Monday, September 9, 2013

The Affect of Predators and Adaptations on Evolution

Evolution is a widely known theory stating that (based of observation and conclusion from sufficient evidence) over time, life changes and adapts. Causes for life to change vary, but two strong points that will be evaluated in this post are the affects of predators on the evolution of a species and how adaptations affect the evolution of a species.

How Predators and Adaptations Affect the Evolution of a Species:

Before delving into any thought, definitions to remove any confusion are under way.

SPECIES: A group of similar organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring.

PREDATOR: An animal that naturally preys on others.

ADAPTATION: A trait which helps an organism survive and reproduce.

To put it simply, a species naturally wants to live long enough to reproduce, and predators want to eat them to do the same thing. As the predator's natural instinct to survive directly conflicts with its prey's, sooner or later the prey would be extinct due to too many of its own species being devoured by the ever growing population of the predators, who have a great food source apparently - the prey. Take the katydid, for example;

Tettigoniidae Scudderia (Katydid)

The katydid is a species that has lasted millions of years and is currently 6400 species strong. However, its predators (lizards, birds, reptilians and amphibians in general) found them as quite the popular choice of food. Over generations, the katydids reproduced, being eaten, some surviving, and so forth. However, one day a mutation within the katydids population made them that much more harder to find. Those with this mutation had a better chance of surviving and so could reproduce and pass on their mutation. Over the course of millions of years, mutations in regards to mimicry meant that lizards, birds, amphibians, etc. couldn't see these katydids (now named "Leaf Katydids") and thus the species continued on. 

Predators have kept up with the katydids, as now monkeys (for example) just look for moving leaves, which must have been a real kick to millions of years of evolution. 

Another example of adaptations affecting evolution based on the same concept is the one we found in class. Dr. G placed pink bits and green bits of papers resembling insects in the grapevines outside the classroom and asked us all one by one to find them all. This is a chart of my results.


As one might note, the amount of pink insects found is greater than the amount of green ones, as the green ones were the same shade of green as the leaves. Similar results were found with other classmates, most finding on average 10 pink papers and 4 green papers. 

A good metaphor for the Theory for Evolution is Fashion. Everyone must live with the times, know what's "in" and what's "out", and if you can't keep up, you're finished. In the katydid's case, It sort of got mixed up in the fashion of the 80's version of today's SWAG fad. Isn't Evolution great?

Sunday, September 1, 2013

The Process of Evolution

Evolution by definition is the process of change in all forms of life over generations. The process is simple enough to understand in roughly 7 steps.

Step One:

A life form becomes numerous by reproducing.

Step Two:

The offspring is different from the parent in tiny, random ways by the means of changes in hereditary information of the organism.

Step Three:

If these changes are helpful, the offspring have a higher chance of living long enough to reproduce.

Step Four:

The life form may pass down their helpful change, and so further offspring have a higher chance of making more offspring than others without the helpful change.

Step Five:

More offspring = more helpful change in future generations.

Step Six:

Differences accumulate in the species' population.

Step Seven:

Over time population branches off as a new species.

This occurs in all life forms.


P.S: Please inform me if this description is flawed in any way.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Genesis 100


1:49 AM, September 7th, 2013
A scream echoed through the edges of the city. A scientist studying chemical reactions with water at the water processing facility listened to the reverberating sound that bounced off the walls of glass. He looked at the dark hallway to inquire what made the scream. He decided an inspection of the scream would be a great way to occupy himself. He opened the door to the cool air. He was suddenly tackled by a yelling, grunting, man who looked as if he had crossed the border of insanity. He screamed and scratched and was the feral creature of human society. He kept clutching his head as if it were to fly off. As the scientist realized that the man was not fighting him anymore and was rolling on the ground, he got up and brushed himself off. He observed the man as he screamed in agony. His eyes looked as if they would burst.
His scalp exploded, with bits of skull and tissue everywhere. The floor and ceiling were dripping with blood, and the scientist threw up as the brain of the man squeezed out of his head.
As a scientist, he decided it was best to start an autopsy. He had no idea what to do, he was simply mimicking what he saw in the movies. He started by dragging the corpse onto the table.
            The first thing that caught his eye was the brain. It was twice the size of the man’s head. He put on his gloves and touched the slimy brain. He started to stretch the brain aside to see the stem. It was inflamed. As it was exposed, he searched the table with his free hand for the scalpel. Since he focused on the stem rather than where his hand was, the scalpel cut into his palm. He quickly lost all focus and screamed in pain, the blood oozing out his hand. He ran towards the sink a few meters away from him and turned on the water. Immediately he thrust his hand into the cold stream and pain ran up his arm. In a panic, he hit the tap to the left, turning the coldness to steaming hot water. He snatched his hand to his chest, looking down to see the blood streaming down his arm. He realized the gloves were still in his hand, so he slowly took them off. The pain throbbed as the glove touched his cut. He saw that his hand had turned a purpley-green color. Thinking it as a blood loss hallucination, he decided to call 911. Fumbling in his pockets with the other hand, he called 911 to say that there was an accident at the Water Processing Facility he was in, and he was fainting. He blacked out as his hand started swelling.


2:03 AM, September 7th, 2013
            The ambulance arrived within 15 minutes of the call, and two medics ran out to the building. They got to the top of the building to find the body of a man in a white lab coat on the third floor. One medic turned him over onto his back and inspected his arm. It was swollen and green, with purple mucus around a large cut on the hand. He hovered his hand over the man’s mouth and felt a slight pulsing of wind. He was alive.
            The medic reported to the ambulance the situation, and to bring up the stretcher. Another medic ran out the van with the stretcher and went upstairs via the elevator. The doors opened to show a horrific scene.
            The two medics were lying on the ground with their mouths surrounded by purple mucus and a man in a lab coat with a brain the size of a pillow, throbbing out his head. The man in the lab coat turned to see the elevator open with a medic inside. He ran towards him, his brain flopping around on his head. The medic desperately clicked the “Close Door” Button, but to no avail. The doors closed just as the crazed man with a large brain got inside. The medic blocked himself against the crazed man with the stretcher. As the crazed man attacked, the medic shoved him away, accidentally causing the crazed man to hit a button. As the fight continued, the elevator went up to the top floor, where the water was processed. The “ding” signaled the arrival and the medic attempted to escape. He succeeded to find that the crazed man was behind him, still trying to tear the medic apart. The medic ran around the edge of a large circular water processing tank, trying to lose the crazed man behind him. When a considerable distance was made, he threw the stretcher behind him, tripping the crazed person. The medic turned and saw an opportunity to survive, so he ran back and kicked the oversized brain. The crazed man screamed and the sounds echoed everywhere. In a blind rage, he solidly punched the brain. The brain made contact with the ground and burst. Purple mucus spurted out the back, and trickled down into the water tank. Water that was to be distributed to airports, docks, bottling companies, taps, and factories.
8:17 AM, September 7th, 2013
            A teacher at a school got thirsty. She had left her thermos at home, so she decided that drinking from a drinking fountain wouldn’t cause anyone harm. She had noticed a lot of students were absent, and only 2 were fine. She had assigned them an activity, so she was ok to leave the class momentarily.
            She turned on the water fountain and noticed an odd purple hue to it. She drank the water regardless and found it tasted odd. She was oblivious to the fact that she had drunk a virus, which was making its way into her blood stream via the teeth. Her mouth felt odd.
            A few minutes later, she felt very strange and she had a slight head ache. Her body didn’t understand that the virus had gotten into the brain from the blood stream, and it was changing her DNA into its DNA. The altered DNA was sending messages to the Anterior Pituary Gland to release growth hormone into the brain. The virus added certain enzymes of which would cause the brain to grow a more suited cell for the virus to infest. Her original amygdala and hippocampus cells were being genetically reengineered by her own DNA and the virus, while the altered growth hormones grew plain neurons, and soon those parts of the brain were simply cells of no use other than being a brain. However, since the teacher was unaware of this, she thought she was dehydrated and drank water to cure the headache.
            15 minutes later, the teacher was in agony. Her brain had considerably expanded to the point where it was pressed against the roof of her skull. The migraine she had felt like no other, and she fell onto the floor, clutching her head. The blood vessels in her brain were on the brink of bursting. The teacher felt like breaking her head on the floor to somehow ease the pain. The two students were simply watching, staring in fear as the teacher screamed uncontrollably. She scratched the top of her head until it started to bleed. Then, suddenly, her scalp opened up and her large brain popped out, quivering like a bowl of jelly. It was purplish and covered in mucus that was the virus. She stopped screaming and slowly stood, slightly crouching as if she were sneaking. She looked around and saw the two horrified students, one slightly behind the other in the corner. She snarled as if feral, and then attacked with manicured nails slashing. The students screamed and ran in opposite directions. She managed to catch up with one of the screaming students and she dug her nails into his neck, and with the other hand she smeared mucus from her brain into the wound. The other student ran for their life out the classroom and down the hallway. As he ran, he saw glimpses of the outside world as he ran past the windows, seeing large brained people attacking normal people, cutting a hole in them and then putting the mucus on their hands and rubbing it in the wound they caused. He saw the city and the suburbs around the school with pillars of smoke arising. The student then looked to the other side of the hallway as he ran, seeing some of the teachers and students in pain. Those in agony, he noted, either died as their scalps exploded or survived and infected others.
            5:43 PM, March 9th, 2014
The Apocalypse of the Brains was cut short as the brain was covered in bacteria and other viruses every time a “brain” took a wipe of mucus. The bacterium and other viruses took the opportunity of a vulnerable, large brain that was easily killed by microbes. The brains were also a large weak spot for any normal human to attack. However, the apocalypse took 6,474,769,97, and left the last 100th of humans to rebuild the planet.