BIOL 1610 Spring 2018 Biology in the News

The brain is the most complex organ in the body and even with the technological advances in the past decades, scientists still have yet to name and understand the function of all the cells found in the brain. The "Black Box" of the brain is part of that unknown phenomena. The Black Box is a 3 pound section of the brain that researchers are still understanding. To further these studies, President Barrack Obama  launched the  Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative  on April 2, 2013. Along side other organizations such as the National Science Foundation  (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the BRAIN initiative launched with the goal to form a theory of how the brain functions over an organism. This new theory would be able to set a framework for all new information on brain science.  Basic studies were in order with a team effort of mathematicians, ne...

Blind, Hungry, and Mutated One of the most fascinating, yet terrifying, aspects of Biology is mutations and how they impact the functions of specific genes and proteins.  On March 21, 2018, The International Journal of Science discussed a unique mutation that occurs in the genes of Mexican cavefish.  The author of the article revealed the amazing benefit that has come to these fish from their inherited mutation.  These peculiar cavefish live on a skimpy diet and endure prolonged food shortages.  To survive their state of starvation, they must eat every last drop of food that enters their caves.  From research and study, a surprising outcome revealed another way these fish survive.               The question regarding cavefish genes arose when a comparison was made between the Mexican cavefish and their neighboring fish that live in the rivers above ground.   The comparison revealed the l...

I want to start off this blog post by giving an overview of my agricultural/gardening background since it has contributed to the holistic view I have and how I interpreted the article and the original research. I also will link to other articles and documentaries (most in Scientific American) I have read over the past 14 years that have formed my current perspective of this many-faceted topic.  I grew up in a community that still had enough peripheral land being farmed that many of my classmates from junior high on up were children of farmers. Gardening has been a part of my life since before I can remember, which was probably when I was a toddler and would pick raspberries or peas out of my family’s garden. As I grew older, I was involved in other areas of the family garden (which I despised at the time), but I became a backyard gardener, by choice, 13 years ago after my husband and I were married and had a garden area in our first rental and I realized how therapeutic it wa...

Could More Snow in Antarctica Slow Sea Level Rise? I found this article very interesting as it potentially has an affect on every living organism on the planet! It is important for us to know about as well. This article explains that in East Antarctica, there has been higher volumes of snowfall which is then packed into ice. The question is, will this increase the rate of sea level rise or not? The article argues that the higher amounts of snowfall in the east could potentially decrease the amount of ice melt occurring in the west. Scientists say that Antarctica has potential for over 200 feet of sea level rise upon the melting of its ice. With that being said, it would be comforting if the increased amount of snowfall in the east did prevent higher levels of ice melt in the west because this would maintain the storage of water in Antarctica and not contribute to such drastic sea level rise. A scientific team recently proved that there is 25% higher snowfall levels in east Antarcti...

Telomere Length and Bipolar Disorder             Bipolar disorder is a type of mood disorder where a person alternates from having manic episodes to major depressive episodes. There are two types: bipolar I and bipolar II. The first type is more severe since the individual suffers from a full manic episode. The second type is less detrimental because the person suffers from a major depressive episode to a hypomanic episode. A hypomanic episode is when the person doesn’t suffer from social or occupational impairment compared to a full manic episode. Around 10-25% of people who have bipolar II will eventually develop bipolar I. Suicide is also the most common consequence by almost always occurring during the individual’s depressive episodes and rates are 4 times higher than people who have major depressive disorder.             For many mood disorders, the interactions of bi...

Dale Kimball BIOL 1610 18 March 2018 Sex Cell Mutations: Is Having Kids at an Older Age the Best Option?             In class, we have been learning about how when DNA is replicated, mutations occur. These mutations are due to insertions, deletions, duplications, and point mutations to name a few. When the mutations occur in sex cells, sperm and eggs, the mutations pass down to the next generation. In males, sperm cells are constantly undergoing meiosis, while in females, most of the sex cell duplication ends at an earlier age. In the research article “Older Parents May Both Pass Down More New Mutations”, Dr. Stefansson explains how and why older parents are more likely to have children with significant genetic mutations than younger parents.             Dr. Stefansson studied the genomes of 5,000 people in Iceland and analyzed how often ‘de novo’, or new, mutatio...

Davis Zwicky Dr. G  Biol 1610 Blog Post Today I came across an article that has a possible solution of removing tattoos in the near future as an alternative to laser removal. Laser tattoo removal is notorious for being very painful, time costly, and expensive. An article was posted in The Journal of Experimental Medicine explaining that a French research team has found a possible alternative involving blocking the immune system's macrophages, eventually leading the tattoo to be erased as the cells die off.  I was very interested in this post because I have always been fascinated with tattoos and the stories behind the people that get them. I have seen plenty of amazing tattoos in my life and just as many, if not more, tattoos that people regret getting and no longer want on their body. When I talk to the people that do not like the tattoos on their body I ask them if they are thinking about getting them covered up or even removed. Almost everyone says that they a...