A new microbe has been found that may provide some insight into the genetic history of humans, as well as other mammals. The choanoflagellates are tiny organisms known as nanoplankton which act as single-cell predators. They move by beating their flagellum and collect food in filaments off the top of the cells. These microbes exist in millions in as little as one gallon of sea water. Recently, scientists have come up with persuasive evidence that suggests these creatures may be one of the closest single-cell relatives to animals that are still around today. The transition of unicellular life to multicellular life is a topic of great debate and research, and this discovery of a transitional microbe provides scientists with a chance to get a greater understanding of this transition. From choanoflagellates, scientists can tell some of the common traits the ancestor of both choanoflagellates and animals shared.
This article is important for obvious reasons. A large part of biology is understanding from where we evolved. Biology studies the changes life goes through, using principles suggested by Darwin and other past scientists. The proposition that humans are more closely related than was formerly thought to such a small organism is fascinating. In biology, we often study the body parts of animals to determine where they came from, and what other animals they might be related to. This is seen in this article when the author describes the flagellum and how it appears on other microbe as well, but manifests itself differently sometimes.
The article was well done, in my opinion. However, it could have gone into greater detail about the actual organism in question, the choanoflagellates. The article provided enough information about the organisms to be able to get it’s point about their connection to humans across, but failed to really describe the organism. I would have been interested to learn the class and genus of the microbe in question. I feel like this also would have lent a better understanding to the reader of this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/science/14creatures.html?ref=science
To start Erin did a good job of choosing an interesting and well presented article for her current event. Second she gave a good back round of the organism being discussed in this particular article a good description of why it is important and relative to biology today. Lastly she did a good job of relating it back to biology by showing how it relates to evolution in order to relate it to the class.
ReplyDeleteOne way she could have made this review better would have been to discuss The transition of unicellular life to multicellular life is under great debate. Another thing she could have done better is describe how the organism being discussed was originally discovered so the reader could understand the orgins of the organism.
I learned The choanoflagellates are tiny organisms known as nanoplankton which act as single-cell predators. They move by beating their flagellum and collect food in filaments off the top of the cells.
Tony Tao
ReplyDelete12/22/2010
Review
The review of the article was very detailed in its presentation of information. From the article I learned about such things as choanoflagellates and tiny organisms such as nanoplankton. I never knew single celled organisms can move by wiggling their flagellum. This topic is incredibly fascinating to me and I would love to learn more about flagellum locomotion. Another piece of the article that was well presented was the relationship between single celled organism and multi-celled ones. The choanoflagellates are transitional organisms between single celled one and multi-celled ones. The research of this branch of evolution should provide great incite into human origin. Another piece that was extraordinarily well presented was the importance of biology. The author magnificently sculpts a captivating and breathtaking vision of the biological past and future of mankind. Her vision of biology is inspirational. Many intricate and inaccessible ideas of biology are coalesced into simple and coherent ideas. One example is how biological evolution can be divided into paths based on recognizable traits. The essay was written meticulously, carefully and with detail.
The essay would be better if the writer limited the use of excessive vocabulary. To the average man like me, I was lost in the myriad of compendium of diction used. Frequently, I found myself flipping through dictionaries to find definitions for words such as “flagellum” and “choanoflagelletes”, not to mention archaic words such as: “proposition.” I also found that if the review was written in a more modern style that readers like me would find it easier to read. The author obviously has heavily defined Victorian London influences along with pre-WWII German references. I found these references often detached me from the work. If the essay was written like a newspaper or magazine article I would have been able to extrapolate more concrete ideas.
I was impressed by the sheer size of the article. The breadth and the completeness of the article astounded me to the point of shock. The colors used in the text were incredibly vibrantly black. These words were very easy to read. Sometimes writers will employ very light greys or even saturated white text on top of a white background. I find this hard to read and irritating, but this article was nothing like that. The colors were incredibly well defined and coherent. In addition, I was impressed by how the article has a time stamp. This allows me to know when the articles were written. Too often have I read scientific articles on the internet only to find out that they have been disproved by modern theory and my topics were of medieval folklore. With the addition of the time stamp, I will almost always circumvent this small misfortune. The spacing and size of the article was also good. I liked how the article has a moderate font. Faced with this decision, inexperienced writers may choose to employ fonts that are either too large or extraordinarily small. Both of these options annoy me and prevent me from reading the article. Overall, the readability of this article is superb. Grammar was amazing! The author employed spaces between words which I immediately adopted into my writing style. As you can see, I know employ spaces in my article. Before when I wrote I would not use spaces because I did not want to seem like I adhered to false premises. This has revolutionized my perspective and the way I look at biology.
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