanical breakdown of protein starts in the mouth. Proteins are chewed up. Chemical digestion of proteins begins in the stomach. HCl is secreted from pariental cells in the gastric pit. It denatures proteins. Cheif cells secrete pepsinogin. Pepsinogin is inactive until it reaches the stomach. Once activated, pepsin breaks the protien into smaller pieces. In the small intestine, chrymotrypsin and trypsin break the small peptide into smaller peptide. Carboxypeptidase breaks peptides into individual amino acids. THe amino acids enter he blood stream and travel to the liver for processing. 

Glucose goes throught the process of glycolysis where 2 ATP and result in two pyruvate molecules, reduced electron carriers, and 4 ATP. In the absence of oxygen, pyruvate is fermented into ethanol or lactase. In the presence of oxygen, pyruvate is converted into acetyl-CoA, reduced electrons, and carbon dioxide, and the acetyl-CoA enters the citric acid cycle. In the citric acid cycle, acetyl-CoA is completely oxidized and reduced electrons, ATP, and carbon dioxide are produced. The reduced electrons are used in the electric transport chain, where they are passed down protiens in the mitochondrial inner membrane. The passing of electrons generates a proton gradient, where H+ is shuttled into the inner membrane space. The protons flow out of ATP synthase and produce ATP. The process is the same for the oxidation of fat besides for glycolysis and acetyl-CoA formation. Lipids are oxidized through beta-oxidation to produce acetyl-CoA, which then follows the same pathway as glucose. 

The three phases of digestion are cephalic, gastric, and intestinal. During the cephalic phase, food has not entered the body, but the smell of food stimulates the central nervous system to start preparing for the injestion of food. The salivatory glands begin to salivate and stomach enzymes are secreted. During the gastric phase, food begins to enter the stomach. A strech in the stomach triggers hormonal and neural signals. Mechanical and chemical digestion begin to take place in the stomach. An increase in pH stimulates G cells to release gastrin, which stimulates stomach and small intesting. The intestinal phase begins when food passes through the pyloric sphincter and into the small intestine. The intestinal phase is regulated by mechanical, endocrine, and neural control factors. 

    Beauty products are used by many people as a way to maintain self care such as make up, masks and face washes. Many of the beauty products have a darker side to them. Parabens is a chemical compound that is used in beauty products as preservatives. It was found that parabens cause and increase in estrogen. A study was conducted where 143 women were tested with a urine test. Even with a small exposure to parabens had an effect on hormone levels. The effect on the body is a gradual effect due to the long time for the chemical compounds to take an effect on the body.

A negative effect of the chemical compounds is the higher risk of developing breast cancer. The gradual increase in estrogen levels has a negative effect on the body. Yet there is not enough research being done to fully understand the nature of the situation.

          Acetic acid (0.774 mL, 13 mmol) and 3-methyl-1-butanol (1.2 mL, 11 mmol) were placed into a 5 mL round-bottomed (rb) flask.  The odor of each compound was noted. Four drops of concentrated sulfuric acid were added to the rb flask and the contents were mixed thoroughly. Boiling chips were added and the flask was placed within a reflux apparatus above the hot plate. The contents of the rb flask were heated to a gentle boil such that vapors condensed about one third of the way up the reflux condenser. This resulted in two phases of liquid collecting in the side arm, which were an upper organic phase and a lower water phase. After the reaction refluxed for fifteen minutes, the apparatus was removed from the heat and tipped back so that most of the upper phase in the side arm went back into the reaction flask, and then lowered back into the hot plate. This process was repeated twice more, so that the mixture refluxed for forty-five minutes total. At the end of the third and final reflux period, the apparatus was cooled completely for fifteen minutes. Once cooled, the entire contents of the side-arm were emptied into the rb flask.