Hot Zone Part 2

First of all, I think it is very cool that they could figure out what virus the monkey's had all from looking at test tube substances under a microscope and comparing them to what the blood from peter cardinal looked like. I thought it was interesting that the black specks usually in the victims puke showed up in the test tube, too. It is hard to believe that this is actually a nonfiction book and all of this really did happen not long ago at all. Reading about the viruses and how quickly they spread makes me turn into a germ freak! It also really surprises me the lax precautionary clothing, masks, and gloves the healthy people had when taking care of the sick people.

Scavenger Hunt #5

Organisms in different kingdoms

Animals

The animal kingdom is the largest kingdom. This is a caribou in Denali national park! Animal kingdom as over one million species.

Archaebacteria

This is a picture taken at Yellowstone national park. It is a steaming pool on the side of the road. Archaebacteria is found in extreme environments. Yellowstone has a lot of archaebacteria because it has a lot of hot boiling water underground.
Asexual Reproduction-- Asexual reproduction is when offspring comes from one parent and has the genetic make up of only that one parent. There is no meiosis involved in asexual reproduction. It is the form of reproduction in single celled organisms like archaebacteria, protists, and many plants and fungi.

Plants

The plant kingdom is the second largest kingdom with over 250,000 species. This picture is taken at Sedona, Arizona.

Eubacteria

Eubacteria is in it's own kingdom because it has a different chemical makeup than archaebacteria. It is the most commonly known bacteria. It can be bad or good. For example, it is in yogurt which is healthy. However, streptococci is eubacteria that can give you strep throat.

Fungi

Mushrooms and mold are examples of fungi. They are multicelluar, unlike bacteria. They are very similar to plants, except they can not make their own food.

scavenger hunt

The fish in this picture is reacting to the aerotaxis right now, as the fish is taking the oxygen in instead of water and cannot breathe create a negative taxis. Most aerotaxis for fish create a negative taxis since this stimulation is bad where as a hydrotaxis create a positive taxis.

Many types of fish, unlike the one I caught, have parasites on them that create a parasitic relationship. One of the most common style of parasitism on fishes is a parasite that eats the eye and live on the eyes as it feeds making the fish blind but nourishing the parasite.

This sea grass on the other hand is a type of C4 Plant. It uses four carbon molecule instead of three for the metabolic pathway for the photosynthesis. Most underwater grasses are C4 Plants. The C4 Plant is supposedly an evolved version of C3 Plants because of adaptations. It is still used for the same reason as a C3 plant.

This wheat grass is a form of a C3 plant. It has a specific style of carbon fixation during photosynthesis. That is  a metabolic pathway for the photosynthesis. The plant relies on this process to convert CO2 into organic compounds. Many forms of wheat grasses are C3 Plants, but on average grasses tend to be C4 Plants.

Your going to have to go along with me on this one. Millions of cells live on this old and used dollar bill. Some of these cells are prokaryotes, which lack a nucleus. Most prokaryotes tend to be unicellular but at the same time like to group together. To be classified as a prokaryote you have to not have a nucleus.

Kelly - The Hot Zone part 3

I have a theory about Ebola Reston. In the beginning of the book they said that Marburg must have started in an animal that it didn't effect such as an insect or a small animal. I think that Ebola Reston could have started in humans and therefor does not effect humans. Ebola Reston effects monkeys like Ebola Zaire effects humans. I am learning a lot from this book. I think it's amazing that there are diseases that don't effect everyone and everything. I'm learning a lot about the precautions that people have to take with a level 4 hot agent. I wonder if they would still consider viruses that effect animals but not humans hot agents because there would be no harm to the people handling them. I like that the author put in the different pictures of the viruses. But to me they all look the same. It's hard to believe that viruses that are so similar in allearence can effect different species.

reading

The book definitely has been an excellent and enticing read. I find it hard to believe those four workers at the monkey house actually survived Ebola Reston. It makes you wonder though if Ebola learns and adapts depending on what is at hand and what would be better for the survival of the virus. Personally I believe that the virus does learn otherwise that strain wouldn't have mutated from Zaire. Viruses are scary things and don't like to be tempered with. I hope the Kitum Caves is as good as the rest.

Scavenger Hunt #4

Adaptation of an animal--

This is a grizzly bear that lives in Denali national park in Alaska. I saw two the first day that I was there. They  both had somewhat of a blonde coat, more so than one would expect a grizzly bear to have. Later, I found out that this is due to their diet. The grizzlies in Denali do not live near a river; therefore, they have to adapt to their environment and eat only berries and vegetation. The grizzlies in south Alaska have access to the Kenai river, and other rivers, where they eat mostly salmon. This is said to cause the southern grizzlies to have a darker coat.

Mating Behavior--

These are salmon eggs. I went fishing in Kenai, Alaska during the middle of July. This is the time that salmon from the ocean swim up stream of the rivers to lay their eggs. There are so many that each person can catch up to three each day and there will still be enough to have a steady population each year. This is the mating behavior of salmon.. happens every year. I watched the guy fillet the fish and he pointed out the eggs to me.. I was very fascinated. He just thought I was weird to take pictures of the insides of the fish..

Enzyme

The brown organ is the liver--a liver of a salmon fish.The liver secretes a digestive enzyme called bile that is stored in the gall bladder. An enzyme is something produced by a living organism that acts as a catalyst.

Altruistic Behavior

This is Shanook. She is a mom of five alaskan husky puppies in Girdwood, Alaska. They live on a glacier where dog sledding takes place. She shows altruistic behavior when she cares for her pups more before doing anything else. She protects them very well, and always makes sure they are safe before making herself comfortable.

Cuticle Layer of a Plant

This is a flower from Nicaragua. Nicaragua is very hot, with a very strong sun. Water is something that is somewhat scarce in Nicaragua, at least clean water that is. Plants are the least of concern for the people there. Therefore, they do not get watered by hand; they only receive water from the times that it rains. Therefore, this plant develops a cuticle layer that is a waxy coating that helps the plant from loosing water to evaporation. 

Definitions Week 6: (At least I think it's week 6...) -Tyler

I'll use my other dog as an Endotherm: An Endotherm is an animal that can regulate it's own temperature (warm blooded), and is able to withstand extremes, particularly cold winters. Cold blooded animals instead usually thrive where the only temperature is hot.

This is an otter... (from really far away,) but it's a heterotroph: an organism that needs to ingest/eat other organisms for energy.

Polar Bears are usually thought to be Keystone Species in the arctic, meaning that their influence over that particular ecosystem goes far beyond their abundance They directly effect Beluga whales, ringed seals, and just about anything else edible to a bear in the arctic. This one was in captivity near Juneau by the Canadian/ Alaskan border. 

Mutualism is when two different organisms benefit eachother by their actions. In this situation, the butterfly benefits the flowers by pollinating then in exchange for nectar.

The spores on the dandelions are the reproductive structures that can be spread by the wind. The further the spores go, the more area they cover and reproduce in.

:)

The Hot Zone- Part 3 Ansley Dieckmann

The third part of the book has definitely been my favorite. Everything is finally coming together. I can't wait to find out about this virus that is so closely related to Ebola but doesn't effect humans. Its funny to think that the Army and the CDC are actually fighting over who can go in a hot zone, where they can easily become infected and die. I can't imagine how scary it would be to know so little about this virus and still go in there. They really have no idea what to expect. I can't wait to finish it!

Amanda W. #6 Scavenger Hunt

 Arthropods with three main segments which are the thorax, abdomen, and the head are considered animals with segmented bodies. An example would be this cricket.

Mushrooms are considered basidiomycetes which are large of fungi that consists of a sexually produced spores on a basidion.

Silver corn and long lasting tomatoes such as this tomato are examples of genetically modified organism. GMO is an organism whose genetic material has been modified or altered, especially through genetic engineering techniques.

Tiny my cat is an example of an eukaryote. Their cells are organized into compartmentalized structures called organelles, the nucleus in particular. Any of single-celled or multicellular organisms whose cell contains a distinct membrane-band nucleus.

Glycogen is stored in meats which this branched polymer of glucose is contained in the liver. It is mainly produced in liver and muscle cells. This glucose is stored in animal cells and are usually called "animal starch".

"The Hot Zone" #2

Well i am now only thirty pages from being finished with the book. So far my favorite "scene" from the book is definitely the monkey house. It makes me a little bit scared though the way we can get a little caught off guard and then all of a sudden we are dealing with a nation wide epidemic. If the virus in the monkey house was lethal to humans, we may be living in a different world right now.

your posts...

loving your posts... you have really taken some time and energy and thought into your thoughts.  I also quite frankly, enjoy the photography!  David, where are you???? I'd also like to see you comment on each other's posts and commentary on The Hot Zone... only a few more weeks left!!! someone feel free to post a pic of their plants!!! They still alive?

Kelly - Scavenger Hunt post #6

I will be in Houston all next week at NYLF. I can't wait to tell you how it went.

1. The Giant Flying Fox Bat (Pteropus vampyrus) and the Taveta Golden Weaver (Ploceus castaneiceps) are eukaryotes.  Eukaryotes are organisms with one or more cells that have organelles and a membrane bound nucleus containing DNA. All animals are eukaryotic. Bacteria, viruses and some blue-green algae are not eukaryotes; they are prokaryotes.

2. The sweet potato is an example of a modified root, one that has a function other than absorbing water and anchoring the plant. In the roots of plants like sweet potatoes, carrots and beets, the roots become enlarged. Starch and other carbohydrates are stored where there are extra parenchyma cells in the roots.

3. Long-day plants bloom when they have more than 12 hours of light. It is actually the amount of darkness that a plant has that determines whether a plant would form flowers. So long-day plants need a short night to bloom. The way a plant reacts to the length of light and dark time is called photoperiodism. The Lettuce in this picture is an example of a long-day plant.

4. This is a picture of an African Lion. The lion is a predator, meaning it feeds on its prey. Giraffe, buffalo, antelopes and zebra’s are some of the animal a lion will hunt. Because they are high on the food chain, lions have few predators, one is the hyena. Lions and hyena live in the same niche so they compete for resources. Lions will follow a hyena when they are hunting and feed on killed animals stolen from the hyena. They will attack each other but they don’t eat the meat from the dead prey. Occasionally a Nile crocodile will be a predator that can get a lion.

5. This picture is of a plant in EPCOT that is being grown without soil. Nutrients are sprayed on to the roots. The apical meristem is found at the tips of the roots and stems. This is the area where the cells can divide, producing new cells.

Biomes-Tyler

A biome is essentially (by summing up the definition in my dictionary... which I hope is somewhat accurate) a natural occurring community of flora of fauna that occupies a major habitat. Anyplace where the animals and the type of landscape differs would be considered a different 'biome.'

I'll be classifying this as the temperate deciduous forest, (or Boreal Forest) a biome spreading up the entire east coast of North America, through Florida and Georgia, to New York, etc. until it reached Newfoundland and Quebec, where it starts to die off.  It houses shrubs and trees that loose their leaves in the fall and bloom again in the spring.

The beach is split into two biomes: the animals living within the sand and on the shore differ from flora and fauna in the water...  the water line acting as the dividing line. The Atlantic Ocean is an aquatic biome, and the shore acts as a terrestrial one.

The other type of forest that covers quite a bit of land is the Coniferous Forest, which houses pine/cone bearing trees. Unfortunately, you can't really see the pine needles on these trees, because my uncle chopped off all the branches. It's a lot more dense in the northern states than it is in the south, but there still are existing areas where the only trees around are tall pines.


So those were my three examples of biomes existing within Georgia... which is strange, because none of them were taken in Georgia. These habitats are probably the most general ones, because they exist all over the world.

This is the Alpine Biome, typically consisting of mountain goats, types of elk, and cougars. It differs from other mountain ranges like the Rockies along the Western Cordillera because it's a lot less... rocky, so to speak? More foliage can grow on it, and the temperature is a lot less harsh, which allows more wildlife to thrive. 

Finally, there's the tundra, which carries a permafrost coating everything with a slim sheet of ice. People can only crack through it in the summer. This is where wolves, polar bears, snowy owls and other animals that can endure the cold thrive; almost no plant-life can live through it's conditions.

Scavenger Hunt # 5 Ansley

This centipede is an example of a detritivore. Detritivores feed on decaying material. They help the material decompose. These organisms produce rich soil.

These peaches will help your liver and muscles produce more glycogen. Glycogen stores energy in your liver and muscles. Eating the right foods will help you maintain a high level of energy. Peaches are great to eat after a workout to replenish your body. 

This Vegetable Oil is hydrophobic. This means that it will not react with water. If you were to mix this oil and water together they would not mix the oil would go to the top and form a layer over the water. 

This yogurt is a product of milk. It is produced by fermentation. Fermentation is the breakdown of sugar into an acid or alcohol. In yogurt the sugar breaks down into lactic acid.

This plant is an example of a C3 plant. C3 plants are simple plants that take in Carbon Dioxide and produce oxygen by opening their stomata. 

Scavenger Hunt #5 Amanda

    Lettuce is an example of a long day plant. This type of plant requires minimum amount of hours of sunlight to it's bloom.

  The skin in my hand is an example of epithelial tissue. This tissue is located on the very outside of an organism or organ. It has a free surface which means it has no contact with another cell. The major functions are protection, secretion, and absorption; also the cells are tightly packed together.

Hydrophilic is capable of interacting with water through hydrogen bonds. Soap is attracted to water.

  Canola oil is an example of a hydrophobic. Oil and fats repel water or are insoluble to water.

These goldfish that my friend and I found in her horse trough are examples of introduced species. These species have been moved from their ecosystem to another manually. Goldfish are the earliest fish to be domesticated.

TEXT BOOK ....AGAIN

PLEASE comment that you HAVE received this message about your textbook and TESTPREP book.  As I stated earlier in the summer, we are going to be using the 8e of the Campbell, Reece Textbook and Holtzclaw/Holtzclaws Pearson TestPrep that is also 8th edition.  It is  NOT the one listed under Follett (that is the 9th edition). (this is it!!)

Random Definitions- Scavenger Hunt 4- Tyler

This is a bit of a stretch... but I'm going to try and use it as an example of the Adaptation of an Animal. The pupils of animal eyes will adjust according to the amount of light in an area; the black part of the cat's eyes are much wider due to the dim light, because this was taken late at night on Christmas Eve. The tree was the only semi-bright source of light, and the cat is looking away from it. Once she stares at something vivid and glowing so to speak, the pupils will shrink, and the colored part is much more visible.

Bees are typically used as examples of pollinators, to either convey or deposit the pollen from flowers.

The very tiny beetle-like-bug on the end of that flower has an exoskeleton, usually to provide support due to the lack of a backbone or protection.

My exemplification of territorial behaviour: my dogs... The black German-Shepard is Chelsea, the more dominant one. She really does not like people approaching her bones and/or toys, and exhibits her teeth and barks if anyone gets too close.

Finally, my classification of an ectotherm. Snakes and other reptiles are ectotherms, or cold-blooded. They depend on their surroundings for heat, and cannot survive in cool climates. I've seen a lot more snakes in the three weeks I've been in Georgia so far than I've ever seen in Canada... But this was taken at the Toronto Zoo.