Blog Post Module 7

    It has been so incredibly relieving to be able to sit through a lecture and really LISTEN to what is being said and participate while occasionally writing down notes, compared to other classes where I am constantly scrambling to write things down so I hardly even hear what my professor says. I feel like I am much more involved in the lecture and I'm really learning from it because I'm not just trying to cram in information so I can do well on a test. ALSO: I consider myself to be quite computer-illiterate. I would never think I would be able to put together pieces of code to make graphs and do such cool functions--it makes me really happy and proud of myself because I'm doing something I probably never would have done if it weren't for taking this class.    

    I would say my first definition of evolution was pretty decent, just the basics of heritable traits changing over multiple generations in a population. However, something we have continued to talk about a lot in this class is epigenetics and how genetic change can happen through environmental exposures in a single individual or one generation. Although I don't think this completely turns our current definition of evolution on its head (because epigenetics isn't a change in genetic code, it's a change in what is expressed), it is a very interesting point to make regarding how quickly evolution can happen. 

    I still struggle some with reading phylogenetic trees. I know that seems like a simple thing, but I struggle to realize sometimes that when there is a branching off, it doesn't mean that there was a mating/genetic cross, it just means one mutated/changed from the original. 
    
    I'm super curious to learn more about examples of populations affected by weird genetic/evolutionary forces. Like examples of a crazy bottleneck effect or a population that has an insanely high mutation rate but it actually works for them. That would be interesting to hear about!

Comments

  1. Caroline GatschetOctober 20, 2021 at 6:43 PM

    Hey Jenna,
    I feel the exact same way about the format of the class, you couldn't have put it better! I actually look forward to attending this class everyday because its aim is not to cram as much information in the allotted time as possible. Rather, we are really being taught how to think critically about real world, current issues. It's such a relief to actually comprehend what is being taught!
    I also understand where you're coming from with your struggles reading phylogenies - they're very similar to the trees constructed in genetics that show how dominant/recessive traits are passed down from parent to offspring. However, it's important to keep these two trees separate in our heads as they confer rather different meanings.
    Anyways, best of luck moving forward in the semester! I'm certainly excited to see how this class progresses.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post Module 10

 I think when it comes to sexual dimorphism and who courts who, the most important thing to remember is that in reality--it's not about sex of the individuals involved at all. As we discussed in class, it's about who invests more into the offspring instead! In probably 99% of species on earth, it is the case that females of a population are the ones that "invest more" into the offspring because they are the ones who are pregnant, give birth, breastfeed, do more of the early life care, etc. In the case of pipefish, however, it is the males who carry the babies inside them into they are ready to make their grand entrance! It makes perfect sense when you think about it that this courting phenomenon takes place--since procreating is so much work for the sex carrying the babies, they want to be woo-ed into choosing the best possible mate. They aren't going to go through that for just anybody--they're going to need to see some showgirl-like fin action before they co...
Read more

Blog Post Module 9

Image
Blobfish: The Original "No Bones" Day Animal The Blobfish is an animal most of us may have seen in a meme or otherwise before because they are continuously regarded and one of the ugliest animals to ever exist. Photo evidence appears above. The reason Blobfish look like...that... is because they live extremely close to the ocean floor, between 2000 and 4000 feet below sea level depending on the area. This puts them living at a pressure between 60 and 120 times larger than sea level. To put this into perspective, here is this quote from an article on Australia's Science Channel: " There is so much pressure at that depth a human would feel as if a passenger aircraft was parked on top of them". Another fun fact: these fish don't look entirely this awful in their natural habitat--it's because the pressure on land is so much lower that they start to look like this pile of snot. It takes a lot of interesting adaptation to be able to live in these conditions ne...
Read more