Blog 5: There have been 5 major extinction events throughout history, are humans impacting the 6th? Why or why not?

Yes, I strongly believe humans are impacting a 6th extinction. We are a very industrial world with cars, factories, trash, and other posionous additions to the world. Pollution is a major factor in why our world is such an ugly place, in my opinion. We share this world not just with eachother, but with other living organisms. If we trash and pollute this earth we are not just hurting the enviroment we live in, but the animals that share it with us. Cutting down trees destroys the home of many living creatures, global warming cause by our pollution is slowly taking away the home of the majestic polar bears, and the waste that is disspossed of in our public streets is affecting the ocean and the beautiful life that calls the water home.

Blog 4: Describe the three types of selection: directional, stabilizing and disruptive and give an example of each in your own words.

Directional Selection is based on the physical appearnance in which one chooses another for mating. Directional Selections occurs mainly when there is an enviromental change and when populations migrate to new areas. For example, the speed trait of a greyhound dog is favored more than any other physical trait.

Stablilizing Selection is the oppisite compared to directional selection. There are no traits that are looked for in a mate, in this case traits will vary throughout an organism. For example, human babies that are too small are prone to disease or might be too weak. But babies that are too large can endanger themselves and their mothers when giving birth.

Disruptive Selection is when there are two major traits that are favored while there is one that is in between and prone to greater danger. For example, rabbits with white fur that live in an enviroment of white rocks will be able to hide from predadtors and rabbits with black fur in an enviroment of black rocks will be able to hide from predators as well. However, the grey rabbits that live amongst these black and white rabbits will have no deffense from predadtors and will be in higher risk of being hunted.

Blog 3: Explain what microevolution is? What are the three ways that variation occurs?

Microevolution is a change in gene frequency within a population. In genetic variation there are three ways it can occur. The first one being when the crossing over happens during meiosis, or when new alleles are favored during natural selection, and there is also the recombination of chromosomes that occur during sexual reproduction, also known as independent assortments.

An example of microevolution:

Blog 2: Why is fossil record hard to interpret

The fossil record is hard to interpret because there are many organisms living and that have lived. In order to match a fossil to an organism or species you must find all the fossils that make up the species, or that would make it easier anyway. To interpret a fossil you must be very careful and gentle because of how fragile they are. It is also very hard to distinguish closely related fossils because of how a like the remains can be.

Bone fossils

Blog 1: Why is evolution a theory and not a law?

The Theory of Evolution is considered a theory because it is considered by a body of evidence. In order for
evolution to be considered a law, or to be a law, it must be expressed in a mathematical statement, or various equations.

Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution

Second Semester Blogs Start Up There ^

Blog 14

My favorite activity of the semester thus far would have to be the fingerprint lab. It was my favorite because I got to learn a lot, like the different kinds of fingerprints there are, the most common kind of fingerprents, etc. My least favorite activity of the semester would have to be the Kim-Che lab, mainly because I didn't like the smell. If I could change one thing the semester it would have to be the amount of understanding I gained from the chapters disscussed in class. I'd change this by asking more questions and trying to have better understanding of the labs we do in class.

Blog 13

Crime scene experts investigate the scene of a crime for any DNA. When finding that DNA, it is sent to a lab where tests are ran. Two main types of testing DNA are to swab a person in the inside of the mouth, or fingerprint DNA. Thousands of cells die in a human's mouth daily, so when swabbing the inside of the cheeck many cells are then put on into the cotton swab. Fingerprint DNA is done by analyzing the certain lines and ridges in a persons fingerprint.

Blog 12

P1 are all alike because the traits are dominant, and all the genes are the same.  F1 are all different because the traits are recessive and are all independent.

Blog 11

Should we be able to pick the traits of our children? I say no, because people will be too focused on perfection. There would be a world based off of perfection and always wanting to be the best. Everyone is unique in there own way and that is based off of what genes you get from your parents. If a couple was able to pick the traits of the children there would be no surprise. The feeling of a mother seeing her child for the first time wouldn't be as special considering she would already know the baby's traits and features. Teaching your child how to do something and watching them accomplish it must be special, but if you already know the abilities of your child there is no surprise in life. It would just make everything boring.