Mandeville and Darwinism

"In what way did Mandeville lay the foundation for Darwinism?"


Particular views of Mandeville's lie in the idea of spontaneous order. Hayek defines this spontaneous order in this sentence.

"Society is the product of human action, not human design."

Darwin seems to have applied this aspect to biology. Him doing so resulted in the springing forth from 18th-century Scottish social philosophy (according to Hayek). This keeps on falling back to Mandeville.

 Mandeville wrote his Fable of the Bees, and him doing so resulted in it being read and it being used continually over the years to back up different economic (or in Darwins's case, biological) principles. ("...human action, not human design.")

Thanks for reading!

Identifying the Diet of a Deceased, Unidentified Animal

"Suppose you found the bones of an unidentified animal.  How could you learn about what the animal ate?  What specific structures would give you clues about the creature's diet?"



If you were to find the bones of an unidentified animal, your first thought probably wouldn't be, "I wonder what this animal ate when it lived among us in space and time."  But lets pretend that this was your first thought regarding the animal.  How would you find the answer to the question?  Well, you would look at the teeth.  What kinds of teeth are among the bones?  If they are mostly molars and premolars, then that would mean that the animal generally ate a diet which would require it to grind and crush the food in it's mouth.

A good example of this sort of animal is the horse.  The horse's diet is made up of foods such as oats, grass, grain, and hay.  All of these require the horse to grind and crush the food using it's molars.

Likewise, if the animal's teeth are mainly incisors and canines the animal was probably be a flesh eating, ferocious best from the underworld.  Either that, or it could be a harmless little chihuahua that generally wore little booties and doggy dresses...both work I suppose.  My point is that incisors and canines are characteristics of meat-eaters.

This is one of the fascinating ways that you can identify an animal's diet.

I hope that you have found this essay informational, as well as enjoyable!  Please leave me some feedback; I would love to hear from you!      

Different Ways That the Body Maintains Optimal Temperatures

The body maintains optimal temperatures in several different ways.  Among these ways are shivering when you are cold in order to heat you up, sweating when you are hot in order to cool you down, growing hair/fur/feathers depending on what kind of creature you are in order to keep warm, and having a layer of fat to protect you from the cold.

Isn't it fascinating how the body is able to come up with such creative ways to protect itself?  I think it is amazing how often we take for granted these things!  We tend to completely disregard the fact that our bodies are able to cool themselves in the hot summer months, or warm up in the dead of winter.  It's certainly a huge blessing that our bodies know how to do these things!  Think about it.  If our bodies weren't able to produce something as simple as sweat, it would be terribly hard to handle those 90 degree days!  Likewise, if we couldn't shiver, it would be difficult to warm up after swimming in the lake!   These are definitely some big things to be thankful for!  Don't ever take for granted the ways that your body takes care of itself!

The body maintains optimal temperatures in such interesting ways, and I hope that you understand them a bit better!    

Animal Intelligence

"What does it mean to say a creature is 'intelligent'?"


First of all, what is intelligence?  Well, intelligence is what determines how well (if at all) we will be able to decipher a problem.  It helps us to learn about the world in which we live, and it assists us in making this world better for all of us.  Without intelligence, the world would be completely chaotic.

Now that we have defined intelligence, we must tackle the question that asks, "What does it mean to say a creature is intelligent?".  I suppose it means that the creature can think about a problem, and find a solution that isn't simply based on instinct.

I will use two examples of animal intelligence today.  First of all, I will use the chimpanzee.  The chimpanzee has been known to "problem-solve" in peculiar ways.  Sometimes it will actually make tools for finding food! It will take a piece of grassy twig, remove the leaves, and then stick the grassy twig into a termite mound.  When it pulls out the grassy twig, there are generally several termites stuck to the grass.  In this way, the chimpanzee has used the grassy twig to "fish" for a termite snack.

The next example that I will use is the elephant.  They have been known to paint pictures, they form lasting bonds with family members, and they seem to exhibit self-recognition in mirrors!

Even though animals can't create spacecrafts, or create a car engine like us, they certainly seem to have intelligence to some degree.

Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!      

Arthropods and Their Potential Economic Benefits

"Could a deeper understanding of arthropods lead to tangible economic benefits?"



Arthropods make up an extremely diverse range of life, and because of this, there are more potential benefits.   A deeper understanding of these creatures could certainly lead to "tangible economic benefits" in my personal opinion.

a caterpillar

I would like to use both the butterfly and moth as an example.  These arthropod's larval stage (the caterpillar) happens to be quite harmful to gardens.  If we were to do more research on the caterpillar, we would likely be able to find better ways of deterring this "pest" from our plants.  In deterring them, we would be able to produce a better harvest.

I think that I will also use the crab as an example.  Everyday we feast on crab legs, and restaurants as well as fishermen make their incomes in part because of this animal.  What if we were to conduct research on the crab that would help us to better locate them.  Perhaps we could develop a kind of "crab sonar" which would make it easier for fishermen to find large numbers of crabs.  If we could figure out exactly where the largest crab populations are, then we would be able to better fish for them, as well as protect them from over-fishing.

Just think of all the opportunities that the research of arthropods could create in the next 5-10 years!  I have no doubt that we will be making several discoveries that could aid us economically because of our research.

Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!

How Fungi are Helping us in Our Busy Lives

Fungi are helping us in several fascinating ways.  Fungi are helping our bakeries through yeast which is used in allowing bread to rise, they are assisting in cleaning up the environment by acting as decomposers, and some can even be eaten as food by us.  I will give an example.

There is a kind of mushroom called a truffle that is extremely valuable to those who harvest it, and it is considered a delicacy to those who buy this mushroom.  In this way the mushroom is both helping people to get something to eat, but it is also helping our economy as a source of income.

Fungi are even helping us to collect important medical information that will help us in our lives.  

As you can see, fungi are helping us in absolutely amazing ways everyday, just as they have throughout the history of our ancient world.  The world is filled with strange, intriguing, disturbing, and beautiful things, and although each of these things only makes up a small part of the picture, when they are put together they make a brilliant painting filled with wonders nearly beyond our comprehension.  My point is that although fungi may seem small and insignificant in the makeup of our world, they play a vital role in the survival of nature.

I hope that you have found even a small portion of enlightenment from this essay, and I hope that you have a lovely day enjoying our magical planet!  

The Art of Dendrochronology

Today I would like to take a quick look into the intriguing practice of Dendrochronology.  Dendrochronology is the study of tree rings to see how old a particular piece of wood is.  Each year, a tree will add a new ring to it's trunk.  Dendrochronologists can then observe the patterns of the rings and determine many fascinating things.

Using this practice, pieces of wood can actually be studied and analyzed to decipher as to what kind of weather a particular year had!  Dendrochronology has even been used to discover the dates of panel paintings and architectural structures!  Just think about it, without dendrochronology we may not to have been able to figure out when different pieces of the world's history came into play!  

Dendrochronology has played, been playing, and will continue to play a very significant role in the history of humanity.

I hope that you have enjoyed this essay, and please let me know what you think!          

Plants' Roles in a Zombie Apocalypse

"Describe one or more possible roles plants could play in the future of humanity.  How are these roles different than what occurred in the past?"


There are of course several fascinating roles that Earth's plants can play in the future, but for today I would like to discuss how they can potentially help in a zombie apocalypse.  I know this sounds ridiculous, but I always do serious reports, so I thought that I would go ahead and have a little fun with this one.

Beacause of the thorns, rose bushes like this
one would make very good fences around
your home, to ward off any hostile zombie
virus survivors.

If something as impossible as the zombie apocalypse were to happen, plants would play an absolutely vital role in people's everyday lives.  For instance, vines could be used as rope in order to serve as a temporary fix for broken fences, many medicinal herbs could be used to prevent/cure illnesses, trees could be used as "safe houses" because it would be difficult for a mindless rotting zombie to climb a ladder successfully, and people could also use different kinds of plants as camouflage for either them, or for their houses.

Now we come to the question "How are these roles different than what occurred in the past?".  The answer is terribly simple.  In the past, there wasn't a zombie apocalypse.  Since there was never a zombie apocalypse, people never had to build zombie proof homes, or attempt to find a cure for the zombie virus using medicinal herbs.  If the zombie virus had never hit before, these things would be completely different concepts than in the past.

Thank you so much for reading this essay, and I hope that it gave you had a good laugh!
 

How Seeds Make Our World a Better Place

Today I thought that I would write a simple essay on how and why seeds matter.  I will start off with discussing about them as a food source.

Seeds come in all sorts of interesting shapes and sizes.  Among these shapes and sizes are some seeds that are quite delicious!  For instance, the sunflower seed is one of the most well-known edible seeds.  People have used them as salad toppings, little crunchy bits in energy bars, or simply as a snack for years!  For many, the sunflower seed plays quite a large role in their diet.

Now Let's say that you are on a nature hike in the woods with your friends.  I want you to look around. What do you see?  You see plants of many varieties.  Some of the plants are small, others are large, and still others are somewhere in-between.  Of course this is obvious, but almost all of these plants come from seeds. The mighty oak tree, the small blackberry bush, and the wild flowers growing by the sparkling pond all come from seeds.  These seeds generally have some kind of protective coating, as well as some method of transportation.

First of all, I will tell you about the seed's protective coating.  The coating can be anything from a piece of fruit to a hard shell.  Let's use the apple as an example.  Once you finish eating all the fruit on an apple, you will see the core.  In the core, you will see many small brown apple seeds.  The protective coating for these seeds was the delicious apple that you just ate.

Here is an example of a fuzzy dandelion.

Now we move on to discussing the transportation of several kinds of seeds.  Seeds move from location to location in many ways.  One way is how certain kinds can stick to people and animals.  We all know the things I'm talking about.  Those nasty, irritating, and poky little demonic pickers that ruin our clothes and cause our pet's fur to become matted.  Believe it or not, how they stick to us is quite an ingenious form of transportation for these seeds.  Once they stick to an animal or a person, they can travel long distances until they finally fall off and grow into another poky plant.  Another method of transportation that I think I should mention is how seeds can travel by being eaten.  As gross as this sounds, it happens a lot, and is crucial to the survival of plants of various kinds.  Once an animal or person eats a fruit that contains seeds, the seeds will come out the other end.  If the seeds are lucky, they will land in a place where they can successfully grow into healthy strong plants.  Some seeds also have the advantage of being able to float through the air like little fairies.  A perfect example of this is the dandelion, which when it starts to die, forms these fuzzy things in place of it's petals.  When we make a wish on these fuzzy things, they will carry lots of seeds through the air.  Once these land, the ones that find profitable soil will grow into more dandelions and the process repeats itself.

I hope that you have enjoyed this essay, and please let me know what you think!          

Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis

"Compare and contrast photosynthesis and cellular respiration."

All plants use photosynthesis.  Even the
apple trees in this orchard.

     Hello all!  Today I am going to be talking about some of the similarities and differences in the two interesting phenomenons called photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

     Right off the bat we see an obvious similarity between the two.  They both use ATP.  (In case you were wondering, ATP is a chemical compound that conveys chemical energy inside of cells for metabolism.)

     We also see a key difference between the two.  This difference is how photosynthesis happens inside of things that we call chloroplasts, but cellular respiration takes place in the mitochondria.

     The last thing that I would like to mention is how photosynthesis and cellular respiration help each other.  They rely upon one another in order to properly work.  In my opinion, this is the main similarity between the two processes.

   
I hope that you find this essay useful, and please let me know what you think!  I would love to hear from you!







  

The Fascinating world of Taxonomy

"What are some of the challenges of systematics and taxonomy?  Should a biologist's classification be taken as absolute, inviolable truth?  In your opinion, is taxonomy necessary and/or important? Why or why not?


     I was asked to tell you about some of the challenges of systematics and taxonomy.  I will do just that! First of all, when a biologist tries to classify a species he can run into some annoying problems.  The problems that I'm talking about are how some species share both animal and plant characteristics.  As you can probably imagine, this poses quite a snare for the person who is trying to classify this creature.

     This information will prove crucial to answering the next question, which is if a biologist's classification should be taken as absolute.  I think not!  In the past we have seen classifications being changed as we gain more knowledge about the species that we are attempting to classify, so how is this any different?  That's just it, it's not!  Of course, most of the time we don't have people wondering where a horse falls into the grand scheme of taxonomy, unless they have completely gone mad.  But for some things, such as with the plant or animal scenario, it is entirely possible for something to be classified wrong.

     This poses a new question.  Is taxonomy important?  Well, just because we might classify something wrong every once in a while doesn't mean that it isn't important in my opinion!  I think that taxonomy is absolutely necessary!  Without taxonomy, how else would we figure out where a cow or woodpecker go. Without it, we would have difficulty differentiating between one species from another.  Without it, we might not be able to properly communicate which species we are talking about!  That would certainly cause some major challenges for scientists and biologists who are trying to study a certain species don't you think?

     Anyways, I hope that you have enjoyed this essay, and please let me know what you think!             

The Immigration of Hawks Into a Different Community

     In a community that has the five trophic levels of plants, crickets, mice, snakes, and hawks, the immigration of even more hawks would definitely cause some big changes!  One likely outcome would be that the hawks would begin feeding off of the mice and snakes.  Both the mice and snake population would therefore decrease, and the plant and cricket population would spike because of the small number of their predators.
   
     Another possibility is that the mice population is filled with disease at the time that the hawks begin feeding on them.  This results in the disease's spreading to the newly introduced hawk population.  The hawk population would then begin to rapidly decrease due to the massive amount of hawk deaths in the community.  The other species of plants and animals would now start to multiply due to the decrease in the numbers of hawks and mice.

     Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!

The "Kangaroo Question"

"Answer, in your own words, the "kangaroo question."  Why do some species only live in one part of the world, even though there are other environments which could be suitable?"

     The answers to this question are actually quite simple.  They might stay in the place that they live because a behavioral pattern keeps them there.  For instance, some animals might prefer to eat a certain kind of food that can only be found in a certain area.

     Another reason is that they might not be able to thrive in any other environment.  Yes, they might be able to live there, but they might not be able to thrive there.  Thriving entails their offspring being able to survive in the environment, the animals being able to avoid particular parasites or predators, etc.

     Another reason is that they might only be able to travel a very short distance in their lifetime.  For example, some bugs might be able to do just fine in multiple places of the world, but these bugs can't get there.  Unless the bug has some help from us humans of Earth, it won't live long enough to see the "land across the sea".

      Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!

Biotechnology and DNA

                                                Biotechnology

     In this section of my essay I will be talking about my thoughts and questions pertaining to biotechnology.  

     Biotechnology has always been a part of our lives in one way or another.  Cheese making, beer brewing, and antibiotics are all examples of things where biotechnology is used.   

     To make you a little more familiar with this extremely useful tool in life, I will give you the definition of biotechnology.

"1. the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, esp. the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, etc."

     For the moment I will talk a bit about it's role in food making.  

  

    In about 6000 BCE the Sumerians and Babylonians would use yeast in order to make beer, in 1300 CE the Aztecs discovered that the algae in lakes could be a potential food source, in 1852 cross-fertilization is discovered in corn, and in 2000 Australia created its first cloned cows.  

     Of course there were other discoveries but I am only going to list these ones right now.  

     If we have been using biotechnology for this long and it took so many years to discover cross-fertilization in corn of all things; how long will it take to make some of the far more advanced discoveries?  That is one question that I ask myself when learning about biotechnology.

                                 DNA

     Am I the only one who has wondered if perhaps one day we will be able to bring the dinosaurs into existence again or create a real superhero?  I guess that this is something that I have always been fascinated with.  It probably sprouts from my love of science fiction.  Star Trek, Spider Man, The Avengers, etc., are most likely the culprits.  

     Since Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA in 1869, and Watson and Cricks' discovery of the double-helix stucture in 1953, we have made many advances in the way that we use DNA.  From using it to find criminals, the making of insulin, and finding a specific person in mass-war graves, DNA is becoming more and more useful!   

   
     It really does make you think about the possibility that science, using DNA, could actually turn some science fiction tales into a reality.  

     I wonder how far away these discoveries in DNA are?  If they are ever made, I wonder how they will be used?  

     Perhaps they would be used purely for scientific purposes, but most likely they wouldn't be.  Seriously, let's just think about this for a minute.  If these discoveries were made, how would governments try to use them?  They have created atomic bombs, machine guns, fighter jets, etc., using the discoveries that have been made in science.  What would happen if real super heroes were created using DNA?  What would happen if human cloning was made successful and legal?  Would the government perhaps try and use these things to their advantage?  Of course they would!  They would be stupid not to.  

     The idea of these things happening is quite frightening to me, but then again, I don't think that we will have to worry about this for quite a long time.  I mean, we cloned Dolly, (the first cloned sheep from an adult somatic cell) in only 1996. 

I hope that you have enjoyed this essay, and please let me know what you think!       

Colorblindness

       Why are men more likely than women to be colorblind?              
     
     First of all, I would like to tell you a bit about what colorblindness is.  It is usually a sex-linked trait that makes it so that some people can't see certain colors.  (Rarely, for us humans of Earth, no colors at all!)

     Now I will give the answer to why men are more likely than women to be colorblind.   
     Well, colorblindness is carried by the X chromosome and not the Y chromosome.  Women have two X chromosomes (XX) whereas men only have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (XY).  This means that a woman can be a carrier and not actually get colorblindness because the other X chromosome can "mask" the colorblindness from the other X chromosome.  Since men have one X and one Y chromosome, they don't have another X chromosome to "mask" the colorblindness.  
     
     In order for a woman to inherit colorblindness she would have to get it from both of the two parents.  For a man, he would only need to inherit it from one parent.
    
     These are the interesting reasons why men are more likely than women to be colorblind.
     
     Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, and please let me know what you think!   

Epinephrine (Adrenaline)

    Imagine this, You are riding your horse at a cater through a beautiful meadow in the early morning.  The crisp cool air, the mist, and the sounds of birds singing makes this perfect.  You slow your horse down to a walk and decide to just take in all of the world's beauty.  All of a sudden, you see a large furry animal in the distance.  You figure that it is just your neighbors dog and keep going.  Your horse seems uneasy as if the dog had the intention of hurting it.  You think to yourself, "That's strange, my horse has never been afraid of a dog before."  As you near the dog your heart nearly stops. You now realize that what you are staring at is not even close to a dog, it's a Black Bear!   You want to tell your horse to gallop, but you're scared that even the slightest move might make the bear attack.  Too late!  The bear is coming at you and your horse!  Your horse breaks into such a gallop that not even race horses can move that fast.  (Then again, race horses don't have a hungry beast chasing them.)  The bear couldn't keep up and very soon, you lose him. 


    What was the point to my story? I am trying to give you an example of an adrenaline powered response.  Adrenaline is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands.  It makes our blood flow quicken, it allows us to breath in more oxygen, and increases carbohydrate metabolism.  
   Our body knows when to use this hormone because of long-distance cell signaling.  Long-distance cell signaling is a way that cells communicate from (you guessed it!) a long distance.  
   Alright, but what is the point of adrenaline?  The point of adrenaline is to trigger that "fight or flight" response. Without adrenaline, whenever we were face to face with a lion, tiger, whoolly mammoth, cannibal, etc., we would not know weather to fly like a little bird or to sit happily like a tree frog that has found a lovely tree. (Tree frogs like trees in case you didn't know.)  

    I hope that you have enjoyed this essay and please let me know what you think!          

Biology Essay 1

    As you probably know, the earth gets a huge amount of energy from the sun.  We are not able to get all of it though.  What does reach the earth's surface is obtained by organisms called producers.  Producers are able to use this energy to help them make their food.
    Now we come to consumers.  Consumers are creatures that need to consume the producers to get energy because they are not able to make their own food.

    Here is an important little bit of information.  When one creature eats another one, it does not get the same amount of energy that the other had.  It gains about ten percent of the energy.  Many animals starve for this reason.  When the energy is diminishing, it eventually runs out, and the animals are not able to use it.  If there is a change in primary producers or consumers, then bye bye animals that used to feed on them.  This is an example of how delicate our lives are.  One simple change, and our world can be turned upside down.  

    Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!

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Cite for this report:  Lesson One