Laziness

There may be genetic reasons that cause people to be lazy and not exercise.

Although we all know there’s overwhelming health benefits physical activity, many people still choose to not exercise.
-Staying fit helps prevent numerous major diseases and health problems.
-In the study, some of the sedentary mice devised ingenious ways to avoid activity.

Some people have “activity-prone” genes, while others don’t.
-Lightfoot identified 20 different genomic locations that work in tandom to influence activity levels.
-If mice have a gene, humans probably also have it.
-In the study, mice who’s parents were active, were much more likely to also be active.

The “active” genes could either affect how the muscles work or the amounts of neurotransmitters in the brain, but it’s probably the neurotransmitters being affected.
-A study suggests that there is no difference in the function of the muscle of the active and not active mice.
-The study hasn’t been published yet so it can’t rule out the hypothesis that the active genes directly affect the muscles efficiency.
-The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin play important roles in several human drives and behaviors, so it would be a reasonable hypothesis that they are what the activity gene directly affect.

Reflective Essay on Group Work

Being able to work well in groups is a very important skill to have that can be put to use often in everyday life. People work in groups, do chores and recreational activities in groups. Throughout this class we have had many group activities.
One of the group activities that particularly stands out in my memories is when we had the Lego activity. For the Lego activity, we split up into groups of six students. There was a structure made of Legos in the hallway. Our objective was to build an identical structure, but there was a strict set of rules that we had to follow. Only one team member could be in the hallway at a time, once we started building no one could go into the hallway, and there were several other rules. We decided what each team member was responsible for remembering and then took turns going into the hall. Once we all had our turns we started to put our structure together as we remembered it. This projected required much teamwork, it required us all to try our best and for us to trust each other.
I find group work to be fun and often prefer it to working alone. I would like to develop my group work skills more. I hope that we have more group projects in the future.

Reflective Essay on CBL Activities

During fall term of this class, we have occasionally engaged in some Community Based Learning activities outside the classroom. The first activity that my class took part in this year was the class trip to professor John Sollinger’s cabin. We have also gone to the greenhouse to work in it and we have held a plant sale. I have found these Community Based Learning activities to be fun, informative, and very engaging.
Going to professor Sollinger’s cabin has been my favorite Community Based Learning activity that I have taken part in this year. It was a fun way to learn, while bonding with classmates and make new friends. Our mission for this class trip was to collect plants, plant cuttings, and seeds that are native to the area. I was in the seed-collecting group. I learned allot about native plants doing this; I learned many plant names, what they look like and what their seeds look like. Some plant seeds were very easy to find, such as acorns, rose hips and snow berries. I found that the plant seeds that were the most valuable, were also the most difficult to find. My challenge was to find the hard-to-find seeds. I had some success when I found a couple of plants with seeds on them that I have never seen before. This class trip was a fun way to learn some information about plants.
The second Community Based Learning activity for this class was going to the greenhouse. Our objective of the trip was to take what we had previously collected at the cabin, and plant what was ready to be planted. We cut the plant cuttings smaller, took the leaves off (so that moisture wouldn’t escape from the cutting) and put them into soil in hopes that they would grow roots become their own plants. This trip taught me more about gardening and plants, which ties into the curriculum of our class.
The most reasent Community Based Learning activity that we had was the plant sale. The objective of the plant sale was to make money to fund a class trip that we will take latter in the year. We did not make much money from this plant sale but we learned what we can do to have more success for plant sales in the future.
I have found the Community Based Learning activities that we have had to be fun, engaging and very informative. I feel that I have benefited from them very much. I hope that we have many more in the future.

What Grade Do I Deserve?

Students in the class USEM 101 are graded on attendance, participation, and effort. I attended every class, participated often and put allot of effort into every assignment; which is why I believe that I deserve my grade for this class to be an A.
Although there were some days that I really didn’t want to go to class, I always did. I went to every class prepared, ready to work, and almost always ontime. My attendance record for this class is perfect.
I typically have a very shy personality, but during this class I made an effort to participate. I often spoke up during the group and class discussions. When were learning about slightly complicated ideas involving biology, I asked questions when I didn’t understand something.
Things such as writing and giving speeches do not come easily for me. I am sure that I spent twice the amount of time writing most of my essays for this class than many of my classmates did. I have tried very diligently to succeed in this class. I believe that I deserve an A.

Antibiotics and Bacterial Evolution

After reading the article “Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria: An Example of Evolution in Action?” By Dr. Georgia Purdom, I have a new view on bacterial mutations caused by to antibiotic medications. In her article, Dr. Purdom claims that bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, but that they aren’t evolving. Although I agree with most of what she illustrates, I am skeptical of her claim.
I learned many things about bacteria and antibiotics from Dr. Purdom’s article. One of the many things that I learned is that more than 70% of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics used to treat them. Bacteria are constantly changing so that they can survive in their constantly changing environment. The most important thing this article taught me is that there is very much to be learned about bacteria.
Antibiotics are capable of changing the bacteria’s DNA, in a process that we call mutation, which is why some bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. Mutation and natural selection often result in bacteria with defective proteins that have lost their normal functions. Dr. Purdom claims that bacteria aren’t evolving, because resistance to antibiotics isn’t anything new and evolution requires a gain of functional systems. Although most mutations result in the bacteria losing functions, I believe that occasionally a mutation can occur that makes the bacteria stronger and better. I think that some strands of bacteria are currently evolving because of the mutations that antibiotics subjected them to.
There is not enough evidence to prove that bacteria are or are not evolving. Dr. Purdom has some good support in her article for her claim that bacteria aren’t evolving. She states “Bacteria that are resistant to modern antibiotics have even been found in the frozen bodies of people who died long before those antibiotics were discovered or synthesized”. This supports the idea that just because bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, doesn’t mean that the bacteria is gaining a new function and therefore evolving. This is good support, but it isn’t enough to prove that bacteria are not evolving.
After reading Dr. Purdom’s article, I am still too skeptical believe her claim that bacteria aren’t evolving. I believe that mutations of bacteria can give the bacteria functions, other than resistance to antibiotics, that we are not yet aware of yet.

Summary of Ghost in Your Genes

Genes are not the only things that are passed on from generation to generation.
Although genes take much time and several generations to change, the epigenome can change throughout a person’s life, and the changes can be passed on from generation to generation.
It’s proven that the grandchildren of men who experienced a famine during late childhood live longer.
Identical twins with the exactly same genes can be very different.
Genes can be turned on and off. Epigenetic changes are tiny chemical tags that accumulate over time and can turn genes on or off.
We have different kinds of cells because different genes are turned on to make them different.
Identical twins with the exactly same genes can be very different.
Cancer and some other diseases were thought to be caused by changes in the genome, but they can be caused by changes of the epigenome and/or changes of the genome.
Cancer tends to appear in people that smoke, that have certain environmental exposures or that are exposed to radiation. These things can damage your epigenome and your genome.
Cancer is more abundant with older age groups because epigenetic changes accumulate with age.

My T’ai Chi experience

Before this term I wasn’t sure what to expect of this class, I didn’t have much of an understanding of what T’ai Chi is, and I wasn’t even sure if I would attend this class more than once. On the first day of class, when I came to try it out, I learned about what T’ai Chi is and what it could do to improve me physically and mentally. I have always had an interest in the martial arts and yoga. With T’ai Chi being a sort of combination of the two, I found it quite appealing. I was excited to find that this class would improve my balance, would strengthen my self-defense skills and help relive stress.
I found several improvements that T’ai Chi had on me, physically and mentally. I had fractured my foot in several places last May. I was concerned that it would be a problem during my practicing of T’ai Chi. My foot pain did hinder my movement several days during T’ai Chi, but I eventually found that wearing shoes with good insoles made it okay. When I had first started walking again after my injury, my recovering foot had very poor balance. After a few weeks of T’ai Chi I noticed that my balance was dramatically improving in both of my feet. Another thing that T’ai Chi has been helping me do, is relax and distress. I have found that T’ai Chi class was at the perfect time, immediately after my two hardest classes. After class I walked away feeling so much more calm and relaxed, even if it was a terribly stressful day. T’ai Chi has also helped me become more flexible, and make a few more friends.
I very much enjoyed this class. I found that practicing this art was very enjoyable, even though when I practiced at home my roommate often laughed at me. I look forward to putting some of my new self-defense skills to use when wrestling with my two big brothers. Thank you for introducing me to the art of T’ai Chi Chaun.