by Miss Baker
I hope everyone has had a fantastic summer! The blog’s home base has moved from the southeast to the northeast and because school starts later in the north the blog will not repopen until September 15th. I look forward to all the fantastic posts this year’s biology students will create and hope that previous students and visitors also submit posts/comments.
Most of all, I hope everyone has an incredible year!
by Miss Baker
I’ve been hearing a lot about Spore, a new game invented by the SIMS creators. The game involves a unicellular organism that the player will control as it evolves into a more complex organism. There’s a lot of buzz about it in the science world, although many scientists don’t like it.
As with any popular take on a scientific concept, there’s bound to be some good science coupled with bad science in the game. From what I saw in the video sample, the player controls the evolution of physical appearance, mating behaviors, inter- and intraspecific competition, and more complex social behaviors. Whether or not the science behind it is any good, it does look like fun.
You can already download a trial of the Creature Creator. The competition on youtube sounds pretty fun, too. The game will be released September 7, 2008.
Take a bow. Everyone thinks you’re a Rock Star, photo source
by Miss Baker
Congratulations to the winners and to all who were nominated! Winners may write an acceptance speech in a comment to this post.
Best Medical Post
WINNER: Why are Babies Born With Blue Eyes by Kelsey
Shorter Height = Longer Life by Matt
Singing the Blues, Feeling Blue, But Turning Blue? by Caroline
Genetic Disease With a Cure by Emily R.
P is for Pain by Anna
Best Classroom Connection Post
WINNER: The Motivational Donut by Peter
Shark Attacks by Alex
Octopus vs. Shark by Connor
Can Pollutants Change a Bird’s Song by Michael
I Once Was Blind But Now I See by Jacob
Best Positive Post
WINNER: Rubber Sidewalks = More Trees to Save Our Earth by Sarah
Nocturnal Beauties by Codie
There is Still Plenty to Save by Danielle
Hot Stuff by Michael
Recreating Coral Reefs in Bali by Monica
Best Real World Post
WINNER: Tanning Beds by Rachel S.
Could You Be Gaining Weight Just Sitting Here by Taylor
Video Gamer or Cocaine Addict by Lauren O.
Morality Quiz by Rose
Halo 3: Is it Possible by Connor
Best Ecology Post
WINNER: Imagine Turning the Faucet…and Nothing Coming Out by Emily R
Humans, The Silent Killer by Connor
Disappearance of the Bees by Codie
Should We Fear the Same Fate as the Dinosaurs by Matt
What I’ve Done by Amanda
Best Endless Forms Most Beautiful Post
WINNER: The Lyrebird by Richie
The Rock Hyrax by Will
The Chimaera by Codie
The Giant Panda by Mary Claire
The Manatee by Bryant
Best AP Biology Post
WINNER: I Once Was Blind But My Offspring Might See by Jacob
Sickle Cell Anemia Isn’t Half Bad by Stevie
Why Do Babies Have Blue Eyes by Kelsey
Is Intelligence Inherited by Lauren K.
Like Father, Like Son by Jackie
Best Post Overall
WINNER: Imagine Turning the Faucet…and Nothing Coming Out by Emily R.
Killing for Kicks by Graham
Why Do Men Have Nipples by Kelsey
Singing the Blues, Feeling Blue, But Turning Blue? by Caroline
Should We Fear the Same Fate as the Dinosaurs by Matt
Best Post Writer
WINNER: Connor
Matt
Emily R.
Anna
Michael
Best Comment Writer
WINNER: Bryant
Ali
Katie O.
Evelyn
Grant T.
by Miss Baker
Do you use Facebook* to keep up with your friends? Want another way to check what’s happening here on Extreme Biology? Add the Extreme Biology Facebook application by clicking here.
*This is in no way a promotion of Facebook. There is no requirement for students to join Facebook or use this application for this class. I do not benefit from your use of this application. I just thought it would be something fun to add to your Facebook page if you have one! Do not attempt to “friend” me. I have to reject you. 
Stephen Hawking, a physicist with ALS, Photo Source
by Evelyn
Imagine if you had an itch…but you couldn’t scratch it. Or if your best friend was hurting… but you couldn’t hug them. Are you paralyzed? No, but very close. Most likely you have been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a rapid and fatal neurological disease that attacks your neurons responsible for voluntary control. It is like paralysis, except you can feel pain or pressure on your body. It is categorized as a motor neuron disease because it causes both your upper motor neurons (in the brain) and lower motor neurons (in the spinal cord) to degenerate and die. Patients diagnosed eventually cannot breathe without ventilatory support, and most die within 3-5 years. Only 10 percent even live past 10 years. The worst part of this disease is people don’t lose the ability to think or feel. Their intelligence is normal; they just can’t express it by talking. Source
It is very hard to diagnose or notice it coming on because initial symptoms are so subtle. They may include twitching, cramping, or stiffness of muscles, muscle weakness affecting an arm or a leg, slurred and nasal speech, or difficulty chewing or swallowing. Problems with walking straight, stumbling, speech, or doing simple hand tasks may also occur. Limbs begin to thin and weight is lost when the muscle atrophies, or withers away and dies. You can only be diagnosed if you have signs of both upper and lower neuron failure that cannot be attributed to another cause. There is no true cure to halt ALS. Source
A good friend of our family is diagnosed with ALS. His name is David Jayne, and by the grace of God he has been living with it for 20 years, an EXTREMELY RARE phenomenon. My mom can remember when he could walk and talk with her, and even coax her to ride roller coasters with him. Those days are long over, and they will never come back. David Jayne now must eat either through a feeding tube or a syringe in his stomach. He uses a communication device that is controlled by his eyes (by electrodes implanted in his brain), one of the few parts that still work. It takes a while to type a simple sentence like “Hello, how are you?” But he hasn’t let this disease stop him from staying in his children’s lives and having one of his own. He still keeps in touch with us and other friends by e-mail, and even though it takes over an hour to get out of bed and dressed, he still pushes on every day. Right now he is in the midst of writing a book about his experiences with ALS and the NUMEROUS trials he has had to face.
Check out this article about him!!
Don’t take life as you know it for granted!! Live it now, because you never know when a big hunk of it will just be taken away…just like that.
How do you think it would feel to have no control over any part of your physical body and have to depend on someone else to take care of every basic need?
What do you think it would be like for your mind to be working perfectly but you couldn’t express your thoughts by talking or hand gestures?
What would you do if you had to depend on machines to keep you alive?
by Jacob (AP Biology)
Ok, picture this: You’re a squirrel minding its own business eating food and just chillin’ when all of a sudden a weird looking squirrel comes out of nowhere starts flagging its tail and barking like mad. You instantly run to a tree and look around for danger but the squirrel stays where it was. Then you realize that the squirrel is a robot.
Well, in real life the squirrel might not realize that the strange squirrel is a robot but this actually does happen. A way to learn more about animal behavior is to use a robot replica of an animal to interact with those animals. This squirrel experiment was used by Hampshire College to see the reactions of squirrels towards differing signals. The squirrels acted as if the robotic squirrel was real because of its sounds and movements.
Other experiments with robot or fake animals have also occurred. A robotic lizard made to show courtship rituals is an example as well as a fake cockroach covered in pheromones of robotic and fake animals used in these experiments. Also, because larger animals are harder to make robots of, speakers have been used to imitate the sounds of animals. In one experiment a parrot thought that there was another parrot in the branches close to it and had a conversation for a long time with the speaker.
The more scientists and researchers use these fake animals the more they learn about the social workings of those animals. “Having these models out in the field is taking us to the next steps of research.” This was said by Greg Demas, director of Indiana University’s Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior about how these experiments are changing the way research happens.
by Ali
In Biology we recently did a dissection on the Dogfish shark. This lab was one of the most interesting because we were paired in groups of about four people and we would get our own shark to dissect and observe. In doing so we observed multiple things such as the incredibly large liver compared to the shark’s size. As we were dissecting we learned that the liver in fact provides buoyancy to the shark to help it not sink in the water. In this website it shows a diagram of a shark and explains in detail the structure and functions of the following: skeleton, muscles, digestive tract, circulatory system, gill and respiration, and the liver. An interesting fact as I was researching the dogfish shark was provided on this website and it stated that it was in fact the most common shark found especially in the North Atlantic Ocean.
What did you learn from this lab that you were not initially aware of about sharks? What other adaptations in structure did you find on the shark? Did you discover any other interesting facts on sharks as you were researching?
by Connor
For years movies like Jurassic Park have fascinated us all. The idea of bringing back a dead or extinct species is fantastic. But the real question still remains: Can it be done? According to scientists it can be done, thanks to a new found mammoth carcass. In today’s world, scientists are trying to clone or reproduce live wooly mammoths. One organization in Japan has been working on this since 2005, and recently a documentary has been shown on this very subject. It’s as real as it’s going to get.
But to clone a Mammoth you must first go through a very rigorous process. First you must get the egg of an elephant (this would be the easiest way). Then you must fertilize the egg by either using a mammoth sperm, or by getting full mammoth DNA. It’s very complicated and if you would like to learn more visit this website.
Here are some facts about mammoths. Mammoths, African, and Asian elephants evolved from the same ancestor. The woolly mammoth was only about 11’ tall, whereas its predecessor, the Columbian mammoth was 13’ tall. Mastodons did not evolve from the same ancestors, but rather branched off immediately after the first elephant-like species died off. To learn more about the mammoths visit this site.
All in all I think it’s pretty cool what they’re doing with these mammoths. I hope that they can someday clone extinct animals, because it could help in studying animals on earth today. Here are some questions you might want to ask yourselves on the subject: Would you like to have a woolly mammoth in your zoo? Would it be safe? Would you like to have one as a pet? Would you think it would be dangerous? From a religious and/or scientific view, is it right to clone dead or extinct animals?
by Sydni
A simple fungus, that quickly deteriorated the fibers in WWII tents and uniforms, has now been discovered to be very efficient and cost effective in the creation of ethanol, a fuel alternative to gasoline. Ethanol is created from fermented simple sugars that are found in natural substances such as corn and switchgrass. Recently ethanol has been criticized by many to be an expensive and inefficient fuel alternative. The fungus, Tricoderma reesei, on an industrial scale, could revolutionize the process of producing ethanol.
T. reesei breaks down human-indigestible planet fibers through enzymes to create monosaccharide, the simplest sugar form, which it uses as food. When researchers tried to figure out why it was so efficient at processing plant cells, they discovered a way it could help revolutionize the ethanol production process. The discovery stemmed from mapping the genome of T. reesei. They found, while there were large quantities of enzymes, there were fewer variations in the types of enzymes produced. Scientists concluded that the system must be extremely efficient in releasing the proteins which create simple sugar plant fibers.
By adding purified T. reesei enzymes to a mixture of cellulose pulp and other materials, sugar is produced, which can then, with yeast, be fermented into ethanol. “The sequencing of the Trichoderma reesei genome is a major step towards using renewable feedstocks for the production of fuels and chemicals,” said Joel Cherry, director of research activities in second-generation biofuels for Novozymes, a collaborating institution in the study.
“The information contained in its genome will allow us to better understand how this organism degrades cellulose so efficiently and to understand how it produces the required enzymes so prodigiously. Using this information, it may be possible to improve both of these properties, decreasing the cost of converting cellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals.”
This fungus can revolutionize the way America produces an earth-friendly fuel alternative, more efficiently and more cost effectively than gasoline.
Do you think it important to find alternative fuel sources for a better future? Do you think this fungus could be one step toward creating an effective and efficient alternative to gasoline? Why?
by Lauren (AP Biology)
Evolution is arguably the most central theme in biology because it ties all other major themes together. Evolution is defined as a change in alleles in a population over time. In each level of life, there is proof of evolution on a population through natural selection on individuals. Darwin, credited as the founder of evolutionary theory, made four main points in his book that described how it works:
Molecular
Genes are the units that help code for proteins within an organism. Evolution has seen the selection of specific genes that code for specific proteins over less desirable genes. For instance, the gene that codes for blindness in the blind cavefish is chosen over the gene for eyesight. The reason for this is that one of the two genes involved in senses of the fish must be traded for the others. In easier terms, the eyesight of the fish must be sacrificed so that the jaw and taste buds can develop. In this case, the pleitrophy gene that controls this development is slightly inhibited by another gene. The only reason the inhibiting gene is selected is because while it inhibits eyesight, the fish can rely on its other sensory organs, which proves to be successful.
Cellular
On a cellular level, eukaryotic cells are complex in comparison to prokaryotic cells. According to the endosymbiotic theory, the evolution of organelles originated from a prokaryotic cell that joined with separate prokaryotic cells. The organelles in the cell proved to be exceptionally helpful, such as the mitochondria, which supplied it with energy. The earliest mitochondrion is believed to have begun as a very primitive bacterium. With a source of internal energy, the eukaryotic cell was more favorable and through natural selection, became more frequent.
Organismal
Photo source
The kidneys are responsible for filtering the wastes of the blood and reabsorbing nutrients during the process. Some animals have evolved to have excretory systems to compliment the environment that they live in. For instance, in dry and arid environments, many animals have an extra complex collecting duct, where the most water is reabsorbed during excretion, to maximize the amount of water conserved. Those organisms that have the systems to do this can survive longer and are favorable to the environment because of their success in retaining water, which is a necessity in their environment.
Population
One of the easiest examples to observe since it reproduces so quickly, bacteria helps explain genetic drift in populations. If you were to put a culture of bacteria in a nutrient rich environment, they would reproduce. But if you added an antibiotic into the environment that killed most of the bacteria, only the bacteria that had alleles that made them resistant to the antibiotic would survive. Since the bacteria that died did not have a high fitness, they were not able to continue contributing their genes to the pool. Only the surviving bacteria will be able to pass on their genes, which include resistance. This, in time, will lead to a whole generation of antibiotic resistant bacteria that has evolved from the original population to one made of resistant genes.
Community
The predators and prey evolve together, the prey trying to stay one step ahead of the predator, and the predator trying to catch up. In the case of wolves and rabbits, wolves evolve mechanisms to help them survive by obtaining food such as speed, stealth, camouflage, and excellent sensory senses. Likewise, the prey, rabbits, develop similar mechanisms to aid in avoidance and escape of a predator. Any trait such as long legs to run or hop faster will enable the prey to escape its predator, and pass its genes to its offspring. Those that are eaten obviously were not fit to their environment and their genes, which did not help them, will not be passed on.
Biosphere
The globe is made up of many different climates and geographic features, each factors of a specific biome. With in a biome, an ecosystem of organisms exists which specifically suit that particular biome. Producers within the biome have evolved features that give them high evolutionary fitness. The consumers that feed off of these producers are also well suited to their biome, as discussed in population. With the combination of all of the organisms well suited to their environment in one biome, there is an ecosystem that is specifically designed to survive there. If you were to take a kangaroo and place it in the arctic, the kangaroo would not be able to find the resources it needs to survive. The food that it lives off of, the habitat it is used to and the mates it needs to reproduce are not there. That is why each biome is made up of biotic and abiotic factors that specially suit the surrounding ecosystem.
