HECK YEAH SURVIVAL PGLO

Today, we had a lecture from Mr. Quick on Retroviruses and how they implant their own RNA within our cells, causing it to mutate. Then we began to start on our PGLO labs. So in this lab, we are trying to make BACTERIA GLOW HOLY CRAP WTFBBQ. The way this works is we inject a PGLO viruses within a colony of E. Coli bacteria. there are four different types. One type has PGLO and an antibiotic within it, one does not have PGLO and has an antibiotic within it, one has PGLO without an antibiotic, and one does not have PGLO but also does not have an antibiotic. RESULTS TO BE ANNOUNCED

Summary of Chp. 6

Survival of the Sickest summary

Chp.6

There are these genes called jumping genes that cut and paste genetic code into lines of code in DNA. They can also copy and paste the genetic code. These genes are very closely related to retroviruses that use RNA to get to the DNA to infect DNA. Also, on DNA, a very small percentage of the actual DNA strand is useful code, the other 90 percent of the DNA strand is noncoding strands of DNA. This is probably because some retroviruses with symbiotic effects have implanted themselves in our own DNA and help send some lines of code to help us survive and thus helping them survive inside us. It's a very intricate process and is super awesome. There is also a large section on disputes about the theory of evolution and the like. Many people think that  Jean Baptiste Lamarck, a big advocate of the acquired traits evolution theory in which mutations during life are passed on to offspring that change and further evolve the species. This theory is perhaps correct in a sense because jumping genes are able to break a barrier between germ and somatic genes and is able to transfer somatic traits such as lung problems from smoking, onto offspring. COOLSTUFFHAPPYFUNTIMEBIO

FROM ATOMSTOTRAITS

The importance of Mendel-
Mendel was extremely important in the process of determining how genes are passed on through generations. There was much controversy over this, some beliefs being that genes are mixed from both parents and some that genes only come from one parent. Mendel confirmed the latter except with a twist. The genes are passed on from one parent but the genes from the other parent often appear in a much more subdued form.

Who Discovered the DNA???
James D.Watson and Francis Crick

 -DNA :D

Five examples of Variatiions that Occur in DNA-
1. Physical Damage to the DNA could cause variation
2. Changes in chemicals A,C,G,T replacing each other in different areas
3. Duplication of letters or Deletion of blocks of letters
4. Insertion of new letters in areas
5. Changes in pattern of the different letters

Evo-Devo? What is it?
A subsection within biology that focuses on studying the effects of changes in development of species and how it functions in evolution

WHY LACTOSE INTOLERANCE?
Perhaps many people have lactose intolerance is because their ancestors, as they were migrating, found no need to have the enzyme Lactase to help digest milk anymore. Aside from needing lactase as a child to digest mother's milk, as people grew older, they became lactose intolerant. However, many societies that focused on cow herding retained their Lactase enzyme as they grew older because their food supply came from such products that contained Lactase.

DAY SOMETHING OF SOMETHING MOVIE TIME

WE FINISHED THE VIDEO. VERY INTERESTING YADADADADA. GONNA HAVE A QUIZ ON IT THE NEXT CLASS. TALKED ABOUT THE TRAVELING OF ANCESTORS ACROSS THE BERING STRAIT THAT REVEALED A LAND BRIDGE DURING THE ICE AGE. THIS IS WHY NATIVE AMERICANS ARE VERY CLOSELY RELATED TO CENTRAL ASIANS AND RUSSIANS. YUP.

What does race have to do with this?

In summary of this article I just read, there is an idea of how we should be grouping people. Is it okay to group people by skin color? Are people of the same skin color actually similar or should they be grouped up with different people? Well, this is a really controversial statement. A way to test how similar people of the same skin color really are is through an experiment. In this experiment, 565 people were used and tested for Alus, pieces of DNA that seem to have no apparent use by are copied over into offspring's DNA. By finding out the how many similarities of Alus people have between them, we are able to figure out exactly how related they are. The results were striking. Typically, the groups were separated into people who's ancestors were isolated from other groups through natural barriers and such. That makes sense though because when people are separated by geological barriers, people tend to change separately resulting in very few similarities in Alus. It's amazing how Africans and Aborigines may have the same skin color, but genetically, are completely different. It's really hard to tell group people into these skin color races because both these cultures developed dark skin in order to adapt from the extreme sun in both Africa and Australia. When attempting to group Indians into their own separate group, scientists found that it was a lot easier grouping Indians with either Europeans or Asians showing that there was a huge European and Asian impact on the country. It's still a very controversial subject about whether we should just group people together by races or not. Some people say that genetic differences are so similar that it is okay to group people into the same race by skin color that it is acceptable to do this. We need to have a clear defined way of grouping people because different groups of people have different reactions to different medicines and diseases and medical companies need to figure out a way to adapt medicine with different people. Good stuff.

READING ABOUT AFRICA

Today we went over our reading about how people originated from Africa and the proof we have that people DID originate from Africa. Essentially, Africans are much more genetically diverse than other races of people because all genes originated from Africans but soon branched out as people began to settle in different places. We saw a movie based on this idea and it showed us this African tribe that was thought to have been the origin of the HUMAN RACE. IT WAS REALLY COOL. THEY ALL HAD SIMILAR FEATURES IN CAUCASIANS, ASIANS, AND AFRICANS. Lots of proof about this idea. Also, there were many scenes of the main character trying to be cool. It was a funny video. NUFF SAID

TEST DAY

WE HAD A TEST IT WAS FUN. Mr. Quick sat there staring into space. I wonder how it's like having to sit through a room of silence being bored and all while your students take tests. Must kinda suck =/

SURVIVAL OF THE PEOPLE WITH THE HIGHEST GRADES(KIND OF NOT REALLY)

Today we reviewed our homework's reading on why everyone has to die and human aging. It talks about how aging was programmed into us and how we are all destined to die. Pretty much what happens is that everytime a cell reproduces, it loses a bit of DNA, however, in order from preventing the reproduction from doing damage to your body, your DNA have telomers which is pretty much blank data that is used up during reproduction and once the telomers on DNA run out, your body starts getting damaged. The reason why we have this process is an attempt to get fight back against cancer. When a cell becomes cancerous, there is a limit to its ability to reproduce which prevents the cell from growing outrageously. In this way, cancer cells will die out after the telomers are used up. However, cancer cells have a way around that but essentially, this process is a way to prevent cells from easily taking over and reproducing in your body. Also, another reason why we have aging is because dying at an old age does not prevent us from reproducing and thus keeps our species surviving. As long as we reproduce, our bodies don't care what happens to us after we reproduce.

THANK YOU SO MUCH BODY.

Masculinity and how sexy it truly is

Today, during parents day, we had to rate the attractiveness of a number of guys and girls with slightly changed features. Each guy face and girl face was slightly more masculine or feminine than the other and we figured out who thought which face was more attractive to them, masculine or feminine? Although many faces, to me, looked like the same (some were the same because there needed to be a control in the experiment), I figured out that I liked more feminine faces compared to masculine in both guys and girls just like almost all of my classmates. We conjectured, MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE FEMININE FACES ARE MORE ASSURING AND "SAFER". SOFTER FEATURES SHOWS A MOTHERLY PERSPECTIVE AND A MORE TRUSTWORTHY PERSON THAN A MASCULINE PERSON. So apparently, I like more trustworthy looking people rather more masculine looking people who seem less trustworthy. Mmhmm. Good stuff Mr. Quick