Bibliography!

Genetics Home Reference. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 30 May 2011. Google. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/myotonia-congenita>.

Wikipedia contributors. "Bromeliaceae." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2 Jun. 2011. Web. 3 Jun. 2011. 

Scott, Susan. Susanscott. Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 25 May 2001. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://www.susanscott.net/OceanWatch2001/may25-01.html>.

Wikipedia contributors. "Crown-of-thorns starfish." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 24 May. 2011. Web. 3 Jun. 2011. 

McCauley, Brian. "Fern sporophyte and spore production." Biology 6A. De Anza College, 28 Oct. 2008. Web. 3 June 2011. <http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/mccauley/6a-labs-plants-02.htm>.

Class notes

The parts of a fern

Today I picked a fern leaf from my front yard and decided to label it and use it as a scrapbook entry. In the picture below it shows the backside of the fern where I labeled the frond, leaflet and sorus (The main visible parts). The frond is basically just the whole fern leaf and has many leaflets sprouting off of it. On each leaflet is about 40 sori that each contain sporangia which cannot be seen with the naked eye. Most of the ferns here have sori that look orange or brown but because there are over 10,500 different species of ferns, its not hard to find one that looks different like this one that has white sori. Sporangia located on the sori go through meiosis and produce spores. The sporophyte is the dominant generation - It is vascular, diploid and is the stage you see when walking in nature.

The biology in my fruit salad

Today I was making a fruit salad and as I began to cut up my pineapple, I thought about the 3 types of different fleshy fruits. I remembered learning that pineapples are called a 'multiple' fruit because one pineapple is made up of many ovaries of many flowers. To us, pineapple is just a tasty fruit but they are actually important in the life cycle of a plant. They derive from the mature ovary and aid in seed dispersal as well as protecting the seed.

Pineapples are from a specific family of monocot angiosperms called Bromeliaceae that are known to be able to store water in their tightly overlapping leaves (In the case the crown/shoot apex). I checked the leaves of the pineapple which were infact parallel, and I found out that they have fibrious roots as apose to a taproot so I knew it was a monocot.

Diatomatious Earth used in pools

I am currently training to be a lifeguard at the West Van aquatic center, and as part of the course we learn about cleaning and filtering the pool water. Along with gravel, sand and chemicals, one of the most common ways of filtering a pool is by using diatomaceous earth. After going through a few large particle pumps, the pool water travels through a tank that has polyethylene or stainless steel coated in diatomaceous earth which traps all the small particles.

In class we learned about the algae diatoms that have special glass-like walls called silica. When the diatoms die, their silica remains and makes a rock or powder called 'diatomite' or 'diatomaceous earth'. It is very abrasive, light and porous which makes it useful for a whole variety of things like toothpaste, cat litter, activator in blood clot studies and even a stabilizer in dynamite. However the most common use for it is as a filtration aid (mostly in pools.) Since it is composed of microscopic hollow particles, it is able to filter out small, fine objects that would normally clog other types of filters.They do such a great job of filtering that pool water only needs to be replaced once a year!

Thorn-of-crowns tissue regeneration

I was babysitting my cousin last weekend and we watched a scene from Hercules in which he had to battle a mythological monster called a Lernaean Hydra (hydra meaning water serpent). It was however very hard to defeat because everytime one of its heads were chopped off, two new ones would grow back.

 

This reminded me of the crown-of-thorns starfish we had talked about in bio class because it is quite monstrous as well and can regenerate limbs like the hydra. Not only does it have a body covered in sharp spines containing painfull neurotoxins, but it is destroying many coral reefs around the world. Their populations have been growing since the 1970's so control measures have had to be implemented such as cutting them apart. However people realised that since echinoderms have remarkable tissue regeneration, dismembering them will only cause them to grow into two new starfish and that method was eliminated.

Fainting goats - Myotonia Congenita Disease

Recently my friend showed me a video about a certain breed of goats that are known for their frequent fainting. When they become starteled by something or get overly excited for food, their legs become stiff and they roll over onto their back. That is why they are nicknamed fainting goats or wooden leg goats.

This reaction is caused by a hereditary disease called Myotonia Congenita (Myotonia meaning the inability to relax voluntary muscle after vigorous effort and Congenita meaning present at birth.) This disease can relate to our class work because it is caused by a muation in the gene CLCN1 that is crutial for the movement of skeletal muscles. In a normal body, the protein produced by CLCN1 creates a ion flow that goes in and out of the muscles and allows normal muscle contractions. In a person or animal that has Myotonia Congenita, the mutation causes their ion flow to be much slower resulting in prolonges muscle contractions or severe muscle stiffness.