Portfolio Summary

Putting all my entries together, and finishing this portfolio is an important thing to me because it showcases my ideas, and opinions about the different topics in LifeSci.

With a portfolio, I could easily share what I've learned from the past so that other people could also learn from my ideas, and experiences as a student of this elective. And if ever I had misunderstood some concepts, people who have read my portfolio, and know better than I do could correct me. That's one important thing I've learned about making this portfolio--sharing my thoughts so that other people would acknowledge it, and even correct it to further refine my ideas.

If I were to do this again, one thing that I would change is the fact that this portfolio is in a blog. I am a blogger, however, I do think that if someone really wants to showcase his/her best works then he/she would present it in the best way that he/she could. He/She would present it so that the strong points of the portfolio would be seen, and the important facts and opinions would be highlighted. If given the chance, I would have made my own site and editted it so that I could make my portfolio look much better.

Nevertheless, I was able to showcase all I wanted to put in this blog. So here's my Life portfolio...Yay. :)

Fourth Quarter Reflection

Fourth Quarter...

Before we even left for Christmas vacation, we knew that Sir Talaue would not be around anymore, and that Ma'am Cheng would take his place. The news struck us, and it got different reactions from the class. Some were scared, while some were starting to get a little nostalgic. Nevertheless, we all felt and reacted the way we did because we didn't know what was in store for us in the Fourth Quarter.

Fortunately, what welcomed us from our vacation was not scary at all. In fact, I found it funny that what we had to do for the rest of the quarter was to finish our requirements, while doing some activities. Of course doing the requirements was not the funny part, but rather the fact that Sir Talaue still provided the list of things that we had to submit by the end of our year. Mukhang kahit nasa States siya, masyado niya kaming mahal kaya pinadalhan niya kami agad ng requirements. Hehe.

The poster and Bioinformatics Activity that we had was like an extension of our Biology 3 class. We explored genetic disorders, their causes, and if there were any treatments available. We were also able to compare parts of the human genetic code with the genetic code of other animals. With those activities, we were able to see that genetic makeup serves a very crucial role in dictating if a human would be physically fit or not. Even miniscule changes could actually affect how your whole body might function (or malfunction...).

Human Hermaphrodites

The word hermaphrodite came from the name of Hermes and Aphrodite’s son, Hermaphroditos. As written in the short passage above, Hermaphroditos’ body did not only have the features of a man, but also that of a woman’s because of it’s unity with the nymph’s body. That is why people have used his name to refer to organisms with both the reproductive system of a man and a woman. In general, people often ignore the fact that hermaphroditism does not only mean that there should be physical manifestation of two reproductive organs from opposite sexes, but also the ability to either play the part of a man or a woman when mating with another member of the same species.

Hermaphrodites are not fictional beings. They really do exist in this world but do not often take the form of humans if you get to meet them. I’m not trying to freak you out or anything. I’m just trying to show you the reality here.

You might think that all the animals in this world, since they are able to reproduce, would only have either one of the two reproductive organs. Engk! You’re wrong. Actually, if you try to dig up the soil in your backyard or explore the beauty of nature…or maybe just try to read your biology book, you would know that some of those slimy creatures we call worms, or snails exhibit hermaphroditism. That means when mating season comes, they could either play the male or the female. They have both the male and female reproductive organs but, no, they cannot impregnate themselves. An example is the earthworm, which possesses both the ovaries and the testes. They have a special control mechanism so as to prevent self-fertilization, and could only express one sex at a time. Another example is the land snail. All land snails are known to be hermaphrodites, and could produce both spermatozoa and ova. However, they do not behave the same way as the earthworm, because unlike those annelids, snails could fertilize each other. They could pass their sperm to their mates, vice versa, ending up with two pregnant snails. This mechanism not only increases the rate of reproduction, but also gives a higher chance that there would be a live offspring from the mating of these snails. Now, unlike these organisms, we humans do not normally exhibit hermaphroditism. There might be cases of human hermaphrodites, but more often than not, they are considered ill, or discriminated and ridiculed by the society. Why isn’t there a large population of human hermaphrodites anyway? If hermaphroditism helps increase the reproduction and/or survival rate of other organisms, then maybe it could serve the same function/s for humans as well.

If you think it could, then I would have to tell you that we have contrasting ideas. First off, do we really need to be hermaphrodites to be able to survive? I don’t think so. The mere fact that we can exist without having two reproductive organs serves as a proof that we, humans, do not need the reproduction strategies of the worms and snails. I believe that each group of organisms on earth has its own special characteristics, which were dictated mainly by their environment. These are based on their lifestyle, the other organisms they mingle with, their habitat, and the like. Obviously, we humans have a different lifestyle compared to snails. Also, I believe that the way our bodies were formed also plays a major role on why we are not made hermaphrodites. As you can see, snails and worms are way smaller than humans, making it easier for them to get crushed. Thus, they need to do something to assure that even if they die easier, they reproduce easier too, ergo hermaphroditism. We humans do not need assurance. We already have a lot of problems with large populations so why should we even bother to think about reproducing easily.

A trait benefiting another does not mean it would benefit us as well. Hermaphroditism did not become a common trait for us humans basically because we do not need it, and also because if we do, we might run out of earth to fit in all of mankind. We do not just acquire traits because we want it, or other people dictate it for us. It’s the environment’s job to sort out things for us. That’s just how natural selection works.

Sources:

Gilbert, S.F. (n.d.). Human hermaphrodites. Developmental Biology. Retrieved August 26, 2008, from

http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?id=266.

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Hermaphrodite. Retrieved August 26, 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermaphrodite.

2nd Quarter Learning Log Highlights

The Future is Wild

This documentary, which was aired in Discovery Channel, showed the possible state of the Earth 5 million years to 200 million years from now.

If I were going to judge the film based on the ideas it wanted to convey, or the information it wanted to reach its viewers, then I would say that it was good. Not really appealing but the idea was clear and understandable enough—that after more than a hundred years, when humans cease to exist or leave the Earth, animals would evolve in ways beyond our imagination.

Basically, what it was trying to say is that when organisms are exposed to environmental pressures, the only ones that would survive are those that evolved (and we should remember that it was not their decision to change. It was the environment, which dictated the way they would change).

Visually, the movie did not appeal to me. The graphics were clean but poorly done, and for some reason, I even doubted if the people talking in the documentary were scientists at all. I only convinced myself that maybe they are because if not, then Discovery Channel would lose its credibility.

***

The idea of evolving animals still intrigues me, not because mating between different species is bizarre (we all know that this is not new), but because I still cannot imagine how different traits from different animals would be acquired by a single organism. I mean, would it be possible that a product of mating between different species would not be sterile anymore, and could multiply? Because we all know that today, this kind of mating would result to sterile organisms.

***

Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam

I thought Adam and Eve only existed in the Bible, but guess what, the scientific community has its own version of mankind’s parents.

Mitochondrial Eve

- It was believed that humans had a common ancestor—a mother. To test the idea, scientists had to find a way to trace the phylogeny of humans. Tracing it thru chromosomes would be very difficult because chromosomes are prone to recombination, except haplotypes, which are stretches of chromosomes immune to genetic recombination. They resorted to tracing our lineage thru the DNA from women’s mitochondria, because these are the same mitochondria that we have inherited from our mothers, and our grandmothers, so forth and so on. Therefore, using the mitochondrial DNA, scientists are sure that the DNA went thru the least changes possible.

Y-chromosome Adam

- If mitochondrial DNA were gathered from women, Y-chromosome was gathered from men. Scientists chose the Y-chromosome because this was unique to the males, and of all the chromosomes in the body, they were sure that this went thru the least changes possible that could affect their tests.

Where did the idea of a mitochondrial Eve, and Y-chromosome Adam come from, anyway? Well, theories about the beginning of the human race may have started this, being the Out of Africa Theory, and the Multiregional Origin Theory.

These two theories had opposing ideas. The Out of Africa Theory states that humans started to evolve in Africa, and the first members of Homo sapiens was found there. From Africa, they crossed land bridges and seas to reach different parts of the world, and from there, started a new race. The Multiregional Origin Theory, on the other hand, states that Homo erectus from Africa crossed the seas, and the land bridges. When they reached different areas of the world, it was then that they evolved to become Homo sapiens due to environmental pressures.

Are Humans Still Evolving?

From Homo sapiens, are humans already evolving to something more complex today?

Well, I don’t really expect to see a human evolve or change his/her shape in front of me, or to hear that a new race of more advanced organisms has been found. Obviously, evolution does not happen overnight, not even over a week or a year. It takes a lot of factors for evolution to happen.

Predators

- Organisms are always driven with their will to survive, and humans are no different. We may not have big predators who would hunt us for their lunch, but surely, there are these organisms that do eat us from the inside. For now, we have not really developed any trait that would defend us from our “predators”, but we could take certain medications to get rid of them. Could these medications cause certain changes in humans? For that, I guess we’ll have to wait.

Pollution

- The effects of pollution are not only limited to noisy environment, infertile soil, and contaminated water. It could also affect the ecological balance of the Earth because pollution could destroy the niche of different organisms, and lead to a total destruction of living things. These things would force humans to seek different ways of surviving, and thus experience pressure, which would lead to drastic changes in mankind. Aside from environmental pressure, effects of radiation (from nuclear plants, or intense heat from the sun) may also come into play. Radiation may not affect our duty as individuals, but it could affect our physical traits.

I’m sure there are more factors that may lead to evolution aside from the two that I mentioned above, but clearly, we are sure that even though these factors are present today, evolution is still not clearly seen. Yes, not clearly seen, because I believe that evolution is not a quick process where changes are apparent. I believe that we are evolving, experiencing it day by day through the different things that we face in our environment. However, to be able to see the big changes that could happen, we may have to wait a little longer.

Do You Believe in Aliens?

I know it may be far-fetched to talk about aliens when the second quarter was mainly about the origin of the human race. However, I became interested in this topic again after seeing the movie “The Last Mimzy”.

The movie was not entirely about aliens but about two siblings (a boy and a girl) gaining powers after they had found a box of “toys” on the beach. One of those toys was Mimzy. Disguised as a stuffed bunny, Mimzy was really an advanced form of artificial life utilizing nanotechnology by Intel (Wikipedia, 2008). Humans sent her from the future because they were trying to find solutions to their problems, from the past. Apparently, the future state of Earth had a big ecological disaster caused by pollution, and it has caused great damage to the human race, including genetic mutations. People from the future thought of saving the human race by sending Mimzy to the past and gather “old” human DNA; clean, untouched, and free from mutations.

There was a scene from the movie where the girl was able to see into the future, and saw scientists and a few “aliens” trying to resolve the problems in their environment. They were hoping that the last Mimzy (owned by the girl) would bring back the DNA that they needed. Luckily, the tears from this sibling fell onto the stuffed animal, and when she was brought back to the future, the DNA from the tears was used to “save” mankind.

Towards the end of the movie, the scene of the scientist and the “aliens” was shown. The aliens were actually humans, and their “alien skins” were clothing that they had to wear to protect themselves from the effects brought about by pollution. They shed off these protective clothing and were able to roam around the Earth again without fear. They used the DNA to fix the mutations, and to ensure that the succeeding generation would not carry the effects in their genes. The girl was regarded as the future’s new Eve, and the savior of the human race.

Well, a new Eve, eh?

While watching the movie, and even after watching it, it didn’t really occur to me that it had any relation with the issue of a real Eve. The only difference is that, in the movie, it was not the mitochondrial DNA that was passed onto the succeeding generations. I was sure of that because the kids in the future had all the abilities that the new Eve possessed. If that was from the mitochondrial DNA, then why don’t I (and the other people) have all (and the same) abilities that the old Eve had?

Anyway, what amazed me from that movie is the idea of a new Eve. It would really be an honor if I would be the girl who could save the succeeding generations of the human race from total extinction. I just hope that whatever ecological problem they encountered in the film would not happen for real, because if it does and we become too blind to see it, maybe the realization that we need a new Eve would come too late.

2nd Qtr Reflection

Evolution has always been a big thing because somehow, others think it’s not real or it didn’t even happen at all. Maybe they can’t accept the idea of evolution because they value their faith so much, and they’re still stuck on that idea that we “came” from monkeys. We all know that that is completely wrong. Humans’ coming from monkeys was a big misunderstanding between those who really knew, and those who thought they knew but didn’t understand.

Life and the science behind it are more than just knowing the facts, the figures, and the theories that govern why and how, this and that happened. Aside from ideas, what we need more is understanding; an open mind. Who needs these facts if no one understands them, anyway?

Now, we have this Eve and this Adam, two people that we believe are the “parents” of mankind. They are people that have passed on a part of their DNA to their children, grandchildren, and eventually to all the humans living in this world today. Their existence is somehow still in question, but at least they’re not monkeys anymore.

The Group Storybook:

Our story was about a bird that wandered around the forest to find her mommy. On her way, she saw different mommy-baby pairs of animals, and was able to differentiate herself from these animal pairs.

Say It With Your Senses

Hearing

Hear something through the grapevine - to hear the news from someone who had heard the news from someone else

You'll never hear the end of it - to not know the end of a story or a statement

You could have heard a pin drop - to be in a very quiet setting

Can't hear yourself think - not being able to hear anything because of the noise

Heard the last of someone/something - to not be bothered by something/someone anymore

Sight

To see red - to be mad or angry

See something through - do something until it is finished

See someone out - to go to the door with someone who is leaving

See someone in the flesh - to see someone for yourself

See stars - to seem to see bright flashes of light

Touch

Get in touch - be able to communicate with someone

Out of touch - no longer in communication with someone

Touch down - to reach the ground

Hit/touch a raw nerve - to upset someone by talking about a particular subject

be an easy/soft touch - easy to persuade

Smell

Smell something fishy - feel that someone is being dishonest or something bad is on the rise

Smell/stink to high heaven - smell very bad

Come out smelling of roses - people believe you are good after a difficult situation that could have made you look bad

Wake up and smell the coffee - to pay attention

Pass the smell test - to be morally acceptable

Taste

To give someone a dose/taste of their own medicine - to do the same bad thing to someone who has often wronged you, in order to make them feel how unpleasant it was

Have tasted blood - achieved a small victory

Leave a bad taste in your mouth - having a bad memory of something

There's no accounting for taste - not being able to understand why a person likes someone/something

Source:

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com

3rd Qtr Learning Log Highlights

The Five Senses

Who would have thought that these five body parts are beyond normal? I mean, they do perform their tasks--tasting, hearing, seeing, feeling, and smelling--but the way they interact with our environment, and the way the signals that they pick-up influence our behavior is just a little different than I expected.

Taste

When we were young, we tend to prefer sweet tasting foods over the bitter ones. Why? Simply because of safety and survival. No, we don't really know that it's safer to eat sweets when we were babies. It's the fact that poisonous substances, and other stuff we're not supposed to eat usually taste bitter. When we were young, though we did not really know anything about food yet, our keen sense for survival has already told us or perhaps imprinted in our minds that things that taste bitter should be classified under poisonous substances, and should be avoided. However, as time passes by, we grow up and gain experience points in the game called life, we somehow change our food preferences. Either we eat more, and like more or the other way around (how sad. :)) ).

Food preferences differ , just like how experiences would from one person to another. One of the things that could affect our preferences are bad experiences. As for me, I have my own share of bad experiences with food.

I don't eat shawarma. Some people might love it, but even the smell makes me cringe, and the thought makes my mouth water (not because I want to eat it but because I want to barf). I remember tasting it for the first time, and it tasted so bad I swore I'm never going near any shawarma ever again.

Anyway, back to where I was. Aside from bad experiences, food preference could also be cultural. Filipinos, I know, could attest to this. Who enjoys balut more than we do? As for other countries, they also have their own exotic foods that maybe the people who would enjoy it would only come from their place.

Smell

They say that ninety percent of what we taste is just the scent of the food. That's why when our noses our clogged, we could not really taste what we're eating. So maybe we can conclude that smell affects the food preference of a person. Aside from food preference, we also have a preference for the things we like smelling and the things we do not like, and just like the food preferences, we develop our inclination towards certain scents through life experience points (hehe).

We might prefer a certain scent of perfume because it makes us feel safe, or comfortable, or fresh. Sometimes, we also love the scent of things that remind us of good memories with the people we love. And of course, if there are scents that we love, there are also those that we do not want to smell. I really do not need to mention examples of these things because mentioning them here feels gross.

Hearing

Ever wondered why sad movies use melancholic background music, and suspense or action movies use fast paced songs? Simple. Because sounds actually affect the emotions of the people watching the movie. If the background music is slow and dramatic, anyone who's into tearjerker films would cry even before the heartbreaking line is delivered. If you do not believe me, try using Chopin's The Entertainer as a background for a sad movie scene.

Aside from movies, one can also see the effect of sound to a person's emotion when he is listening to his favorite song. Favorite songs actually trigger pleasure sensors in the brain, which make us feel elated or even euphoric when we listen to the songs we really love. Another thing affected by music is our emotions and dreams while sleeping.

In the short film about hearing, an experiment was shown wherein a girl volunteered to sleep and have her reactions to different sounds recorded. As soon as she had fallen into a deep sleep, and was dreaming (having REMs), different sounds were played; loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to not wake her up. When she was interviewed about it, she said that she dreamt of being in a dock when soft music was played, and dreamt of being trapped in a fire when the loud and noisy sounds were played.

Aside from the emotions, it has also been found out that fast music makes the heart beat faster, and manages to put the brain into a hyperactive mode because of certain parts in the brain that are triggered by these fast paced sounds.

Sight

We see what we only want to see. People might say I was wrong for saying that, but indeed, it is true. We may not be the ones deciding what we want to see, but still, there are some things right under our noses that we could not even sense. This is not because we choose not to but because our sense of sight is focused on something else.

When our eyes are set to focus on something, whether an object, or a person, we tend to ignore the small changes happening in our surroundings. This is because the brain wants us to focus only one thing, one moment at a time. When this happens, it would be hard for us to notice small changes.

Aside from that, the eyes help us balance. When balancing on one foot, a person would find it easier to balance with his eys open. This is because he is able to see how the room swings, and could change his position to prevent swinging of the room. So when the eyes are closed, expect a greater possibility of falling out of balance.

Touch

In the short films that we saw, the most vivid memory that I have of the Sense of Touch part is the experiement where people were given "pills" that would either alleviate the pain they would feel from the electric shock or make it worse. Of course the pills were only colored dough made to look like pills. What's fascinating was that all the volunteers were shocked with the same level of current but they had different responses. Those given with the reliever did not feel much pain, while those given with "pills" that would make the pain worse looked like they really felt painful.

The idea behind it was that people could change the way they react and feel even without thinking about it. External stimulus such as saying if something's going to hurt really affects the way we feel pain.

***

Asde from the five senses, animal behavior was also discussed. These are instinctive and learned behavior.

Instinctive behavior is, of course, based on instincts. Animals were not expected to be taught how to behave and only act to survive. This is very different form learned behavior. As the name implies, learned behavior are those taught to animals either by humans, or by experiences. These learned behaviors often come from the animals' exposure to their environment, while instinctive behaviors are known to have developed from the behavior imprinted on one's genes.





**Image is from http://felix.goldencartoons.com

Third Quarter Reflection

This quarter has been full of discoveries, and unanswered questions. We watched short films about the five senses, and learned new things about the body parts that often go unnoticed (because they have always been there). People in the class were all like "Oo nga 'no!" and "O, talaga?" whenever the narrator mentions strange things that actually happen everyday, because they all seem too normal for us.

After watching the films, and even while watching them, it made me feel as if I ventured into the human body. I saw the interaction of our environment, and our behavior. I had questions about everyday life that were answered by the short films, and I was quite satisfied with the answers that I got. One of the questions that I had then was why babies find it hard to walk, move, and balance things at first. I also wondered why I could hear things in my surroundings even when I'm asleep. Aside from these questions, facts that I knew before were also explained. Things such as why people don't notice changes in their environment was explained.

I hope the films we watched would also be seen by other people so that they would be able to understand the basics about their five senses, and discover unusual things about their body.

Another topic discussed this quarter is animal behavior. The class was divided into different groups, which discussed topics about the genetic origin of behavior, the difference of intuitive and learned behavior, and communication between animals.

In the class discussions about these topics, there would always be this recurring question that gives rise to a lot of opinions but never seem to answer it; if animals could have been actually thinking about their actions, and if they could decide what to do and not to do. Because you see, with behaviors such as altruism, one would really wonder if the animals do things for their group because of intuition or do they do it because they know that the group would benefit from it. It really seems weird. If I do not know anything about animals, I would really think that they know what they're doing...that they have conscience too, and they know how to decide on their own.