AP Bio: Review of the Semester

What was your favorite topic this semester? Why?
My favorite topic of the semester was animals because many of the dissections we did was able to help us to remember things about the animals.  I especially liked the shark and the starfish.

What was your least favorite?
My least favorite topic was genetics.  Although it is interesting, I found some of it hard to understand and absorb, probably because it was taught more quickly than usual at the end of the year.

What would you change about this class if you could?
Like in anatomy, I would like a whole list of assignments and its due dates at the beginning of the semester so that I would know exactly how the semester would be like.


What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment in biology this year?
Like in anatomy, I feel that my biggest accomplishment in biology this year is being able to appreciate how everything in the body is so complicated yet it works out just in the right way to support life.  (I am also very proud of that big, huge, fat notebook I built up during the whole course of the year). [:

AP Bio: Examples of Invertebrates

jellyfish

geographic cone snail

white-lipped cone snail

worm


Sources:
golden jellyfish picture and information from: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/golden-jellyfish/
geographic cone snail picture and information from:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/geographers-cone-snail/?source=A-to-Z
white-lipped grove snail from: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/earthworm/?source=A-to-Z
earthworm information from: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/earthworm/?source=A-to-Z

Anatomy and Physiology: Review of Semester

What was your favorite topic this semester? Why?
My favorite topic this semester was the immune system because I find the process of how the human body is able to fight off and prevent us from getting sick very amazing.

What was your least favorite?
My least favorite topic was the urinary system because I had learned much of the information beforehand and was not as interesting to me.

What would you change about this class if you could?
I would like a whole list of assignments and due dates at the beginning of the semester so that I would know exactly how the semester would look like.

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment in biology this year?
I feel that my biggest accomplishment in biology this year is being able to appreciate how everything in the body is complicated yet it works out just in the right way to support life.

AP Bio: Genome Blog 10, Chromosome 11: Personality

In "Chromosome 11: Personality," Ridley begins the twelfth chapter of Genome by quoting Heraclitus, who says, "A man's character is his fate" (161).  Afterward, he begins talking about a gene on chromosome 11 called D4DR.  He explains that "a 'long' D4DR gene implies a low responsiveness to dopamine in certain parts of the brain, whereas a 'short' D4DR gene implies a high responsiveness" (163).  In an experiment, he found that people with the long gene were more novelty-seeking than people with short genes.  For example, long-gened people had more sexual partners than short-gened people.  Ridley mentions that dopamine and norepinephrine are monoamines, as is serotonin.  He describes serotonin as another "chemical manifestation of personality" (167) and that it is "the brain's punishment chemical" (168) because it "abets...anxiety and depression" (168).  However, Ridley ends the chapter on a note that "social influences upon behaviours work through the switching on and off of genes" (172).

AP Bio: Genome Blog 9, Chromosome 10: Stress

In "Chromosome 10: Stress," the eleventh chapter of Genome, Ridley writes about a gene on chromosome 10 called CYP17.  It is used to produce a hormone called cortisol, which Ridley claims is "virtually synonymous" (149) with stress.  Ridley determines that "stress is caused by the outside world" (149) and "prepare[s] the body for 'fight or flight' in an emergency" (149).  He then goes on to say that people tend to get sick after an exam (when they're stressed out).  At the end of the chapter, he says that scientists are trying to find a good explanation for the link between stress and the immune system - "that stress inevitably depresses the immune system" (160).  There are two explanations, one that says that "it is all a mistake" (159) and was purely accidental while the other one says that "modern life produces prolonged and unnatural stresses" (159).  Whatever the true explanation is, this is an issue that still baffles scientists today.

AP Bio: Genome Blog 8, Chromosome 9: Disease

In "Chromosome 9: Disease," Ridley begins the tenth chapter of Genome with a discussion of the ABO blood groups, including which blood group could donate to the other blood groups. He goes on to explain why a blood group only donates to certain other blood groups: When a blood group (O blood group) "lack[s] just one letter fairly early in the message, the whole subsequent message says something completely different.  A different protein is made with different properties.  The chemical reaction is not catalysed (139).  Also, people with a certain blood type can be more susceptible to one disease, but more resistant to another disease. For example, the A gene gives better cholera resistance but the B gene gives better resistance to malaria.  Ridley ends the chapter by reminding the readers that "nobody can say that the blood group A is 'normal' adn O, B and AB are 'abnormal' (141) because "variation is an inherent and integral part of the human - or indeed any - genome" (141).

AP Bio: Genome Blog 7, Chromosome 8: Self-Interest

In "Chromosome 8: Self-Interest," Ridley begins the ninth chapter of Genome by quoting Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which says, "We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.  This is a truth that still fills me with astonishment" (122).  Ridley goes on to explain that 97% of the human genome are not true genes but are junk or selfish DNA, which is "not just a passenger, whose presence adds to the size of the genome and therefore to the energy cost of copying the genome" (128).  Also, selfish DNA threatens "the integrity of genes" (128) through mutation.  Ridley ends the chapter with an account of the Pitchfork case - where two identical samples of semen from the bodies of two girls who had been raped and killed helped to find and convict the murderer, proving the value of genetic fingerprinting.