Viruses part 1

 Describe the general structure of a virus

Viruses are very small compositions containing nucleic acid in the form of DNA or RNA enclosed in a capid.

What is the genetic material that can be found in a virus?

The genetic material that can be found in a virus includes single-stranded DNA or RNA or double-stranded DNA or RNA

 Example of plant virus:

The Cauliflower Mosaic Virus infects plants( most commonly cauliflowers and turnips) through transmission via aphids. The virus causes deformities, stunted growth, and mosaic patterned legions on leaves

                                                      Example of animal virus:

                                                      Canine Parvovirus is a common virus among dogs that is spread through                                                       direct contact of feces.The virus can cause many factors and symptons                                                         that lead to death.

Viruses...are they non-living or living?
The topic of whether viruses are living or non-living is a difficult topic because they do possess living traits including the ability to adapt over time and they contain genetic material. They also have the ability to "Reproduce" but they are only able to do when attached to a host cell which can be considered as not so much "Life" as it is "Borrowed life". Viruses are unable to reproduce without a host cell. Viruses are unable to ingest, produce, or dispose of nutrients either so although they are very similar to things that we consider living, based on the concept of what life actually is, I do not consider viruses living.
Beneficial viruses?
There are viruses that can prevent aggressive attacks from occurring. For instance, having cowpox can prevent you from having smallpox in the future. Being infected with the Hepatitis A virus can also stop the Hepatitis C virus from spreading. These work like vaccines as they are a weaker virus that can prevent a very bad virus from replicating and wreaking havoc inside a persons body.

Cephalopod Camoflage

One kind of animal that I have always been fascinated with is the tentacly-suckery-swimming kind. I'm referring to cephalopods. The most well known kind of cephalopods include squids, cuttlefish, and octopi. I remember snorkeling in Hawaii a few years ago and coming across a small group of squids that seemed to be changing color or refracting light as they swam with their skin looking like it had a weird rippling, marble effect going on. It kind of made my brain hurt. Then, a few days later, I also saw this really tiny dark colored octopus shifting around on the sandy ocean floor. I watched it for a while until somehow it completely disappeared as soon as it came across a piece of black and white coral. It didn't seem like it had to bury it's self in the sand or hide underneath it to conceal it's self. It just literally just disappeared instantaneously. That also made my brain hurt. WHAT IS GOING ON!

so...I found this video...

AND THEN MY BRAIN HURT EVEN MORE

...so I found this other video to explain what just happened. It's crazy.

So... that was informative.
 But I think that the whole idea of this is amazing. When you think of a color changing animal, immediately, CHAMELEON pops into your brain. Yet everyone knows what an octopus is but you don't just think "Oh, octopus. Yes. Magical creature of invisibility and mind-blowery."...(or at least I didn't) Now we know :D

Progress Reflection

     So far in biology eleven, I am proud of the amount of knowledge that I have gained in this course! I've learned a lot about organisms that I had never understood before for example the details of natural selection and how it leads to evolution and what exactly a virus is. NOW I FEEL INFORMED :D this if fabulous. In my opinion, my best work was evident in the tests, the biology home video, and my blog entries. I feel like tests and are the best way for me to give evidence of the knowledge that I have retained in a unit. I generally spent as much time as I could to complete both tests and took pride in the amount of information that I was able to display on the spot. The biology video was one of the best ways for me to show what I had learned. It was definitely my favorite assignment so far as it was very fun to prepare and film. And after watching it, I was surprised that I actually knew so much information. Still working on uploading it onto the interweb though...teehee. In addition to those pieces of work, I feel like the paragraphs that I have written in my blog are some of my best work because in each post, I had learned something new so I tried to elaborate and provide a lot of accurate information to share the new facts that I had learned. In particular, the narwhal post. That one was cool. I like that one.
     My binder is pretty organized.I am able to flip through it and use it as a study tool. Some things are slightly out of order though.After looking through my binder, it is evident that I have completed pretty much all of the question and answer worksheets that were handed out.HOWEVER....this is going to come across as extremely pathetic...but cut-and-paste assignments stress me out. So...ya. The majority of those are incomplete or gone because either some cutout pieces were lost or I just became very confused. And then I rage quit. I have also kept up with most of the work that has been assigned, except for the scientific names of imaginary species and a few blog entries. It is evident that I could try harder to stay on top of everything in order to prove that I am engaged in this class.
      So far, the narwhal blog post means the most to me because the information that I found out was super interesting. Who would have thought that something that looks like a decorative horn is actually a tooth that may work as a hyper sensitive sensory organ. It was surprising to me because everyone knows what a narwhal is but they don't know what the tusk is for. Now I know. I FEEL INFORMED AGAIN.
     To me, engagement in class means listening attentively  to the teacher as she is talking and actually trying to relate to and comprehend what is being said , using time in class to complete assignments, contributing to class discussions, and working together with peers to actually engage in making discoveries in labs. In class, I have learneda lot  of fascinating things from paying attention and actually using my brain while taking notes rather than just blanking out and copying like a robot. In team projects, I like to share ideas and learn from the ideas contributed from others.I totally love labs and try to find interesting results to the best of my ability.
   For the rest of the semester I will make it my goal to be more engaged in class and spend more time on homework. I want my blog to have more posts and just give as much evidence of progress in this class as possible. Because I am definitely learning and am starting to view things differently but I don't think that it is as evident as it should be.

What is the Purpose of the Tusk

There are many different hypothesis' as to why narwhals have a large tusk protruding from their skull. Because  the tusk is a trait that only males have, many theories state that the tusk is a sexual trait that displays male dominance and can attract females through social ranking. Some sources claim that the tusk may be used as a weapon although the most fascinating discovery that has been made regarding the tusk is that it actually contains ten million nerve connections and it may be highly sensitive to many things including hydrodynamics, temperature, pressure, and possibly many other stimuli.

The Majestic Narwhal

 Q: What is the purpose of the long horn extending from from the head of a narwal?
A: My hypothesis is that the long horns may not be as "Functional" as they are "Intimidating". I feel like narwhals probably aren't very aggressive  creatures so the horn may be a way of scaring away predators.