51

=Boricua Science Class Student Work Space=

Student Name:
KATHERINE NELSON

Body Burden
In the space between the lines, you will present your research in the form of a pamphlet that anyone could read to learn more about toxic products in the home and office. If you create a Word document, let me know, and we can upload it to this page.

IN MY HOME I FOUND THESE 5 HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS THAT I USE ALMOST EVERY WEEK. I FOUND OUT THAT THEY EACH CONTAIN HARMFUL CHEMICALS THAT COULD POTENTIALLY HARM MY FAMILY. HER E IS A LIST OF THE, MAYBE YOU ARE USING SOME OF THESE PRODUCTS AND THIS PHAMPLET WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU TOO.
 * HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS || CHEMICALS || HEALTH EFFECTS || HOW WE CAN MINIMIZE OUR EXPOSURE LEVEL ||
 * Chlorox 2 color safe bleach || * Subtilisin 0.5 – 2%


 * Sodium Preborate tetrahydrate 5-15


 * Benzenesulfonic acid C-10, C-16
 * Alkyl derivatives 1 - 5% || * Eye and skin irritant.


 * May be harmful if swallowed

area
 * May cause headache and dizziness || * Use in a well ventilated


 * Avoid inhalation.
 * Do not ingest ||
 * Duro Contact Cement || *Acetone 15-20%


 * Methyl Ethyl ketone


 * Toluene


 * Hexane


 * Solvent naphtha,petroleum,alaphatic || * Kidney damage


 * Nasal and respiratory irritation

headache, possible unconsciousness, and even asphyxia. || * Keep container close when not in use flames or oxidizing agents vapors irritated reaction to this product || * Do not inhale this product area for dark woods || * Mineral oil, white
 * Dizziness, weakness, fatigue, nausea,
 * Do not store near heat,
 * Avoid breathing in
 * Avoid contact with eyes ||
 * Multipurpose Surface Cleaner || * Isopropanol 2% || * Eye Irritant,
 * Mucus membrane may become
 * People with existing skin allergies may have a
 * Use in a well ventilated
 * Avoid contact with eyes ||
 * Old English scratch cover

before and after use. inaccessible to children. || Dry eraser marker || * Ethanol SD Alcohol 40, Isopropanol, when not in use. ||
 * Hydrotreated heavy naphthenic distillate solvent extract || * Harmful or fatal if swallowed || * Replace cap tightly
 * Sore in a place that is
 * Sanford expo 2
 * Butanol, resin || * Do not inhale fumes || * Do not shake markers
 * Keep cap on markers

End of Term Reflection
Here are some of the activities we did in class this term: Harper's Magazine ("Boots on the Ice"), Hurricane Evacuation Plan, Designer Babies (GATACA), Genetic Diseases, Evolution Movies/Research, NYT Science Reviews, Punnett Squares, Chemical Bond Diagrams, The Periodic Table, The Birth and Death of Stars

[insert text here] [insert text here] Computer Class = [More/Less] Videos = [More/Less] Student Group Activities = [More/Less] Evaluations = [More/Less] [insert text here]
 * What 2-3 activities did you enjoy/learn the most?
 * What 2-3 activities topic did you find the most difficult to understand?
 * Describe how could we improve this course in the future
 * Explain why you enjoyed, or why you struggled through, this class, offering whatever insights you may feel are valuable:

Name of Disease
Androgenetic Alopecia]

Symptoms

 * 1) Progressively thinning hair in women]
 * 2) [Progressive receding hairlines in males]
 * 3) [Thinning of hair on top of the head in males in the shape of an "M".

Genes

 * 1) Androgen receptor gene - NR3C4]
 * 2) [Purinergic receptor gene - P2RY5
 * 3) [Ectodysplasin A2 receptor gene - EDA2R

Cytogenetic Location
1. Xq 11.2 - q12 2. 13q 14 3. Xq 12

Base Pair Sites
1. 66,680,598 to 66,860, 843 2. 47,883,183 to 47,887, 947 3. 65,732,204 to 65,775,608

Community
[Type here]

Evacuation Center

 * 1) Location – [Type here]
 * 2) Implemented Plan – [Type here]

Your Evacuation Plan
[Type here]

#1
__**THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF CHARGING NATURE'S BALANCE**__ In this article there are 3 examples of unintended consequences. The first one is on Macquarie Island between Australia and Antarctica. The island has recently been an example of what can happen when efforts to eliminate an invasive species end up causing unforeseen circumstances.
 * 1) Summary –

In 1985,American Scientists decided to kill off non-native cats that has been prowling the Island slopes since the early 19th century. The reason, the cats were preying on native borrowing birds. 24 years after, the removal has been disastrous. With the cats gone, the Island's rabbits began to breed out of control ravaging native plants.

Another example is in New Zealand. Conservationist decided to wipe out three introduced species in one go, rats, possums and stoats, by poisoning the first two. They thought the poisoning operation would eliminate the stoats operation by association because rats were a critical part of the stoats diet. Unfortunately the stoats did not disappear. Because there were no rats, the stoats preyed on native birds.

The final example the article cited was the situation in the western United States. Scientists removed exotic salt cedar shrubs because it threatened an endangered species of native song birds, the southwestern Willow Fly catcher. In 2005, the department of agriculture began releasing defoliating leaf Beatles to control the salt cedar population. In 2008, the center for biological diversity struck back, threatening to sue the department for failing to collaborate with the fish and wild-life service to figure out a way to protect the fly Catcher.

In conclusion, it has been agreed upon by most ecologists that scientists need to ask themselves several questions before the decide to remove species or add species to an area. One of those questions being : how will species interact with each other before they try to eradicate one. They need to keep in mind that when they are doing removals they need to know what the outcome will be and to be mindful that every kind of management they do is going to cause some damage. __**THE SCIENCES: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH 5E Chapter 19, page 393**__ __**THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES**__
 * Book Citation –

It is impossible to change one aspect of a complex system without affecting other parts of the system. Building levees in the Mississippi river has caused unintended intensification of flooding; exacting petroleum and water from underground reservoirs has caused unintended land subsidence; building jetties into the ocean has resulted in beach erosion. Lake Victoria was once a rich fishing ground and source of most of that inhabitance protein. This has been changed by the introduction of the Nile Perch. This predator was introduced into the lake for the tourist market. It thrived by eating up the smaller fishes. These smaller fishes feed the locals but also controlled populations of algae and parasite bearing snails. Live algae was then able to spread over the lake surface, while dead algae sank, decay, and consumed oxygen in deep water where fish use to live. Snails have also multiplied and become a serious health hazard because they carry parasites that can affect humans. It causes the ecological consequences also because unlike the small fishes that more sun-dried, the Nile Perch must be roasted over fires. The shorelines is being stripped of trees for firewood, and therefore is suffering extensive soil erosion and there are changes that cannot even be anticipated that are coming down the pikes. One species has changed this vast ecosystem.

__**WHAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM THE ARTICLE AND WHY I FOUND IT INTERESTING**__ In my opinion things are the way they are for a reason. Different species exist together to fulfill a purpose and a circle of life. Many of these species have lived the way they do for hundreds of years and when Scientist and Ecologist decide they know better and come in and alter things either by putting in or taking out things, animals, birds or fishes, they disrupt that circle of life. Cycles get thrown off and sometimes fragile ecosystem get damaged. When there is no choice and they have to intervene they should do so with a well thought of plan and to be flexible if something comes up that they have not anticipated. Intervention should be the last resort.
 * Personal Interest –

#2
__**NEW ORAL CANCER TEST: CRUCIAL OR WASTEFUL?**__ Oral Cancer is not as much in the forefront as other cancers like breast cancer and prostate cancer but it is as deadly as those two if not detected early. 35,300 Americans learn they have oral cancer last year, from that number 7,600 died from the disease. It is a powerful and disfiguring disease that can destroy a person's ability to taste and enjoy food. More than 60% of cases are diagnosed in the late sages and the five year survival rate is 59%. The thing that is most shocking is that this type of cancer is easily cures if treated early. It has been increasing among people that are considered low risk, like non-smokers and the reason is that there has been a rise in HPV(Human Papilloma virus) which is transmitted through oral sex. Dentist are using screening devices that may help them to identify this type of cancer and premalignant lesions. Experts are divided as to whether this will reduce the mortality rate for oral cancer or simply lead to expensive and unnecessary biopsies. There are some experts who also believes that screening can reduce mortality. This is based on proven benefits of early detection in cases that are detected early, about 80% five years after being diagnosed. In India where oral cancer is more prevalent than the United States they found that when high risk subjects has a visual exam, it reduced the mortality rate by 34% compared with people who have not been screened. In conclusion, everyone should have a through annual visual exam. A dentist or hygienist should examine the cheeks, gums, floor of the mouth, the area behind the palate and the tonsil area pulling the tongue fore-ward to the point of gagging. The education of doctors play an important role in oral cancer, if they start with early detection and they are able to save one person's life they will keep doing it. Book Citation __**CANCER – A DIFFERENT KIND OF GENETIC DISEASE**__ Cancer occurs when a group of cells in the body reproduce without restraint. It is a collection of diseases that affects different organs in the body in different ways. Cancer occurs when the regulatory process in the body fails, when genetic defects cause a cell to divide again and again in a runaway fashion to form a tumor. In cancer the cell cycle continues unchecked, often despite damage to the DNA and chromosomes, and by ignoring this chromosomal damage further harmful changes accumulate in the cell. The result is a terribly damages cell that keeps duplicating itself over and over again making more copies of the defective cell. There has to be 5 or 6 separate damage genes in a single cell to cause cancer. The cause of cancer can be identified if a condition exists that causes cells to multiply more often than normal. Personal Interest __**WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE ARTICLE AND WHY I FOUND THE ARTICLE INTERESTING**__ Cancer is a disease that has touched almost every one at some point in life whether directly or indirectly. We all know someone or has a friend who knows someone who either have cancer or died from cancer, so whenever I see something about cancer my interest is immediately peaked. Oral cancer is a cancer I am very familiar with because I had a cousin who died from it two years ago. He use to be a heavy smoker and he had no idea he had it. When he was diagnosed with it, it was in the final stages. It is very painful, my cousin could not eat, the pain was so crucial whenever he had to swallow, even things like water or soup hurts so much when he drank it that he preferred not to even make the effort and just to remain hungry. I saw my cousin simply wasting away and disappearing in front of me and there was nothing that I could have done except to try to make him comfortable. In the final stages, medication doesn't work, the pain is constant and he literally beg to die. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life and hope never to see again. In conclusion, when I read this article I realized that my cousin could have been treated and maybe even cured if he had gotten his cancer diagnosed earlier. Even though I do not smoke, when I go to my dentist in the next couple months I will ask if he does the oral cancer screening and if he doesn't I am going to look for a dentist that does. I have discussed the article with member of my family and encourage the smokers to go get screened, maybe they have early signs of it and if they do could be cured and would not have to go through what our cousin went through.
 * 1) Summary –
 * __**THE SCIENCE: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH CHAPTER 24, PAGE 499**__

#3
__**GENES OFFER NEW CLUES IN OLD DEBATE ON SPECIES ORIGINS**__ Charles Darwin called it the 'mystery of mysteries', a problem so significant and one he was so sure he solved that he named his work 'On the origin of species'. 150 years after his book was published, the process of Speciation, is not only one of the field's most active areas of study but also one of the most contentious. Researches disagree over many area of Darwin's theory from what a species is, to what exactly is meant by the origin of species and there is also questions about whether or nor Darwin shed any light on the matter at all. Part of the problem of studying the origin of species comes from how big the question is and trying to reconstruct events that happened millions of years ago. There has been recent discoveries of of so-called Speciation genes. These newly discovered genes cause reproductive isolation between two groups by causing their offspring or hybrids to be fertile or die. Some scientists object to the term Speciation genes because although the genes cause reproduction isolation, it is not clear whether the gene caused the initial reproductive isolation that are responsible for the origin of species. To get closer to the early stages of reproduction isolation evolutionary biologist study hybrids that are the offspring of crosses between strains of plants within a single species. What was surprising is that even among different strains of weeds some crosses failed catastrophically. The hybrids were tiny, their leaves were twisted and warped, they had massive die-off of cells and the worst cases were unable to flower. The hybrid disrupting genes appeared to be disease resistant, suggesting that the rapid evolution of disease resistance in different strains may be the beginning of the evolution of reproductive isolation between them. This suggest that an entire class of genes, especially those involved in fending off diseases and a particular type of natural selection, the one that imposes by disease organisms could be broadly important in the Speciation in plants. The surprises now being found in DNA of diverging species are things Darwin could have never guessed. The strongest pattern that came from this study is one Darwin might have suspected, the single widespread commonality is that nearly all appear to have diverged to produce reproductive isolation as a result of adaptation under powerful natural selection. Darwin focused on adaptation through natural selection in the shaping of the diversity of life. To modern biologists because of the absence of evidence it was plausible that random divergence over time might also have been an important force leading groups to becoming distinct species. The most important findings is that selection is the driving process. In conclusion, new studies are providing increasing evidence that sexual selection is capable not only of producing outrageous structures but also new species, an idea of Darwin's that doesn't come up very often. The problem is how biologists define a species. Today, the most common definition of a species is a group that is reproductively isolated from other groups. As a result, the origin of species is, necessarily considered the origin of reproduction isolation. Darwin might have defined a species as a segment of a branch on the ever-expanding tree of life, the same tree he drew as the figure in the “origin”. As one Dr. put it, the world is full of species from giraffes, to humans to finches to an oak tree and Darwin's book embraces the whole thing. His own last words in his book suggest that broad scope of thinking, “//There is grandeur in this view of life from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved'.// __THE SCIENCES – AN INTEGRATED APPROACH 5E. PAGE 517 and 519__ __NATURAL SELECTION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEX LIFE__ In Charles Darwin's book, “ORIGIN OF SPECIES”, he set forward a view of the development of living things that has been expanded and developed to the point where it is fair to say that it is the single theory that unifies all biologists. Darwin's theory was influential and controversial because it identified a simple mechanism for evolving complex multicellular life-forms from single-cell life. His entire theory is built around the concept of natural selection. To Darwin, human ascendancy seemed as evolutionary accident rather than a divine plan, and he saw no sign of god in the brutal process of natural selection. Nevertheless, in his own concluding words: //There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.// __**WHAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM THIS ARTICLE AND WHY I FOUND IT INTERESTING**__
 * 1) Summary –
 * Book Citation –
 * Personal Interest –
 * I have learn several interesting things from this article. The first is that biologist define species as things that are reproductively isolated, it cannot interbreed or exchange genes with each other but, a newly discovered gene cause reproductive isolation between two groups by causing their offspring to be infertile and die. These genes are seen in fruit flies, mice, fish and yeast. Second, sexual selection. This is when females choose showy mates and male suitors violently combat one another which can lead to the evolution of things like the peacock tail or massive deer antlers. New studies are showing evidence that sexual selection is capable of producing new species. A small amazonian frog known as Physalaemus patersi provides a strong example of how females choosiness in mates may be driving the formation of a new species. Males in the mottled brown species sings in chorus to attract females. In some population the males song is called a “whine” in other population the male whines and then squawks. The difference evolved because females in one population preferred pure whine, whereas in another they prefer whine and squawk. Because of this preference by the female frogs the population is beginning to evolve into a distinct species. There is even evidence that the populations that prefer different songs, while very closely related, appear to be beginning to diverge from one another genetically, suggesting they are moving down the path towards separate species.
 * **I have found this article interesting because it shows that even after 150 years, there is still a debate over one of Darwin's theories. There are new breakthroughs all the time. Scientists takes nothing as law and are always trying to find a different angle and a different reason why things happened. There are many things that was discovered after Darwin's book was published like Mandel's genetic work things that he could not have anticipated. Darwin was a genius in his time and set the world on its ears with his finding, but it is my opinion that eventually another genius is going to come forward that will disprove his theory and send the scientific world spinning on its ears again.**

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