Saturday, September 3, 2011

My Mascot

Meet Squawk my mascot :D

Cohesion

In this picture you can see that while it began to rain, the rain began to join together forming droplets on the windshield. This is because of the process of cohesion.

Cohesion, like adhesion is a form of attraction between one or more objects or surfaces, but cohesion relies on two similar or identical objects in order for them to stick together. A common form of cohesion that we see almost every day is the forming of water droplets whether it be from morning dew, in the shower, or a rainy day. These water droplets are formed through the process of cohesion as tiny water molecules begin to attract and clump together forming these larger molecules of water.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Adhesion

Tape is a common form of an adhesive that we often use around the house so I decided it would make a good example for adhesion.

Adhesion is a form of attraction that allows dissimilar particles and even some surfaces to cling together through a form of direct contact. Adhesion is very different from cohesion because the forces in adhesion require dissimilar particles in order for the molecules to stick together, while in cohesion both of the particles must be similar or identical in order for them to cling together. Adhesion is where the term of using "adhesives" comes from as they allow things like tape to stick to a wooden object applying the reference to different surfaces clinging to eachother.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Evaporative Cooling

Over the cup of boiling water you can see steam rising up, this steam helps in the process of evaportive cooling as it releases heat in the form of that steam to cool the water faster.

Evaporative cooling is the process that helps remove heat from certain objects in a form of releasing heat energy. As objects release steam or other hot vapors they release many of their heat atoms from the object itself slowly causing it to lose energy allowing it to grow colder over time as more energy is released. This form of cooling takes place in both liquid and solid objects such as foods or beverages.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Carnivore

This big fella is a fish found at the local aquarium and he is a carnivore because his diet is only based off of other meaty fish.

Unlike herbivores, carnivores are very different forms of creatures that live off of a very meaty diet. Carnivores such as sharks and lions are known for their sharp teeth that they often use to rip apart the flesh of their prey. Carnivores live off of the nutrients they gain by eating herbivores or sometimes even smaller forms of carnivores and omnivores. By doing so, the nutrients that the other animal once held in its own body is absorbed into the body of the carnivore predator allowing it survive by commonly eating other animals.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Herbivores

Animals can be classified into three different types of dietary groups and those three are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Herbivores are consumers of producers and autotrophs as they eat mainly plants or fungi organisms. Herbivores are given their title because they stick to eating leafy greens and other plants, they do not however eat any forms of meat. Often herbivores tend to stay away from those that are meat eaters because they are creatures that hold nutrients that those meat eaters would consume in order to gain. A strange adaptation that these herbivores often have is that their teeth are more dull rather than sharp unlike carnivores because they do not use their teeth to sink into flesh of other animals. A few examples of herbivores would be koalas, llamas, cows and squirells.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Epistasis

My dumb little dog oreo is an example of the outcome of epistasis. His mother was a pure black toy poodle and his father was all white, his brother ended up being black like his mother but he ended up being a mix of both the black and white genes.
Epistasis is when there is an interaction going on between two or more genes to control a phenotypes behavior. The number of genes interacting with eachoter during epistasis can be found using the Mendelian Genetics chart to find their genetic ratio. Epistasis can affect color, shape, texture and a few other features of different organisms depending on what the genes differ with when being interacted with one another. An example of epistasis that was actually observed by Gregor Mendel himself was the pea pod genetic changes where he saw changes in varying pea pod plants that had grown into different shapes, sizes and colors.

Sources:
McClean, Phillip. Gene Interactions. ndsu.edu. Retrieved September 2, 2011, from http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~mcclean/plsc431/mendel/mendel6.htm

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Thermoregulation

I took this picture because my dog usually find ways to keep his body temperature maintained such as if it's too hot in the house he'll pant and release heat and like with the air conditioner he just enjoys the cool with his fur so he manages his body temperature using thermoregulation.

Thermoregulation is the consistency of a body temperature in an organism even under different types of external temperature conditions. Thermoregulation is a key factor in different species as it keeps that species at its highest performing level by maintaining its preferred body body temperature increasing its senses, mobility and production rate. Things that could affect this thermoregulation could be humidity, temperature incline or decline, vapor pressure and air velocity as forms of conditions that could affect the temperature of the skin. Some species learn to adapt to their surrounding external environment to achieve a proper thermoregulation while other animals may sometimes require a new environment to perform efficiently.

Sources:
Thermoregulation. harvard.edu. Retrieved September 1, 2011, from http://www.deas.harvard.edu/courses/es96/spring1997/web_page/health/thermreg.htm

Epithelial Tissue

The skin on my arm and hand are both considered epithelial tissue as they are located on the outter external part of my body.

The structure of epithelial tissue is formed by these epithelial cells being packed very tightly together so that there is very little intercellular space and only a small amount of intercellular substance. It covers the whole surface exterior of the body and some of the interior as well and when found on the interior it is known as endothelium. It is specially formed to create one or more layers that can cover about all of the body's internal and external body surface. This tissue is supported by basement membrane, an important structure which links it to other surfaces and provides structure. There are many categories that epithilial tissue can be broken into but the two main categories would be simple epithelium which is only one cell thick. Then there is stratified epithelium which is two or more layers thick forming a firm visible structure such as our skin. Epithelial tissue is very important as it provides a variety of different functions to our bodies such as protection, sensation, diffusion and a few other functions.

Sources:
Epithelial Tissue. uwc.ac.za. Retrieved September 1, 2011, from http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za/sci_ed/grade10/mammal/epithelial.htm

Invertabrates

Jellyfish are common forms of invertabrates and can move freely, their tentacles are an adaptation that they use to protect themselves.

An invrtabrate is considered a species that is a multi-cellular and eukaryotic animal. A mass majority of animals, about 97% that make up all known animal species are invertabrates. Invertabrates are said to have a common eukaryotic form of ancestor and this can be recognized with similarities to past fossils found through invertabrate palaeontology. Forms of invertabrates are sponges, jellyfish and other fish along with many, many other species. A common importance for these invertabrates is that because they have no spinal chord they often protect themselves by having a form of shell or hard exoskeleton but that isn't always the case. In the childrens cartoon "Spongebob Squarepants" it displays the nautical adventures of a common seasponge and often they display how Spongebob doesn't have a vertabrate giving him body capabilities that most creatures such as humans do not possess like bending or stretching in weird ways.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Fungi

Locally grown or found in the forests, mushrooms are a form of fungi that can be either enjoyable or deadly depending on what form of mushrooms they are.

Fungi is one of the most amazing and versatile specimen in our environment today in both ecological and benefitial ways. Fungi fall under the category of being decomposers as they break down dead organic material and supply nutrients back into their ecosystems. In fact if it weren't for this process that fungi create, there would most likely be a few plants gone as they rely on these nutrients for efficient growth and stability. Not only do fungi provide common nutrients for the environment, but they also help provide food for animals and humans to eat such as mushrooms, truffles and through fermenting yeast, even beer. Along with food benefits, fungi also provides medical benefits such as antibiotics like penicilan. Although fungi has many great gifts to offer, fungi isn't always the greatest thing because it can also cause some diseases that are not always easilly curable such as athletes foot and ringworms. Fungi will continue to bring great things to our environment and lifestyles but must be kept under control so that they do not pose a harmful factor.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Bacteria

Yogurt such as these containers of Yoplait are forms of good bacteria that we can actually consume, not all bacteria is like that found in yogurt.

Bacteria are microscopic organisms. Their single cells do not contain any membrane surrounded organelles such as mitochondria and also lack a membrane-enclosed nucleus. Bacteria can be classified into a number of different categories depending on the features that this bacteria contains. Bacteria is considered prokaryotic because it has no membrane bound nucleus. The form of reproduction found in bacteria would often be asexual reproduction where the bacteria can simply form new bacteria through its own structure.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.