Thursday, March 8, 2012

Comparing 3 Invertebrates

Leeches

Many leeches found in lakes are parasites, feeding on the body fluids of fish and other creatures. Leeches can swim by undulating their body. However, mostly, they move by using the suckers at either end of their body to loop across the surface of objects. They eat the body fluids of of fish, frogs, water snails and insect larvae. They feed by attaching themselves to their prey and use either jaws or a proboscis to feed on blood. Fish wait for their victims by waiting outstretched. They are very difficult to see because they look just like plant stems. Leeches often consume more than their own body weight in a single meal and often rest, between meals, for up to a month.


Flatworms

Flatworms are unsegmented worms with flattened bodies. Their flatness allows them to shelter beneath stones. The surface of their bodies are covered with cilia which are kept in constant motion, allowing them to glide over plants and stones. They secrete slime which acts as a lubricant. They eat small animals including crustaceans, and insects, alive/dead. Their mouth is a small hole found halfway down the underside of their body. They can sense when food is around, because of sensory cells on their head. They extend a muscular tube out of their mouth, and suck up food. This tube is known as a pharynx. They are eaten by leeches and great diving beetles.


Earthworms

Earthworm bodies are divided into lots of different segments. Earthworms play an important role in helping to keep soil in good condition. They help to recycle plant material, and also mix oxygen into the soil as they tunnel. There are about 13 different types of earthworm in Britain.Earthworms move by contracting the circular muscles around their bodies, then the long muscles which run down their bodies. They eat mainly dead plant material. Earthworms sometimes drag leaves into their burrows and they eat the soil and use the dead plant material from it as food.

http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/biodiversity/invert_english.html
Images from Google

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Why is it important to define and debate our understanding of intelligence and its origins? How does this relate to you?

The seminar circle that we did on Wednesday is a helpful way to help us determine our way of learning. Everyone's learning style is different and its really important to determine what our learning style is so we can use it to help our self learn faster and better instead of using the wrong way where we can't learn anything even if we tried. What determines our learning style is our intelligence. There are different kinds of intelligence that each person has and the type of intelligence you have determines what method you prefer to use when learning. From the seminar/debate, I learned that there are visual intelligent, natural intelligent, scientific intelligent, musical intelligent, athletic intelligent, audio intelligent, interpersonal intelligent, mathematical intelligent, etc. For example if you are a visual intelligent person, then it'll be best if you learn by looking and paying attention to people, in another word, visual. I consider myself as a mathematical learner, when you learn by following directions step by step and thoroughly. I am also a hands-on learner because i can't learn by just looking at what people are doing, i have to actually do it myself in order to understand the process and what is being taught.

Genome Entries 5

Chapter 10: Stress

A gene on Chromosome 10, CYP17, is responsible for the synthesis of an enzyme that enables the body to convert cholesterol into cortisol, testosterone and oestradiol. The first of these steroids, cortisol, is released when the brain signals stress and sets off a long chain of genetic triggers, switching genes on and off and thereby causing other genes to be switched on or off, including suppressing the immune system. Ridley also asserts that the world, not just the human body, is full of intricate interconnected systems with no control center, like the economy. Heart disease has shown to be linked very highly to the amount of daily cortisol in the bloodstream, which correlates to daily stress level and a feeling of control.

Citation:
Ridley, Matt. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.

Genome Entries 4

Chromosome 8: Self-Interest

Ridley begins by introducing the concept that genes are much more complicated than they need to be, with genetic information in sections called exons with intermittent random sections called introns. Reverse transcriptase is one that is not helpful at all to the human body, and aside from being the fuel for the AIDS virus, the gene exists because several genes use it to replicate themselves. Fortunately, humans possess a capacity to suppress and freeze these junk genes by a process called methylation. The reverse of this process is the first step in the development of cancer. Forensic scientists have found and proliferated a practical use for these junk genes called minisatellites, however, in genetic fingerprinting.

Citation:
Ridley, Matt. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.