“Who ordered the insects?”

Eating insects sounds disgusting – at least it used to for me.  When I learned about all the health benefits to consuming insects and tried some food with crickets in it earlier in the year, I realized that eating food with insects wasn’t so bad! Check out my tweet from last semester here!

Many people find the mere idea of eating insects disgusting, but I think that, over time, if we start gradually integrating insects into everyday diet, it will become more “acceptable” in people’s minds.  I believe that a diet focused more on insects would prove to be much more efficient, beneficial, and  cost-effective.  I know that it would be hard to accept for many people; I find it a bit hard myself, but by being more educated about the benefits and by trying out some food, my perspective has already changed!

Check out Chapul on Twitter – they create flour from crickets and make delicious, healthy bars from the insects!  https://twitter.com/chapul

Also feel free to take a look at this video explaining how Chapul Cricket bars are made!

LiMPETS Reflection Blog Post

I absolutely loved going on this field trip!  I learned so many different facts including how mussels produce one of the strongest adhesives in the world. The adhesive allows them  to remain stuck to rocks in the tidal zone which is a very important adaptation, especially considering that they are constantly being pounded upon by strong waves. In addition, I learned that sea anemones tend to be found in large populations together since they can reproduce asexually through the process of budding. Lastly, I learned that vertical lines extending across the tidal regions (until the ocean is reached) are used to measure biodiversity. The same vertical line areas are used every time to maintain consistency in the biodiversity findings and data. A couple of connections that I noticed between what we learned in class and what we encountered in the field includes how processes in sea anemones (that have the ability to reproduce asexually through budding) related to the processes of all cnidarians that we learned in class. In addition, in class, we discussed how organisms evolved to be adapted to live in certain environments; this was seen in the field when different organisms were found in each tidal zone. I absolutely loved being able to view and interact with different organisms in the tide pools! I’ll definitely remember touching and scoping out all the anemones, and seeing purple urchins in real life. In addition, it felt good to know that we were also helping to collect data that would be helpful to scientists as we were checking out all the cool sea critters. The only thing I would change is to have more time to explore and interact with all the different creatures! All the field trips this year were beyond worthwhile; I learned so much from each of them, and they were all extremely fun to participate in!  I learned how fun citizen science can be, and I am planning on going back to the Fitzgerald Reserve to see the organisms in the tide pools again.    

#DoNowSneeze Meme

Check out my meme for #DoNowSneeze! Cover the sneeze or mask it up.. or find other ways to be sanitary.

 

 

#DoNowVaccinate

Dis-nē-land:  the lower region of California where thousands of Homo sapiens have migrated to and fro for years to have loads of fun, make their dreams come true, and transfer billions of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens.

Vaccinations have been the center of attention since the outbreak of measles at Disneyland.  In fact, the outbreak has made people more aware of the dangers of not being vaccinated, and has consequently made us raise the question, “Should we require vaccinations?”

I personally believe that vaccinations are amazing – but would requiring vaccinations go against our nation’s advocacy of freedom in all things?  Although vaccinations act in the favor of a majority of people, it wouldn’t be fair to others who have different opinions on the effectiveness and benefits of vaccines. Even though I don’t believe that making vaccinations a requirement is the best option, I think we should take other steps to educate people about the benefits of vaccines.

#DoNowBabies KQED Blogpost

“Should we modify DNA in human embryos?”

I almost peed my pants when I read that question. The first thoughts that ran through my mind were, “Are they really asking this question?” and, “Vincent Freeman was cool, but Gattaca coming to life isn’t what I need right now”.

When I read on, I understood their points about preventing mitochondrial diseases in newborns, but I was still skeptical about it. The process has great medical potential – if we start modifying DNA for mitochondrial diseases in embryos, the idea could easily be projected to eliminating other diseases from our genetic material. But after we do this, what’s to stop us from going further? It could start out in the form of innocent experiments and alterations, and expand to be a society-altering phenomenon.

“Eh, it won’t hurt to give my baby brown hair.”

“Eh, why not green eyes too? My kid’s a special one.”

“Eh. How about high cheekbones, long eyelashes, dimples, and exactly 14 cute little freckles on her face.”

See my point? I’m still very conflicted – this is a convoluted bioethics debate. My normal philosophy is, if it improves or saves lives, then Amen – praise it, my friend. Testify.

But with the possibility of everyone in the future being another “Valid” from Gattaca, are we willing to risk it? Such a change wouldn’t just alter our society – it would essentially take away our humanity with all our imperfections and flaws that we say we hate, but we need. All of this might sound like a long tangent from the original question, but we need to think of the consequences our actions may have in the future. Everything depends on how responsible we are when we have the infinite power of technology at our fingertips.

Do you think we should start modifying DNA in human embryos? Feel free to comment below about it!

If you would like to read more about the KQED question, click the following link:

http://blogs.kqed.org/education/2015/02/17/should-we-modify-dna-in-human-embryos/

Never Give Up

My dream is to pursue biology and volleyball at a college where I could have the opportunity to collaborate with the most incredibly brilliant people from all around the world. It’s a long shot, and now that the reality of the situation is surfacing, I realize that I don’t have much time to “never give up”. I wonder to myself, what is the point when I give up? When does that time come? What is the difference between giving up and accepting fate?

Sometimes there are deadlines for our dreams – boundaries and restrictions loom before us, and if we can’t surpass them by the time the deadline comes, then we’re done. We can’t go back and pathetically attempt to fix everything by slapping a metaphorical Scooby Doo Band-Aid on the problem. I’ve tried to do it several times before, and trust me – it never works.

In the video, everyone had assumed that youth was Diana Nyad’s deadline; they believed that she had passed her prime, and therefore passed the time limit that she was supposed to complete her goal by. After being stung by jellyfish, hallucinating, and swimming for 53 hours, Diana Nyad successfully finished her swim from Cuba to Florida at age 64.

Despite all the odds being against her, she miraculously made it through because she didn’t give up.

Diana also made sure to clarify that it wasn’t just her that succeeded – it was her team that helped her get there. The group of people who rode in a boat beside Diana for 53 hours, gave her food, water, and motivated

Optimism has been a huge factor of my life; when hopeless situations arise, I’ve always tried to unearth a positive attitude from within myself, no matter how long it takes to find it. Videos like this one remind me why I love optimism so much – it always brings enthusiasm for the future, and any bit of enthusiasm helps. The fact that Diana Nyad harnessed her enthusiasm to achieve her life goal inspires me.

I guess what I’m trying to say can be summarized in one sentence:

Diana Nyad said to “find a way”, and you can bet that I’m going to do everything in my power to find it.

CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE

The PBS documentary “Cracking the Code of Life” was very informative for me. I learned a lot about the Human Genome Project; I had heard of this before, but never really understood what the project was, or what the purposes were. Essentially the goal of the Human Genome Project was to map all of the genes/nucleotides in the human genome – this became a worldwide effort, with scientists everywhere racing the competition to map all 3 billion human genes. In the old process of gene mapping, scientists would label the genes by hand based on bands that signified the genes; this would generally identify a few hundred genes per day. Now, with the process computerized, about a thousand genes can be identified per second. Knowing the human “code” will help us find where mutations occur, and genetic disorders could be identified earlier. This would also allow early treatment of the disorder.

A child named Hayden Lord was diagnosed with Tay Sach’s , a genetic disorder that slowly destroys a baby’s brain. The documentary explained his story, saying that his cousin also had the illness. The reason for this rare occurrence is that the father of Hayden and Hayden’s uncle are twin brothers; the two women they happened to marry were both carriers of Tay Sach’s, and inheriting Tay Sach’s requires that both parents carry the gene. The Human Genome project could potentially help families like the Lords by helping to identify and treat genetic disorders early on. Another disorder called Cystic Fibrosis attacks all organs in the body, especially the lungs; a person with Cystic Fibrosis often suffers from lung infections. One case with Toni Robbins was interesting – symptoms for the illness didn’t show up until she was 15, and symptoms for Cystic Fibrosis usually are noticeable during a very early age. In addition, even after she was diagnosed, she didn’t struggle with the disease as much as the average patient. It is speculated that Robbins has another gene (that is turned on) that is actively helping her combat the Cystic Fibrosis.

Craig Venter, the founder of Celera Genomics, strived to decipher the entire human genome in two years. Venter and other companies and organizations are racing each other to see who can map the genome the fastest. Some of these organizations are public, meaning that they allow data to be available to everyone so other groups can benefit from the information. On the other hand, private companies generally are more focused on “racing” competition to find the code to the human genome first.

An interesting question that was brought up in the documentary concerned whether parents should be able to choose the DNA of their child. This is a point that is pertinent today, since we are very close to knowing how to form an ideal person using genetics. I personally think that any genetic changes to someone’s DNA should only be related to genetic disorders, and not revolve around physical appearance. If everyone altered their child’s DNA to fit the “ideal person” (society’s ideal), then genetic variation would decline drastically, and as we know from history, genetic variation is vital to evolution.

I found all of the mentioned points interesting and intriguing; I didn’t know much about these topics, but the documentary was very informative and important, especially since knowledge about scientific current events is very relevant to us today.

SAVE THE BAY: POST-TRIP BLOGPOST

Going to the Palo Alto Wetlands was a great and informative experience – check out my Wideo linked below for a summary of what I learned, and then read on for more details!

http://www.wideo.co/view/6056901416768501605-ap-bio-tidal-wetlands-trip?from=cp

One of the things I learned is that the biodiversity of plants decreases as proximity to a saltwater area increases. This reminded me of what we learned in class about hypertonic solutions; now I know that there is a less extensive plant diversity near salt water because fewer plants have the adaptation to hypertonic solutions/concentrations of salt like Pickleweed does.

We also found that lots of data is necessary to achieve an overall accurate result. There have been many times in class where we taking a lot of data has been important, including the Onion Tip Mitosis Lab. During the field trip, this point was highlighted when all three groups got extremely different biodiversity data, which resulted in dissimilar graphs. Collecting a lot more data would be important in this case if we wanted to come up with an accurate outcome. Something else I learned that was extremely interesting to me was that salt salinity content is found by measuring the soil’s conductivity. This is because the soil conductivity tool can detect/identify the ions in the soil, and therefore find the salinity content.

Citizen science is what we participated in during the trip: the involvement of regular people (A.K.A. non-scientists) in scientific efforts. Citizen science is important because it not only makes everyday people more aware about current science, but also allows them to work in unity to cause change for the better. Through this field trip, our class contributed to the efforts of Save the Bay by collecting data (soil moisture/salinity content) that could be used to determine how to help the environment.
I will definitely never forget about all the wasps we saw; although I was utterly terrified, I learned something about them. The wasps we saw live underground, and emerged above the ground because the rain made the soil moist (a factor that the wasps were not used to).

The wetlands were beautiful!

The experience at the wetlands was amazing – the only thing I would add is more time to explore and walk around the area. I thought the scenery was really pretty, and it would be awesome to have a chance to see all the other different organisms/inhabitants. In the future, perhaps we could individually log down a few organisms we encountered and learn more about them and their adaptations to living in their environment when we come together as a group!

I thought the field trip was definitely worthwhile, and I would love to do something like it again! I learned so much, and going on this trip allowed us to investigate and do hands on work with concepts that we learned in class. One last interesting tidbit; the water in the tidal wetlands changes based on the tide. Our class got to see how rapidly the water levels changed – below are pictures of the water level decreasing as the day progressed.

At the beginning of our day.

After we had done some activities, the water level had significantly decreased.

 

By the end of our time there, the wetlands had almost completely emptied out.

SAVE THE BAY: PRE-TRIP BLOGPOST

This Wednesday, AP Bio will be taking a trip to the San Francisco Baylands; I’ve been really excited about this for a while, not just because I haven’t been on a field trip for a few years, but also because I’ve never been on a field trip that involved working directly with the environment to improve habitats. We will be taking salinity/moisture readings and will give the data to Save the Bay afterwards; I hope that whatever data we collect will aid Save the Bay in making decisions that will benefit the environment!

I believe that field trips are great tools for learning because students are able to apply the concepts they’ve learned in class in the real world; after all, the primary purpose of getting an education in the first place is so that we can learn skills that we will eventually use in our daily lives. On this field trip, I hope to learn more about the environment and how we can help benefit habitats in other ways.

As a side note, I was looking through the Save the Bay website, and I read that some developers are seeking to construct luxury homes and a golf course on baylands; many people around the bay are protesting this since the construction would be undoubtedly harmful to bayland habitats. I personally think that financial pursuits are not worth the destruction that would come to the environment, and that the developers should respect the habitats and the opinions of Bay Area citizens. If you want to learn more about this issue and make a change, click the following link where you can find more information and sign a petition! http://www.savesfbay.org/vs-golf

Thanks for reading!

Ebola – How Can We Help Fight the Ebola Outbreak? KQED

The Ebola outbreak has affected many countries throughout the world; whether the countries have inhabitants afflicted by the virus or are sending doctors and medical supplies to Africa, they are undoubtedly involved in this worldwide crisis. There are many challenges to fighting Ebola; the virus spreads extremely fast and is very contagious, especially since it can be transferred through any body fluid. In addition, certain burial rituals and ceremonies in Africa involve contact with the corpse; people who have lost loved ones will want to bury the dead properly, and the contact with the body fluids during rituals will almost surely infect others. There are also Africans who believe that the Ebola virus is a hoax by the government, and in turn they do not take the proper steps to ensure maintenance of sanitary environments. The international community can overcome these issues by educating people about Ebola and by making sure that areas afflicted with the virus have adequate medical equipment needed for quarantines and treatment. It is important for other nations to help in the fight against Ebola because this virus can potentially affect all countries, and it is an international hazard; managing the virus will be much easier with more help. The outbreak has affected how I think of medicine and health in my community because I keep wondering whether our hospitals would have the tools to take care of afflicted people if the virus happens to spread to America.