UNIT 11 BIO BLOG QUEST OPPORTUNITY : DISNEY'S EARTH MOVIE featured on EARTH DAY @WARD

Today during periods two and three, I was in the video studio watching Disney Nature’s Earth. This movie was a very beautiful movie reminding us the importance of nature that we don’t always think about. Often we spend a lot of time with modern day society, with transportation vehicles, supermarkets, recreational activities and technology that we forget about sustainability of our Earth. Earth Day each year on the twenty-second of April reminds us of the wildlife that is suffering from the consequences of our actions. I was amazed by the beauty of our planet as I saw the different species of animals and different parts of our world from the Arctic Circle to the Deserts closest to the Equator.


We don’t realize what is happening around us in other parts of the world unless we are amongst it. Changes are slowly happening and in no time it will be too late. The movie Earth, showed us the many affects that are causing changes that many animals have been used to for the past decades. Temperatures are warming causing polar ice caps melting too soon enough for polar bears to find food after hibernation. Baby cubs are starving and mother bears are weak after giving birth and feeding her cubs. The ice caps only stay firm for a small period of time making survival more crucial and dangerous than ever. The trees in the Arctic refreshes atmospheres of the entire planet as the number of trees in the arctic measure up to a total of 1/3 of the total rainforests that are still left on our planet today. The slight increase of deserts have totaled to 1/3 of all land and this keeps growing bigger; making it more difficult for elephants to find water and food. Dust storms make it harder for new elephants to travel through and make them more prone to be predators to nearby lions. Ultimately, challenges to survive are greater than ever.
Just like how we don’t realize the importance of wild life preservation since we live in the city, doesn’t mean that nature is not important to us. We abuse it and mistreat it: we litter over the grounds we walk on and use harmful pesticides to keep pests off our crops. Grass is a very important plant; in East Africa many animals and birds rely on grass for survival. Sometimes we just have to open our eyes and realize what is upon us to really know the true meaning of nature. Unfortunately, with nature comes the cycle of life. The movie also displayed how nature has taken its toll on species, like when the cheetah isolated one of the deer during migration and hunted it. Another example was when the lions were watching the elephants as they shared the same water supply. The lions knew that the older elephants were too big for them to hunt individually, so then they tried to go after the baby elephants. The older elephants used a defense mechanism that kept a baby in between a few of the large ones so that they could be protected. Not only did the elephants have to face dust storms but they also had to worry about being prey. Nature’s cycle life is natural, we shouldn’t have to make their life time shorter because of our relentless actions.
For a long time I have forgotten how beautiful nature was. I was caught up with present day life; with people going to convenient stores for medicine instead of natural remedies at home, going to the grocery store to get food rather than to farm and harvest your own and many more. The way of life has changed drastically but nature has remained. The only change to nature is the effects that have resulted from our careless actions; our littering, pesticide use, over exploitation of fisheries and forests and excessive human activity like pollution. Disney Nature’s Earth Movie helped me to remember and contemplate the importance of sustainability and wildlife. This movie has brought out the “greener” side of me and will continue to remind me to think twice before I think about littering carelessly.

Unit #8: Human Impact on Evolutionary Science

Q: Artificial selection has resulted in plants that are more disease-resistant, cows that produce more milk, and racehorses that run faster. One must wonder what will come next. Under what circumstances should humans be artificially selecting plants or animals, if any?

What is a selection? Who is responsible for the selection? What can be selected? The term was utilized by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improve survival or reproductive ability. Darwin identified natural and artificial selection. Humans have always tried to discover new things to improve lifestyles or to search for the secret of life with death. Artificial selection is the natural selection controlled by human species for different purposes. Some include gardening, medical uses and animal breeders. One of the greatest discoveries in medicine is the discovery of insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas which controls blood sugar. People with diabetes have the hormone insulin but it doesn't work properly and they need it to survive. Researchers have found ways to produce insulin using the pancreas from animals or modified cells. The discovery of the stem cell also plays an important role. These cells have a remarkable property to develop into many different types of cells in the body. In the future this cell could be used to replace different cells or organs destroyed by a disease. it is a new hope for people with incurable diseases and it is investing in this direction.

The video further explains what artificial selection is:


There is no doubt that artificial selection has been successful in producing cows that produce more milk, racehorses that run faster, extended medical lengths and farms that produce more crops. Artificial selection (sometimes known as selective breeding) describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. Artificial selection is used with humans in favour of specific traits, in natural selection the environment acts as a sieve through which only certain variations can pass. The deliberate exploitation of artificial selection has become very common in experimental biology as well as the discovery and invention of new drugs. Artificial selection is the process of changing the characteristics of animals by artificial means. For example, animal breeders, are often able to change the characteristics of domestic animals by selecting for reproduction those individuals with the most desirable qualities such as peed in racehorses, milk production in cows, trail scenting in dogs. Over the years, the plants with desirable characteristics are grown by man and their numbers increase. Meanwhile, plants without these characteristics are less likely to survive as they are not provided with the fertilisers and pesticides by man. Eventually, the species of the plant will evolute. Artificial selection can also be unintentional; and it is through that domestication of crops by early humans was largely unintentional.
Human intervention in animal or plant reproduction to ensure that certain desirable traits are represented in successive generations. I think that humans should not deliberately artificially select plants or animals under any circumstances. This is wrong and comes in the way of how nature should be. Everything is created differently and equally in their own ways and human scientifics do not have the right to come in the way. I think it is crazy how people are starting to breed animals for a desirable look. This goes for those puppy breeders out there. I know it's cute when the puppies come out but is it necessary to put two different species together so that they produce a cute mix? There are dogs in the pound who don't even have owners and day by day they are just waiting for the shot to end their life. I think it is important that we use artificial selection for good deeds and not for bad ones. Bad ones would be like duplicating something for leisure needs (puppies). Something acceptable would be the alteration of traits in plants to speed up growth, and to search for a cure to a disease. This is a great innovation in technology; but scientists need to keep in mind that we are interfering with nature's gift to us.


Links: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/533167/selective-breeding
http://www.helium.com/items/807237-artificial-selection-and-its-application-to-medicine

Q: "Designer babies" is the term being used by the media to describe the future of modifying or selecting our childrens genes for desirable characteristics (medical and cosmetic). Are things getting out of hand with our research into genetic processes? In this blog, investigate social and ethical implications of this research and technologies that have been developed from it.


Over the years, technology has improved drastically to improve medically. Further knowledge has led us to finding cures to diseases that were once deadly but now are curable. Unfortunately, not only have further advancements in technology benefit health care, it is starting to have a negative effect. People are finding different ways to clone human DNA and people have even created designer babies. Things are definitely getting out of hand with our research into genetic processes.

The study of genetic processing was first discovered by the human genome project developed in the mid 1980's where maps of the entire genetic makeup of human beings was produced. Prior to the human genome project, the genes for hereditary disorders such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and Huntington's chorea had been identified. The aim of the project was to add to this list so that new rugs and genetic therapies can be developed to combat genetic disorders. Huntington's Chorea was an incurable brain disorder that strikes people in the prime of time, setting them on an irreversible course of debilitating mental break down and eventual death. Victims had been described as being trapped inside their own bodies, unable to communicate. In 1993, Dr. Michael Hayden of the University of British Columbia led a team that isolated the gene responsible for Huntington's Chorea. As a result, doctors can now use a simple DNA test to screen people with a family history of the disease and warn potential sufferers, or parents who might pass on the disorder. Cystic Fibrosis is another inherited disorder. It is associated with a single gene, which produces a protein known as CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator). Those who suffer cystic fibrosis have to inherit two defective alleles, one from each parent. Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder that causes the weakening and deterioration of muscles. Some forms of muscular dystrophy result from defects on auto somal chromosomes and may occur in both males and females. How did something that was intended for a good cause end up so wrong? People are now trying to make babies cosmetically by duplicating DNA and genetics.

Reproductive techniques involve using invitra fertilzation or IVF to fertilize eggs with sperm in test tubes outside the mother's body in a laboratory. These techniques allow doctors and parents to reduce the chance that a child will be born with a genetic disorder. At the moment, it is possible to carry out two types of advaned reproductive technologies on humans. The first involves choosing the type of sperm that will fertilize an egg: used to determine the sex and the genes of the baby. The second technique screens embryos for a genetic disease: only selected embryos are implanted back into the mother's womb. These techniques are called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The option to being able to choose what gender and genes of the baby displays that we've come a far way with our research, but it has gone too far. Babies should be made naturally and not scientifically. Due to the advancements in scientific research with genetic processing, the future for natural babies will be foggy because people will choose to genetically modify the baby first. This is unfair for the baby, even though it is still a fetus this is very wrong.

It is very important that we acknowledge how far technology has brought us in the possible examination of inherited genetic diseases. We have originally used our knowledge for the cure of these diseases and that is how far we should take our knowledge. We should not use our knowledge for what is bad, because religiously this is very sinful. God has created us himself and for what he sees in his plan for us. If scientific research was to modify the genes of one, it would cause a lot of problems not only for what people believe in but for also the other possible genetic diseases that are not known yet.


Biology 11. Print.
Designer Baby Picture. Web. .
What is a Designer Baby? Web. .

Humans have negatively affected the biodiversity of our ecosystems through global warming.
Some people believe that global warming only affects the temperature of the world as ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland continue to melt. This is false; not only does global warming change more than just climate, but also the biodiversity of our ecosystems necessary in sustaining life forms. Climate change leads to the destruction of biodiversity. The constant changes in our climate has given little time for our natural ecosystems to adapt, causing massive extinctions, declining amphibian populations, dwindling fish stocks, declining ocean biodiversity and loss of forests which equates to a loss of many species. Not only have species in forests been declining and disappearing, there have been reported declining numbers of tigers, lions, rhinos, vultures, polar bears, penguins, monkeys, apes and other primates. Some people would think to themselves, “This doesn’t affect me,” but little do they know that it does affect them; and it threatens our existence on earth too.

Some people ask, how can global warming influence our lives so greatly? Well, global warming has caused Antarctica and Greenland’s ice sheets to melt, which is then causing a seven meter rise in sea levels. Human activity such as emitting carbon dioxide from cars, power plants and burning of fossil fuels is behind all of this. Temperature is estimated to rise from 1.9 – 4.6 degrees which is causing further melting of the ice sheets. These temperatures are affecting species in negative ways including the expansion, contraction and migration of habitat, increased incidence of disease and invasive species, changes in temperature, precipitation and other environment environmental conditions; shifts in food availability, and failure of ecological relationships with other specieis, for example the loss of critical pollinators or mutalistic nutrient fixers. In the past, species have escaped extinction by migrating in response to climate changes but today, humans have made it a lot tougher by fragmenting, converting and destroying habitats and potential migration corridors.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes that,
-1 bird out of 8
-1 mammal out of 4
-1 conifer out of 4
-1 amphibian out of 3
-6 marine turtles out of 7
-75% of genetic diversity of agricultural crops have been lost
-75% of the world’s fisheries are fully or over exploited
-Up to 70% of the world’s known species risk extinction if the global temperatures rise by more than 3.5°C
-1/3rd of reef-building corals around the world are threatened with extinction
-Every second a parcel of rainforest the size of a football field disappears
-Over 350 million people suffer from severe water scarcity

Following is a video speaking about Climate Change and the Ocean

Tigers are expected to be extinct by 2010 as they are in popular demand for Chinese medicine. Lions are close to extinction due to trophy hunting and tourism. Rhinos are close to extinction due to the demand for their horns and vultures in India have declined 97% because of their anti-inflammatory diclofenac simular to ibuprofen. The threats polar bears face include toxic pollution, oil exploration, and hunting as well as climate change. Scientists are still struggling to wonder what caused the decline of penguins, whether the starvation due to over fishing, climate changes or a combination of both. Amphibians are particularly sensitive to changes in the environment, and they provide an important signal to the health of biodiversity. Causes for monkey and primate extinction included habitat destruction, the hunting for food and illegal trade. Extensive coastal pollution, climate change, over-fishing and enormously wasteful practice of deep-sea trawling are all a contributing problem to dwindling fish stocks. A 20 year study has shown that deforestation and introduction of non-native species has led to about 12.5% of the world’s plant species to become critically rare. It is obvious that we, humans are the reason why the poor animals of our world are suffering from extinction. And as a long term affect, we can too one day be extinct, so we should start being careful and thinking twice before doing something stupid that will turn around and bite us in the long run. Enjoy! :)

Sources

Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-and-extinctions. Web.
Nature and Animal Conservation. Web. .
Why is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares? Web. .