Kayla+G.

January 24th, 2014.

Wiki Post #3:


 * Mutations caused by Chernobyl **

In 1986, a disaster struck Chernobyl when huge amounts of radioactivity were released into the atmosphere. This disaster caused many health problems and mutations to people living in Chernobyl but also to people living near it as well.

(Where the Chernobyl accident occurred)


 * Thyroid cancer **

Thyroid cancer was one of the biggest problems that came about the people living around and in Chernobyl. It is the absorption of radio-iodine into the thyroid gland caused many to have thyroid cancer. The thyroid hormone made by this gland is in charge of growth and physical and mental development.

Ten years prior to the Chernobyl accident only seven children in Belarus contracted thyroid cancer. After a short four years of the accident the numbers rose x30. But it was in 1995 that the World Health Organisation linked the radiation from Chernobyl and thyroid cancer.

They say a total of 4,000 people, mostly teens and children who were living in the areas where there was severe contamination at the time of the accident, have already contracted cancer of the thyroid.

(patients who suffered Thyroid Cancer)

Other problems that arouse in the Chernobyl population include: Leukaemia and non-thyroid solid cancer, mortality, cataracts, cardiovascular disease, mental health and psychological effects etc. (Health problems many children faced)

Another effect Chernobyl had been on the women who were pregnant. The fetus is particularly prone to damage from radiation. This cause an increase in the number of miscarriages, premature births and stillbirth. As well as three times the normal rate of abnormalities and deformities in newborns.

(Images of different health issues faced by newborns and how they develop as they grow up)

(Chernobyl accident and images of people who suffered health problems due to the accident) media type="youtube" key="mXMUTaSortI" width="560" height="315"

[] (trailer and information about the movie!) [] (information about tours!) [] (great news reports on Chernobyl) [] (pictures of Chernobyl after 25 years)
 * Read more: **

Sources sited: [] [] [] [] []

December 1st, 2013. Wiki Post #2 (evolution): == = Evolution of the Brain =

Over the last seven million years, the size of the human brain has tripled. Thanks to fossils, we are able to study and observe the changes the brain goes through overtime.  ( Funny comic strip that shows how the brain processed for each of the following and beside it is a picture of the Lucy fossil)

For more than half of our history, the size of our ancestors’ brains was very similar to those of apes living today. The Lucy fossil (shown in the top right hand corner) began to show changes in the brain structure and shape as compared to apes. Things like the neocortex began to expand in size, causing it to reorganize its functions away from visual processing and towards other parts of the brain.

( Parts of the brain, specifically looking at the Neocortex)

But it was during the remainder of our evolution where we saw most of the action in brain size. We saw a hop in brain size in the first of our genus Homo. This also included the expansion of our language- connected part of the frontal lobe. The species brains slowly started to get bigger. The brains of early Homo sapiens were close in size to people today. Brains were growing to accommodate the dramatic changes for dietary needs, technological changes, cultural etc. The more noticeable shape changes had to do with planning, problem solving, communication and other advanced functions.

( The physical changes the brain has gone through over the years)

Within the past 10,000 years ironically evolution shows that the existence of humans actually caused our brains to shrink. Things like limited nutrition in agricultural populations may have been a causing factor. Yet in the past 100 years, studies show that if a child’s nutrition increased and disease declined the brain size could potentially be restored.

=Evolution of the Brain= = media type="youtube" key="T4BcDIT-vwQ " width="616" height="346" =

( This video talks about how the brain has evolved over thousands of years)

Read more: [] - This site tells you more about different parts of the brain and how they have changed [] - Fun brain facts! [] -Evolution lead to better brains [] -Brain diagram and explanation [] [] [] [] [] []
 * Sources Cited: **

October 11th, 2013. Wiki Post #1 (genetics):


 * Colorblindness? **

When you think of someone who is colorblind, most people think they’re only able to see black and white. In fact, it’s pretty rare to be completely color blind. Our eyes see by light stimulating the retina, which is made up of rods and cones. Rods are used to give us our night vision while the cones are what help us distinguish color in daylight. Our genes are what contain the coding instructions for pigments. Therefore, if our coding instructions are wrong, the wrong pigments will be displayed. This will cause the cones in our eyes to become sensitive to different wavelengths of light, resulting in color deficiency.



5% to 8% of the men and 0.5% of the women worldwide are born colorblind. That's as high as one out of twelve men and one out of two hundred women. Can you see the number?

//Monochromasy:// Is the complete absence of any color sensation.
 * Types of color vision deficiencies: **

//Trichromasy: //  People who are able to see all the different colors have normal cones and light sensitive pigment. They are able to see mixtures of colors by using cones sensitive to one of the three wavelength of light. The wavelength of light includes red, green and blue. //Anomalous Trichromasy (includes protanomaly and deuteranomaly): // When one or more of the three cones light sensitive pigments aren’t working to full potential this is known as mild color deficiency.

//Protanomaly: // Protanomaly occurs in one of 100 males. This form of color deficiency is also referred to as “red-weakness”. Meaning that any sort of color that is red, seen by the normal eye would be seen as a weakened “color power” and brightness to someone who has protanomaly.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">(On the left is a normal observer and on the right is an individual with protanomaly.)

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Deuteranomaly: // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Deuteranomaly occurs in five out of 100 males. A deuteranomalous person has difficulty distinguishing differences with hues of red, orange, yellow and green. They will often tend to have trouble naming hues in this region due to the fact that they appear redder to them. Deuteranomalous individuals do not lose a sense of brightness in color like protanomalous individuals do.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">//Dichromasy:// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Dichromasy happens to two out of 100 males. These individuals do not see a difference in color between red, orange, yellow and green. These colors would easily be distinguished as different to the normal eye but all the same for two percent of the population that suffers from Dichromasy. Dichromasy is able to divide into two subsets, protanopia and deuteranopia.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Protanopia: // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The brightness of reds, oranges and yellows are dimmed for one out of 100 males.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Deuteranopia: // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">One out of 100 males suffer the same hue problem as protanope but without the abnormal dimming.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">media type="youtube" key="8Aaivktz8G0 " width="560" height="315"

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">- More information <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">- Self test
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Read more: **

[] [] [] [] []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Sources Cited: **