As the predator hunts it's prey...

Prey vs. Predator Lab

So here is my beautiful data. It is perfect, and has showed my partner and I how the prey/predator relationship works. We have learned that the relationship between the wolves and the bunnies is an inversely proportional one. Well kind of. In this relationship, the population of the wolves and population of the bunnies rise together. If there are not enough bunnies, then the population of the wolves will drop, as seen around round eight. If suddenly, the bunny population were to have become endangered, only having a few left, the wolf population would be the main one to suffer. They would have no food to feed on, and would eventually die out.

Acid Rain.

How would acid rain affect the Cerrado?

First of all, what is acid rain? Well it is a rain that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions. More specifically, acid rain is caused by emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Now how exactly does it effect the Cerrado? Well it hurts. A lot.

Rain is easily the most important aspect to the survival of the Cerrado. Rain is needed six to eight of the twelve months so that everything is able to live on. If there were a sudden change, and the Cerrado began to have acid rain instead of normal raid, the whole ecosystem would plummet. It would happen like this:

1. Plants would die. As shown by the photo above, acid rain can easily eat its way through the plants. Most of these plants depend on rain to grow, but when acid rain is supplemented, they have a hard time.
2. Not all plants would be effected, but it would be enough to crash the food chain.
3. The ecosystem would no longer be a savanna

The Cerrado: Savanna in Brazil

Biome Travel Blog: The Savannah

The savanna. The grassland. A grassy woodland with a significant woody plan component. The map below highlights where vast amounts of Savanna can be found. I have been planning to take an expedition to the vast tropical savanna ecoregion in Brazil known as the cerrado.

The cerrado accounts for 21% of Brasil's land area, as shown below. This portion of land covers the plateaus in the center of Brazil. The cerrado savanna land  has many different savanna habitat types. These include the forest savanna, park savanna, wooded savanna and gramineous-woody savanna. The cerrado is well known for being one of the richest of all tropical savanna regions and is home to many unique species.

Before I depart on the journey of a lifetime, I have decided to focus my time in studying the cerrado and learning it's environment as if it were the back of my hand. First lets look at all of the Abiotic Features.

The soil of the cerrado is one of the most important aspect in determining cerrado vegetation. These soils are always well drained and most of the time have low pH and low traces of calcium and magnesium. The weather of a savanna also plays a big part in determining cerrado vegetation. Savannas have warm temperature all year round and really only have two different seasons. A long wet season which has a very dry season mid year. During the wet season, the cerrado has an average of 8 inches of rain per month, but once the dry season comes, there is little to no rain.

After all this research, it was time to move to the fun part: the Biotic Features. Let's start with the autotrophs a.k.a. plants.

The cerrado is characterized by its unique vegetation types. It contains roughly 800 different species of trees, most diverse and important being the Leguminosae, Mapighiacaeae, Myrtaceae, Melastomatacaea, and Rubiaceae. About all of these, the Vochysiaceae is the most important for it dominates the cerrado. The cerrado's vegetation is very similar to that of nearby rain forests, but there are still a lot of unique species. This vegetation is believed to be ancient, stretching back perhaps as far in a prototypic form during the Cretaceous before Agrica and South America seperated. If you would like to go and look at the full list of flora that inhabit the cerrado, click here.There are 10,400 species of vascular plants that are found in the cerrado, nearly half of which are endemic. These flowers below are both endemic to the cerrado.

Now even though the flowers are interesting and all, we cannot simply forget all of the consumers a.k.a animals. 
The fauna of the cerrado includes many, although understudied, insects. There are a lot of leaf cutter ants which are very diverse.

There also is a high diversity of vertebrates: 120 reptile species, 837 bird species, 150 amphibian species, and 161 mammal species. 

Below, I have images of the most prominent species found. If you would like to look at the full fauna list of the cerrado, click here. and go to the fauna section.


1. Ameiva ameiva (lizard)
2. Colubridae (snake)
3. Hyacinth Macaw (bird)
4. Toco Toucan (bird)
5. South American Tapir (mammal)
6. Giant Otter (mammal)
7. Ocelot (mammal)

FOOD WEB

Lastly, I am studying the evolutionary adaptions that these species would have had to go through to allow them to survive in this biome. Plants have most definitely adapted. In most grasslands and savannas, it is important that fire maintains the shape of the landscape. The cerrado in no exception. Most of the plants here are fire-adapted, adapting to have characters such as thick corky bark to withstand the heat. As you can see from the food web, this ecosystem has many symbiotic relationships. There are many species in the cerrado that are dependent on each other for survival.

*Place your mouse over each of the pictures to see where I got it from*

Ghrelin Hormone

Hey. This is Eddie and I am here to talk about a very powerful hormone called obestatin prepropeptide, or more commonly known as Ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone that is produced by cells in the lining of the fundus of the stomach and also epsilon cells of the pancreas. Ghrelin levels rise at appropriate times to stimulate hunger, and decrease after meals. Ghrelin has a Neuroendocrine Pattern. Basically, Ghrelin will trigger the neurosecretory cells in the nervous system by means of the sensory neuron. Then, Ghrelin goes through the bloodstream and through the body until they react with the receptors of the endocrine organism. This causes us to feel hungry. Ghrelin dissolves in water, but is completely repelled by fats. We know that blood is hydrophilic, so the fact that Ghrelin is water soluble means that it can travel through blood. Because Ghrelin is not fat soluble, it easily repels from fats and other fatty structures. Ghrelin is a negative feedback loop, meaning that the result of its process influences the operation of the process itself in such a way as to reduce changes. Basically this means that the function slows down when in contact with a stimulus. In the case of Ghrelin, it slows down our hunger which allows us to live on without having to constantly eat. Thanks and make sure you come back to hear me talk on my next podcast.

Yeast Lab

abstract:
Would changing the monomer in the yeast compound affect the levels of CO2 produced? After running the complete lab, we have deducted that yeast with lipid produces the most CO₂.

introduction:

We are doing this lab so that we may better understand whether or not the monomer that is mixed into the yeast solution affects the amount of CO₂ produced. To do this, we took four test tubes, each with a different monomer, and set them up with a syringe stopper system, so that we could measure the amount of CO₂ that is produced.

hypothesis:

We were asked to research yeast before we did this lab, and I found that yeast is known to break down sugars and convert them to CO₂. With this knowledge, we can safely assume that the test tube with the sugar will produce the most CO₂.

procedure:

1. Set up four test tubes that all contain
1. 1 gram of yeast
2. 35 mL of water
3. 0.1 g salt
2. In each of the four test tubes, put one of each:
1. Sugar
2. Starch
3. Protein
4. Lipid
3. Seal each of these test tubes with a stopped and syringe
4. Read the  amount of CO2 as shown on the syringe every minute for 5-10 minutes.

data:

		Amount of	CO­2 Produced	(mL)
	Sugar	Starch	Protein	Lipid
0	2	2	2	2
1	1	2	2.8	2.4
2	.6	1.8	2.6	2.6
3	1.4	2.1	2.6	2.8
4	1	2.2	2.9	3.2
5	1	2.3	2.8	3.6
6	1	2.2	2.8	3.7
7	1	2.2	2.8	4.2

conclusion:

I can safely say that our lab was a failure. Our syringe stopper system failed to collect the CO₂, and we found error after error. We predicted that the test tube with the sugar would've had the greatest production of CO₂, but we found that the test tube with the lipid actually produced the most. It is possible that this is true and that this is the correct outcome, there are so many sources of error, and that I have simply labeled this lab as faulty data. First off, the collection method for the CO₂ was a bit sketchy. I am pretty sure that only one of the systems worked correctly. This was a very crucial part of the lab, and the fact that our equipment was faulty, completely undermined our lab. Another source of error was the fact that I am human. My partner and I were too slow at collecting the data right on the clock every minute, so we were always off by a few seconds. The last source of error was the amount of the specified monomer that was put into the test tube. We were asked to put in 1 gram, but my partner and I completely overlooked that specific amount and decided on our own that we should use 0.5 grams of each. The lack of substance could have tainted our data, because there wasn't enough of the substance to keep the reaction going for the full seven minutes.

Poor John.

January 30, 2014:

forensics quiz:

A twenty-year old man was found supine of Thompson Creak Trial with a bullet wound. The entrance of the wound was on the left lateral side 1 cm above the third rib. The exit wound was 5 cm above the belly button in the umbilical region. While tracing the bullet path you notice at the entrance the bullet travels in the frontal plane with a 45-degree downward angle. On inspection of the right side of the rib cage by x-ray you observe the 8th rib fractured. Fragments of the bullets are then traced to the final exit wound. What is the leading differentiation diagnosis (and why) and what are three plausible alternatives and how would you rule them out.

                                                                 

What happened.

Someone paid the best assassin in Claremont to kill this man. This twenty-year old man was a Senior at Harvey Mudd at the time. He was the top student here and many people despised him because of his good looks and overall perfection. Anyone could have called for him to be killed. Anyone.

Back to the story. The twenty-year old entrepreneur was going out for his routinely morning jog when he was shot. By inspecting the bullet wounds, we can easily tell that the assassin shot him from above. How? Might you ask. The assassin hid in one of the trees and waited for his prey. He used a gun with a silencer so that nobody would be drawn to the scene by the sound of the gunshot. Once shot, there are a few ways that he could have died.

1. The bullet could have punctured the heart. If his heart were to have been punctured, many other surrounding organs would have been gravely affected also. He died because of internal bleeding, blood loss, and the fact that the heart was not longer pumping blood. The cause of his broken rib was also the bullet. The bullet went through his heart, hitting his 8th rib, and deflecting off and out of his body.
2. Another possible case was that the bullet punctured the liver, which then would have released toxins in the body that would have pretty much poisoned him from the inside. This would've been how he died. The broken rib could have been caused by his impact with the ground.
3. This is the least likely of these three to have occurred, but here it goes. The bullet goes in and misses all vital organs and goes straight to the eighth rib. It hits the rib, breaking it, and then the bullets splits into two, one piece leaving the body above the belly button, while the other would have deflected into the lung. The lung then would've filled up with various fluids, and he would've died, being unable to breathe. Again, the broken rib could have been caused by his impact with the ground.

The second two couldn't really have been ruled out, but the first one was the most probable to actually have happened.

Super Duper Free Extra Credit

So I was given these two pictures.

And was asked to determine the phenotype of the father of these cute pups. Soooo what we know...

There are 12 puppies.

The Mother is a yellow.

5 of the pups are brown.

The remaining 7 are black.

So right off the bat, we know that mom has to be:

    eebb

    eeBB

    eeBb

We also know that the offspring are about half brown half black. So we have to find a pair of parents that result in half:

    Eebb / EEbb

and half:

    EEBB / EEBb / EeBb / EeBB

So after fiddling around with a few Punnet Squares, I found that:

The Fathers Phenotype must be EEBb.

Mitosis and Meiosis

Here are some notes that I took on Mitosis and Meiosis

A chromosome is just coiled up DNA

S phase of Replication of DNA

Replicates the other side of the chromosome

 

     Sister Chromatids are connected by Centromere

     Split the sister chromatids to get two single chromatids

Mitosis

Interphase

G1

   Growth

   Normal living

S

   Protein Synthesis

   DNA Replication

G2

   Getting ready to mitosis

(M) Mitotic Phase

Mitosis

   Split the Chromosome into two

Cytokinesis

   Splitting of the cells into two separate cells

Checkpoints

Basically…

When checkpoint is down, it is like a green light

When checkpoint is up, it is like a red light

Controlling Mitosis

Caused by fluctuation between MPF activity and the enzyme Cyclin

 

Eukaryote

Process by which the contents of the eukaryotic nucleus are separated into two genetically identical packages

Start with sister chromatids in a cell nucleus

Interphase

Prophase

The nuclear envelope disintegrates

Metaphase

Sister Chromatids move toward the center

Then they attach their centromeres to spindle fibers

Anaphase

The Sister Chromatids split into single chromosomes

Pac-man...eat away at the spindle fibers which causes movements

Telephase

Nuclear envelope forms each set of chromosomes

Prokaryote

No  nucleus --> no mitosis

Binary Fission

Meiosis

At the start, each chromosome finds its homologous counterpart

Crossing over occurs.

Spindles pull the homologs apart. Sister Chromatids are not split

Repeat.

Creates four cells. Each with one copy of each chromosome.

El Pedigrí

This is a blog...about a class...where we spoke about pedigrees.

So to sum up the purpose of all of this before I start, there are a few different cases of shown by pedigrees:

Autosomal Dominant: This means that the mutation is dominant over normal. So to be effected, you could either be AA or Aa.

Autosomal Recessive: This means that normal is dominant over effected. So to be effected, you could must be aa.

Sex-Linked (Either Dominant or Recessive): Pretty much the same thing as Autosomal, but deals with a Sex-Linked Disease. Distinguishable because you know that a son can only get a disease from his mother.


So this is a Pedigree. It shows a family tree, but pays specific attention to a specific trait that has been passed on. The filled in squares/circles represent the effected.

Genetics

Cross between two parents that breed true for different versions of two traits.

Each plant, meiosis produces genotypes of a single gamete

When these two plants combine, they produce plants that are heterozygous and purple and tall.

This F1 offspring goes through meiosis and produces four different gametes.

Punnett Square with two of these offspring

9 : 3 : 3 : 1 ratio in the F2 offspring

Evidence of genes on different nonhomologous chromosomes

Epistasis - the products of different genes that interact to produce a phenotype

      Basically when two genes work together to produce a trait

      I.E. Labs
   

Incomplete dominance

     Dominance is usually not complete, since both alleles in a              heterozygous phenotype may be expressed in the phenotype

     I.E. Roses

          AA - red

          aa - white

          Aa - pink

          Two separate genes, but when heterozygous, produces a mixture

Codominance

     When two alleles are inherited

     One from momma

     One from poppa

Multiple Alleles

     When new alleles rise through mutation

     When more than two possible alleles for a trait exist                   

Sex-linked Genes

     Any gene located on a sex chromosome

Let me share...

I have been asked to explain this picture in terms of what I learned in chapter six of Survival of the Fittest. This color pattern was caused by a mutation. Mutations were originally thought of as random bumps in the human race, unrelated to genes, until a man discovered that mutations are constantly happening and will usually either have a harmful effect or no effect at all. In some rare cases, a random mutations will provide an advantage that will better the organisms change to survive and thrive. In the case of this flower, this mutations was most likely harmless, simply for visual appeal, but it is possible that this mutations is helpful.

I was asked to do the same with this photo, but instead using my knowledge from chapter three of My Inner Fish. I have concluded that this is directly at fault of an extra skin tissue with extra of the ZPA gene. The ZPA gene contains the blueprint for finger development for many species, and with too much, as shown in this picture, extra limbs can develop.

Your Inner Fish: Handy Jeans

This chapter.
It was quite interesting chapter. It pretty much just spoke about finding one gene consistent in all animals with limbs. DNA lies the same for different species, but there are genetic switched that turn on and off specific genes during development. Some species have a gene that is turned on while others have it off. Nowadays, experimenters have tried to see if they can turn on some of these genetic switches themselves. They worked with chicken eggs and found that they created another wing by taking a little piece of pinky tissue and moving it to the pointer finger. They then began working with flies. They found a gene that separated the head and wings that was very similar to the one found in chickens. They named this gene "sonic hedgehog".

They found that every limbed animal have this "sonic hedgehog" gene active. They tested it with many other animals and found that they all contained this same gene, all turned on.

ps. i can spell genes. the title was, although without reason, intentionally spelled that way. 

Survival of the Sickest: Jump into the Gene Pool

get it? man I am hilarious.

Anyways, chapter six of survival of the sickest focuses of the study of mutation and how the previous theories, that mutations were rare and random in time, was wrong. The truth about mutations is that it is constantly happening and will usually either have a harmful effect or no effect at all. In some rare cases, a random mutation will provide an advantage that will better the organisms chance to survive and thrive. This leads to natural selection which helps this mutation spread throughout a species, and boom, this is evolution.

This chapter also spoke of viruses and their ways of penetrating and getting into an animals system. A virus itself is not considered an animals though, because of it's inability to reproduce of their own. They actually have to find a "host cell" that it can use to multiply and then move into another cell.

To continue on this subject, the chapter discussed vaccines, and how we inject non-harmful viruses into our systems in order to scare away more dangerous viruses. At the beginning of this chapter,we are told of a the first man to discover a vaccine for a dangerous disease. Edward Jenner studied and found out that people contracted with cowpox were able to defend themselves from small pox. He decided to test this by exposing a few men to cowpox, in order to defend them from small pox. By doing this, he developed the first vaccine.

Lastly, Inherited traits were brought up. It brings up an old belief that off-springs inherit developed traits, and denies it. It your parent had something that they developed during their lifetime, that doesn't mean that you will be born with that trait.

This is quite an interesting book.

Atoms to Traits

1. Explain the significance of Mendel.
   Mendelnted by breeding different peas. He found obvious morphological differences such as tall versus short stems, wrinkled versus smooth seeds, and many more. His experiments
2. Draw the structure of DNA and who discovered this structure.
   discovered by James D. Watson
3. Explain each of the five examples of variations that occur to DNA and give an example of each.
   Point Mutation - a single base-pair change.
   Insertion - the insertion/addition of a base-pair sequence into a geneGene Copy Number - the duplication of entire genes by copying errors during cell division which can lead to differences between speciesDeletion - the absense of the sequences of base-pairsInversion - a chromosome rearrangment in which a segment of the chromosome is reversed end to end
4. What is evo-devo?
5. A category of evolutionary biology that concentrated on studying the effects of changes in important developmental genes and how they affect evolution. His experiments changed the general perception of heritable variants from ephemeral and blendable to discreet entities passed from parents to offspring, which are in fact presen
6. Make a connection between human migration and the mutation of lactose intolerance.
   In the past, most humans were lactose intolerant in adulthood, because they only needed the nourishment of milk in their childhood. At some point in time, a genetic mutation formed that allowed us to handle the proteins in milk and use it as nourishment in our adulthood. This happened as our ancestors traveled to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and on. Later in time, we were forced into an issue where we were forced to consume milk. This is how the genetic mutation formed.