Graveyard Life Table Lab

Riverside Historic Cemetry

For this lab we went to the Riverside Historic Cemetery. When I first found out that our ENB lab was going to be at a cemetery I was a little confused and (I'm not going to lie) A little freaked out. Once Dr. Rood explained our purpose of being there it made much more sense. We are studying populations and how our population has changed over the years and what can cause our population size to change. We were there to gather information to create a life table. We were told to look for grave stones where the person died in 1918. This year in specific because this was the year of the Spanish Flu epidemic. The Spanish Flu was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. It can be predicted that there will be a lot more deaths in the year of 1918 compared to other years near to it. Also we wanted to see what age group and sex was most effected by the spanish flu. We can do this by creating a life table.

People were quarantined during the Spanish Flu epidemic

Poster warning of the Epidemic 

A life table aka a mortality table is a table which shows, for each age, what the probability is that a person of that age will die before his or her next birthday. From this starting point, a number of inferences can be derived.
From the information I gathered (which can be seen in my table at the bottom if the page) More men than women died in 1918. This could possibly mean that men were effected more than women by the spanish flu. The females that did die in 1918 were either very old or very young, and this makes sense because the old and the young are the ones most effected my pandemics. MOst of the men who died were in their 40's and older but a few dies in their 20's and 30's. It is very interesting to see and compare all those who died in Macon during the year of 1918.


Heres my life table of those who died in 1818.

Sex	Year of Birth	Year of Death	Age
Female	1850	1918	68
Male	1872	1918	46
Male	1842	1918	76
Male	1868	1918	50
Male	1861	1918	57
Male	1852	1918	66
Male	1855	1918	63
Female	1917	1918	1
Male	1880	1918	38
Male	1842	1918	76
Female	1897	1918	21
Male	1886	1918	32
Female	1911	1918	7
Male	1874	1918	44
	Video about the Spanish Flu Epidemic Video about some biology students creating life tables

Bio Ethanol Lab

In this lab we discussed how to produce bio ethanol. Bio ethanol can be used as fuel. Bio ethanol is a type of ethanol fuel that is ethanol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Its is most often used as motor fuel, mainly as  a biofuel addictive for gasoline. Bioethanol is a form of renewable energy that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks. It can also be made from common crops such as corn, sugar cane, potato and manioc. The basic steps fro large scale production of ethanol are yeast fermentation of sugars, distillation, dehydration and denaturing. Bioethanol fuel can be used in car petrol car engines and fireplaces.

Benefits of Bio Ethanol:
-Bioethanol has a number of advantages over conventional fuels. It comes from a renewable resource i.e. crops and not from a finite resource 
-Reduce dependence on Oil
- By encouraging bioethanol’s use, the rural economy would also receive a boost from growing the necessary crops. 
-through the use of bioethanol, some of these CO2 Green house emissions will be reduced as the fuel crops absorb the CO2 they emit through growing.

Bioethanol Fire place!

Cons:
-It has a high corrosive capacity, bioethanol can be corrosive to metals such as aluminum.
-oethanol may require the use of too much arable land (to grow the required crops) and too much energy input during production to justify it.

"Can we make bioethanol from waste?" Cool video!

Mitochondrial eve

Also known as the mother of all humans, lived 2000 years ago. She is the most recent common ancestor MRCA.  In other words, she was the woman from whom all living humans today descend, on their mother's side, and through the mothers of those mothers and so on, back until all lines converge on one person. Because all mitocgondrial DNA is generally passed from mother to offspring without recombination, all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in every living person is directly descended from hers by definition. Mitochondrial Eve is the female counterpart of Y-Chromosomal Adam, the patrilineal most recent common ancestor, although they lived thousands of years apart. She most likely lived in east Africa.

While we are all descendants of Mitochondrial eve, we are quite diverse.

French Woman

Japanese woman

Senegalese woman

Swedish woman

Native American Woman

The decedents of mitichrondrial eve all look different because through out the years they migrated to other parts of the world. Experiencing different environments and environmental conditions. Depending on exposure to sun, their skin pigmentation began to change colors.

Estimated Migration Patterns of her decedents 

This video explains the concept of Mitochondrial Eve in a bit more detail!

Dog Park Labl

This week for lab we went to the Dog Park in Macon called Tyler's Place to take samples of the water in the park and discover if there are any parasites or bacteria in the water. While there we discussed the impact dog parks have on communities. Dog Parks can be quite central to a community. Dog parks can really bring people together, people who share at least one thing in common: their love for dogs. . There are many benefits of dog parks such as they provide dogs with an excellent source of dog-dog and dog-people social interaction. They also provide the dogs a place where they can have off-leash exercise experience. There are also community advantages such as their presence would decrease the chances of dog owners letting their dogs off of their leashes in public places, people are more likely to encounter people who enjoy dogs and it could potentially provide a good location for dog community events (like we saw at the Macon dog park).

The water source that runs through the dog park. (Where we took the water samples).

The even have water fountians for the dogs!

 While dog parks one their face appear good(which they may very well be), there is some controversy over dog parks. There are some disadvantages of dog parks for people, dogs, and the community. For people dog parks can be disadvantageous because of the potential for dog fights, danger of aggressive dogs, dog related injuries and the potential for parasites. For dogs dog parks have the disadvantage of the potential of parasites and disease, potential of being over excited and lack of impulse control. Also there is the potential for injury and the interaction of small and big dogs which may be dangerous. For the community dog parks have the disadvantage of the potential for people to abuse the park including not picking up their dogs poo, leaving the dog unattended or allowing their dog to indulge in inappropriate behavior. Also their is the potential of loud niose and liability issues.

Its like a play ground for dogs!

Here is a great website that addresses dog park etiquette, body language,  tips ad more!

Video about the dog park!

For more information regarding dog parks check out this website.

Resource: APDT

Darwins Decision

The film Darwin's Dilemma examines what many consider to be the most powerful refutation of Darwinian evolution, the Cambrian fossil record. Charles Darwin realized that the fossil evidence did not support his theory of gradual, step-by-step evolutionary development. He hoped that future generations of scientists would make the discoveries necessary to validate his ideas. A robust Cambrian Explosion destroys the concept of evolution by gradual natural selection. If anything, the Cambrian event seems even more abrupt than it did in Darwin's day. The movie shows how the Precambrian layer contains single-celled creatures but no obvious ancestors of the Cambrian Phyla. By looking at the Burgess Shale of BC and the Chengjiang fossils of China the film shows how soft-bodied and microscopic creatures are exquisitely well preserved in the rocks but no transitional forms connect the animal phyla. Thus, the old Darwinist excuse that the transitional really did exist but were too small and soft-bodied to be preserved is untenable.

The Walcot Query of the Burgess Shale

I found it very interesting that this film was kinda of going against Darwins Theory of evolution. It is interesting to think about the possibility of another explanation to the creation of human beings that has some scientific evidence that is not the theory of evolution.

Some Burgess Shale Fauna

Great Fossil Fauna's: The Burgess Shale

Darwin's Dilemma Trailer:

amphioxus

Amphioxus, also known as lancelet's, are usually found buried in sand in shallow parts of temperate and tropical seas. Amphioxus is believed to be the most primitive example of vertebrate . It is believed to be the ancestral precursor for all other vertebrates. It is important in zoology and may provide indications about the origins of vertebrates.  Amphioxus serve as an intriguing comparison point for tracing how vertebrates have evolved and adapted. Although Amphioxus split from vertebrates more than 520 million years ago, their genomes hold clues about evolution, particularly how vertebrates have employed old genes for new functions. Lancelets grow up to about 2.0 in long, reaching 2.8 in at the longest. They have a translucent, somewhat fish-like body, but without any paired fins or other limbs.

an amphioxus

Amphioxi spend much of their time buried in gravel or mud on the ocean bottom, although they are able to swim. When feeding, they let the anterior part of the body project from the surface of the gravel so that they can filter food particles from water passing through their gill slits. At night they often swim near the bottom. They burrow into sand using rapid movements of the body, which is tapered at both ends and is covered by a sheath (the cuticle).

Labels of the parts of an Amphioxus

Video about the theory of amphioxus

Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/21580/amphioxus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelet

Hitchiti Experimental Forest Lab

River along Hitchiti Forest

For this lab we went to the Hitchiti Experimental Forest. It is called an experimental forest because scientist will set parts of the forest on fire to learn and understand how forests recover from fires and what sorts of plants and animals live in such areas. We went on a nice long hike and say some beautiful aspects of nature. We also learned a lot about different types of plants. 

experimental forest fire

Wild Ginger

One plant we learned about was Wild Ginger aka Asarum. Wild Ginger is a low growing herb that the natives of this area would eat. It is called wild ginger because its tatste is very similiar to the taste of ginger root. Wild ginger favors moist, shaded sites with humus-rich soil.

Me hugging a tree

Another plant we learned about Sassafras, which is a tree. Sassafras is really interesting because it actually has 3 differernt leaf types. It has a leaf shaped like a glove, a mitten and a typical leaf shape. assafras leaves and twigs are consumed by white-tailed deer in both summer and winter. 

The different leaves of a sassafras tree!

Dr. Rood sticking his hand in a random hole, hes crazy!