BOW Genome: Conflict

The body is viewed as a servant to genes acting as a victim, plaything, battleground and vehicle. If an X chromosome is inherited from the father, the child would be a girl and if a Y chromosome is inherited from the father, the child would be a boy. A gene called DAX is on the X chormosome and the gene SRY is found on the Y chormosome which is responsible for masculine traits. One SRY defeats one DAX, but two DAXes defeat one SRY. Since females are XX and males are XY, three-quarters of all sex chromosomes are X's and one quarter Y's. Therefore, Y is vulnerable to attack by a newly evolved X gene. SRY is one of the fastest evolving genes which restores balance  to the X chromosome.   A test was done on fruit flies to increase the strength of male semen. It became so strong that the female fly died because the semen became too toxic. The placenta is seen as a parasitic takeover of the mother's body by paternal genes in the fetus. Holland beleieved that peacocks eveolved long tials to seduce females since females became more resistant to being seduced. Sexual selection is due to resistance to genes.

BOW Genome: Intelligence

Genes are not there to cause diseases. Most genes are repeated, however, the number of time of repetitions affects how we will become either we have the disease or not. For some it is the presence of the gene too many times and for others, it is the lack there of. Plomin was curious whether there was a gene for intelligence and gathered DNA samples from children with an IQ approximately 160. He found that there was a gene can IGF2R which lies in the middle of the gene. At a later time, it was recognized that there were many different kinds of intelligence such as musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, kinesthetic, etc. In a test with twins, it was shown that there is a correlation of IQ regardless of being reared together or apart. Two vital thigns that are proved in this chapter is that genetic influences are not frozen when you are born and environmental influences does affect our intelligence. 

BOW Genome: Introduction

The human genome comprises of twenty three pairs of chromosomes all of which are arranged from largest to smallest with the exception of chromosome pair number twenty three. Haig believed that each chromosome plays a different or specific role in determining who we are. Each set of chromosome, one from the mother and one from the father, has approximately thirty thousand to eighty thousand genes. the organization of chromosomes are broken into genes which are then broken into exons, then introns, codons, and finally bases. The DNA would go through replication, and translation to end up with a double helix. It woudl also be transcribed by RNA to create proteins. Many mutations are neither harmful nor beneficial.

Extra Credit Blog

In your blog please give me some feedback on last semester

What topics really confused you?


The topics that really confuse me are plants. I believe this is due to lack of background information from when I was a freshman in biology.
What topics do you feel very clear on?
Topics such as ecology and cells are easier for me since I had a foundation on which I can draw some information from, or what you would call a coat hanger.
What lab/ activity was your favorite? Why?
My favorite lab would be the osmosis and diffusion labs because my group was in charge of it. Although we did not execute the lab as well as I had hoped, I grasped the concept of water potential because of this lab. Being in charge of this lab could have been why I learned the concept better.
What lab/activity was your least favorite? Why?
My least favorite lab was the lab we did on bacteria lab because there were no gloves and we were handling bacteria.
If you could change something about the class to make it better, for instance the type of homework (not the amount) what would it be and why?
I actually don't think we need a change for the type of homework. I believe the class was stressing out because they were just transitioning into your class because in all my experiences with teachers, I never had to do online work. I understand that the concept sheet, adult signature, and blogs cover the same topic for us to have another review so we will understand the concept better. With now a semester under our belts, I believe the class will be fine and keep up with the work.

Thoughts for a Countdown

In the article " Thoughts for a Countdown", it mentions how if something is foreign, we will protect ourselves against it, eventually killing whatever that is foreign. i do believe this is true because we are so scared of what is out there after discovering practically the gist of what earth has to offer. It has become "attitude toward life, our obsession wiht disease and death, our human chauvinism" (7). It has become so built in that we will destroy most things. We always take thing to another level no matter if its good or bad. We may be too extreme. Even though with all the knowledge we have ," it has been estimated that we probably have real knowledge of only a small proportion of the microbes on earth, because most of them cannot be cultivated alone. This shows how little we assume we know and how much is out there. It does keep us on our toes as we learn new things and discover our world. 

On Societies as Organisms

In the article "On Societies as Organisms", it mentionshow other organisms, when they join together they are able to create and communicate in a way that they have one mind. It doesn't surprise me because I have see a row of ants before and a beehive. I do agree that even though we are the most social of social animals, we still fail to collaborate as a team, to work as one, to accomplish a goal. Although there are many who participate it is never a goal everyone is part of. It saddens me to think that humans, with our capabilities, cannot perform as efficiently as organisms who are much smaller than us and not as bright. It is mentioned " perhaps, however, we are linked in circuits for the storage, processing, and retrievel of information, since this appears to be the most basic universal of all human enterprises. Which is somethign I also agree with, but it would be more reassuring that one day we would be able to collaborate as one

Cell Poem

Cell, Cell, Cell, Cell, Cell

You can't seem to ring a bell

I guess it's fine. Oh well.

What is inside a cell?

I'm filled with DNA

And I'm the brain of the cell

I send out commands

to the other organelles

Don't call me fat

It's just what I do

I keep all the energy stored

and give it back to you

I break down large food

even when I am not in the mood

I digest old cells

Does that ring a bell

I'm a real powerhouse

that's real plain to see

I break down food

to release energy

I'm full of holes.

flexible and thin

i control what gets out

as well as what comes in.

nucleus; vacuole; lysosome; mitrochondria; cell membrane