What could have caused the death of a twenty one years old football player?

A U Penn football player has committed suicide and had left his family and friends in a big confusion. Thomas was known by his friends as a normal and happy person who had lot of great opportunities in the future; yet, he chose to kill himself. Researchers from Boston University said that Thomas had chronic traumatic encephalopathy; it his makes him the first active college football player known to have had this disease. Its effects are basically neurobehavioral which include: poor decision-making, use of drugs and alcohol, depression and suicide, impaired memory, erratic behavior. CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) has been identified in the brains of late NFL football players John Grimsley, Mike Webster, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk, Terry Long, Tom McHale and Chris Henry. So, this leads the reader to conclude that no one is exempted from any kind of disease because only boxers get this disease.
This article has to do with science because it is related to the brain. The study of the brain is part of the biology job. This article is related to Biology. Also, this article refers back to research; which means that it involves some mathematical operations, and some physics tools as well as some chemistry knowledge. So, this article encompasses Biology, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics.
This concerns me because it has to do with the brain and I would like to be a brain surgeon and I would like to attend U Penn. So, being aware of the environment where I would spend my college life is a great thing.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/14/thomas.football.brain/index.html

i just learned how to do this :D.

Sebastian Rodriguez

AP Biology

Hot Zone by Richard Preston

A Novel for the Ages

To begin, Hot Zone by Richard Preston was an excellent novel. Extremely descriptive, the novel creates a movie in your head. However, the novel was written like if it was written in a journal. By that I mean, in the story it would switch between first person and third person narrative. So Preston would include all his encounters with any character that had even a little something to do with these virus strains. Therefore, Preston had the ability to make the crisis of these viruses’ epidemics seem like if they were to be happening right now. The novel just seemed so terrifying to the people that it affected, it seemed so real. I don’t want to ruin the affects of the virus on a human but it’s a horrifying scene that Preston tends to constantly repeat. It’s an imagine one can never get out of their head. Even with these images in my head it was a remarkable piece of work.

Now on to the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Preston describes the life of a man he calls Charles Monet. He writes about how Monet lived near Mount Elgon in Kenya. Preston tells a story about how Monet travels to Mount Elgon with one of his women friends and enters into Kitum cave. Doctors have no idea what he touched or what he breathed in. however, when Monet left that cave. He did not come out the same person. At first the Monet begins to get headaches, and then he begins to get headaches all around his head ranging from his eyeballs to his temple. Then backaches, then after a mere couple of days he loses all sight of life, he just sits in bed lifeless. His co-workers troubled about his health they take him to a hospital where they inject him with some antibiotics that have no affect on bettering his health. They send him to Nairobi Hospital, having enough strength to get on a plane he goes off to Nairobi. Imagine, Monet is a ticking time bomb full of a virus that kills 1 in 4 people that are infected and he is going on a pact airplane. While on the plane to Nairobi, Monet begins to get even sicker and begins to go into his final stages of infection. He begins to throw up black blood and his nose begins to bleed and refuses to clot. He soon gets to the hospital where he waits in line to get taken care of in one of those waiting rooms. Where he soon crashes and bleeds out where he is then taken care of by Dr. Musoke. He tried to put him on a gurney but Monet kept throwing up black vomit that got all over Dr Musoke, on his fingers, his mouth, all over him. Monet later died, he died a horrible death that no one in the world should have to go through so much pain, as one would expect, and Dr. Musoke also comes down with this virus, but is treated and to this day is still living.

They soon are able to diagnose the virus as Marburg virus one of the 3 Ebola viruses. People believed yellow fever was deadly that killed 5% of its contaminated. Now Marburg kills 25% of its infected. Imagine compared to 1 in 20 which was yellow fever to now 1 in 4.

They describe a family in the book called the Jaax family. They worked in the military in fort Detrick as pathologist, who worked with viruses. They describe 4 different levels of hot viruses. Marburg would be categorized as level 4 because there is not cure for it and you will die if you come in direct contact with that virus. Preston continues to write about an incident in where while working with Marburg that Nancy Jaax’s spacesuit became contaminated with come blood from a monkey she had to dissect that had “bled out”. Earlier that day she got a huge cut in the same hand that had become contaminated. She runs out to see if it had gone through all the gloves she had on. Luckily the last glove she had one stayed intact and saved her. In the next chapter ‘Ebola River’ we get the first real cases Ebola Zaire that has a death rate of 90% percent. This is a high death rate for a virus. Almost none will survive. The hospital reaches Yambuku Mission hospital where nuns would give injections to clients who come in to try to make them feel better. Soon the whole hospital becomes gravely infected. And Sister M.E. goes to Zaire for treatment where no one can save her and soon she dies. Medical teams and the army go into Yambuku hospital to secure the area and not let anyone in or out. The outbreak soon disappears as soon as it came and samples of Sister M.E.’s blood travels around the world and is identified to be related to Marburg and is named Ebola.

Later the novel changes over to the death of a Dutch boy named Peter Cardinal who died at Nairobi Hospital. Witch similar symptoms to Marburg. It is later found out that he and Monet both had visited Kitum Cave.

A scientist named Johnson travels to Kenya and does experiments on the cave to see if any animals they had live in the cave would come up with signs of Marburg. However in the end, none did. Therefore, Johnson goes back home to USAMRIID, and he ends up keeping his supplies in case they come through some kind of break through.

From there we move to the more important parts of the novel when the virus moves over here to the United States. We come to a monkey lab called Reston in Virginia. The monkeys they get are from Kenya in Africa. These monkeys are extremely violent, and have a leader and this leader will fight to the death if they see a human or another monkey tries to disobey them. Therefore, a lot of monkeys tend to die and bleed all over other monkeys. So one day at the monkey house in Reston monkeys in room F began to die. later in the chapter we find out that all the monkeys in that room die and soon this virus spreads to other rooms which proves its airborne. Dan Dalgard, the doctor for the monkeys thinks it’s a virus that is deadly to monkeys and harmless to humans to he send a spleen sample of a dead monkey to a virologist named Peter Jahrling who though it was SIM (simian hemorrhagic fever).

An intern at USAMRIID named Tom Geisbert goes to check on the test tube with the monkey’s blood and takes a whiff. If a blood sample has bacteria it has an odor and if it doesn’t it’s infected with a virus and apparently it did not have a virus. So they prepare the tubes for later testing and this chapter “exposure” ends with a cliffhanger with the fact that a virus incubates in a human for 3 to 13 days before you begin having headaches. =/.

On thanksgiving, the Jaax family has to drive Nancy’s father to get cancer treatment. And Jerry Jaax is still suffering from depression because his brother was murdered not long ago and he is obsessed over finding the killer.

Now back to the test tube. Tom Geisbert checks the blood under a microscope and his blood skips a beat. He notices the cells have been blown apart. And he remembers that it looks exactly like the blood from the Cardinal case. Terrified hes infected he finishes up the lab. He meets up with the other scientist and they agree to keep it quiet between the others and check their blood continually for viruses so they can avoid getting thrown into a room of quarantine.

Tom Geisbert confirms that the monkeys at Reston have Ebola Zaire, and Jahrling tells Dalgard about how the monkeys are infected with a filovirus but he doesn’t tell him how bad the situation really is. It was Jahrling’s job to find out what kind of virus it was and if it matched another virus under a scope it would glow. And can you imagine that it matched Sister M.E who had Ebola Zaire. Dalgard soon becomes more worries when one of the monkey’s caretakers had died from a heart attack. Therefore, Geisbert lets him have the truth about the virus. The United States ends up finally coming together so deal with this issue and come to a census that while the army handles the outbreak in Reston and the CDS will handle any human outbreaks of Ebola. They all come together at Reston to finally be able to operate on these monkeys and try to find a cure for the virus.

Now more and more people begin to become sick in the USAMRIID. Two people now sick one is sent to a hospital where he should have been sent to quarantine and the news world is there to be infected. Jerry Jaax ends up taking control of the army and takes care of the sick monkeys. He ends up knocking them out and taking blood test before killing them. More and more events happen including a workers suit having a hole in it and her having to be taken away from the building. A scientist named Thomas Ksiazek ends up finding away to find out if someone is contaminated with Ebola and Jahrling continues to be untainted by the virus. Day by day worse things happen in the House and monkey contaminated with Ebola escapes and one monkey attacks the same woman that had trouble with her suit the day before. The monkey that escaped soon enough is put down.

In the end they create experiments with fresh new monkeys with Ebola. This Ebola tends to not kill humans and has more flu like symptoms. They name this type of Ebola, Ebola Reston.

In the end, Preston goes to the monkey house and to Kintum cave and finds potential hosts but never really gets a definite answer on where the virus came from.

Elephant Caves (Hot Zone)

“They had no idea what had killed him. It was an unexplained death…It was as if Monet had become a corpse before his death” (Preston, 21). The powerful language and imagery used in Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone, engages the reader in a true story about an infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest. The Hot Zone is capable of enlightening the common civilian about the Ebola virus.

The book initiates with Charles Monet, a French man, exposing himself to the deadly virus in the jungle of Mount Elgon. Preston’s graphic description of Charles Monet’s death, explains the symptoms of Ebola, red eyes, head and back aches. After taking a small plane to the Nairobi hospital and exposing the virus to the other passengers on the plane, he begins to vomit blood and a black substance. After Monet bleed out in the waiting room, Dr. Musoke was able to assist Monet. The Ebola virus was unknown at that time and without knowing it, Dr. Musoke was exposed to this deadly virus. Because of no knowledge about the existing and deadly virus, Musoke diagnoses himself with malaria and typhoid fever but realizes that nothing seems to cure him. He is later on diagnosed with Marburg. More deaths of the Virus are discussed in the book and more and more people seem to be infected by this virus. It was understood that all the people infected by this unknown virus would die within a week.

The news about this unknown, uncontrollable and unpredictable virus spread worldwide. Nancy Jaax, a veterinarian researcher that works with USAMRIID (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases) went on a search with other scientist. They were later on capable of figuring the birthplace of this virus. Unfortunately the virus was not found in the designated. When some scientist realized that monkeys from the area had broken out with the virus. After observing the monkeys, scientists were able to know that the virus liquefies the internal organs of the monkeys. From blood tests, it was evident that the virus that the monkeys were infected with is not the Marburg virus but a strain of it. The center is then treated as a “hot zone” and has to be decontaminated from the virus. Eventually, many monkeys were killed and the location was decontaminated. This book ends with the author, Richard Preston visiting the cave where the host of the Ebola virus might still be.

This book is relevant to biology because it is a record of an actual virus outburst. It explains the way the not only the Ebola virus spreads through the world but also any air born virus is easily dispersed. When Monet is on the plane, he easily contaminates the air with the virus and endangers the rest of the passengers to the virus.

You are not exempted from having flu, 30 years old men or female!

A recent survey conducted in November 2009 found that only 32 percent of adults had been vaccinated against seasonal influenza. This is a relatively low number. It has taken as a myth that once you are old, you can take care of yourself; meaning that you no longer need vaccine against flu. This is a mistake that many adults carry out throughout their lives. Miller, a football player was knocked out by the flu and could not play for many weeks or do any travel with his colleagues. This means that vaccine is necessary for everyone, regardless of your age. Miller said that sickness for him meant two or three days, no longer than that. But with the flu, he was forced to lay down on his bed for many weeks with practice. The CDC took records of people who took vaccine against the flu and deaths related to flu and these are their results: 60 million Americans had contracted the H1N1 virus, more than 270,000 had been hospitalized and about 12,270 H1N1-related deaths. These numbers leads us to ask whether the myth regarding vaccination and age is true.
This article has to do with science because flu is a disease that is contracted through the environment. Ecology is related to the environment, therefore this article discusses about science.
I am concerned about this issue because my own father did not get a flu vaccine because of the false myth. Also, I will be soon considered as an adult. So, knowing things that I should not be neglecting will help become more responsible.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/02/flu.guide/index.html

Vaccine, Autism? Is there any connection?

Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others according to the Autism Society. One out of 110 U.S born babies has autism. There is a current issue that link vaccination to autism. Posted on Parenting.com, the article questions and asks parents to rethink about vaccinating their children. However, other researches prove that there is no relation between autism and vaccine. It has grown up until it has now become a controversial issue. Should parents vaccine their children and protect them from diseases or they shouldn’t.
This issue has to do with science because autism is a disease that is related to the nervous system; the nervous system is part of the body that is studied by Biology. Therefore this article discusses about science. Further, vaccines are mainly produced in laboratories that involve Biology, chemistry and physics.
The Autism Society estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million, and that the United States is facing almost $90 billion annually in costs for autism. It further supports that there are 1.5 million Americans living under the control of autism. Since many lives are affected by this disease, it is incumbent on me to know about this disease and try to learn about things that lead to autism.

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_home
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/07/p.autism.vaccine.debate/index.html

Why Forget The Little Guy

Our effort to stop global warming is just us trying to save our own butts. When it comes down to it most of us want to “save the Earth” just so that we can continue living but say it wasn’t going to affect us but affect bugs and insects would we put the same effort? According to Jessica Hellman insects play a huge role in our world, more then we would probably expect. In fact our very survival depends on them because insects are the number one pollinators and our crops need to be pollinated to continue growing. If the insects were to some how die then we wouldn’t have much to eat since most of our food comes from crops. If we do not watch how much fuel emission we give of in the atmosphere then we will make every insect’s habitat to hot or too dry which would prove to be a life threatening catastrophe. That is why scientists are mainly focusing on the temperature increase because if it rises to a six degree Celsius increase then we are at the point of no return. Its not just insects we should worry about our live stock will soon go away as well. If the temperature rises then water in ponds would evaporate leaving the fishes either as easy prey or confined to a small area which they are not meant to live in. Also plants would dry to due to lack of water and all our live stock that feeds on grass would quickly die.
Global warming branches of to all the sciences because it is affecting a variety of habitats, animals, atmosphere, etc so it can’t be directly related to biology but have to do with somewhat. The biological part of it is that as temperature rises plants will find that they can not find water so they will wilt and dye. But if plants dye then a long chain of catastrophes will follow.
Global warming is a serious topic that should be solved as quickly as possible because the longer we wait then the more damage will be done. But our first concern showed not be us because plants and animals are not dependent on us but we are dependent on them. So the plans to stop global warming should be to first save all the important wild life that is key to the continuing of the food chain. If we do not take more severe steps to solve global warming then we will find our selves in a world where survival is limited.



Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115118&org=NSF

The Trick Behind Diving

Earth is the home of billions of organisms. Even though the Earth is perfectly designed to sustain life there are some places that certain animals can’t travel to because the environment is so extreme. Jessica Meir goes to these extreme environments and studies how animals have survived in such harsh environmental condition. Jessica mainly looks for animals that are hypoxic; these are animals that can survive with little oxygen sort of like seals. According to Jessica the emperor penguin can go under water for thirty minutes with a single breath, she also discovered that the elephant seal can dive under for two hours with one breath. Jessica is so fascinated in this because she wants to know how such little oxygen can sustain all the function a seal needs for two hours. Jessica also observed that both these mammals can dive more then a thousand meters. What makes these mammals such expert divers? Jessica and her colleagues discovered that they have oxygen-storage capability which comes from a high volume in blood and lots of proteins that carry oxygen to the muscles. Scientists like Jessica have made these discoveries by using a recording machine that tracks any physiological changes while in a dive. The seal’s management of oxygen allows it to make such great dives, when compared to a humans it’s extremely different, the human body uses the oxygen ten times faster.
The study of these aquatic mammals is the direct study of biology. When the scientists look for the reason to their success at diving they look for biological factors of the mammal. They look for protein cells, blood cells, blood volume, etc; these all have to do with the biology of the mammal that is why it is related.
This is a very important topic because not only does it explain why these animals are such expert divers but it can help treat some of our medical conditions like heart attacks and strokes. After a heart attack the heart doest work as well and so it pumps less blood cells that carry oxygen threw the body. By knowing how they distribute there blood we can then use that on humans and control there oxygen consumption possibly saying a victim from paralyzing any organ. It is truly interesting how discovering the secrets to how an animal survives can possibly be a solution to our medical conditions, there like almost two opposites. But knowing how these two opposites can go together can be a revolutionary discovery in the medical science field.




Link:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115268&org=NSF

Why DoThey Bite?

The mosquito is probably one of the most annoying insect there could possibly be. They come out in the dark and they usually start appearing around spring. There bites leave nasty welts that have a severe itchy sensation. But what attracts these six legged demons to us. Walter Leal believes that they are attracted by our order. He proved his own hypothesis right when he found out that humans and birds produce nonanal, a scent, that drives mosquitoes crazy for it. Using a syringe like instrument and tin foil to wrap his arm, Walter casted a experiment to test if he had nonanal and if he did, how much? He found out that not only did he have it but a lot of it as well. Walter recalls a moment when on a certain research day he was out on the Amazon where he sprayed so much mosquito repellent and still found himself the next day with a ton of bites on his foot. He said they went threw his thick sucks just to get at his blood. Walter was the first to discover that Deet, a type of mosquito repellent, had a smell that the mosquitoes hated but even when he thought he sprayed it every where he found a patch of bites in a small area. He said “They will find any spot you didn’t spray” Walter also says that out of all the insects he worked with these are the most annoying. During other experiments on mosquitoes he wanted to find out why you can’t feel their bite all the time. He discovered that when they bite us they release a saliva type mixture that not only draws blood to the wound but also num the pain sort of like a painkiller.
This topic has to do with the chemical biology of humans and mosquitoes. A scientist like Walter knows that sent that comes from humans attracts mosquitoes and he knows that the chemical they put in the wound numbs the pain. These are all based on the chemical biology of both humans and mosquitoes. So because this related to the chemicals that these two species give off this would be a direct topic of biology.
Walters’s discoveries in the field of mosquitoes have proved a great help. By understanding the mosquito we can then produce more effective repellents that can actually do the job of repelling mosquitoes. Not only that, but by knowing what mosquitoes feed off we could possibly stop the spread of the west nile virus which is problem to this day by spreading a chemical in the air that can repel mosquitoes from towns and cities. The possibilities are endless to what can be solved from learning about mosquito habitat.




Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116286&org=NSF

Living at Home

Everybody knows that natural selection explains why their can be so many species of one animal all around the world, it also explains why evolution took place but scientist are having trouble explaining is how this relates to insects? Scientists want to know why in some colonies of insects there are insects that can not reproduce but work just for the colony. Barbara Thorne, a scientist at the University of Maryland, believes that insects like termites stay home because it proves to be a lot safer then to run off and start a colony somewhere else plus they know that their parents will be killed by neighboring termites so it will inherit their living space. If this serves to be true then it goes against the evolution of sterility. Thorne and some of her other colleagues put three different family termites in the same area and like suspected, they fought each other often leading to the deaths of the kings and queens. To take their spots “juniors” fill in. These juniors were once sterile but then turn out to be the leading producers. The explanation to this is that pheromones given off by the king a queen leaves every other termite sterile but when they die that pheromone dies off. Since the colonies tend to be small, the chances of a worker being active are pretty high because termites tend to colonize the same tree. So in turn the workers stay in the colony because they know they will probably have a chance to become queen.
The study of these termites can be directly related to biology because it is dealing with evolution, natural selection, and all related topics to life which is all parts of biology. A background to biology will help any scientist study these termites and how they live. A biologist will know what to look for when you talk about reproduction and pheromones but if not a biologist then you won’t know what you are looking at.
Further studies on these termites would be extremely helpful to biological world. It would help to solve some questions that have no discovered answer. No one knows exactly why these termites stay in their own colony when they have a chance to reproduce on their own somewhere else. Barbara suspects that she knows why they stay but she still has not finalized her work and so she can’t yet confirm that the termites stay because it is more logical for them to stay and wait till their parents die when they can start a colony by themselves. Even if she does solve this problem she has to observe why other insects like ants stay just as workers instead of leaving and colonizing by themselves. Insects are in deed a mysterious bunch as our studies on them continue more and more information is being discovered.


Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116316&org=NSF

The Secret of The Mole Rat

The mole rat is the only mammal to this day that is also cold blooded. They live underground and have two teeth and tend to be in huge colonies. The most unique characteristics of these ugly little things is that can breathe in toxic air, that if present in any other mammal’s environment would quickly die of suffocation. This is not the only thing that makes them unique but also their extremely strange social environment. In the colony of three hundred one is a queen that only mates with three other mole rats were the others just search for food and supplies, much like ants in a way. Thomas Park and his collogues are studying this mammal to see how it adapts to its toxic environment. Over a long serious of experiments they found out that the mole rat has a mind that can still work even with a depilation of oxygen and that the brain doesn’t have a neurotransmitter that can send pain messages, well at least for acidic things like lemon. Park believes this is there evolution to help them survive under their toxic conditions. Park also observed that their whiskers were in a pattern and when ever he touched them it would bring out its teeth which for Park makes plenty of sense because a mammal that lives in a dark narrow tunnel with extreme toxicity levels, a sense of great touch is the only way for it to move around.
The mole rat to Park and his scientist is not only a pet but a real research topic on an animal that no one hasn’t yet really noticed. This topic is a direct study of the living environment and survival techniques that mole rats use and encounter to live in their type of environment. So this is directly related to biology because it is the study of the life of the mole rat.
Important information can be learned from the mole rat; since it is such a strange mammal it has really strange characteristics like for example it is cold blooded. That isn’t what really fascinates scientist but the way they can live in such toxic environments. Evolution really designed them to live on the worse condition possible for a mammal. Scientists try to use their studies on the mole rats to better understand how any creature can live under the earth for such a long time. These mammals can also tell us many things about how underground colonies communicate with one another even though they can be a hundred feet away.



Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116600&org=NSF

A Solution To Global Warming

Global warming is the most widely talked topic because is not watched and solved then there won’t be a planet to live in. Even though we are the cause of global warming we are trying to fix what we have damaged. Amy Rosenzweig's research group is using a bacterium to reduce all the green house gases present in the atmosphere. You might ask how such a small organisms succeed in a global task. It’s kind of simple, this bacteria uses copper to form methanol as food. During this process it also absorbs green house gases which are what our sophisticated machines can’t even do. Scientist want to use these bacteria to filter out the methane in air where others would like to use it to ride places were dense copper is present which will help the people that live around the surrounding area. The only problem is those scientists know that bacteria usually die over time if not sustained in the right environment. To solve this problem scientist have to understand how they transform copper to energy and what environmental conditions are needed for them to survive, whether it be hot, cold, or mild; all of this would make the difference of the success expected to be gained from this project. Amy doesn’t believe this is a huge set back but a minor speed bump to a long journey of accomplishments that are awaited.
To better understand the bacteria and how it turns copper to food, a background on biology is needed because, the only way to discover how this bacteria works, you must first know where to look. That is why this directly related to biology. But it’s not even the bacteria that relates to biology but the topic of global warming is closely related because to apprehend what the damages global warming can do to our eco system you must first know what an eco system is and how it functions which all has to do with biology.
This topic is a very important matter, because it may actually be the one solution to the world wide epidemic of global warming. In fact this could open many other doors where we can use common bacteria to maybe solve or cure some of our other ecological problems. This story has to be published in news paper because people don’t believe that there is a way to stop a certain crash course with global warming. This would bring out hopes to people who are truly concerned of this matter. Global warming like many other modern day ecological problems has a solution even though it might be microscope.



Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116836&org=NSF

Living in The Artic

When you think of Antarctica, the first thing that comes to mind is ice. But is there more to it then we assume. Its harsh temperature and icy environment make it a very difficult place to live in. According to scientists Shawn Doyle and Brent Christner there are microbes in the ice. This of course is extremely hard to believe because if these microbes live in the ice then where would they get there energy? If they can prove that there is life under the glaciers or in them then they can prove that in lakes that are frozen there would be microbes. To go about this the two scientists begin by getting a sample of ice which was most likely the easiest part of the experiment. They then would use these samples by putting them under a heavy duty microscope to see if anything is there. They have not yet found anything because they believe they haven’t looked in the right place yet. The major difficulty with is that the time it is summer there is only daylight which proves for good working conditions but in the winter there is hardly any light and it gets extremely cold along with dangerous environmental conditions make it extremely dangerous to continue in winter. So work gets postponed till the next summer which makes this a hard project. The hugest concern for the scientist is that they don’t know when they will find a microbe because they now its there but don’t know exactly where to find it.
Biology today has progressed greatly, due hundreds of discoveries made by hundreds of smart scientist who gave them selves a task and said they wouldn’t quit till they completed it. Even if Brent and Shawn have not found the microbe they are looking, they still stay determined. Eventually they will find what they are looking for and to our knowledge of biology. That is why this topic is directly related to biology because the discovery of the microbe would contribute to the biological world.
This should be researched some more because a discovery like this can prove the theory that nothing can live in the arctic wrong. This can also prove that under any ice bed there could be possible living organisms that may inhabit it. This story is posted on the internet because it is a key example that science is unpredictable and that you can’t always be too sure of something.



Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117005&org=NSF

Evolution in Plain Sight

Changes in the Earth like rising climate changes are going to lead to disasters in our eco system. Although this is the most widely talked outcome of this change, there is more to it then just bad outcomes; in fact this is a time to witness evolution. As rising temperatures are making the acidity in the ocean greater, there is a huge decline in sea coral. Scientist Mikhail Matz says “Corals have a substantial potential to evolve, and this is the high time for them to do it,” Matz is the leading scientist of a research group that are using modern technology to study changes in the corals RNA. Matz believes that witnessing evolution with their own eyes will not only prove all their theories of evolution but help them understand the cellular side of it. To go about this Matz will use modern day sequencing computers that can interpret the change in the genome. He will look for changes in the genome that would lead to the coral evolving. Matz is the first to use this method and hopes that by studying this he can better explain what evolution is. If things go as he plans then he will have a strong evidence of evolution that will for the firs time be in plain site.
Evolution is a theory that has brought a lot of confusion in our present day world. People still believe that god created all living beings but the theory of evolution contradicts all of the information we read from the bible. The theory of evolution is in fact true but why haven’t people learned to accept it? Is because we are afraid to admit that for the past thousands of years we based our lively hood and morals on a thousand page book. This topic is extremely important to research and publish because and probably answer the most contradicting question, does a god exist? Even though this may be not the reason why Matz is doing this, it will still leave most religious believers at a stand still. Religion is not the only reason why this should be studied; there are more important things to discover from it.
This is a direct topic of biology because it deals with the study of life and evolution. It deals with the genome, RNA, and genes which are all topics of biology. If Matz truly expects to see the coral evolve then this will be a huge topic that will most likely be awarded with the peace price. For this to be studied a scientist must know biology because this evolution happens at a cellular level and if you don’t know what your looking for then you will not be able to understand what happens to the genome, for example, during evolution



Link:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117130&org=NSF

Bacterian Language

They are microscopic and are every where around and in your body. The Bacteria is a single celled organism that, depending on the specie, needs a host to survive. They are on your skin and in your mouth waiting to go to your stomach, these small organism make up for there size with number. At times you may have a trillion cells where as they would have ten trillion. Although some are not always out to harm, they pose a serious threat. Using communication they can organize attacks on human cells. That’s right they do communicate, maybe not with words but by releasing small molecules that are detected by the receptors on bacteria and when these messages reach a certain level the bacteria knows that its friends are ready for an attack. This communication was discovered by scientist Bonnie Bassler while she was trying to discover how our own cells communicate. Bonnie gives this type of communication the name “Quorum sensing”. She uses this to develop antibiotics for virulent cells like Vibrio Cholereae Bacterium. She hopes that she can find a way to block these communications so that there wouldn’t be any organized attacks on the human body. She also hopes to use this communication to help bacteria cells that help us. Although it is work in progress this can be a cure to sicknesses we once thought were incurable.
To better understand how these bacteria communicate between each other, a scientist must have knowledge of biology because to understand what bacteria do, you must know how it functions and why it does certain actions. For example you must know that bacteria is a prokaryote and does not function completely the same as a eukaryotic cell. This relates directly with biology because it has to do with the study of live in particular, the study of bacteria. Also a background in biology can help scientists understand the reason why communication between bacteria can be extremely vital to there survival.
If Bassler finds a way to disrupt the communication between harmful bacteria then the millions suffering from the sickness can have somewhere to turn. This can maybe lead to other finds that can better keep us healthy. For example if there is a way to block the communication, then there should be a way to use there communication to attack one another or other harmful bacteria. The discoveries of how to prevent there communication can lead to many other important finds. The reason why this showed be published is because everybody should have a basic knowledge of what scientist are doing to extend our potential to live, and what to expect in the future.



Link:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117183&org=NSF

The Fear of Trauma

When an individual suffers from trauma, the symptoms tend to be anxiety, flashbacks of bad events or in other words fear. Fear is the hardest symptom that any trauma patient can try to surpass. It leaves the human mind in a distress call that can lead to other mental issues. Kerry Ressler, an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is trying to study what trauma sufferers go threw mentally, and if there is cure to ease the distress. Kessler believes that a Brain Derived Neurological Factor (BDNF) causes trauma victims to keep on recalling the event that shocked them. On one of his experiments Ressler had two rats that did not have this factor and he discovered that they could not remember to fear the trauma inflicted on them, which in there experiment was minor foot shocks. Ressler believes that if there is someway to remove this factor from the human mind then recovering from traumatic event would be a lot simpler. Ressler also knows that the cause of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) comes from the BDNF which is a chemical from the prefrontal cortex that is secreted on the part of the mind that recalls the memory it solidifies not allowing it to be forgotten. Ressler hopes that a drug will prevent the chemical from secreting or will remove it from the spot it rests on.

This directly relates to biology because to better understand what causes PTSD a scientist must have a strong background to the biology of the mind. A scientist must know the biology of the mind to comprehend the problem with trauma and why it is so difficult to cure. A scientist must know why the brain sends out chemicals, how to stop it from secreting these chemicals, and how to prevent the victim from future PTSD. These are all information gained from a background about biology and without knowledge of the biological functions of the mind a scientist could not understand why this happens and a cure to the problem.

This problem showed be addressed and solved as quickly as possible because over five million victims suffer from this distress and rends them helpless and afraid to do many things that are key to surviving in this world. Scientist like Kessler and his colleagues are taking a huge task to solving it because this problem is very complex since it has to do with the mind which is the most difficult thing to apprehend. Trauma victims know what fear can do to the mind because they live with it on a daily basis and with so many in America a cure to this will be just as helpful as a cure for cancer.

Link:

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117428&org=NSF

Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever by Hall Hellman

In Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever, Hall Hellman tells the stories of ten of the most interesting disputes from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. As the book goes on he reveals that these arguments are not only fueled by intellectual opinions, but also by ambition, jealousy, politics, and faith. The first story explores why Galileo was forced to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun instead of vice versa. The book shifts focus several times from the age of the Earth, to Geometry, to Pangaea, to species evolution, to Physics etc. Each of which are all significant and have shaped the modern world.
Many of these disputes relate to science concepts. The chapter titled Pope Urban VIII versus Galileo has to do with the order of the Universe. It was common belief during that time, the 17th century, that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Through constant observation, Galileo discovered that this was not true. Not only did he realize that the Earth revolves around the sun, but also that the Earth spins on its own axis. The book also goes on to talk about a controversial, yet widely accepted topic, evolution (natural selection), “Let it also be borne in mind how infinitely complex and closefitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life; and consequently what infinitely varied diversities of structure might be of use to each being under changing conditions of life…this preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called natural selection…” (pg. 83).
This book doesn’t really do much to change science or society. It was written to inform people about the disagreements surrounding the greatest scientific discoveries.

How does Mosquitoes extinction affect the birds, the natural airplane?

Bye to DDT. But yet, there is a new microbicide known as Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) that is used to exterminate mosquitoes. Previous researches have shown that this product was harmless to the vertebrae. Thanks to a French team that instigated on this case and found out that exterminating mosquito with this production affect the food chain. Certain types of birds get energy from these sweet mosquitoes. The French team led by Brigitte Poulin, a bird ecologist at the Tour du Valat research concluded that “the overall breeding success of birds at sites sprayed with Bti was lower than those at untreated sites.” The team concluded that this product, despite the fact that it does diminish the bird population is far safer than chemical products that were previously used in many countries.
This article has to do with science because it involves biological species, mosquitoes and birds. It further discusses about the digestive system. Therefore, this article is related to science.
I am concerned because birds are part of the food web. So, one species of the food web extinguishes, it will somehow affect us, as human being. It is in our own interest to safeguard the bird population.
http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=6445

The Monk in the lost Garden the Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the father of Genetics by Robin Marantz Henig

Written by Robin Marantz Henig, “The Monk in the lost Garden the Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the father of Genetics” is about the work of the renowned work of Mendel; a scientist who had changed the face of science. Born into the deep Austrian Empire, Mendel came from a modest family of Anton and Rosine Mendel. During his early age, Mendel worked in a farm and was devoted into studies. After the age of maturity, Mendel attended The Philosophical Institute of Olomouc where he met one of his greatest teachers who helped him throughout his entire journey of seeking knowledge. One of his eminent teachers, Friedrich Franz, recommended him to the Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno in 1843. This monastery will change his entire life because it is here where he will revolutionize the scientific field. Mendel underwent many changes. One of these changes was to baptize his name; Johann became Gregor. He was then sent to the University of Vienna where his physics teacher was Doppler. He then returned to the monastery as a school teacher. From early age, Mendel was not suited for priest work. He was once asked to do the priest work; he could not do it. It was funny that Mendel, the father of Genetics failed twice his oral exam and had a mediocre grade. Further, Mendel’s work was not widespread during his century. This is why little is known about his bibliography. Nevertheless, Mendel had known many failures. He was once asked in a test to classify the mammals. Here was what he said:
Regarding hoofed ungulates,
The horse
The ass
The ox
The sheep
The goat
The chamois, the deer, and the stag;
What’s a genius who could not even refer to the species by their nomenclature name (Latin?) From the early ages, Mendel did not have any success. Mendel had great reverence for Galileo, Darwin, and Linnaeus. Linnaeus classified all species with their Latin names. Mendel was facing both financial and mental crisis. His parents were poor and therefore could not bear him adventuring into long years of studies. He was helped by his sister who gave him money in order to survive once at the university. Most of his family members wanted him to do farm work. He was mentally in crisis because he could barely pass his exams. So, the reader learn Mendel story that a scientist does not have to be a perfect person. All that Mendel had as a resource was determination.
From the beginning of the book to the last word of his book, Robin Marantz Henig discusses the scientific side of Mendel’s discovery as well as discoveries done by other naturalists. The Author mentioned Copernicus and Galileo who had different faiths for their “new” ideas about the universe. These two early naturalists made great progress regarding physics. Perhaps of the greatest person mentioned in this book is Carolus Linnaeus. Linnanaeus is the one that made it easier for Mendel to make his discovery. The Earlier classified all species into kingdoms, classes, orders and so on. He further established a system later known as the Linnaean system when referring to a scientific name of a species. Like Linnaeus, Mendel had known success. But prior to their successes they have both known failure. So, this teaches the reader that research is about eliminating the unlikely possibilities. Mendel discovered heredity laws and therefore became the father of genetics. Mendel cultivated and tested some 29,000 pea plants (i.e., Pisum sativum). He therefore developed Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment. To summarize his work here is what Mendel discovered:
(Please go this website for the picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mendelian_inheritance.svg)




In this picture the red is the dominant trait and the white is the recessive trait. So, according to Mendel, the likelihood of parents to have offsprings of dominant traits is greater than the one with recessive traits.
Mendel’s work allowed scientist to breed different species and segregate some traits. So, if a person wants to have offspring particular traits, the person can succeed due to Mendel’s work. Also, this is the basic fundamental of modern science.

How Does Salmonella Get Into Eggs?

On Friday the Food and Drug Administration announced they found salmonella in chicken feed that was used at two Iowa farms where tainted eggs have been traced. An estimated 2,400 people have been sickened from the eggs and more than 550 million eggs have been recalled since early August. Even if investigators have indeed found the salmonella source, you may wonder, how can the bacteria get inside the hard shell of an egg? Chickens get doses of salmonella bacteria (of which there are 2,300 kinds) from their environment, which is easily contaminated by rodents, birds and flies. These carriers deliver the bacteria to all types of farms -- regardless of whether they're conventional, organic or free-range.
This article related to Biology because it has to do with the salmonella baceria infecting chicken eggs.
It is important to us because it informs us that this bacteria is found in eggs also, which is a common food eaten by many people. By letting us know what could potentially be in our food, we could take protective measures to ensure our health.

Brain Exercises Can Accelerate Mental Decline

Exercising your brain can keep you sharp longer into old age, confirmed a new study. But here's the twist: When symptoms of dementia finally settle in, the decline happens faster in those whose brains have been busiest. The research suggests that mind-challenging activities don't actually ward off dementia-inducing diseases. Instead, these exercises prolong the brain's ability to function well despite the degeneration happening within. When symptoms finally do show up, the disease has already progressed to the point of no return. From there, the downhill slide happens fast. Still, the findings emphasize the importance of using your brain as you age. Putting off the clinical onset of Alzheimer's by five years, he said, would halve the number of people who have the disease, though there are still no guidelines about which types of activities are best and how much thinking is enough.
This article is related to Biology because it has to do with how brain exercises speed up the deteriation once it's onset has alreasy begun.
Knowing this is important because it informs people who already perform these excercises that although they delay dementia, they speed up the process.