Blog # 4 Describe the three types of selection: directional, stabilizing and disruptive and give an example of each in your own words

Stabilizing selection favors the norm, the common, average traits in a population. Look at the Siberian Husky, a dog bred for working in the snow. Stabilizing selection has chosen a norm for the the size of the Siberian Husky. Directional selection favors those individuals who have extreme variations in traits within a population. For example people pick hounds that were the fastest in their group, from their offspring the breeders again selected the dogs that ran the fastest. By continuing this selection for those dogs, they gradually produced a dog who could run up to 64km/h (40mph). Disruptive selection, like directional selection, favors the extremes traits in a population. Disruptive selection differs in that sudden changes in the environment creates a sudden forces favoring that extreme. Think about the changes in the environment when that meteor crashed into Earth 65mya. If a plague started by the high death rate also hit these stressed animals, they would have been sorely pushed to survive. Evidence shows that they did not. So disruptive selection occurs quickly, selecting for those extreme traits that help organisms survive in the new environmental conditions.

Blog #3 Explain what microevolution is? What are the three ways that variation occurs?

Microevolution is a change in gene frequency within a population over time. This change is due to four different processes: mutation, selection (natural and artificial), gene flow and genetic drift.
Population genetics is the branch of biology that provides the mathematical structure for the study of the process of microevolution. Ecological genetics concerns itself with observing microevolution in the wild. Typically, observable instances of evolution are examples of microevolution; for example, bacterial strains that have antibiotic resistance. Microevolution can be contrasted with macroevolution, which is the occurrence of large-scale changes in gene frequencies in a population over a geological time period (i.e. consisting of extended microevolution). The difference is largely one of approach. Microevolution is reductionist, but macroevolution is holistic. Each approach offers different insights into the evolution process. Macroevolution can be seen as the sum of long periods of microevolution, and thus the two are qualitatively identical while being quantitatively different. Mutations alter the order of bases in the nucleotides of DNA. Mutations are likely to be rare and most mutations are probably harmful, but in some instances the new alleles can be favored by natural selection. Independent assortment (recombination of chromosomes that occurs during sexual reproduction) and the Crossing over that happens during meiosis.

Blog # 2 Why is fossil record hard to interpret?

Fossil record is hard to interpret because it is thousands to millions of years old. The older the fossil is the harder it is for paleontologists to identify what it is. Most fossils require all of the bones to figure out what kind of animal it is and the bones could be scatter all over the world. When interpreting fossils u must be careful not to break anything. Fossils can sometimes be hard or easy depending on the size of the fossil and how old it is. Interpreting fossils takes time and one must be careful not to damage/break anything.

What was you favorite activity/topic this year? Why was it a favorite?What was your least favorite? Why?If you could change one thing (Not the amount of homework) what would it be and how would you change it?

                   My favorite activity in class is doing labs. All the labs that we did were very exiting and interesting. Learning something is fun but when your actually experimenting something u learned before, that is exiting! Any labs that we did taught me many things and they were all very fun and interesting. My least favorite activity is the karoke project. We had to create our own song about biology and sing it in front of the entire class. This was the worst project i ever got because my group and i cant sing at all. Well we can sing but we sing horribly. If I could change one thing i would change the karoke project to something else like a writing project. Instead of singing a song we could write about what we learned in biology. This would be easier for me because writing a few paragraphs is easy compared to singing a song in front of your class. I would tell our teacher Ms.Malonek that a karoke project would be a bad idea because above all most people are better at writing then singing a song.

Blog#13 How has DNA changed how we investigate crimes? What are the two main tests? Describe them

DNA has helped people solved crimes more faster and easier. Such as a strand of hair left behind at a crime scene can be used for DNA testing to find out who the strand of hair belongs to. The two main tests are RFLP and PCR testing. RFLP testing requires larger amount of DNA and the DNA must be undegraded. Crime-scene evidence that is old or that is present in small amounts are often unsuitable for RFLP testing. PCR testing often require less DNA than RFLP testing and the DNA may be partially degraded. PCR tests are also extremely sensitive to contaminating DNA at a crime scene and within the test laboratory. PCR is less direct and somewhat more prone to error than RFLP. However, PCR has tended to replace RFLP in forensic testing primarily because PCR based tests are faster and more sensitive.

Blog 12 Look up Gregor Mendel and his pea plant experiments Why does P1 look all alike and F1 looks very different?

When Mendel cross-pollinated smooth yellow pea plants with wrinkly green peas every single pea in the F1 was the same as the parents. Somehow, the yellow round peas dominated the green wrinkly ones. Then he notice there are two kinds  of traits - dominant and recessive. The round yellow pea were the dominant one and the green peas were the recessive one. He also learned that each trait is determined by "units" or "factors" and not called genes. He repeated the experiment many times and found out the generation had a 3:1 ratio of yellow to green and round to wrinkly.

Blog #10 Post a recipe for something made with fermentation Explain how fermentation helps make the food.

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks (or more)
Special Equipment:

• Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket, one-gallon capacity or greater
• Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
• One-gallon jug filled with water (or a scrubbed and boiled rock)
• Cloth cover (like a pillowcase or towel)

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):

• 5 pounds cabbage
• 3 tablespoons sea salt

Process:

1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I’ve added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds, and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement. The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.
5. 5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it’s completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of the kitchen where I won’t forget about it, but where it won’t be in anybody’s way. You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as “scum,” but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don’t worry about this. It’s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes. In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few weeks. Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten. Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic. Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully. Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary. Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?
10. Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out. I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage, then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a boost with an active culture starter.