Nathan+G.

February 28th, 2014

=Wiki Post #1= **Unit 1: Genetics** **Genetics and existence**

Genetics
====Genetics is a fascinating concept that helps us understand why we are who we are. Or at least, how we exist the way we do. Every human is a product or result of their genes and environment. We study and explore human genetics for a better understanding of our selves, and in hopes to alleviate challenges in our lives such as disease and other flaws. What a gene actually is, is a configuration of base pairs that sit on our DNA which is spiraled or coiled into chromosomes which can be found inside the nucleus of our cells. Pretty small. But play a big role. Such as what we will look like. Our hair, eyes, skin tone...everything is made according to the information it has, which is passed down to us through our parents. Through our **genetics**.====

====In genetics, the question of how processes like, transcription, translation and protein synthesis even happen, or how they happen is asked often. The body, a living organism is truly a symphony of miracles playing together. It's poetry. We ask questions to further our understanding and potentially expand our experiences. It seems as though the big question is, "why does anything exist at all?" In answering this, we must first understand our selves, and genetics gives us a wonderful start.====

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the video above talks about locating our ancestors with genetics, and talks about how we all am from the same place, which is helpful when understanding how we got here, and also just cool.

The study of human genetics
====As mentioned earlier, we study genetics to understand inheritance as it occurs within us. The study can be of use as it can answer questions about our human nature and developing diseases. One field of genetics is, Genomics. Genomics talks about the structures and functions of genomes. A genome is actually the entire count of DNA inside an organism or cell. This is cool because we study the human genome, which looks at the amount of genes within a human chromosome. When it comes to Biology, Genomics has the biggest collaborative project known as the Human Genome Project (HGP). The group set out to map the nucleotides inside a human genome...which has over 3 billion.====

Picture of the HGP logo

Genetic flaws
With existence comes death. Mother nature has her ways of making sure the cycle of cells doesn't stop, but we do in fact die. This could be from anything, but in our genes we have flaws that prevent us from staying alive forever. **A single gene disorder** is a result of one mutated gene. We humans have over 4000 diseases we can be born with, or develop over time from one mutated gene. We have two types of genes, dominant and recessive. Dominant disorders are more of threat to us because there is a higher chance of getting a disorder. If one parent carries the gene, then the child will have a 50% chance to inherit the disorder. In recessive, if both parents carry one copy of the mutated gene, and the child receives two copies, they would inherit a disorder. It is more likely to have a dominant disorder, because recessive disorders would only have a 25% chance of being a problem.

The picture below captures the concept of dominant and recessive well. If the letter is an upper case, it is dominant. Lower case for recessive. This example shows traits, but would work the same way with a disorder.

We have multiple types of mutations, and multiple ways they can occur. Germline mutations are hereditary. The sperm and egg cell that makes a person would have the mutation. This type of mutation is inside every cell of the body and will stay there for a life time. There are mutations that occur only in the sperm and egg cell or just after fertilization, which means the child could have the mutation in every cell, but have no family members that passed it down. There are mutations that happen during life that we can obtain. Things like certain environmental factors or ultra violet rays from the sun can mutate the cell, and birth a new genetic mutation.

"That mutation is very groovy" - professor X, X-MEN first class

How does any of this field of biology contribute to our understanding of existence?
We must understand ourselves in order to understand anything else, genetics is a map leading us back to how we were made and why we look and act the way we do. If we can use genetics to our advantage and cure disease from our studies, we have gained more knowledge about life. Deep stuff. However, we need it on our "mission" to understanding why we are even here in the first place. Biology is the study of life.

(Tree of life...felt this was necessary)

Further reading on genetics:
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Cool article: [|http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Teen+survives+rare+cancer+then+wants+study+helping+scientists/9563208/story.html]

HGP: []

Song i listened to while making this blog:
media type="youtube" key="jdYJf_ybyVo" width="560" height="315"

References:
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 * WATCH THE XMEN MOVIES AND THINK ABOUT GENETICS* Peace out!

May 3rd, 2014 = = =Wiki Post #2= =UNIT: Evolution= =Natural selection=

What is natural selection?
Natural selection is a mechanism for how populations adapt to their environment. This is simply the definition. But why does evolution take place naturally? And why do we learn it all from Charles Darwin?

The organism will develop a necessity!

Natural selection is what keeps things interesting in terms of watching the world. Interesting because we can study the changes in a species and not know why it would change, or what decides anything should change at all...ever. **However**, we do know that the environment controls natural selection. For example, we need to use something if we wish for an evolved form. We look back to Jean Baptiste Lamarck and think of his ideas. We look back at the idea of the giraffe neck, and how they eventually got longer to make eating from tall trees easier. It makes you wonder about what could be evolved with the right persistence. However, things don't just evolve. There has to be an actual **benefit** in order to change something.

[|THIS IS A GREAT VID ON NATURAL SELECTION! CLICK HERE TO WATCH!]


 * Natural selection** is very interesting because it suggests that the alleles of an organism can change, or produce offspring with different alleles simply because what the parent was doing was important enough to be recognized as a benefit. But who and what decides? Does DNA or mother nature just finds a way to morph these changes? The earth and all of its creatures are in perfect harmony. In other words, if one changes, than the other responds. It's rather intimate.

I feel as though the tree of life will be relevant for every single wiki post i make. Everything is connected.

Thoughts and questions
Natural selection is a great topic for us humans because it gets us eventually thinking about the bigger picture. In this case, it makes me think about the universe and all of its planets. Does evolution like this only ever happen on earth? Or is it possible to happen to other places? I mean the only reason we could ever say it only happens on earth is because earth is the only place we have life, or better said, life to study. Now of course natural selection is a human idea, as is everything else we an comprehend, but it seems to be our best guess. The universe (so we call it) is so mysterious in that way. There is so much hiding from us, and all we can do is make sense out of something by asking other humans about it. It would be almost frustrating if i didn't think it was so d amn cool...Thinking that is. BUT WHAT ELSE IS THERE MR.SMITH WHAT IS OUT THERE I WANNA KNOW I WANNA STUDY IT

Darwin
The human Charles Darwin proposed to us this idea of natural sele ction. In 1831, Charles joined a five year scientific expedition, on a ship called the HMS Beagle. He was able to be on land and study geology and make natural history collections. In his findings were fossils he believed to have lived thousands of years ago. One problem in the time period in which Darwin was around, was being recognized by others. Because of his voyage, he made a name for him self as a geologist and by publishing his work into a book, THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. BEAGLE. It was in 1837 when Darwin started to wonder where species come from. After detailed investigation and thinking, he came to his theory about natural selection. Charles had waited to announce his theory, and it wasn't until another man, Alfred Russel Wallace, until he decided to act. Together, they put the theory out into the world as THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES by means of natural selection.

What this all means to me
This is the segment of the wiki where i say that this stuff is truly mind bottling. Easy to understand, but gets me thinking far beyond the easy concepts of how things simply change. If i can talk about how i want to dissect every piece of existence, here in this post, then i am glad to do it. Natural selection is valid... But for how long? What's our planets potential and what does it mean for us? And how does evolution play into that?

Songs i listened to while making the post:
[|Michicant- Bon Iver]

[|War (what is it good for)- Edwin Starr]

Further readings:
[] further reading

[] further reading with cool ideas and outlooks

[] neat examples of evolution through natural selection

[] cool site where there are interesting Q&A

References:
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=Wiki Post #3= =Unit: Nervous system= =Reflexes=

Reflexes
Reflexes are a mechanism we have to stay safe in our environment. I chose to do this wiki post on reflexes because of a recent encounter i had when trying to trigger my own reflexes. The idea of our body acting on its own is quite the concept to us. To understand it, we have to take a look inside and see how the firing of neurons can move our bodies when we did not make the conscious decision to do so ourselves. Our body does many things on its own. and reflexes are a prime example of how amazing our bodies really are. . Now for some messed up reason, this test didn't get me kickin.

Reflexes and Neurons
Reflexes are pretty simple to understand because the neurons fire without you having to process what's happening. Basically, the sensory neurons, (that control signals being sent to the brain and spinal cord) and motor neurons (controls signals being sent to body from brain and spinal cord) act to move you. Depending on what it might be, your body sends a signal using its sensory neurons, to pass a message on to the spinal cord, and once received, the motor neurons act to move the body part from where the original signal was sent from. In the case of a reflex, inter neurons aren't activated because it is an immediate connection between the sensory neurons and the motor neurons. This process is extremely quick and will happen whether you want it to or not. Reflexes can be easily understood, but at the same time they can't be. I mean, it is easy to see a diagram and understand what's happening with the exchange of certain neurons, but why does this happen is the bigger question. How is it that our bodies have a mechanism to dodge, or react to something around it, when consciously, we don't even realize if something is there in the first place. We are more than just a bag of bones, and we are certainly smart in a number of ways. Your body is your vehicle, and one you should be proud of and should take care of. It's what lets us absorb the surround world. Appreciate the unknown that your body can perform.

"You are not a body that has a soul, you are a soul that has a body"

Signal goes in and signal sends out a response I put the tree of life here this time because i felt as though it fits with the idea of the ---magnificent human body.

Reflex Arc- "Knee Jerk"
The knee jerk is a great example of the reflexes taking control. A small hammer, or in your case, the blunt end of some scissors, are used to hit the patellar tendon. Tapping this ligament in your knee will activate or stimulate the muscle spindles in your quadriceps. Because the muscle spindles felt this tapping, your sensory neurons "kick in" (no pun intended) and pass a message to your spinal cord saying, "react" and at this point, the spinal cord will synapses with your motor neurons. This will result in your leg kicking out, as your quadriceps contract and extend the knee all because of the neurons sending signals. ( This was the test my leg didn't react to )

[|This video is boring, but explains how the knee jerk reflex works pretty well!]

The Mind and the Body
Our temple, our vehicle and our life is lived and expressed through the body. Learning about the body has been incredible. Things like reflexes, intelligence and effects from drugs have really opened my eye up to how amazing our body is, and how dangerous it can be to be out of harmony. It is interesting to me how we know so much about the body, and so little about the mind. Obviously it is easier to pick up a tangible item and observe it, and maybe that's why we have a great understanding on how our bodies work, but we still have so much to learn, or better said, "guess" about the mind. The mind is like a vast field in which we got lost in when it comes to exploring and figuring out. We weren't given a map to the answers of life and we weren't any clues. We were just lucky enough to have the ability to be aware. So how could we possibly begin making hypothesizes about something we cannot physically hold and ask others about. All we have are our thoughts, and all we can do with those is think about them. Confusing. But fun. We were meant to ask questions, and whether or not we were meant to have answers, we have life around us and within us. The body and the mind are one. When you're pissed off, your face shows it. When you are in pain you scream. Of course, these are just my thoughts, but i am grateful i was able to put them here for you to think about. This is the section where i dig deeper than the topic i chose.



Further readings
[|Reflexes in babies]

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[|Site that gives tips for strengthening reflexes in boxing]

[|Describes how the reflexes start becoming stronger and more alert]