Jesse+Wilson

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Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, where as a child he received education and went on to become an apprentice in a linen-draper shop. He was seen as someone that would have no scientific input, but after reading Robert Hooke Micrographia, Leeuwenhoek became inspired and started to take up microscopy. I believe that Leeuwenhoek should get some of the credit for the first microscope, because he was the first person to actually view something that was magnified more than 20x or 30x with his microscope. But he certainly shouldn’t be considered as the very first person to have invented the microscope, because he wasn’t and sure he contributed a lot to it but overall he was inspired by Robert Hooke who had already seen cells through a microscope.

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek contributed a lot to the field of science. Such as the first microscope that could magnify an object 200x. He also made a lot of discoveries about cells and different organisms, such as bacteria, free-living parasitic microscopic protists, sperm cells, blood cells, microscopic nematodes and rotifers, and a whole lot more.

Citation: Ford, B. J. 1991. The Leeuwenhoek Legacy. Biopress, Bristol, and Farrand Press, London. []

__Apoptosis __

 Apoptosis is a programmed cell death, and is a normal component in the development and health of multicellular organisms. It's a controlled process in which  the body tells the cell to kill its self, unlike other ways where the cells continue to die and can cause serious health problems. When the cell receives a specific signal, they produce caspases which are a protein that start to breakdown cellular components that are needed for normal cellular function. Caspases can also activate other enzymes  such as DNases which breakdown the DNA in the nucleus.

Dash, P,D. (n.d.). //Apoptosis//. Retrieved from http://www.sgul.ac.uk/depts/immunology/~dash/apoptosis/

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Citation: Rivera, R, R. (2000). //Snot-tites//. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_n1_v55/ai_21169671/?tag=content;col1

media type="youtube" key="GMEqMma8Knw" height="349" width="425" align="right" __The giant freshwater ray __ //Himantura chaophraya //also known as the giant freshwater stingray, is the largest freshwater fish on the planet and it can weigh somewhere around 1000 lbs. It inhabits some of the most remote waters in the world including the Mekong, Maeklong, Ban Pakong, Chaophraya, Tachin and Tapi rivers in Tailand. It's one of the largest living Dasyatids family of fish left on earth. It belongs to the same class as sharks and other ray Chondrichthyes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">These rays are armed with two venomous barbs on the base of their tails; there is no known antidote for their venom, because they are so understudied. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The largest recorded freshwater ray weighed between 550 and 990 lbs, measuring 6.6 feet wide and 6.9 feet long.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Fish Species > Giant Freshwater Stingray." //Fishsiam//. FishSiam Co, Ltd., 2011. Web. 29 May 2011. <http://www.fishsiam.com/giant-freshwater-stingray.html>.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Microbe power __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">There has been a breakthrough by scientists at the University of East Anglia, the breakthrough is about how we may be able to use microbes to generate <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">electricity. The research shows for the first time the structure of proteins that enables bacterial cells to transfer electrical charge. With this discovery it means that <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">scientists will start to look for way to use it. They've started to try and attach bacteria to an electrode, to create microbial fuel cells or bio-batteries. They are also <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">thinking that they'll be able to create a microbe-based agent that will help clean oil spills or uranium pollution.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">University of East Anglia (2011, May 25). Using microbes to generate electricity?. //ScienceDaily//. Retrieved May 29, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/release <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">s/2011/05/110523152337.htm



__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Radiation's affect on gender __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ionising radiation is a danger to the human population, but with exposure it has had some other affects like affecting the gender of babies. There was a new study <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">done by Hagen Scherb and Kristina Voigt, that after the Chernobyl accident, the radiation has had a long-term negative effect on the ratio of male to female births. Ionizing <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">radiation is known to have mutagenic properties so it's likely to have detrimental reproductive effects. They think that exposure causes men to father more sons and mothers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">to give birth to more girls. A scientific analysis shows an increase in male birth in Europe and the US between 1964-1975, they believe it's due to the atomic bomb test fallout.

"Nuclear radiation affects baby gender." //Biology News Net//. Biology News Net, 26/ 05/2011. Web. 29 May 2011. [].

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21px;">Invasion in the Mediterranean __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">New kinds of fish have started to invade the Mediterranean Sea; there is an estimated 900 new species of fish that have moved into the Mediterranean Sea in just the last decade. The reason behind the invasion of new species is due to the Suez Canal that was built in 1869; this canal opened the waters ways for numerous new species of fish to invade. With the invasion of new fish to the Mediterranean Sea, it has started to upset the natural balance; it has started to change the food chain and many other things along with it.

//<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12px;">Mediterranean Sea invaded by alien species //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12px;">. (2011, May 24). Retrieved from []

__<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21px;">Nanopatch for the heart __

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Heart attacks are a serious health risk for many people in today’s society, and whenever you have a heart attack it leaves dead tissue, which in turns makes you more prone to having another heart attack. Researchers at the University of Brown have created a material that can help; it’s a scaffold-like structure that is made from carbon nanofibers and a polymer. The test that they taken show that the nanopatch regenerates natural heart tissue cells called cardiomyocytes. If used this could help millions, because a third of females and a fifth of males after having their first heart attack will have another in six years.

//<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12px;">Researchers create nanopatch for the heart //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12px;">. (2011, May 19). Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Zombie ants __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Zombie ants are very special ants; they are produced when a tropical carpenter ant that lives up in the rainforest canopy gets infected by a parasitic fungus called <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> //Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.// Once infected the fungus begins to take over the body of its host ant by affecting its muscles. The fungus then grows to fill the ant's body and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> head, causing the ants muscle fibers to separate, the fungus also affects the ant's nervous system. After the ant has become fully infected, the fungus makes the ant fall to the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> rainforest floor, where the fungus thrives in the moist conditions.

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Zombie ants have fungus on the brain //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">. (2011, May 9). Retrieved from http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/05/09/zombie_ants_have_fungus_on_the_brain.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 26.6667px;">How spiders breathe under water

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> There is a quite interesting species of spiders that are unique in the way that they can actually breathe under water with the help of a special pocket of air; it's called <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> the diving bell spider or //Argyroneta aquatica//. What made this spiders so interesting to scientists are that they bring tiny pockets of air down to the bottom of lakes, where <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> they spend most of their life and even lay their eggs in the water. What scientists were trying to see was how they breathe and how long they can stay under water for. So <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> what they found was that they spin a web to encase air in a bubble so that they could breathe, what they found was they used diffusion to bring more air from the surrounding <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> water. They also found how long they could breathe under water, because their bubble of air gets smaller due to the nitrogen in the air, so the scientist figure out that they could <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> last up to an hour.

//The diving bell and the water spider: how spiders breathe under water//. (2011, June 9). Retrieved from http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/06/09/the_diving_bell_and_the_water_spider_ how_spiders_breathe_under_water.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 26.6667px;">Bacteria mimics' proteins

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bacteria are getting smarter all the time, in recent studies they have found bacteria that are able to get pasted are immune system without use ever knowing. This process is known as <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> molecular mimicry, thesis sometimes deadly bacterial pathogens may take the form of protein as a way to develop a resistant against antibiotics. This somewhat explains why some <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> bacterial pathogens were easily treated before and are now becoming harder to treat. The way that scientist were able to find this is through genomes, and what they found was <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> methyltransferase, which is a enzyme that transfers a methyl group from a donor( protein structures) to an acceptor( bacterial pathogen), and they found that in a couple of bacterial pathogens.

//Deadly bacteria may mimic human proteins to evolve antibiotic resistance//. (2011, June 1). Retrieved from http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/06/01/deadly_bacteria_may_mimic_human_proteins_to_evolve_antibiotic_resistance.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 26.6667px;">Gut types

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Could you imagine if one day you had to go to the doctors and not only did they ask you the general stuff about, but then proceed to ask what your gut type is? Scientist at the European <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has found after studying the feces of many different people that there are three different gut types. Gut types all depend on the different colonies of <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">bacteria that live in your intestines, theses gut types can be influenced by your weight, age, and the way are bodies distinguish between friendly and harmful bacteria. Gut types can be a way <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> to detect the likelihood of someone contracting a particular disease like colo-rectal cancer.

//what's your gut type?//. (2011, April 20). Retrieved from http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/04/20/whats_your_gut_type.html