Thursday, February 14, 2008

Cladophora rupestris, green seaweed!


Taxonomy:

Domain- Eukarya

Kingdom- Protista

Phylum- Chlorophycota

Class- Cladophorophyceae

Order- Cladophorales

Family- Cladophoracease

Genus- Cladophora

Species- rupestris


The Cladophora rupestris, also known as Green Seaweed, grows on rock pools, on the surface of rocks, hanging in 'ropes' in crevices or forming undergrowth to macroalgae at all levels on the shore. Cladophora rupestris means rocky or rock-dwelling in latin. People usually serve Cladophora rupestris in salads or in soups. Sea slugs usually feed on Cladophora rupestris. Cladophora can grow up to 15-20 cm in height. It is usually a bluish or dark green color. It has a coarse texture, and it feels somewhat like a rope.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Mills Canyon Cleanup![;






Today I went to Mills Canyon for some cleanup duty with my friend, KaYan, to get some extra credit in our biology class. It was a fun experience and it was cool to learn about the plants that would affect nature. When I woke up today at 9am it was a total disaster because when we were going we got lost using the map. We thought it would be a forest of some sort, but it turned out to be a hiking road where a lot of plants grew. We got there a bit late, but it was better late than never! At Mills Canyon we met Bobby Benson, Ross Webber, other volunteers from BHS. We started working right away clipping poison ivys and brooms. Bobby told us it is best to pull out brooms while their still young. We used clippers when we can't pull poison ivy branches any further. We continued doing this for about 2 hours. At around 12:30 we finished and ended up with 3 huge bags of weed and other plants. We worked together to pull the bags up a hill. It was tiring but in the end they rewarded us with donuts and water! It was fun volunteering, they even emailed us just to say thank you!(:

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Evolution(:


On Thursday, a guest speaker, Dr. Louise S. Mead of the National Center for Science Education, came to our biology class to explain to us about evolution. When people first hear the word "evolution" they would think about "survival of the fittest", but Dr. Louise explained that evolution isn't necessarily about "survival of the fittest'. Evolution is the change in species over time. A fact she told us about evolution was that Darwin was the first man to explain evolution with evidence and detailed information. She also talked about the five main processes of evolution, which were natural selection, genetic drift, evo-devo, and mutation. A power point presentation was shown to help us understand more about the five types of evidence for evolution. The five evidence are:

-biogeography: distributions of fossils around the world and how they got there.

-comparative anatomy: distribution of similar characteristics in the great diversity of species.

-molecular biology: study of how the number of human chromosomes and DNA differ from other species.

-fossil record: how vertebrates came to live on land.

-developmental biology: comparison of the genes.


I think this presentation helped me to better understand about the process of evolution.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Dogs Can Classify Complex Photos In Categories Like Humans Do


Friederike Range and other colleagues brought four dogs to test whether or not dogs can visually catergorize pictures. Four of the dogs were shown landscape pictures and dog photographs. They were able to catergorize them by using a computer touch-screen. When they showed the dogs the two pictures they would get rewarded for picking the dog photo because that is the correct picture. They also continued on to another test. They continued to show the dogs more landscape pictures and more dog pictures. ScienceDaily

reflection:
i think that dogs could classify complex photos too since they are as intellegent as humans. They can learn from humans so they can also learn at classifying pictures. the four dogs above classify which pictures are dogs. i think the best way to test the four dogs were the tests they did. i like the way they used different pictures to see if the dogs knew which one was the correct one to choose from the other.

Monday, October 29, 2007

give me five! :]

summary:

in today's society we eat alot of food and we don't notice what we are actually doing to our bodies when we eat to much or eat to little. having the rite amount of food in your stomach is good because it can be produced into energy and not fat. Milk is a great example of something to drink daily. milk helps you build fiber in your bones and it's a great way to start off your day by drinking some DELICIOUS milk! comfort foods are food that comforts you when you might be down, or bored. when you feel sad or bored you might eat something to cheer you up, but is that food heatlhy? Over the years calories have changed in food. they make the sizes of food bigger with more calories. a average american spends more time watching tv then any other things except sleeping. food advertisement are seen mostly on tv. 60% americans are overweight. Also when eating breakfast you just gotta slow down! it can let you enjoy your breakfast meals. you should focus on what your eating. allow 20 minutes to eat. chew when your eating. When eating too much you should exercise. everyone is exercising too little. everyone should exercise atleast 1 hour and 30 minutes a day. make the right choices and eat FRUITS, VEGGIES, AND WHOLE GRAINS. eat less of sugars and fats. (:

reflection:

i think this is totally true! people aren't exercising enough and some aren't even eating the right types are food. eating right will help you physically and mentally. eating right is a serious thing. when your eating too much you can get overweight and get diabetes! also staying away from the tv screen is another helpful thing, it might be hard, but its good for you! exercise more and you'll be in tip top shape! X3

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Roy G Biv Lab (A3)

yay! today in biology we had to do a lab using the micropipet. i thought it would be extremely hard to use, but it ended up pretty easy! surprised me a bit. when we did the lab mr.olson said to be really careful about using it and not to hold it vertically. i was really careful about doing that. when we got all the solutions ready we used the centrifuge to mix and pool all the reagents into a droplet in the bottom of each tube. after that we measured if they were accurate or not. this was getting pretty fun XD. after that we used the micropipet to suck up the fluid and drop it onto the coffee filter paper. the colors turned out beautifully and they came in colors of the rainbow.(: we then had a comparison between groups of 2. mr.olson said there would be a prize for the group who did the best. i was hoping our group would win. when he went around the classroom looking at everyone's he told some groups to sit down. kayan and i were the only one standing up. he then announced to the whole class that the two groups ashley and i, and kayan and victor won this comparison. i was so happy :] i decided to post it. haha. we won a COOKIE! :3

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Grimpoteuthis aka Dumbo Octopus(:


Dumbo Octopus got its name from its ears because it looked like Dumbo the Elephant's ears. Dumbo Octopus also known as the Grimpoteuthis is a octopus found in the bottom of the ocean floor at the depths of 300-400 meters. Dumbo Octopus eat snails, worms, or other food by swimming up off the bottom and just hover a bit above the seafloor. They swim by using their fins, pulsing their webbed arms, pushing water through their funnel for jet propulsion, or doing all three at once. These octopuses can grow up to be about 20centimeters, they are soft bodied or semi-gelatinous. They have a pair of fin under their mantle and webbing between their arms.