Anatomy and Physiology: Control Systems

The human body has two control systems: the nervous system and the endocrine system.  The nervous system is faster and more complicated.  It sends electrochemical signals which stimulate immediate responses.  When electrochemical signals is being transferred, it goes down the axon of a nerve cell and is transmitted across the synapse (gap between nerve cells) to the next neuron.

The endocrine system works more slowly.  Hormones are released into the bloodstream, which then transports them to their target cells.  The hormones then act on their target cells to regulate their activity.  Unlike the nervous system, which causes a fast, specific response, the one hormone can affect the activity of many cells at the same time.


It is important for the body to have these two control systems because the nervous system is responsible mainly for rapid, immediate movement, such as skeletal muscle movement while the endocrine system is responsible for regulating a lot of the metabolic processes in the body, including cellular respiration.


Sources:
neuron picture from:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/brain1.htm
endocrine system picture from: 
http://academic.kellogg.cc.mi.us/herbrandsonc/bio201_mckinley/endocrine%20system.htm
information from:
Elaine N. Marieb's Essentials of Human Anatomy & Physiology, Eighth Edition
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:pLygcenOGmsJ:www.angelo.edu/faculty/cadkins/Chp%252011%2520Control%2520Systems%2520of%2520the%2520Body.doc+control+systems+of+the+body&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjnS4rDPRFota_fUK0IVxBfnxaAhxkM67A8zn6hQAvTQanM0JGUS7BZEL72iuxRJ_lkw3cu_lRywmMN0KsoW6dzgfzoiDdKUPzh_6IRXLs7uMUZOfpm0lNiQKajteuzrfxf4jJ4&sig=AHIEtbRkIj6WxLjs0RmupHze3J-lSe08vQ&pli=1

Anatomy and Physiology: Diet Plan

My diet plan is supposed to be an energy-boosting diet that decreases carbohydrate intake.  I did not follow my diet plan for all four weeks mainly because I missed eating rice everyday.  It is also because there was free food during a competition that I went to and I decided to take advantage of that, even though the food totally did not fit the diet plan.  ^ ^


For my nutritional state, it might be too high in sodium and too low in calcium.  Based on the foods I ate, some of them might have been too oily or greasy.  Even though my diet plan is supposed to be an energy-boosting diet that decreases carbohydrate intake, I may have not cut down on carbohydrates enough as I tried to adapt the meals plan to the food I usually eat.

AP Bio: Three Key Ideas in Time, Love, Memory

Time
The concept of time is discussed mainly in Chapter 8: First Time.  It talked about how the flies in the experiment had a sense of time.  Konopka experimented with this in Benzer's laboratory and eventually discovered a gene that they called the "clock gene." It was the gene that controlled the flies' sense of time.  The flies had a routine of being active at sunup and stop moving at sundown, even if the room they were in was dark.  Without the gene, they did not follow this routine and would "wake and sleep at random intervals" (5).


Love
The concept of love is discusses mainly in Chapter 9: First Love.  It begins with the quote by William Blake, from "The Question Answer'd": "What is it men in women do require?  The lineaments of Gratified Desire.  What is it women in men do require?  The lineaments of Gratified Desire" (112).  The book goes on to explain that according to Darwin, reproduction is an important part in adaptation of survival.  It gives the chance for the more favorable genes to be expressed.  In the experiment in the book, flies have certain steps in their mating process.  They discovered that this chain of steps is controlled by a gene.  In other words, every step in the mating process is inherited.


Memory
The concept of memory is discussed mainly in Chapter 10: First Memory.  The book talks about how "evolution is learning" (132) and that "species store learning in chromosomes the way individuals store learning in their brains and societies store learning in books."  There is information that the flies would learn at the present time and the information that their ancestors had when life began.  The ability to learn and remember is also in their genes, for "the memory of discovery...has been passed down from generation to generation since near the beginning of life" (132).


Source: Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior by Jonathan Weiner

Anatomy and Physiology: Lesson from Dead Men Do Tell Tales

The skeleton of Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man, a haunting image.  This picture was from: http://www.thebalde.net/edukia.php?uuid=152&lang=en.

After reading Dead Men Do Tell Tales, I learned that bones could tell a lot about the life of a person: the diseases they had, the injuries they sustained, how they died. . .
Because of this, bones could be very useful in solving murder cases or convicting a wanted criminal, as seen in the many cases that the author, William R. Maples, P.H.D., helped solve.
I would not be a forensic anthropologist because I feel that there is something very haunting and ghostly in looking at someone's remains who used to be a real, live person just like me.

AP Bio: Major Plant Divisions

Charophyceans

These are green algae most closely related to land plants.  Like land plants, they have the pigments beta carotene, chlorophyll b, and accessory pigments.  They have cell walls (made of cellulose), perixisomes, and stacks of thylakoids (called grana).

Hornworts, from the bryophyte division

Bryophytes

Bryophytes are made of the three phla liverworts, hornworts, and mosses.  These plants are not true vascular plants.  However, they have special tissues that transport water and nutrients.  Because they don't have lingin in their structures, they are shorter and weaker than other plants.  For their reproductive structures, they are enclosed and are called sporangia and gametangia.  Instead of reproducing through flowers and seeds, bryphytes reproduce by using spores.

Horsetails, from the pteridophyte division

Pteridophytes

These include ferns, club mosses, spike mosses, and horsetails.  They are true vascular plants and have xylem and phloem, and stems, roots, and leaves.  Most of them have true roots that have lignified vascular tissue.  They are seedless and don't reproduce through flower, but reproduce through spores.

A ginkgo tree, from the gymnosperm division.

Gymnosperms

These plants have seeds and examples include.  confiers, ginkgo, and caycads.  Unlike angiosperms (whose seeds/ovules are enclosed during pollination), their seeds are "naked," meaning they are not enclosed.  When the seeds are unfertilized, they are called ovules.  Their seeds develop on the end of short stalks or on cones.

Angiosperms

Although angiosperms produce seeds like gymnosperms, they are also are flowering plants and their seeds are enclosed.  The flowers act as the reproductive organs of these kinds of plants.  During pollination, pollen is transferred from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another flower, allowing for fertilization and sexual reproduction.

Source:

The charophycean picture is from: http://www.thaigoodview.com/node/48439.

The hornwort picture is from: http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/webb/bot311/cyanobacteria/cyanophyta-5.htm.

The horsetail picture is from: http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/GGP_Strybing_1.html.

The ginkgo picture is from: http://www.arborday.org/treeguide/treedetail.cfm?id=162.

The angiosperm picture is from: http://www.biology.iastate.edu/Courses/211L/Anthoph/%20AnthophINDX.

Anatomy and Physiology: Three Factors that Affect Heart Rate

This picture was from: http://www.zeitnews.org/applied-sciences/tiny-new-tool-to-track-heart-rate-in-real-time-on-a-smartphone.html.

During a lab this week, we experimented with factors that can change heart rate.  Three examples of these factors were caffeine, sugar, and music.  Caffeine, sugar, and fast music increased my heart rate while slow music slowed down my heart rate.

These factors can affect other systems.  Caffeine can take toll on the nervous system if too much of it is consumed.  Sugar can affect the endocrine system because when there is sugar in the bloodstream, the pancreas will secrete more of the hormone insulin into the bloodstream.  Music can affect the immune system.  Listening to, in particular, slow, relaxing music can reduce stress lower high blood pressure, boosting the immune system.


Source:
The information about music came from: http://www.livestrong.com/article/135181-music-its-effects-heart-rate/.
The picture of coffee was from: http://www.kobos.com/Kobos_Knows/Kobos-Knows-Coffee/Caffeine/.
The picture of sugar was from: http://www.angrytrainerfitness.com/2011/04/ask-alfonso-simple-sugars-the-simple-truth/.
The picture of music notes was from: http://www.hoopcity.ca/page/hooping-music.

AP Bio: Article 4 - A Fear of Pheromones

This article began by presenting the idea of humans using odors to communicate.  These odors, called pheromones, are used by many animals to communicate.  Examples that were given included the female moth's bombykol, a catfish recognizing the smell of a leader, and a bullhead identifying which way his rival was swimming.

However, humans do not use pheromones to communicate; instead we use things like the telephone, notes, invitations, and letters.  Recently, there have been studies done on why humans do not communicate with pheromones.  So far, it is shown that humans have the potential to do so, (such as schizophrenic patients having a certain odor in their sweat), and these kinds of studies continue as scientists try to find the answer to this question.


Sources:
The moth picture is from: http://www.itsnature.org/air/creepy-crawlies-air/bogong-moth/.
The catfish picture is from: http://www.starfish.ch/collection/benthicfishes.html.