Drafts

As a class activity for the Biology Junior Writing course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the methods project was assigned to help students build their procedure writing skills. This is an essential part of scientific investigation because it enables scientists to replicate experiments accurately. Replicability aids in establishing the authenticity of findings made during scientific inquiry. Here, I observed and recorded the interspecific relationship between a tree and green lichens found near the roots of the tree. In thinking of what interspecific relationship to observe, I considered the mobility of the interaction. I knew it was important to choose two species that did not move from their point of primary observation. I also ensured that the interaction was in a common area of campus, such as behind the Morrill Science Center, for convenience and accessibility purposes. During the period of observation, the weather had to be taken into account. To this effect, I chose an interspecific interaction that was not affected by sudden changes in weather but remained apparent for a prolonged period of time. As a result, the interaction was observable at the time of replication.

The arms race between diseases and the human race will never end. It is something that human kind will always have to deal with. There are certain measures we can take to slow them down that we try and perfect every year. Viruses like the Flu though are quickly evolving which makes it very hard to have and make vaccines and other measures to suppress them. (“The Escape of Pathogens: an evolutionary arms race”) It is important to keep trying to take these measures though as we must try and have as many people as possible not be infected by the disease. The only way to do this is to study the evolutionary processes of these diseases so we are better equipped to fight them. It is at least known for bacteria that we can use anti biotics to treat the diseases even though we constantly have to manipulate them, for viruses this is not the case. (“Antibiotic resistance: delaying the inevitable”) Antibiotics will not kill the viruses and this will just harm you in the long run.

This ad is more of what should be looked upon with kind eyes. This ad for Dove shows how every body type is great and attractive in its own ways. This is something that people need to be accustom to. Whereas the other ad makes people feel bad about their bodies and strive for a goal that they will never reach, this ad shows that any body type is great. These models don’t look as though their look is as unattainable as the others. People should strive to look however they want so as they feel good about themselves, and I feel this ad is expressing tat well.

        I completed my community service at the annual apple harvest in Amherst center. The whole idea of the harvest is to get the town of Amherst to come together and support local farms and the local community. There were games where children could play, and many stands run by businesses and people from all around Amherst. The festival serves the whole town of Amherst and especially the small businesses because of all the exposure they get with the local inhabitants. The demographic of the people there was really all over the place. There were mostly family’s, but there were also elderly couples and a lot of teens and pre-teens walking around with their friends. The race and gender represented was typical of western Massachusetts. Mostly Caucasian but with a great verity of other races as well. There were amounts of each gender present. The socioeconomic backgrounds seemed to all be similar. People seemed to be middle class people of all kinds. Some richer than others, but for the most part all middle class. A lot of the people who were running the stands were farmers trying to promote their product. The rest of the volunteers were college kids or people from the town of Amherst.

The American Dream has been dwindled for those that are impoverished. The opportunity to follow your passions are few and far between. Most people do not have the money to follow their heart. Working hard no longer leads to success for many Americans. Having a similar life to your parents is a reality for almost half the population. People who are in poverty struggle to get out. Also, optimism about the future and being able to handle anything thrown at them are not a reality for most. The impoverished often do not have the resources to be optimistic about the future. So, with all these things being true for most Americans, and roughly half of people that are fifty have experienced at least a year of poverty, can the American Dream still be achieved? Most people who are not born into an affluent life would tell you no.

Global warming is not something to take lightly. The oceans are warming, the polar ice caps are melting, and greenhouse gas levels are at an all-time high. These are just some of the things that the claims-makers for the global warming cause have said. The science has proven them right. So, the ultimate claim is that humans are a large factor in the increased rate of global warming. There are claims-makers of all kinds fighting about whether that is true or not. The solutions proposed deal with a cleaner world, while the deniers will opt to do nothing.  This issue has turned political, and it seems like nothing gets done until someone who believes in global warming is in charge. Right now, that is not the case. This issue will continue to get worse until there is no turning back. Hopefully society can come to a consensus to try and inhibit global warming. This is the only way to keep the place we live healthy.

            Add 0.5g of benzoin and 4mL of ethanol to a 25mL Erlenmeyer flask and was swirled until it was fully dissolved. 0.1g of Sodium borohydride was then added over a span of 5 minutes. The minutes was then swirled for another 20 minutes. After collected in the ice water bath, 5mL of water was added with 0.3mL 6M HCl. Then the solution was clenched. The product was then collected. The product was allowed to dry for 15 minutes. The crude yield was then determined and the MP was found. Also, 1-2mg of the crude product was put aside for TLC analysis. The crude solid was then recrystallized from the acetone. The crystals are left to dry overnight. The TLC analysis was completed. One of the plates consisted of starting material, the reaction product, and a co-spot of the starting material, and the reaction product. The second plate consisted of starting material, crude product, and co-spot of the starting material, and the crude product. After the TLC analysis was completed, the plates were inspected under UV light and then put into an iodine chamber for further analysis.

Today in class we did a simulation of the west nile virus. It was very informative. I had no idea that west nile virus was a disease that lives primarily in birds. It only kills some birds, a lot can harbor the disease and will be a permanent reservoir. The way it gets to humans is through mosquitoes. The mosquitoes bite the birds and almost always become infected, the infected mosquitoes then come and bite humans. Humans typically only come down with very mild symptoms but they can occasionally develop serious neurological issues. This usually results in death. West nile virus has only been documented in the United states since 1999, so it has been in the country for less than 20 years. It was first documented in New York and quickly spread throughout the country. The reason it was able to spread so quick is because no one realized that birds were the reservoir for the virus. This virus is also really prominent is Massachusetts. Something that I was totally unaware of. I wasn’t aware that the virus was relatively not that bad for humans to contract. I believe only 1 in 100 people suffer serious side effects from it. Regardless the disease is scary because of the way it spreads and because of the fact that it will always have a reservoir.  

Everyone knows birds migrate, but the root cause behind this migratory behaviour can fall into one of two categories. Obligate migration is what one usually thinks of when it comes to bird migration; the seasonal flights made between predictable breeding and non-breeding grounds at specific times of the year that seem to be hard-wired into the birds that follow this behavioural pattern. The other form of migration called facultative migration happens at unpredictable times of the year and is in response to a change in resource availability or an environmental shift. These migrations are not associated with mating and happen seemingly randomly and do not have a set destination. There are situational advantages and disadvantages to both of these forms of migration and they have evolved separately multiple times across all orders of birds. 

Bird bones are air-filled structure to minimize the weight. In the cross section, it can be seen how hollow the bone is. The same goes for the mouth, instead of having a jaw with teeth, birds have teethless light bills. Everything birds evolved from reptile is to achieve the goal of flight. The muscle of birds are robust and flexible to let the wing generate energy to fly. The triangular system of strut is a structure that prevents chest bones from crushing during flight’s enormous pressure. Wings are what is known as forelimbs and birds do have fingers too. However most bone structures found in other organisms are fused in birds. Birds rely more on the muscle and the tendons to support their body to control fine flight adjustments.