Cool Pictures From CNN

Heres some cool pictures from CNN to look at. I really like some of them, and they are intresting pictures from around the world. Click this link right here.

BMI

I found a really cool, free program that calculates whether or not you are healthy person due to wieght and height. BMI stands for Body Mass Index. You can click on the link right here that I got from CNN. You have to try this! Make sure you look at the exeptions and the chart though!

Toothpick Fish

This is my other class response to an activity we did in class today (1/19/07) it was called:

TOOTHPICK FISH

Basically, we did a experiment with toothpicks that had little colors at the top. The lesson was supposed to represent the genotypes and phenotypes of the alleles. We filled in a chart which helped us remember which gene combonation wouls turn out a certain color. This is what it basically looked like:

FISH COLOR GENE COMBONATIONS
Green / GG, Gr, Gy
Red / rr
Yellow / yy
Orange / yr or ry

Then, we answered some questions such as:

a."Can two red fish mate and have green offsring? Why or why not?"

No, this is not possible because the fish would be a purebred red which makes the chance of having a green one %0 and a chance of having a red one %100

b."Can two orange fish mate and have red offsring? Why or why not?"

Yes, because if you do a punnett square, there is a %25 chance of red offsring.

Next we moved on to the activity with parteners, which in my opinion, I thought was a good example of how a fishes gene pool comes out the way it does.
We randomly picked the toothpicks out of a cup (genepool) and put them in pairs. We then charted what out combonations were. (For example: A green toothpick and a yellow toothpick made gren scales because green is dominent to everything). We repeated that process 4 times and ended up with survivors. For my last generation, the green disappeared from the gene pool. After the activity, I decided to research an interesting "Fish Fact". I found on a website that deep-sea fishing actually demolishes some types of fish from the gene pool. It says that it removes the "Older Fish" from the gene pool, possibly demolishing a species.

SOURCES

Science Magazine Website

Cloning Animals

Here is yet another amazing clone done recently by scientists. The topic is:

CLONING A PIG

Earlier in time, there was a point in science when cloning animals was obsurd, and too technilogically advanced. Everyone imagined us wearing space suits and flying around in hovercars by the time we reached the year 2000. People thought cloning was never going to happen. It is now 2007 and cloning is being more experimented with than ever. Everyone knows Dolly, the famous cloned sheep. Scientists are currently experimenting cloning more than ever now. Recently, a pig was cloned by a group of scientists. Her name is Xenga, named after the type of field of research they used to clone her in; xenotransplantation. That may seem like a big word but it just means that it is " any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation, or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs" Xena is not the only or first piglet cloned into the world by science however, she is one of the most recent. I feel the same about cloning as I do with Designer Babies (See article down). I feel that nature should not be tampered with this way. When an organism is cloned, it is usually born with disorders or is not healthy in a certain way. I think that this is torture to make any animal live with that condition.

SOURCES

ABC News Website

Xenotransplantation Defenition

Hamster Genetics

We did an activity on hamsters today and I decided to do my Class response blog on them. So, my topic is:

HAMSTER GENETICS

So, we all know that you can tell an organisms genetics by using a punnet square. For example, a hybrid brown hamster (Bb) and a purebred white hamster (bb) would have a %50-%50 chance of becoming a hybrid brown (Bb) or becoming a purebred white (bb). Just incase you forgot how a punnet square works, click here for a good explanation of how to make one. Now that we have that covered, we can move on. But if you are still having trouble with punnet squares, here is one that I made for this particular example. After the activity I researched hamster genetics and I found some odd facts about them. For example, Syrian Hamsters look different form each other and no one can really tell what their phenotypes and sometimes even genotypes will be. I also found out that there are even a variety of eleven basic colors! They are; Black, Black Eyed Cream, Cinnamon, Dark Eared White, Dark Grey, Extreme Dilute, Golden, Light Grey, Rust, Silver Grey, and Yellow. Don't forget, those are only the basic colors! I, personally, believe that hamsters are adorable, even though I'm not a fan of rodents.

SOURCES

Wikipedia: Punnet Square Article

River Road Hamstery Website

Designer Babies

Ok, so I heard this on the news, and I had an intrest in it. I have also seen this horrifying proccess in the papers, but many don't know what it is.

I am talking about:

DESIGNER BABIES

Basically, Designer Babies are babies that can be phisically altered depending on what the parents image of a perfect Son/Daughter would look like. So, if you and your mate have Truebreeding brown eyes, but always dream of having a blue eyed child, you can make that possible. On the news it said that you can go online and actually Order your baby as you would with a shirt or a piece of clothing. All you have to do is go to the section and choose what color eyes, hair, and other physical traits your child can have. Scientists are in the process of working on being able to change personalitys of the child too. I feel that this is not fair. For example, if a designer baby is born with a stronger IQ than a regular born baby, then there would be certain advantages that aren't fair. I am not the only one who opposes this. There are many laws currently in other countries that state that familys may not have a designer baby. A couple in the UK desperatley wanted a daughter but their only one was killed at a young age." They are now suing under an EU human rights law recently passed in the EU." says a website on the topic. I very strongley disagree with this subject.

SOURCES

Designer Babies Article

6 ABC News

Introduction

Hello, welcome to my blog. I hope that blogging will be fun for school and home projects. I am really excited about doing this new type of school work and I think it will really help us on our projects that we use our blogs for. Please send me any comments if you need to. Thanks ^.^