Sunday, January 22, 2012

Extreme Organism

Alkaliphiles are microbes that thrive in alkaline-rich environments (with a pH of 9 to 11) . For example playa lakes and carbonate-rich soils. To survive, alkaliphiles maintain a relatively low alkaline level inside their cells.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Cell Poem(haiku)

Cell processors of
Life without you there is no
Life.. far too short though.

Bacteria, Viruses, Prions

Bacteria
Bacteria are unicellular prokaryotes that can reproduce even in isolated environments and generally reproduce through the process of binary fission.  Bacteria have circular double stranded DNA and  unlike viruses and prions can produce their own proteins and enzymes to carry out metabolic processes.

Virus
Viruses need a host to reproduce itself.  Viruses can choose to reproduce by infecting a cell then using the celll to replicate itself and going out to infect more cells. Viruses needs to use the hosts' DNA to make their own DNA.

Prions
Prions are infectious proteins that usually occur in the brain and is created when a normal brain cell is transformed into a prion.  Eventually this can cause cellular malfunction and brain degeneration.

Major Plant Divisions

Charophyceans
Charophyceans are the green algae most clearly related to land plants.  They seem to share many characteristic typical of a land plant.
Bryophytes
Bryophytes include the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.  They live in moist areas because of their lack of vascular tissue.  They reproduce using spores with reproductive structures of gametangia and sporangia.
Pteridophytes
Are vascular plants, which contain xylem and phloem.  Horsetails, ferns, club mosses, and quillworts are pteridophytes.  Instead of producing flowers or seeds, they produce spores, but do have true roots, stems, and leaves.
 








 Gymosperms
Gymnosperms include trees such as conifers, cycads, and ginkgo.  Theses are a group of seed-bearing plants, the seeds of the gymnosperms are unenclosed and are called ovules in their unfertilized state.

Angiosperms
Angiosperms produce seeds, but also produce flowers which contains their reproductive organs.  The seeds are enclosed during pollination and produce fruit. The fruit then produces more seeds.

Lives of a cell

Although, humans would like to think they have a mastery over nature this is not true. We are a part of nature. The very processes that keep us alive are a part of nature. Our lungs would not keep functiong if not for our cells. We would not even exist again without our sells.

Thoughts on Countdown

The comfort of the technology we now have a this and age comes at a hefty price . With the vast amount of technology and manufactured resources we are quickly losing many of our natural resources. We live on this planet, therefore we are connected to nature as much as we would like to seperate ourselves as a city-boy or city-girl. By the theory of evolution essentially our entire existence is connected to the natural world.

On societeies of organisms.

This article stresses the importance of seeing society as one whole organism.  If society would really work together then each person should have a job and efectively complete that job.  However, this is not possible in real life because it is only an idealistic thought that EVERYONE will work together and EVERYTHING will work out.  I do not believe that a society can function as though it were a single organism.  Unlike organelles or cells, humans are capable of thinking and are influened by their emotions.  Conflicts and different beliefs tear society apart and thus stop being from working together.

Cell Diversity Wordel

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Explanation: I chose these words because they are the organelles of the cell.

Time Love Memory Review

1. Genetics affects an organism's behavior.
This is a crucial part of biology because it also link ecology to molecular biology if DNA is used to explain behavior scientists create a link between the two subjects. This books helps us link and further understand these concepts.

2. Organisms learn from experience.

This is yet another link to ecology as it states organisms have the capacity to learn from past experiences or from their parents.This will help us develope a better understanding of things learned in class.

3. Experiments are needed to come to a conclusion.

The backbone of the book is based on experiments and the conclusions achieved from those experiments. Without those experiments we would not have learned from those scientists or their theories would be accused of being crackpot theories with no realvvalue.
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 Metabolism, Enzymes, Coenzymes, ATP, ADP, Inhibitors, Thermodynamics, Induced-Fit, Chemical-Energy, Endergonic, Exergonic, Catabolic-Pathway, Anabolic- Pathway, Activation-Energy, Free-Energy

Explanation: These words were chosen because they were the best descriptive words for the metaboic processes.