2nd Genome Entry

Chromosome 1 LIFE
The intro of Chromosome 1 talks about the fascination of the word LIFE and it's meaning."Life is a slippery thing to define, but it consists of two very different skills: the ability to replicate, and the ability to create order"(12). It introduces the idea of reproducing and the ability of a rabbit making a rabbit a dandelion making a dandelion. Many scientists attempted to find the origin of life but many based their ideals off of irrelevant theories and/or ideas. Life follows the idea of replication and instruction for an order. This oart of the book gives many names of scientist but Alan Turing seems to be the closest to the mystery of life. He stated that "heredity is a modifiable stored program; metabolism is universal machine"(15). He included a recipe or code is their abstract message for an immaterial form.

Blog One: Summary Introduction Genome

In the introduction of Genome you are introduced do the variety of chromosomes the amount which is reduced to two pairs of 23 chromosomes each. The book reveals there are about 30,000-80,000 genes in the human genome. The true of this book though is not to speak of a project but it is "... a book about what the project has found"(6). That is the Human Genome Project. It narrows the basic idea of the book by comparing the ideas to a book. Example:
"There are twenty-three chapters, called CHROMOSOMES.
Each chapter contains several thousand stories, called GENES.
Each story is made up if paragraphs, called EXONS, which are interrupted by advertisements called INTRONS.
Each paragraph is made up of words, called CODONS.
Each word is written in letters called BASES."(7)
That is it thats the break down of the genome book. It also gives the break down of DNA and RNA and patterns in which they use ACGT which becomes TGCA which is the same thing written backwards. Then it talks about the purpose of enzymes and the proteins. Lastly it informs us that all rules have exceptions and we must keep it in mind when reading this book.

BOW Nephron

BOW Describe how a nephron works. How is this similar to counter currents or hydrostatic skeletons?


The nephron is the basic unit of the kidney. The nephron is a long and thin tube which is closed at one end. It has two twisted regions interspaced with a long hairpin loop and ends in a long straight portion. The nephron is surrounded by capillaries. The nephron has a variety of cells that are important to the understandings of how the kidney is able to regulate the composition of blood. The nephron is responsible of filtering about 20% of the blood. The nephron filters and removes excess water, wastes, and other substances from your blood. The counter current in the kidney takes place in the loop of nele. Hydrostatic skeleton is a skeleton made up of fluids under pressure in closed compartments. The counter current helps reabsorb water lost.

Blog 3 Starfish

In terms of symmetry a starfish's symmetry is usually bilateral resulting in 5 arms which creates it's unique shape. Followed by it's symmetrical shape, a starfish has two cell layers which makes a starfish diploblastic. The coelem body is the full cavity body of a starfish. The coelem develops during the last stage of a starfish's development.
Circulatory System
-Hemal system
- Circulation occurs in 3 places: perivisceral coelem. water vascular system, and the hemal system.
-All are connected by the axial sinus.
-Axial sinus is attached to a dorsal sac.
Reproduction
-Sexual and Asexual
-dioecious
-Each arm has gonads which help release gametes.
-Fertilization is usually external
-Eggs are released into water or stuck on rocks.
-asexual/fragmentation
-part of body detaches and develops into another individual starfish.
Feeding
-feed on mussles.
Excretion
-waste exits through anus or mouth
Nervous System
-No brain
-Have a network of nerves called nerve plexus
-Ring and radial nerves coordinate movement and direction

Describe double fertilization

It takes place between sperm cells in male parts(anther) and 2 cells in the female parts(ovule). Ovule contains the megasporocyte(mother cell) which is diploid and undergoes meiosis to produce 4 haploid megaspores. In some cases 3 degenerate and 1 survive undergoes 3 rounds of mitosis to produce 8 haploid nuclei(share same cytoplasm) called embryo sac. Cell walls form 3 cells then form the microphyle opening of ovule. Three other cells form called antipodal cells 2 synergids and 1 egg. Two nuclei remain together in one large cell. Before egg cell and the single cell with 2 polar nuclei can take part in double fertilization the male gametes(sperm) must move through these cells in the female reproductive sites. To reach the embryo sac a pollen grain lands on the stigma germinates then sends a long pollen tube through the style and ovary. A generative cell travels down the pollen tube behind the tube nucleus. The generative cell goes through mitosis and produces 2 haploid sperm cells. The pollen tube reaches the micropyle of the ovule and makes its way into one of the synergids releasing the sperm cells. The synergid degenerates and one sperm cell fertilizes the egg cell producing a diploid zygote. The other sperm cell fuses with the polar nuclei. This fertilizes them and produces a triploid cell. The zygote develops into an embryo and it's food supply is the triploid cell which develops into the endosperm.

Extra Credit Blog

In your blog please give me some feedback on last semester

What topics really confused you?
The topics that really confused me would probably be the topics we went over in the beginning of the year(ecology). I guess I was rushed into the topic even though I had gone over it during the summer I was still really cofused. A couple of other topics were confusing to me too like the biochemistry. To begin with I had a horrible experience with chemistry last year and so I was just thrown overboard with biochem. I felt we were all over the place. At one point I had no clue what we were doing.

What topics do you feel very clear on?
Compared to other chapters plants have proven to be a lot easier i guess because we have gone over it thoroughly from first to second semester. Also bacteria I'm alright. Cells i'm okay.

What lab/ activity was your favorite? Why?
Favorite activity was the review game. We all worked as a team and it helpfu; and fun. Favorite lab would have been the lab my group did because I actually unserstood it and we finished it completely.

What lab/activity was your least favorite? Why?
The bacteria lab because instructions weren't so clear. Actually there were many labs that instructions were not clear at all.

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 would say it would be the computer work. Most of the time instead of spending time doing the actual work on the computer we're spending time figuring out how to do it. The computer is also a great way to slack off on a lot of work. (i.e simulations) Also the most important is the notebook. There have been many times where the majority of the class has no idea what has to be in it. It'd be helpful if the homework and classwork was clearer.