Mitochondrial Eve

The fascinating thing about genetics is that although there is a multiplicity of diversity, everyone carries within them a little bit of an exact replica of their mother. This little piece of unoriginality exists a a part of the mitochondrial DNA. This particular genetic material has allowed scientists to be able to trace all genetic material bak to a proposed original copy. Mitochondrial Eve is the hypothesized mother of modern humanity. Scientists were able to figure out that all of man's diversity, whether skin color, hair characteristics, or even facial features could indeed arise from a one set of genes. This thought is humbling when one looks at another person that they consider "different" then him/herself. If we all are just variations of an original concept, than are we really all that much different from each other?

Animals, Right?

PETA
AKA: People for the Ethical Treatment Animals
AKA: People Eating Tasty Animals
However, you want to see it, people definitely have their views of how they feel animals should be treated. When it comes to animal testing, in particular,  people can enter extremely heated debates. I agree with the fact that animals should not be cruelly treated or taken advantage of, but the very definition of cruel treatment is hard to define. What may seem cruel to Paris Hilton is absolutely an invaluable practice to a researcher working on discovering a virus that could be the answer to finding a cure for cancer. Although many people are completely against the use of animal testing, I guarantee that they would change many of their views if the life of a loved one were at stake and the only way to save that person were at the cost of caged bunny.

Proper PB&J

Standard Operating Procedure

Overview: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are a tasty snack for any occasion and often even provide one with the satisfaction of a whole meal. However proper PB&J preparation can be tricky and therefore must be handled with the utmost efficiency and care.

Materials & Supplies:

·      Peanut Butter

·      Jelly (jam would also suffice; flavor is subjective)

·      Bread

·      Knife

·      Napkin (plate or any clean surface would also work)

Procedure:

1.    Spread out napkin on flat stable surface.

2.    Pick up to slices of bread and lay flat on napkin so that both slices are side by side.

3.    Unscrew the lids of both Peanut Butter jar and Jelly jar so that the jars are open and ready for use. Place lids to the side until end of sandwich preparation.

4.    Pick up knife so that blade is pointing away from the user, and with free hand pick up the jar of Peanut Butter.

5.    Place knife into Peanut Butter jar and using the flat side of the blade, in a sweeping motion, get a glob of peanut butter on knife. Set jar down.

6.    Move knife over one slice of bread and with a slight flicking motion, drop glob of peanut butter onto the open face of the slice of bread. Using a spreading motion, use the flat surface of the knife blade to smooth the glob of peanut butter evenly over the surface of the bread face.

7.    Clean off knife blade with water or extra napkin.

8.    Using the jelly jar and the unused slice of bread, repeat steps 5-7.

9.    Place knife to the side. Carefully pick up both slices of bread so that faces without substance touch the hand surface and faces of the bread with substance are turned outward.

10. Press faces of bread with substance together so that the peanut butter side of the bread is pressed to the jelly side of the other piece of bread.

11. Enjoy eating sandwich.

Quality Control:

·      Be careful not to press the sharp part of the knife blade to skin or to use knife carelessly so as to gauge anyone or anything.

·      Bread should not have any mold on it, nor should the peanut butter or jelly used be expired.

·      When putting sandwich together, be sure to align bread so that the shape of one piece aligns with the shape of the other.

·      Peanut butter or jelly falling out of sandwich is an indication of too much jelly or peanut butter.
Sandwich tasting dry or sticking to the roof of one’s mouth is an indication of not having used enough jelly. 

Phlogiston Theory

Early in the 90's, Captain Planet came to the rescue of many villainous ecological disasters with the help of the powers of his planeteers: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Heart. The concept that all of these basic elements somehow combined to form something great was not solely invented by Hannah-Barbara screen writers. On the contrary, this concept has been around since the early 18th century. In fact, after these basic elements were thoroughly examined scientists began to turn their attentions to one of the processes that these elements were often involved in: combustion.
Combustion, matter catching fire or rusting greatly puzzled scientists of the 18th century. They noticed that when Wood burned, the ashes it created always weighed less than the wood it started out as. Because of this, they postulated that there must be some element that left the wood. This element was termed "Phlogiston" and thus the Phlogiston Theory was born. The theory stated that when an object was burned, or rusted, that the material that left was Phlogiston and the material that remained was the natural essence or "Calx". Although this theory is now well known to be false, it did leave left a lasting impression on the scientific community and, apparently, even made its way to the cartoon community as well.

Scrabble Anyone?

Protein Formation has always fascinated me because of its detail and complexity. As a biology major, I could never fully wrap my head around how natural selection could develop something so specific and intricate, even over billions of years. The idea is a little like someone trying to win a game of Scrabble by pouring out the bag of letters over and over again until a word forms that's the language of the person doing the pouring. Then that same person keeps pouring out the bag again and again until they form a game of scrabble on the board that actually makes sense. Also, I was always confused by the fact that DNA can only be replicated through RNA, but RNA can only be made by DNA. To even make a protein, DNA must be read by RNA and then the RNA transcripted through ribosomal complexes made up of RNA and protein. The whole concept reminded me of the "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" question. One portion cannot be made without the other. However, the concept of intelligent design discussed in the movie, Darwin's Dilemma, made the whole process make sense. If something, or someone, had set the process of protein formation and DNA replication into motion, the DNA, RNA, and protein could all work together and depend on one another from the beginning. The language of the nucleotides could be designated and the whole process work together concisely. This would make much more sense, just as if the person playing scrabble stopped pouring out of the bag, and started purposefully arranging the letters on the board instead.

Burgess Shale

The Burgess Shale represents the first forms of diversity of life. Fossils from this quarry indicate that long before we knew of dinosaurs or any other ancient forms of life, that there were many animals waaay ahead of us. A Tour Through the Cambrian time period would display many unimaginable creatures that actually once existed and now are long gone. Today the Burgess Shale  is still visited and excavated by many scientists and those lovers of biology interested in the early inhabitants of the earth.

How Do We "Know"?

           "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog."


What do all these pictures have in common you might ask? Simple. They all represent different ways to communicate. Pictures, drawings cursive, print, every different way still says the same thing. Communication is a unique quality of humanity to know, recognize, and learn new information. Without a way to relay this information to one another, no new information would ever be discovered. This is just one of the fascinating aspects of learning to "know".