Basic Genetics Homework

By going on http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/ , I learned many things about heredity and traits. First, I learned that a trait is a notable quality in a person. Each of us possesses a different combination of traits that makes us unique. Traits are passed from generation to generation. We inherit traits from our parents and pass them down to our children. I also learned that heredity is the passing of traits from parents to child. Children look like their parents because we "inherit" some of their traits. Our genes are made of DNA and they live in our chromosomes. We all have thousands of genes and the environment we grow in, as well as our genes, help define our traits. Humans have two complete sets of 23 chromosomes, totaling to 46 chromosomes in our body. When children are born, each parent contributes one set of chromosomes to the offspring, passing on genes to the child. That is what I learned about heredity and traits by visiting this interesting website.

Science Class Response

Owl Pellet Lab

My favorite class activity was the owl pellet lab. It was interesting to attempt to put together an entire skeleton of an owl's prey. I wasn't too fond of picking out bones from regurgitated owl food. However, analyzing the variety of bones, especially the small ones, was intriguing. It was amazing how putting together an entire skeleton from an owl pellet can show you how the owl's prey looked while it was alive. I enjoyed learning about owl pellets and dissecting owl pellets. Overall, this activity was very educational and fun, and I hope to do another activity like this again during the year.

Initially, before doing this lab, I thought that an owl pellet was just excreted waste. However, now, after studying owl pellets, I know that an owl pellet is a mass of bone, teeth, hair, feathers, and exoskeletons of the prey of the owl. Since owls don't have fingers and can't pick apart bones and fur from flesh, they swallow their food whole. Bones and feathers can't be digested by owls, just like with humans, therefore, the gizzard filters out the indigestible parts of the food. Several hours later, they are compressed into an owl pellet and are regurgitated when the digestive system has finished extracting the nutrition from the food. I found these facts interesting because they show the similarities and differences between owls and humans, and they display what all owls have to do just, because they don't have fingers. When I noticed this article posted on Sunny-D's blog, I read this interesting article on another mammal species found because of an owl pellet. The article said that Dave Tosh, from the School of Biological Sciences at Queens University, found the greater white-toothed shrew in Tipperary and Limerick because of some unusual shrew skulls that he found inside a few owl pellets that were sent to him by John Lusby, Barn Owl Research Officer from Bird Watch Ireland. This obviously shows how much you can learn about other animals that are the prey of the owl, just by examining an owl pellet.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080428071113.htm

Science Current Event #2

Are Wolves the Pronghorn's Best Friend?

As of 2008, the Wildlife Conservation Society has made a new study that cautions that removing the gray wolf from the protection of the Endangered Species Act may result in a decline in the pronghorn species. Since wolves are larger than coyotes, they decrease coyote numbers by either killing them or by causing them to shift to safer areas which are not inhabited by wolves. Healthy wolf packs balance out the coyote population, and the fewer the coyotes, the more pronghorns because coyotes and pronghorns have a predation relationship. Wolves are too big to feed on pronghorns themselves, since a small pronghorn won’t satisfy their empty stomachs. The wolves feed on coyotes, providing themselves with food, and reducing the amount of predators for the pronghorns.

Therefore, I think that in a way, wolves are the pronghorn’s best friend. The relationship between the pronghorns and the wolves is commensalism, a type of symbiosis that benefits one animal and does not affect the other. This is because when wolves eliminate some of the major predators of the pronghorn, its population increases since they have a longer life due to their greater chance of survival. I think that the gray wolf is safe to be removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act because their reproduction rate is increasing, as well as the gray wolf population. It will not necessarily impact the pronghorn population because the amount of gray wolves is not decreasing. If an unexpected drop in the wolf population does occur, then the gray wolf should immediately become protected by the Endangered Species Act again. Otherwise, as the Wildlife Conservation Society predicted, there could be a decline in the population of the pronghorn species. Therefore, unless a drastic drop in the wolf population occurs, I think that it is safe to remove them from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303145300.htm

Science: Current Event #1

In Geneva, Designing a Global Climate-Alert System

During 2007, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that it was likely that global warming could be an effect of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Their evidence proved that the gases emitted from the smolder of fossil fuels and deforestation travel into the atmosphere and enhance the greenhouse effect, causing global warming. Most of the idea of climate change has been proven by scientific work and experiments. However, the predictions for the future are still a little hazy because we have no mechanism to hypothesize what will happen in a warmer planet. New updates on climatology don’t come very frequently, about every five to six years. For our rapid global climate change, this frequency isn't enough. As Jane Lubchenco states, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), we have an urgent need for ongoing information about climate change, and we don’t have a mechanism to provide it. Lubchenco will be leading the US delegation at a World Climate Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. This conference, along with many others, could eventually allow scientists to predict climate-change just as they daily predict the weather. The NOAA issued an in-depth report about how the climate will change in America, which set the stage for the entire world. At the Geneva conference, it is planned to create a Global Framework for Climate Services. Also, scientists will try to agree on a plan to reduce carbon emissions and other pollution in another world climate conference located in Copenhagen, Germany that will also be occurring in the near future. For now, this conference might be the best we can do, but sooner or later, we will have to take more action.

In my opinion, this Geneva conference could lead to a series of steps towards achieving our goal of recognizing the causes of climate change. With a meeting of world-wide scientists, they can share ideas and cooperate to ultimately create the mechanism which we yearn for, the one that can predict climate change. I strongly believe that such a conference can only benefit us, and if it is followed up by a conference in Copenhagen, then we may actually be able to invent such a machine that will tell us if summer will be in the 90s range or the 70s range in temperature. An update on climatology every five or six years is simply not enough. We need to be able to know if this winter, temperatures will sky-rocket as opposed to previous years which will prevent snow, or if there will be freezing temperatures, the coldest the Earth has ever experienced. We need to know if we are really experiencing global warming, or if the Earth is just entering an Ice Age. This requirement for information can not be satisfied if we just get updates about every five to six years. We need information that comes every year, so we can plan for the next winter, or the the following summer. The NOAA has gotten a head start, hopefully beginning a trend of in-depth reports around the world. However, without collaboration across the globe and a consensus to solve this issue, the world needs to acknowledge the fact that climate change is happening right here, right now, and we need to do something about it before it is too late.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1919932,00.html

Literature: Bullying (Man's inhumanity to Man)

There are many reasons why society and our own school's community don't attempt to cease bullying. Most bystanders do not have the courage to become an upstander and support the victim because often, they fear the bully and don’t want to take a risk to save someone because it could jeopardize their self. One of the causes of bullying is a negative event in the bully's past. The bully may have been put down and made fun of before and in order to vent his/her anger, he/she imposes it on innocent victims, thinking that they would find out how it feels to be bullied. In Lord of the Flies, in order to gain power, Jack, who can be called the antagonist of the book, bullies Piggy. Since Piggy is plump and does not have much physical strength, Jack plays on these weaknesses to crack up the assembly and turn them against Piggy. In reality, Jack might fear Piggy because of his high intelligence and his potential to be leader of the little community on the island. Furthermore, Jack says "Bollock to the rules!" on page 89 because he wants to ignore the rules of the assembly. Also, he tries to indirectly persuade the assembly members to stop following them. He does this also to gain power and eventually, I predict that he will break up from Ralph's leadership and lead his choir and anyone else who sides with him to a new group where he will be chief. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph doesn't support Piggy much and goes along with Jack and the rest of the group whenever they make fun of Piggy or laugh at him. This is because if Ralph openly supports the victim of Jack's bullying, then he will be made fun of, too, and he could potentially lose his ranking as chief. Ralph knows that agreeing with Jack is wrong, but he sacrifices his friendship with Piggy to keep his power. Ralph also may not have the bravery to oppose Jack, knowing that Jack is his equal, in physical strength at least.Therefore, even though bullying is a moral wrong that should be rectified, people either don't have the courage to oppose it, or don't want to lose power, which is why they don't attempt to end bullying.

Literature: Summer Reading Question

For Summer Reading, I read the book, City of Ember. I picture the author of City of Ember to be a creative, kind, and imaginative person. In order to think up the entire concept of an underground city, with all the details and ideas and laws, it takes a great imagination, which Jeanne DuPrau, the author of City of Ember, undoubtedly possesses. Also, after reading her writing, I think that Jeanne DuPrau has a compassionate personality because of the way she writes. The City of Ember uses excellent word choice and has a positive connotation. She seems like a nice person and I really enjoyed reading her novel, The City of Ember and I plan to read the rest of the Ember series based on this excellent first book.

Welcome Scientists!

My favorite subject is science because I find it very interesting and I like experiments.
The best book I ever read was Time Capsule. My favorite food to buy in the cafeteria is Mozzarella Sticks with Marinara Sauce. On the weekend, when all my chores are done, I like to hang out with my friends, go to a party, or watch a movie. If I won a free airline ticket to any place I wanted, I would go to Hawaii because it is a tropical island and has a lot of beaches. My favorite color is lavender. If I had a pet, it'd be a puppy and I would name it Diamond. This year, if I work hard enough, I hope to make many new friends and get straight A's on my report card.