Summer Assignment: 7.26

Before the links, just a quick reminder about comments. I have been getting many emails wondering why comments are not showing up. Some of these have been actual issues, but most of them are just due to the moderation process. Before the comments show up on the post, I read them over and enter them into my gradebook. I try to do this twice a day (early morning and late night), but sometimes I am not able to get on right away. So if your comment does not show up right away, give it 24 hours before sending me an email. If i am going to be away for a few days, I will try let you guys know first. Thanks. Onto the posts:

Parasitic Wasp Employs Zombie Ladybug to Guard Cocoon

Parasites are so cool. Two weeks ago, there was a link to a story about how they are believed to be one of the driving forces behind the evolution of sexual reproduction. This week, zombies. Lots of good stuff mentioned in this post: evolution of bees, co-evolution, evolution of the stinger. I may try to mention parasites everyday this year in class.

How Advertising Manipulates Your Choices and Spending Habits (And What to do About it)

Not a biology-related post, but I still thought this was interesting, and also somewhat important. The author sort of lost me with the last two paragraphs, about how a world without ads would be the end of Western Civilization as We Know It. But i will say that I have gotten so used to Ad Block Plus on my browser, that when I am forced to use a computer without it, it is jarring to see all the ads. So if you don't have ABP installed, get it today (www.adblockplus.org).

Anyway, back to the post. Lots of great points here, and I love the "reference lifestyles" concept. And though I never watched Friends, I seem to recall they explained that huge apartment by saying it was rent-controlled from someone's grandmother or something. Any Friends fans out there back me up on this?

I feel that the most important message from this is to simply THINK. All. The. Time. Whether the purchase is a $35,000 car, or a $1.99 smartphone app (I hate Angry Birds for stealing my life), you should always ask yourself about why you are spending money on that particular item. As the author states in the post: intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation.

The ability to critically think and use your brain will be another running theme throughout class next year.

Summer Assignment: 7.19

Two articles this week. First one is by movie critic Roger Ebert.

On the Origin of Transformers
Even though I have never seen any of the Transformers movies, nor do I plan to, I found this interesting. Are Transformers evidence of Intelligent Design?

The advocates of ID, who are arguing that their belief should be included in science classes in Texas, Tennessee and other states, say that if a living organism has a design that cannot be explained by the theory of natural selection, it is proof of an Intelligent Designer. If you consider a Camaro, for example, wouldn't it obviously have had a Designer? Could its parts have been assembled by a hurricane (or a trillion hurricanes) blowing through a junkyard?

It does seem strange that an alien race would take the form of a Camaro, an Earth automobile. Unless the Camaro is some kind of universal constant.

Trouble in the Fourth Domain?

The current model for the "Tree of Life" consists of three main branches, or domains: bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. Recent research had pointed to a possible fourth domain containing the giant viruses.


The linked article above highlights two recent findings, one which further supports the existence of the fourth domain, while the other casts some doubt on it. It seems as though there is not enough evidence at this point for the four-domain tree to be widely accepted, but neither is there enough to say that it does not exist. I definitely feel that viruses belong on the Tree of Life somewhere, since they are very highly evolved and interesting organisms.

Summer Assignment: 7.12.11

So we got a bit of a late start this year. I decided to extend my vacation by a few days, and did not get home in time to unpack and still have time to get something up here. So this is the first post that will count towards your grade. From now on, unless something comes up, posts will go up on Monday nights or Tuesday during the day.

Why is there sex?

Some interesting new research on the reason sexual reproduction is so prevalent. Asexual reproduction has many benefits; so many in fact, that many researchers state that genes coding for sexual selection should have been been competed out by asexually reproducing organisms.

The reason that sexual reproduction persists is due to parasites. Asexual organisms cannot respond to parasites by recombining their genes the way sexual organisms can. New research seems to support this hypothesis, using a roundworm host and a bacterial parasite.

(Not the) Summer Assignment

This is not the first post for the summer assignment, so you will not have to comment on this. I just wanted to let you guys know that the first post should be up sometime late this week, maybe Thursday or Friday. After that, I hope to have them up on Tuesdays. Till then, here are some pics that will give you an idea of why this week will be late....