Genome Chapter Summary (7)

Chromosomes X and Y: Conflict

         The following quotes clearly summarizes the X and Y chromosome's significance in this chapter of Ridley's Genome.  "The body is the victim, plaything, battleground and vehicle for the ambitions of genes.  The next largest chromosome after number seven, is called the X chromosome.  X is the odd one out, the misfit. ... The X and Y chromosomes are known as the sex chromosomes for the obvious reason that they determine, with almost perfect predestination, the sex of the body."  And Ripley concludes with " The idea of the gene in conflict with each other, the notion of the genome as a sort of a battlefield between parental genes and childhood genes, or between male genes and female genes, is a little-known story outside a small group of evolutionary biologists.  Yet it has profoundly shaken the philosophical foundations of biology.  

      In summary, Ripley points out the function of these chromosomes; they determine the sex of the offspring.  In addition he finishes as he mentions the conflicts that relate to these chromosomes such as the body being a "battlefield" and philosophical issues.

Genome Chapter Summary (6)

Chromosome 6: Intelligence

"I ought to write it out a hundred time as punishment: GENES ARE NOT THERE TO CAUSE DISEASES".  Ridley discusses a common misconception that most people have; genes are here to cause diseases, instead diseases are caused when genes are mutated or altered.  The next topic Ridley mentioned was one based on intelligence and it is involved with the sixth chromosome.  He brings up the conflict of intelligence being due to nature and/or nurture.  Genes being the cause would be nature; however, when the environment becomes a factor nurture would be the cause of one's intelligence.  He then elaborated on the topic of intelligence by relating it to several experiments, some involved psychology, humans, and others.  

    

3 Invertebrates

Sea Cucumber: Holothuroidea 

As echinoderms, sea cucumbers, have similar physical features of most echinoderms.  At first glance, they appear to have soft- bodies that resembles cucumbers.  Their physical features includes tube feet that that has the appearance of tentacles which surrounds their mouths.  Their systems allow them to recycle the material and waste they consume.  They also have other systems that allow them to defend themselves.  They maybe attack predators with sticky threads, contracting muscles, or the ejecting of internal organs.  Their unique structures allows them to grow back such organs quickly.  

Common Earthworm: Lumbricus Terrestris

Common earthworms came be 14 inches long and they are made of annuli, ring-like segments, that are surrounded by setae, small bristles.  Their features make up of a system that allows them to burrow underground, dig, and move.  Their mouth, which is in the first segment, allows them to dig and eat the soil they dig through.  Their clitellum allows them to reproduce by forming cocoons.  

Coral: Anthozoa

Corals or polyops have physical features of a soft and tiny translucent body.  The have a calicle or a limestone skeleton that allows for protection and the forming of reefs.  As corals attach to rocks or the ocean floor, corals begins to grow to form large colonies of reefs.  Other features and systems includes poisonous tentacles that allow them to consume prey.

Sources: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/coral/
                http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/earthworm/
                http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/sea-cucumber/

Mind Map: Kidney Functions

BOW 4: Intelligence

            It is important to debate and define our understanding of intelligence and its origin, because new knowledge on anything may help us in the present and in the future.  Understanding the different definitions of intelligence, such as interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, linguistic, mathematical, musical, and naturalistic represent the eight intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner.  By using his theory we can determine our intelligences in different subject areas.  With that knowlege, we can study more productively and efficiently.  We would be able to survive socially and academically with this knowledge.  Like the proposal by Gardner, new debates may spark new theories.  With new theories we would have more knowledge as to how we may work even more productively and efficiently.  This relates to me, because I would be able to determine my intelligences.  By knowing my intelligences in different subject areas and social areas, I too would be able to act productively and efficiently towards my strive for survival.  

Genome Chapter Summary (5)

Chromosome 5: Environment

"It is a world of greys, of nuances, of qualifiers, of 'it depends'..."  Ripley claims that he has been misleading his readers; he s that genes are not exactly as simple as he had explained in the previous chapters.  In order to prove that genes aren't as simple at hey may seem, Ripley introduced the fifth chromosome.  One that is closely related to asthma; he begins to explain the complex, yet common disease and ties it into the complexity of genes and chromosomes.  Therefore, Ripley concludes his last paragraph by warning his readers with "You had better get used to such indeterminacy' since asthma can not be perfectly explained and chromosome 5 can not serve as a complete answer to the questions brought by asthma- why some people have asthma?, why does some people do not have asthma?, etc.  Lastly Ripley finishes by connecting to this chapter's title: "Simple determinism, whether of the genetic or environmental kind, is a depressing prospect for those with a fondness for free will."