One thing I did some research into this week was how animals expressed their emotions. It's obvious that we aren't the only ones who "feel" for others so I decided to just go ahead and prove it.
Birds are remarkable at showing emotions. In one case, a group of magpies lost a bird. They stood round it for hours, stroking it with their beaks and cleaning its feathers as though it were still alive. One by one they flew away, and brought all of the shiny items they had and lay it by their dead member. The group was recorded each day for a month, and each day they returned to the spot where the dead magpie was. They never took back their shiny stuff, and often replaced it with nicer items. This is a show of mourning, even more regular than us. We put flowers in our graves, they put jewellery and shiny rubbish on theirs.
Fish have personalities, and are surprisingly sociable animals. If you were to take, say a minnow, and keep it in a tank, alone with no partner, it would slowly starve itself to death, no matter how fit it is and how nice its environment is. If you put it in a tank with a few other fish, it will live a normal and happy life with its companions. On the side of them having personalities, fish will show preference for specific decorations in their tanks. Some will guard them selfishly while others will allow others to join in the fun with them. Some fish do not like schools, whereas others will fight just to be in the middle of them.
And now for the order of animals least associated with emotion of any kind, reptiles. Most people think of reptiles as being cold-blooded, therefore cold-hearted killers or just boring sun bathers. Like all animals, reptiles show basic emotion, namely fear, pleasure and hunger. The one controversial idea is if reptiles can feel love, which is an emotion only associated with animals of a huge mental capacity for emotion. The argument against this is that it does not benefit reptiles, as they more often than not mate once and then abandon the young. Another argument is that even though say alligators look after their young, it is merely instinct not care. However, if you stroke a tortoise, it will close its eyes in pleasure and will playfully bite you to show its affection. Lizards will lick you if they like what you are doing, and will look you directly in the eye, a very human trait of affection. Sure, snakes have been proven to not show love, but we should not disregard other reptiles as not being able to show some form of affection.
Evolution: Adaptations
An adaptation according to the Oxford Dictionary is "the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment." Nature in all its wonder has brought forth the strange, the beautiful and the pretty normal. All that is has thrown forth has had to change with the world, or die out, and some creatures have some pretty amazing adaptations.
Some micro-organisms live in the craziest and most extreme of places, hence their name extremophiles. To list a few: Acidophile, Thermophile and a Xerophile. All of those creatures are adapted to very extreme environments. Take the Acidophile for example, it can live in environments which are of a pH of three or less. That would mean that they could live in battery acid, and even survive acid rain! Whether they tolerate the environment or actually like it is debatable, but like it or not, they can take it. The way they do it is that they can adjust their cell's cytoplasm to become the same pH as the acid that they are in. Fossil remains of similar micro-organisms can be found not in acidic environments, but in perfectly neutral environments which are now acidic. Over time the environment obviously changed and the Acidophiles had to adapt or die out, and luckily the adapted to survive in a low pH environment.
Some micro-organisms live in the craziest and most extreme of places, hence their name extremophiles. To list a few: Acidophile, Thermophile and a Xerophile. All of those creatures are adapted to very extreme environments. Take the Acidophile for example, it can live in environments which are of a pH of three or less. That would mean that they could live in battery acid, and even survive acid rain! Whether they tolerate the environment or actually like it is debatable, but like it or not, they can take it. The way they do it is that they can adjust their cell's cytoplasm to become the same pH as the acid that they are in. Fossil remains of similar micro-organisms can be found not in acidic environments, but in perfectly neutral environments which are now acidic. Over time the environment obviously changed and the Acidophiles had to adapt or die out, and luckily the adapted to survive in a low pH environment.
Prostate Cancer Research
Title: New Prostate Cancer Treatment may Reduce Side-Effects
Site: www.bbc.co.uk/news (health)
A test published in the Lancet Oncology has recently shown that ultrasound can be used to treat prostate cancer without many of the side effects common among modern treatments. These treatments involve radiotherapy, which treats the whole gland, damaging tissue and often causing urinary problems. The test involved firing jets of high frequency sound at cancer cells in over 41 patients. A year later, all patients were cured, with minimal side effects! On average, around 37 000 men in the UK contract prostate cancer every year, so the treatment could treat many more than is now.
Site: www.bbc.co.uk/news (health)
A test published in the Lancet Oncology has recently shown that ultrasound can be used to treat prostate cancer without many of the side effects common among modern treatments. These treatments involve radiotherapy, which treats the whole gland, damaging tissue and often causing urinary problems. The test involved firing jets of high frequency sound at cancer cells in over 41 patients. A year later, all patients were cured, with minimal side effects! On average, around 37 000 men in the UK contract prostate cancer every year, so the treatment could treat many more than is now.
What Makes a Healthy Relationship
A healthy relationship should be characterised by many things. It's the collective name for the good qualities of both people together. But there are two things that I think are most important that make up a healthy relationship.
The couple should be able to trust each other without hindrance. You should be able to share ANYTHING with their partner, no matter how private. It's the idea of not being embarrassed around your partner. You should be able to share your life with your partner, whether they laugh at it, smile at it or simply think it's plain weird.
Both people in the relationship must show empathy, if even in the slightest, towards each other. Without empathy you can't exactly show love or affection, so you gotta at least try. Empathy encompasses listening, caring, helping out, proposing ideas, meeting family members and in general trying to be involved in keeping the relationship going. Studies have shown that over 6% of all marriages end due to workaholism and 6% to alcoholism and addiction. This is because whoever in the relationship is too addicted to one thing has their attention drawn from their partner, leaving them feeling lonely and useless.
Both people in the relationship must show empathy, if even in the slightest, towards each other. Without empathy you can't exactly show love or affection, so you gotta at least try. Empathy encompasses listening, caring, helping out, proposing ideas, meeting family members and in general trying to be involved in keeping the relationship going. Studies have shown that over 6% of all marriages end due to workaholism and 6% to alcoholism and addiction. This is because whoever in the relationship is too addicted to one thing has their attention drawn from their partner, leaving them feeling lonely and useless.
Incorrect Science
Well I know two very good examples of science( more specifically genetics ). The first is that of Jurassic Park. In the story, a team of scientists take DNA from insects trapped in amber, and from that DNA they create Dinosaurs. For a start DNA can't survive more than 10 000 years on it's own, and in Amber, it can barely survive 100 000. So even obtaining this DNA to recreate dinosaurs, is virtually impossible.
Secondly, in star trek, there is a scene with a half Kling-On, half human woman. She asks an AI to render an image of her child(without even knowing who the father would be) and then she asks the AI to destroy the ridged bumps that Kling-on have on their face. For a start, AI cannot and will never be able to do this at simple command, and even more so that they can't do it without knowing the other parent. Also AI cannot genetically, before the child is even conceived, remove a genetic trait, 'cause how will it know that they'll ever be a child.
Secondly, in star trek, there is a scene with a half Kling-On, half human woman. She asks an AI to render an image of her child(without even knowing who the father would be) and then she asks the AI to destroy the ridged bumps that Kling-on have on their face. For a start, AI cannot and will never be able to do this at simple command, and even more so that they can't do it without knowing the other parent. Also AI cannot genetically, before the child is even conceived, remove a genetic trait, 'cause how will it know that they'll ever be a child.
Sun-Dried Hepatitis
Title: Sun-Dried Tomatoes Linked to Hepatitis-A Outbreak
Date: 5th of March 2012
Author: Unknown
Site: BBC News, Health
If you knew that sun-dried tomatoes could give you Hepatitis would you ever eat them again(I would)? Well, doctors in the UK have recently had a flood of patients who have all been diagnosed with Hepatitis-A, which is the more common form of Hepatitis. All these patients claimed to have eaten sun-dried tomatoes within the past week of being diagnosed. Doctors have no tests to proove the case, but all liable sources point towards the tomatoes being a culprit. Hepatitis-A is a very severe case that can be passed around through human faeces. If medical help is not called upon, the person may suffer liver failure.
Date: 5th of March 2012
Author: Unknown
Site: BBC News, Health
If you knew that sun-dried tomatoes could give you Hepatitis would you ever eat them again(I would)? Well, doctors in the UK have recently had a flood of patients who have all been diagnosed with Hepatitis-A, which is the more common form of Hepatitis. All these patients claimed to have eaten sun-dried tomatoes within the past week of being diagnosed. Doctors have no tests to proove the case, but all liable sources point towards the tomatoes being a culprit. Hepatitis-A is a very severe case that can be passed around through human faeces. If medical help is not called upon, the person may suffer liver failure.
Lab: Phases of Mitosis
Guiding Question: Approximately how much time do cells spend in each phase of the cell cycle?
Conclusion: "Approximately how much time do cells spend in each phase of the cell cycle?" Well, that has a very simple answer. It appears that cells spend most of the time(more than half) in the interphase, or the first phase of mitosis. It also shows that they spend the least amount of time in the telophase, the last phase of mitosis. The graph also shows that the longer the cells have spent in mitosis the less time they spend in each phase.
|
Interphase
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20 cells
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Prophase
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10 cells
|
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Metaphase
|
3 cells
|
|
Anaphase
|
2 cells
|
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Telophase
|
1 cell
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Conclusion: "Approximately how much time do cells spend in each phase of the cell cycle?" Well, that has a very simple answer. It appears that cells spend most of the time(more than half) in the interphase, or the first phase of mitosis. It also shows that they spend the least amount of time in the telophase, the last phase of mitosis. The graph also shows that the longer the cells have spent in mitosis the less time they spend in each phase.
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