James Donohue
I read the article, “Take
a Breath and Thank a Sponge,” by Carl Zimmer. The article is about how the
sponge influenced the creation of the animal Kingdom. For years scientist have
known about life, however there was little explanation as to where the all the
oxygen came from to support such large quantities of life with functioning
organs. Oxygen originally being released after cells evolved to absorb sunlight
and release oxygen. “But, for reasons that remain unclear, oxygen remained very low for billions of years
afterward. With so little oxygen on earth, animals could not evolve, Dr.
Nursall argued.” There was an experiment done to see how little oxygen
was needed for our original animal ancestors, the sponges, to survive. The team
of scientist continued to lower the oxygen rate until it was around 4%, the
lowest their machine was able to go. However even at these low levels the
sponges were still able to survive just fine. The article explains that due to
the sponges the animal kingdom was able to get a footing to become an important
part of our world and evolution. The way in which the world oxidized was by photosynthetic
bacteria that completely covered the earth’s water surface. As soon as these
single celled organisms began to get larger, they began to sink and thus began
oxidizing the water. When sponges evolved they, “trapped organic matter, they
lowered vital nutrients in the water, among them phosphorus. Without
phosphorus, photosynthetic bacteria couldn’t grow.” This enabled the algae
to be more populous and create oxygen.
This is
extremely significant to the scientific community and to those studying evolution.
It shows how one of the simplest life forms was able to make such a major
contribution to the rest of the oxygen breathing world. Without the sponges
large celled organisms would not have been able to evolve due to the lack of
oxygen. The early development of sponges, which were created at low levels of
oxygen helped raise the oxygen level and an extremely high rate, than seen
previously.
I
thought the article was a well written article. It provided great background
for the original thought behind the process of the experiment. It also went
into how the scientists use fossil records that are nearly a billion years old
to help them get an estimate of how old the species is. I also appreciated how
the article said that some scientists were doing their own experiments to see
how important sponges were and how the earth became so oxygen rich. Overall the
article was a good read and very informative. It also goes great with the
evolution chapters we just read!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/science/take-a-breath-and-thank-a-sponge.html?ref=science
I think that my peer James Donohue did an exceptional job reviewing the article, “Take a Breath and Thank a Sponge.” One thing I think he did well was the incorporation of quotes from the original article into his review. By including specific examples to strengthen his review, he helped the reader really get a good idea of the original article. Another thing I think he did very well was his detailed explanation of the main point of the article. He thoroughly detailed the science behind why sponges are so important to the development of the animal kingdom and he left no room for misinterpretation. A final thing he did well was relating the original article to our day to day lives. Since we are tackling the topic of evolution in Biology at the moment, his article fell right in line with what we are learning.
ReplyDeleteJames did many great things in his review; however, there are several things he could have improved upon. One thing he maybe could have done better is giving a better background of the original experiment as I felt that was somewhat neglected in his review. Another thing he could have done better is including where the original article came from. Other I was able to locate the original article through the bibliography, I think its important to include the source as it builds credibility.
I was very interested by this relevant article. It is very intriguing to see how the bases of animal life on this earth began. Especially now, when we are covering the topic of evolution in Biology class, I think this article was a very good choice.
Overall JP did a great job reviewing the article, “Take a Breath and Thank a Sponge.” One thing he did particularly well was incorporating quotes from the article. His use of quotes gave his review credibility and also helped him explain the main points of the article. He also included a great connection of the article to the outside world. Since we are currently discussing evolution, it was very interesting that he chose an article about evolution and I was impressed how well he connected it to our studies in class. Thirdly, he did a great job describing the initial experiment done with the sponges. It was helpful that he included and described the purpose of the experiment and all the specific amounts of oxygen used.
ReplyDeleteAlthough JP did a great job overall, there are a few things I think he could have improved upon. First, I think his review would have been better if he had included more background information on sponges, and their habitat before the evolution of modern day organisms. This would have helped the reader understand how important sponges were and would have emphasized the importance of their existence and their low consumption of oxygen. Secondly, it would have been helpful if he went into more depth on how the sponges low oxygen level set a foundation for organisms with “functioning organs”.
This article was very interesting and JP did a great job analyzing and reviewing it. I was very impressed by how scientists were able to stimulate those low oxygen environments to get such specific results. This confirms my understanding of how advanced science has become. Overall, this was a very interesting article and review.
I read Jp’s article review of Take a Breath and Thank a Sponge, by Carl Zimmer. I thought Jp did a great job of summarizing the article. Although the summary part was a little longer than usual, I thought he captured the somewhat wordy article into a concise paragraph. I thought it was important that he emphasized the survival of species because of the sponge. I also thought Jp did a great job in explaining the significance of this article. Such a simple organism can make such a large contribution to life. Scientists cannot take that for granted because there may not be any life forms if it weren’t for the oxygen producing sponge. Lastly, I thought Jp was spot on with the writer’s interpretation. The writer did a great job of giving the background information. Many science writers are not as successful in telling the information to commoners. However, I felt like I could easily understand everything he said!
ReplyDeleteI though Jp could have made a few minor improvements that would really benefit the reader. First, I think that Jp should have used the proper citation. As his bibliography, he pasted the website link on the bottom of the review. This looked unprofessional in my opinion, and could have easily been changed into either a MLA or Chicago style citation. I also thought Jp’s article review could have been improved by proofreading once more. Although I did not see spelling mistakes, I did see a few grammar mistakes, including not full sentences, and passive voice. By correcting these small errors, the reader could have more smoothly transitioned through the passage.
My big ah-ha moment while reading this article was how important sponges are. Though my textbook reading, I did not grasp the full extent to which sponges had an impact in evolution and the survival of life. Sponges lived when oxygen was at 4% (which humans would die in) when there was little oxygen on earth. They themselves were able to create oxygen and fuel the potassium needed for algae to grow. Without sponges, we would not be where we are today. Life may not even exist. It is incredible that such a simple species is responsible for the vast life today.
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ReplyDeleteI thought JP did an excellent current event write up for the New York Times article “Take a Breath and Thank A Sponge”, by Carl Zimmer. First, I enjoyed that he gave ample background information about what scientists believed caused the oxygen levels in the atmosphere to increase and that oxygen is required for the life of many complex creatures. I also enjoyed that he went on to explain specifically what the sponges did to allow for accelerated oxygen production. Lastly, I liked how he had one final push to show why sponges were important in the second paragraph, where he truly let the point hit home that we would not be around had it not been for sponges.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I thought that he could have gone into further detail on some points. First, I thought that he should have expanded upon why photosynthetic bacteria were not good for oxygen production and why algae were better for oxygen production. I also would have liked to know why algae is able to survive without phosphorous but photosynthetic bacteria are. Simply going into more depth on these topics would be enough to fix any issues.
I was extremely fascinated by this article. I never realized how important sponges were to life as we know it. This article really hit home, and I am happy that I know sponges have had a much greater role in the development of life on earth than simply working at the Krusty Krab, as I had previously thought. Going forward in my life, I will most certainly pay more attention to sponges and be grateful for their absorption of phosphorous.
Works Cited
Donahue, James. "Take a Breath and Thank a Sponge." : Take a Breath and Thank a Sponge. Blogspot, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Sept. 2015. .