A World Without Mosquitoes

                So your fishing in the middle of the summer have a good time until bzzzzzzz, what seems to be a huge cloud of mosquitoes covers the lake and start swarming all around you. Times like these are the reason you unload half a can of OFF on your body before you go anywhere in the outdoors. So if you could would you eradicate mosquitoes from the face of the earth? This is the same question that lots of people are asking them selves, and coming up with the answer: yes, but they have no idea what and how this choice would effect the earth’s ecosystem.

                “A World Without Mosquitoes” was the title of an article we read in biology class last week and it brought up very interesting things related to how the ecosystem would be effected with a lack of mosquitoes. Scientists in the article were on both sides of the argument and all brought up interesting facts about mosquitoes that I never knew. They talk about how mosquitoes affect the tundra initially and all of the things they influence there, and then they move on to the fish side of things. After this the plants side of thing is brought up and how marshy plants use mosquitoes. And finally it’s brought up that mosquitoes help pollination and things like this. A five paragraph “discussion” brings the article to a close and it is here that the aspect of how there isn’t much that mosquitoes do that can’t be done by other organisms besides spreading disease.

                My opinion on the “argument” is probably not welcomed nicely with most people. I think that mosquitoes aren’t here by mistake and that they defiantly have a purpose, even if it isn’t very big. I do agree that mosquitoes are VERY annoying and I pretty much hate them, but when you take into perspective the effect they have on a place like the tundra, where caribou migration routes are decided by where mosquitoes will and won’t be, it shows you how big of an effect they have. So do mosquitoes need to be wiped off the face of the earth? That’s a question I’ll let you decide the answer to.     

Ecosystem Services

Up until today I never even heard of the title “Ecosystem Services” before. Ecosystem Services are The product or functions that nature provides which are of great value to people  Some of them include clean water and air, pollination, fish in the ocean, storm protection, ect…  All of things are vital to our existence and help us everyday without our realizing it at all, and are often taken for granted.

In the world today everything’s worth is based on a dollar value, so nature really gets short handed by people. The problem is you can’t put a monetary value on nature, so it often gets left out of discussions and is never given credit for what it does and people end up not caring and it. Hurricane Katrina was a good example of what happens when you don’t realize what you’ve done till it’s too late; the absence of wet lands was a little piece that made the storm worse.

Personally this was a vey interesting thing to learn about and the dynamics that it includes. I received a better understanding of hurricane Katrina and part of why it was so bad, and I was given a different way to look at nature and its resources now.

Nervous System Project Reflection

                Prior to our Nervous System project in biology, we were discussing the anatomy of human bodies. We would spend two or three days discussing and doing activities for each major system our bodies. After all of this, we were split into our groups, and then put to work on our system’s projects.

                The purpose of this project was to deepen our understanding of a specific part of the human body. How we did this was the tasks of the group were split up and everyone had to research a specific part of our system. At the very end, we then all combined our products, and put them on our group’s websites.

                Before the project started, we all chose three different parts of the project that we would go into depth in, and then Mrs. Dunning chose one of those things to assign us. Before we did this though we received a piece of paper to read over that gave us overviews of what each part would entail.

                The role I was given was Creative Media l. This role entailed me finding some sort of creative way to show the nervous system. We needed to use content specific vocabulary and provide a thorough description.

                My final project that I did was two comic strips, one about the path a “nervous reaction” would take if you were to get hit in the side, and another was a safe way to protect your central command center for your nervous system, your head. I was not too impressed with my final product, but I ran out of time, so I finished it as best as I could. This is a link to the website our web design person created, and it has all of my groups work on it: http://www.are-you-nervous.webs.com/

The Orgin of HIV

Have you ever thought about where HIV originated? Well to answer your question if you have wondered that, it came from primates. Yep, that’s right, the closest resemblance to a human on earth. But allow me to tell you more.

                How the whole epidemic of HIV all was started by some Africans coming in contact with bodily fluid of primates. The reason these people even came in contact with any primate bodily fluid is because of their hunting of bush meat. Bush meat is basically any type of meat you can find to kill and eat, and in most parts of Africa this is the main food the people eat. So what can happen is a hunter kills a primate, so as the animal is bleeding the blood happens to get into a cut on the hunter, and he is now infected. Nathan Wolfe, an American scientist, is on the mission of preventing/studying when hunters get infected, and how many of the animals are HIV positive. So by doing this he hopes to track the disease and inform the inhabitant’s African villages so that no more will be spread than already has been.

                My opinion of all of this may be a lot different from a lot of others, but I’m not sure. How I see it is that it’s a really good thing and a good idea to do what Nathan is doing, I just don’t entirely understand it all so it’s a little irrelevant for me. But I don’t hope that by doing what he’s doing we will gain a better understanding of the HIV disease and how to prevent it and control it.   

Retired Chimps are Called Back to Work

Moving 186 ageing chimps out of retirement (from medical testing) back into more testing has stirred up a lot debate. I don’t necessarily understand the whole process of events, but this is what has caused a huge uproar in the U.S.

What all of this is about is the NIH (National Institute of Health) is bringing 186 chimps out of their 10 year retirement to begin medical testing again. The plan is to move the chimps to the Southwest national Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas. Among the people strongly opposing the NIHs decision is New Mexico’s governor Bill Richardson who on September 21^st visited the facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico. He stated that he is, and will continue to object to their decision.

My personal opinion of the whole situation most people probably won’t like. In my view point, all these people complain about the NIHs decision, but none of these people have an alterative option. That being said, I don’t really agree with the NIHs decision either, but I don’t know of any alternatives to replace using these chimps.

Guest Speaker

On Friday the 10th our class had a teacher named Tina came and talk to our class about kidney transplants. In the past 25 years she as had 3 different transplants, and this all started when she was diagnosed with Lupus disease in 86'. Lupus is an autoimmune disorder and it effects organ systems, skin, joints, and internal organs. Basically it trys to fix your body when it doesn't need fixing. Since her last transplant, she has been doing good and she is very active in road biking and other outdoor activities. Hearing her speak was a real eye opener to how hard it is on your body and how hard it is emotionally to go through a kidney transplant.

Organ Transplants

We read an article on organ transplants, and their contriversies, espeacially when they are given to convicts. The following was my reaction to the article we read.
"What I take away from this article is that the author is being pretty selfish. He states that he thinks a prisoner shouldn't be able to recieve any type of vital organ trasnplant because that means our loved ones are having to wait even longer. but how I see it, if your father was in prison and needed a transplant, he's your loved one. My finally statment is that it's cruel and unhuman to say no to a dieing person, when you could possibly save him/her by giving him/her a trasnplant."