Monday, October 7, 2013
Ceramics/AP Biology Sculpture
E. Weir used her biological knowledge in her Ceramics class to produce this object d'art to represent the mitochondria. The dark blue "ovoid" portion is the outer membrane of the organelle. The orange/yellow "wavy" area within represents the inner membrane of the cristae of this organelle. The arches or arms extending outward represent the cell cytoskeleton (microtubules) which allow cell organelles to move through the cell's cytoplasm.
3 Win Joint Nobel Prize in Medicine
I
read the article “3 Win Joint Nobel Prize in Medicine,” by Lawrence K. Altman.
The article discusses how this Monday three scientists, James E. Rothman of
Yale University; Randy W. Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley;
and Dr. Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University, won the Nobel Prize in
Medicine. They discovered how cells transport large molecules in an organized
fashion, delivering the molecules where they are needed, when they are needed.
Each scientist developed a little piece of the puzzle to solve the mystery of
how cells organize their transport systems. As stated in the article, “Dr.
Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. Dr.
Rothman unraveled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their
targets to permit transfer of cargo. Dr. Südhof revealed how signals instruct
vesicles to release their cargo with precision.” All three scientists come from
different backgrounds with different educations, a diversity that allowed them
to research cell transport in different ways and with different focuses. Their
diverse methods led them to their key discovery.
This
article is important to our society because it is a great example of how an
increase in the diversity of the educations and backgrounds of scientists who
are working together can greatly benefit the scientific community. It allows
them to bounce ideas off of each other and ultimately discover things together
that would have been much harder, maybe even impossible, to discover on their own.
This is important to us because it shows us how much more productive it can be
to work with others who have different ideas from our own. Diversity can be
very beneficial in the scientific community. In addition, this article is
significant to the AP Biology students at Bronxville because we recently
learned about the cell and all the functions of the organelles.
A
criticism I have of the article is that it was not very interesting. Most of
the article just talked about the three scientists and where they went to
school and got their Ph.D.s. While their backgrounds are interesting and
somewhat relevant to the article, I would have found it more interesting if the
author had talked more about the science behind their discovery and how this
could have an effect on science in the future.
Altman, Lawrence K. "3 Win
Joint Nobel Prize in Medicine." New York Times. N.p., 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 7
Oct. 2013.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/health/3-win-joint-nobel-prize-in-medicine.html>.
Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite
In the article, “Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite,” the author, Marc Lallanilla exposes this serene lake in Tanzania that is the source of some of the most fantastic photographs ever taken. In these photos, it looks as though living animals have summarily turned into stone, however, that is not the case. The alkaline water in Lake Natron has pH as high as 10.5 and is so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren’t adapted to it. The water’s alkalinity comes from the sodium carbonate and other minerals that flow into the lake form the surrounding mountains. Despite these deceiving photographs, the animal didn’t turn into stone and die after coming into contact with the lake’s water. This lake can actually support a complex ecosystem of salt marshes, freshwater wetlands, flamingos and other wetland birds, tilapia and the algae on which large flocks of flamingoes feed.
The photographer, Brandt, who is famous for capturing these wonderful photos claims, “I unexpectedly found the creatures washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron
No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but the water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds.” This photographer took these dead animals and repositioned them to make them look as if they were living. He claims that he made them “reanimated, alive again in death.” Sadly, the serenity of Lake Natron and its flamingo population are threatened by a proposed hydroelectric power plant on the Ewaso Ngiro River.
Although I found this article to be very interesting and different to learn about, it was not informative enough. For instance, the author never exposed to the reader what the real cause of the animals’ death was, and that left a very big gap in the overall story.
http://www.livescience.com/40135-photographer-rick-brandt-lake-natron.html Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite." LiveScience.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.
No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but the water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds.” This photographer took these dead animals and repositioned them to make them look as if they were living. He claims that he made them “reanimated, alive again in death.” Sadly, the serenity of Lake Natron and its flamingo population are threatened by a proposed hydroelectric power plant on the Ewaso Ngiro River.
Although I found this article to be very interesting and different to learn about, it was not informative enough. For instance, the author never exposed to the reader what the real cause of the animals’ death was, and that left a very big gap in the overall story.
http://www.livescience.com/40135-photographer-rick-brandt-lake-natron.html Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite." LiveScience.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Hitting Pay Dirt on Mars by Kenneth Chang
In the article, Hitting Pay Dirt on Mars, written by Kenneth Chang, tells how a once assumed ordinary volcanic rock from Mars turned out to contain a small amount of water. First found in September of 2012 by the Mars rover, Curiosity, the large chunk of rock appeared to be basalt, but when the first chemical compound results came back, the elements contained in the rock appeared to be more terrestrial than any others ever found outside of the Earth. However, the rock type is not common on our planet, but rather only found on volcanic islands like Hawaii. It was discovered that water was contained in the rocks because when a scoop of its dirt was heated in a lab, water vapor was released. All of the water that was found was contained in glass like particles rather than crystallized minerals. Although the test was only done on a small sample, if all of the rocks surround it have the same composition, each cubic foot could contain up to a couple pints of water. The discovery of the presence of water on Mars changes scientists views of the plant, what used to be regarded as a “dry desert planet” now has water. Knowing that water is currently present on the surface of Mars sparks the idea in scientist’s minds that microbes could be drinking this water, but none have been found yet. However, there is s problem with this theory because perchlorate molecules have been found in multiple places on Mars’ surface, and its presence cause organic molecules to “disintegrate into simple carbon dioxide,” disproving the possibility of having life on Mars.
This article is important to our world because humans have always had a fascination with finding other life forms on other planets, specifically Mars. With the discovery of currently present water, the possibility of the building blocks for life to be in existence makes this theory one step closer to being proven. With our world’s growing population and limited resources and space, the possibility of another plant that can withstand life has always been tempting to researchers. I chose this article because I found it interesting, especially since I had always been taught that there was a chance for a past presence of water on Mars, but now it is known that there is some.
Although this article was written very well, I think that it lacked in explaining some of the more basic concepts which would have increased the understanding of the article. I also think that the mention of the presence of perchlorate at the end of the article, contradicting much of what was said above was quite confusing and could have been worked more fluidly into the piece. However, Chang did a very good job of expressing new and upcoming information of Mars to people who could have previously known very little.
Chang, Kenneth. "Hitting Pay Dirt on Mars" New York Times. 30 Sept 2013. 6 Oct 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/science/space/hitting-pay-dirt-on-mars.html?pagewanted=all>
Saturday, October 5, 2013
New Small-Molecule Catalyst Does the Work of Many Enzymes
I
read the article “New small-molecule catalyst does the work of many enzymes” by
Diana Yates. The article explains talks about how researchers at the University
of Ohio created a man-made catalyst that, unlike an enzyme, can alter the
chemical profiles of multiple types of small molecules. This catalyst can be
used to speed the discovery of new drugs. Enzymes are synthesized for the
purpose of changing the profiles one type of molecule. This is an obstacle for
pharmaceutical drug researchers. If it has been discovered that one molecule in
a large compound can be changed to alter the compounds effects, a normal enzyme
will not alter the compound, since it cannot change other parts of the
compounds. For the compound to be changed, the entire molecule must be
re-synthesized, which can take up to a month for just one compound. With this
new catalyst is able to alter multiple molecules, allowing the process to take
only half an hour. The lead researcher behind the creation of the catalyst,
Professor M. Christine White, has made a similar catalyst before that had gone
after most electron rich carbon-hydrogen bond, but the new one is a much
greater improvement, as it goes after the most electron rich bond that is least
encumbered by other atoms. This improvement allows the catalyst to change the
targeted molecule without destroying the entire compound. The improvement also
allows the researchers to computationally predict what bonds will be affected
and in what order. The molecule has not been perfected to work on all C-H
bonds, but is being altered to hopefully achieve this.
This
new catalyst is important not because of what it can do, but how quickly it can
do it. With the new catalyst, changing specific molecules in a compound have
been changed from taking an entire month to taking only half an hour. It will
allow for vital pharmaceutical research to be done quicker and more
efficiently. The catalyst at the moment has limited uses, but will further
research it will be expanded to work on all bonds in the future. The catalyst
also represents the way man can create something better than what nature
designed. On a chemical level, the catalyst is better than a natural enzyme, as
it can work with multiple types of molecules.
The
article, although it was written rather well, can use some improvements. For
example, the article does not talk much about the chemical processes, such as
how the catalyst determines which molecule is targeted or how the catalyst
knows to replace C-H bonds with C-O-O bonds. This added information will allow
to be understood on a more scientific level. Despite this, the article is still
very informative.
Yates, Diana.
"New Small-molecule Catalyst Does the Work of Many Enzymes." Illinois News Bureau. University of
Illinois, 3 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.
<http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/1003enzymes_MChristinaWhite.html>.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
In Fragmented Forests, Rapid Mammal Extinctions
After the construction of a dam across
the Khlong Saeng river in Thailand in 1987, a 60 square-mile
reservoir was formed that transformed 150 forested hilltops into
isolated islands that were all very unique. Since the creation of
these islands, Dr. Luke Gibson from the University of Singapore has
been tracking the diversity of mammals on the islands. His reports
show that the extinction of mammals has been happening distressingly
fast. Studies show that when tropical
forests are regularly cleared, n most cases, only original tree cover
is reduced to isolated patches and of the original species of plants
and animals may still survive in those fragments, but they experience
new stresses. The original species will eventually become extinct,
however, extinction should not happen at the rapid rate that it did
on these islands. When Dr. Gibson returned to the islands in 2012, he
found only one species, the Malayan field rat. This discovery was
startling for two reasons—one was the drastic change in diversity,
and the second was the Malayan field rat wasn't on the islands when
they first formed. Dr. Gibson concluded that the small size of the
island forest make them vulnerable to invasion, the rats found the
fragmented forests that they could dominate. This shows that the fast
pace extinction of the forest fragments gives urgency to preserving
the large forests to eliminate this rapid of extinction and
domination by a single species.
As
our world progresses it is very important that we take the
environment into account. Dr. Gibson, mentioned in this article
regarding the rapid extinction he discovered, “Our results should
be a warning, this is the trend that the world is going in.” With
the world becoming more advanced technologically, it is common for
structures (like the dam mentioned in this article) to be built as a
way to work around natural structures and habitats to meet the needs
of humans. However, this is not what is best for our environment.
This article explicitly shows that working around our environment
like this will eventually hurt us, and it may hurt us sooner than we
think. Therefore, it is important that we act against things that
will fragment forests, and work towards conservation of natural
habitats, or we soon may see extinction so vast that would ultimately
destroy our environment.
Overall,
I think this article addresses many interesting and important points.
The topics that it discusses are important for readers to understand
to help start movements towards the conservation of nature. I think
the article was very easy to read and effectively conveyed its point
thoroughly. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of what happened to
the islands because it gave me a real understanding of what a
“fragmented forest” was and how it could be harmful. Moreover,
the inclusion of quotes from notable scientists and the inclusion of
viable evidence made this article very notable. Overall, I really
enjoyed this article.
Zimmer,
Carl. "In Fragmented Forests, Rapid Mammal Extinctions."
New York Times.
The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/science/in-fragmented-forests-rapid-mammal-extinctions.html?ref=science&_r=0>.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Water Property Projects
The AP Biology students were given the task to produce a presentation examining the properties f water and how these unique properties contribute to life, as we know it, on Earth.
Dutton Jesse 11100342 AP Bio Water Project by Charles Ippolito
C. Simon and A. Roesser built a website follow this link to see it.......
C. Simon and A. Roesser's Web Site
M. Taylor Built a web site follow this link to see it.....
M. Taylor's Water Properties Web Site
Stoeffhaas William 200664 Bio Water Project by Charles Ippolito
C. Simon and A. Roesser's Web Site
M. Taylor Built a web site follow this link to see it.....
M. Taylor's Water Properties Web Site
Stoeffhaas William 200664 Bio Water Project by Charles Ippolito
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