Savannah+M.


 * __//Wiki Post #1 ://__ Genetics**

Have you ever wondered where you got your eye color? Or even what color eyes your children will have? Something that most people believe is that it takes one gene to make up the color of your eyes. The color of your eyes is dependent on what scientists believe to be 8 genes. The genes control the amount of melanin inside specialized cells inside the iris. The //OCA2// gene controls almost three quarters of the brown to blue spectrum. If you have blue or brown eyes it means you almost certainly have an OCA2 gene.

Charles and Gertrude Davenport came to a conclusion that brown eyes were more dominant than blue eyes. The had a hypothesis that if two parents both had blue eyes that their children would only have blue eyes. That there would be no other eye color, but their hypothesis was proven wrong when there were two parents with blue eyes and their child had brown eyes. They realized that there were many genes that contributed to eye color, and they later found out that your skin tone and hair color can play an important factor to your eye color. Charles and Gertrude Dav enport

The gene that controls eyes is the same gene that controls hair color and skin color. It is a pigment called melanin and it is created by melanocytes. They store the melanocytes in an intracellular compartment known as melanosomes. 

Here is a picture of how typically a persons skin tone would affect their eye color. Ex: the picture at the top left corner when you think of someone with red hair and freckles what color do you normally assume their eyes are going to be?

The most recent news about how many genes it can take to make an eye color is 150 genes CAN influence the color of your eyes, skin, and hair. Here is an updated li st of the genes: [|Gene Chart]

media type="youtube" key="MjBZaed9yzM" width="425" height="350"A simpler understanding of how eye color really works.

This picture is showing the difference between the amount of melanosomes in blue eyes down to the brown eye spectrum.

To read more about eye color you can visit: [|Eye Color Genetics Chart] [|The Genetics of Eye Color] [|How are our eye colors inherited?] [|Myths about Human Genetics]

Something you may find interesting: You can see what color of eyes your baby might have. []

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//__** Wiki Post #2 - Evolution **__//

Did you know that one out of eight hundred american babies will have down syndrome? Have you wondered how a child of two healthy parents can have a child with down syndrome? I have, so I have decided to do a little research on the biological aspects of it. I have created a punnet square to show you how a child can develop down syndrome.


 * = AA = || = Aa = ||
 * = Aa = || = aa = ||

With being normal being the dominant gene is this example (A) and down syndrome being the recessive (a); the only way for a child to develop down syndrome is if **__BOTH__** parents are heterozygous (Aa) or have at least **__ONE__** parent be homozygous recessive (aa). From the example up above both parents have heterozygous genes which gives their offspring a 25% chance of having a child with down syndrome.

Okay okay lets go to the beginning. My very first question is what is Down Syndrome and how does it happen within the body? Some say that when you have a child with Down Syndrome or Trisomy 21 as it's known in the medical community is a kind of mutation in the process of cell division. In a way that is true because when you are going through the process not everything has been done correctly or properly if you will. The 21st chromosome has an extra copy, and the addition of the unwanted chromosome causes the fetus to have different levels of mental impairment and physical abnormalities. Some of the more milder cases of down syndrome may even have difficulties with communication skills.

As you can see in this photo the twenty first chromosome looks noticeably different from the rest. Why? Because there is one extra chromosome that is associated with it. Even though it is just one chromosome out of many it has a very important role.

How is it that you know someone has Down Syndrome? It is sometimes easy to recognize that someone has Downs because of their facial features. Why do you think that is? Well it is unknown why their facial features seem to be be different from the rest of ours, but their looks can be deceiving. When you see a child who has DS you automatically think that they will be behind of their age level; that is not necessarily true...Some have the ability to learn at the same pace and on the rare occasion quicker than the kids their own age.

as you can notice from this little girl is that her facial features seem to be a little closer together than what you normally see.

This photo shows some of the symptoms of Down Syndrome. There are some cases where you have only a few of these symptoms or you have them all. Some people may have DS and you might not even know it because they show none of the features that most Down Syndrome people have..

media type="youtube" key="bEVkbuooXo4" width="420" height="315"This video gives a little more understanding. It's always easier to watch something instead of reading isn't it?

To get more information about Down Syndrome you can go here: Down Syndrome International [|Down Syndrome Q&A] Ups of Downs Frequently Asked Questions About Down Syndrome

Sources: []

@http://down-syndrome.emedtv.com/down-syndrome/down-syndrome-effects.html

@http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/down-syndrome/DS00182/DSECTION=causes

__**Wikipost #3- Evolution of the** **Finches**__

Have you ever taken the time to notice the birds? A lot of people think that different shapes and sizes and birds with different beaks that means they are a different kind of bird all together. While Darwin was on the Galapagos Island he noticed the shape and sizes of birds, he dug a little deeper and he noticed that they are all finches, but depending on where he was they had different beak sizes. Darwin's sketches of what the different finches looked like.

Let's talk about the 4 different kinds of birds that he observed:

1. Geospiza magnirrostris- It's a bird with a wide beak that is hard enough to be able to break into tree nuts anything that would be suitable for food.

2. Geospiza fortis- The birds beak has become smaller than the one that came before it. It is still hard enough to break into tree nuts, but it's becoming softer because of the environment that it is living in.

3. Geospiza parvula- The beak is now soft and pointed and used to eat things such as worms and other soft creatures. They are flying to different parts of the island and it causes for change in the food supply.

4. Certhidea olivasea- They have needle like beaks now that will be able to suck pollen and nectar from flowers and plants.

The change in these birds are drastic. They have been naturally selected to live in the environment they have been placed. They were forced to change their feeding habits as well with the physical appearance to coincide with the new foods they will have to try and catch.

media type="youtube" key="2k2UxiHREUM" width="420" height="315" More information about Finches.



Finches that have evolved overtime, because of their eating habits. The picture explains what the evolution of finches occurred; which part of their body and what kind of animals, and plants they eat.

Another picture of the original finch branching off into the other the other types of finches...


 * __Wikipost #4__**

Did you ever have an allergy you never thought was an allergy? Well there are allergies that go around that go around for quite a while and most think that they are common when really they have only scratched the surface and never took the time to see what was going on inside their body.

One allergy that people tend to bypass the most is mosquitoes. Now when you see someone who attracts mosquitoes and you see them scratching like crazy. Well they are now starting to think that people may actually be suffering from allergic reactions from mosquitoes.

Something about the science of mosquitoes just doesn't seem to add up. They bite you then depending on who you are and you medical background you can break out immediately with small bite marks, or they can be like me break out and have major swelling.

This is what people face and others face much worse.

The thing that gets to me the most is that people don't understand how dangerous mosquitoes really are. Malaria that is killing hundreds of people comes from mosquitoes. They don't think Malaria could ever make its way to Canada, well they may be mistaken someday.

The scariest things about mosquitoes is that even though you may kill like 20 a day they produce every couple of minutes.

cool links:

http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Mosquito-Bites-from-Itching

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/are-you-mosquito-magnet

http://insects.about.com/od/insectpests/f/mosquitoitch.htm

//**__wiki post__** __**5**__//

Around Darwins time they began to notice the lines in rocks and how there was color changes in the rocks. lighter and darker (or worn and new)... they would also begin to notice species that have gone extinct embedded into the rocks and they could date it back to the time the species was.

Extinct species in rock where they could now take samples to try and figure out when this creature lived and assume that the earth would have been around for at least 10 years before that.

the layers of rock. These could be dated back to thousands of years ago.

media type="youtube" key="0rSFnuZy7dM" width="560" height="315"

Did the bible just put a date on the Earth just to make dating all significant events easier?

cool links:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html

http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth

there are so many things that everyone will try and pick a part with science and try and figure out every little thing about the world we live in...like it's age. https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=641&q=darwins+finches&oq=darwins+finches&gs_l=img.3...2592.10837.0.11282.17.14.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1ac.1.14.img.woBTera50b8&safe=active#facrc=_&imgrc=kTQtQMuXEQNn4M%3A%3BtNIT7-v82MqVCM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252Fa%252Fae%252FDarwin%27s_finches_by_Gould.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcommons.wikimedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFile%253ADarwin%27s_finches_by_Gould.jpg%3B1748%3B1319