Current Events 2 - Deleting "Homer Simpson Gene" Creates Super Smart Mice

Deleting "Homer Simpson Gene" Creates Super Smart Mice

Adrian 7A

September 29

Scientists from Emory University have made a pretty surprising discovery: There was a gene in mouse brains, when deleted, makes the mice smarter. The mice with the gene removed remembered objects and navigated around mazes than mice with the gene intact. The article I read called the gene-removed mice "Mensa mice," and I did some researching on that topic, and it turns out that Mensa is a club for people/geniuses with very high IQs. The gene the scientists deleted is the RGS14 gene, which is located in the CA2 region of the Hippocampus. (great naming, right?) The hippocampus is the part of the brain that deals with learning, and although scientists know a lot about the hippocampus, the CA2 region is  almost unknown.

It seems surprising that the brain has things in it that make it dumber, and not smarter. You would think it would have gotten deleted during evolution, or maybe it has some hidden purpose. This scenario is similar to a story that made news in the tech world recently, that there was a leaked image that showed  that Intel would be putting fully capable processors in laptops but limiting their functionality, and to unlock full performance and functionality, users would have to buy a card with a special code for $50. Maybe in the future, students will routinely have an operation at a young age to remove the gene, and all students would be smarter. It's hard to see where this is going.
Sources: http://gizmodo.com/5642016/deleting-homer-simpson-gene-creates-super-smart-mice

Questions from Mr. Watts's Presentation

When does reproduction occur?

It occurs when the organism finds a place to give birth where the newborns have food and are safe.

How did this presentation help tie in everything we have learned?

 It showed how organisms survive in an eco system with adaptations and how they interact.

What interactions between these animals did you notice? (For example, think about these various forms of interactions that you have been studying for your project: producers, consumers, decomposers, predation, commensalism, parasitism, mutualism)
There is Why do animals migrate? (What is occurring within their environment that triggers this response?)

They need to always have food and a suitable environment. If the environment loses its food for the winter or gets too cold, then the organism must migrate. What adaptations did the animals exhibit in the polar region? (For example: body shape, appendages, wing span, food, coloration, stream-lined bodies, teeth, beaks, blubber, fur, group formations, hooks on tentacles, etc...)

What adaptations did the animals exhibit?

Some animals had thick fur or blubber to protect from cold. One of the birds had an extremely large wingspan to help it fly better. What various (breeding) mating rituals do species have?

As far as I know, many species always come back to a certain spot for breeding. How did this presentation provide examples of what we have been studying?

Mr. Watts showed us what adaptations animals had to survive, how they interacted with other organisms, and what heir ecosystem was and when they went there/what they did there, all of which are things that we are studying.
What are you wondering about now?

I think that it would be interesting to have a similar presentation to this, except for a completely different biome, for example a desert.

When Plants Cry for Help, Predator Bugs Answer

When Plants Cry for Help, Predator Bugs Answer

Plants have a big perpetual problem: they need to protect themselves from pest, but they can move a centimeter. So how do they do it? In the case of the wild tobacco plant (Nicotiana attenuata), when a caterpiller start eating them, they can release compounds that attract predator bugs too eat the caterpillars. Those compounds are called Green leaf Volatiles, also known as GLVs. GLVs are also found in freshly mowed grass. When a caterpillar eats the plant,  its saliva causes changes in the GLVs that the tobacco plant releases, then attracting predators. This information was found out recently in a study done by a science institute in Amsterdam.
I find this amusing, that even in nature without humans, plants have a way to "tattle tell," and in nature the punishment for being caught is death. I always thought that plants where dumb, defenseless organisms, but I guess that this proves me wrong. I wonder if this system could ever fail, possibly if the tobacco plant doesn't have enough of a specific type of GLV that attracts predators.

Sources
"When Plants Cry for Help, Predator Bugs Answer." EurekAlert! - Science News. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Sept. 2010. .

Survival

    In the video that we watched in class, I learned that animals make certain adaptations to help them survive in a sometimes difficult-to-survive-in environment, some frogs can freeze themselves to hibernate through the winter.



In this video, although it is aimed at younger students, it shows that all animals make adaptations. For example, a turtles, feet are webbed to help push him through the water. Other adaptations that animals make that I got from out class video included using bright color's on a frog's body to indicate poison in its body, and using camouflage to hide oneself from a predator. Another adaptation is drinking water from fog in areas where there are no lakes, seas or rivers.

What did I learn?
I learned that when an environment that an organisms lives in isn't ideal, over a long time the organisms can adapt itself of the environment to mike life more livable.
What was interesting?
I found it interesting how complex and clever the adaptations can be. For example, the snapper turtle has a tongue that looks like a worm to lure food into its mouth. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Living Things and the Environment

What needs are met by an organism's environment?
Need like food, water,  and shelter are met by and organism's environment.
What are the two parts of an organism's habitat with which it interacts?
Biotic and Abiotic factors are the two parts of an organism's habitat with which it interacts.
What are the levels of organization within an ecosystem?
From smallest to largest, the levels of organization within an ecosystem are as follows: 
1. Organism
2.Population
3.Community
4. Ecosystem
Why do you find different kinds of organisms in different habitats?
Because many different organisms need the same type of ecosystem.
Think about what will soon start happening within Belgrade. How do animals prepare for such a change?
Soon animals will start hibernating for the winter.


This is a video about a team of researchers, and gray whales. I'm focusing mostly on the whales.
What would happen if we took away one or more of the living or nonliving factors in its environment? Which factors could they survive without?
If we took away one of the biggest factors in their environment, the water, they would die. Similarly, if we took away their food, plankton and small fish, they would starve and die. One factor the could EASILY live without is the pollution and trash in the water. They probably could live without a few other factors like some larger fish that they don't eat.

Living Things

A living things is an organism. It needs:

• Water
• Nutrients
• To excrete waste
• To grow
• Almost all need oxygen
• To have cell(s)

Things I want to know about biology:

• How long have humans been on the top of the food chain?
• Who's second on the food chain?
• Would a human be harmed if you took a random 1000 cells out of his body?