week 8

1. High altitudes have a couple of negative impacts on humans. First, in high altitudes the oxygen level is the same as at sea level but the air pressure is lower. With lower air pressure it makes it harder for a human to breath, and with it harder to breath life gets harder when you try to do any activity. Also, at with low air pressure it puts stress on the heart, lungs, and arteries. When the heart is under stress the possibility of having a heart attack goes up. Lastly, the humidity can be very low at higher altitudes which can dehydrate a human much faster then at sea level.
2.  A short term way people have adapted to high altitudes, such as climbing a mountain, is by the use of an oxygen tank.

 An example of facultative adaptation to high altitudes would be the increase in red blood cells to carry more  oxygen, the increase in lung size, and also there is an increase in muscles to move gases faster through a human.

An example of developmental adaption to high altitudes would be in inheriting traits from ancestors and overtime these traits make it easier for a human to live under the stress of the altitude level. Humans that live in the mountains of Bolivia and have ancestors from that region produce more hemoglobin in their blood and have increased their lung expansion. 

  

An example of cultural adaption's to higher levels of altitude would include drinking lots of water when high in the mountains because it is easy to get dehydrated. 

 

3.  It is beneficial to learn about people who live in different conditions around the world. It is good to learn how cultures have adapted to the environment they live in whether it be by skin color or enlarging of the lungs.  Explorations like this one can help people learn how the human body can adapt to the world around them and see how people around the world have adapted to there environment. 

4. Race, I believe should not be used to better understand a humans adaption to there surroundings. Many societies are mixed with many different races, so you cant just pick out people of the same race and say they adapted better. Environmental adaption's should be used in talking about human adaption to the area they live in and is more accurate then looking at a specific race of people. 

language blog

Part 1-
This assignment was hard to start with but as it progressed it seemed to get easier. For example when my friend was telling how cold it was outside I just shivered and he understood that I thought it was cold also. My partner did alter the way he would speak to me asking mostly just yes or no questions to make it easier on him. Also, he was laughing at the way I was trying to communicate just using hand signals and hitting things. After doing this experiment it is clear to me that a culture that uses vocal communication can communicate ideas with each other much easier then a culture who uses does not use vocal communication. I would think that a culture that uses vocal communication would look down on a culture that uses symbolic language. It is very difficult to have a conversation with someone who does not speak. I have a friend who has a brother with down syndrome and it not always easy to communicate with him, even though he knows what people are saying and understands most things. I noticed that people never really speak to or have a conversation with people who can't speak because it can be hard to understand there symbolic language.

Part 2-
I lasted about 8 minutes then slipped up and started to move my head around. The experiment was hard for me because I like to move around when I am talking, the hands were not hard for me to keep still, just moving my head was a bit difficult. My partners were not really affected by my limitations in speaking because I could still speak but had no expression. In our society non-speech language is important for example you can tell if a person is mad, happy, sad, or even sick just by looking at there body language. There are people who can have a hard time reading body language at times. Reading peoples body language can help you know if a person is mad and you probably should not talk to them or ask a favor from them. Also, in the game of poker it is a good thing to know how to read body language well, you can use the expressions people are making to help determine if they are bluffing or not. An environment for not reading body language could be if you are in a foreign country, and by using body language you could tell they do not want you there,  this could be a good time because if you are happy it might make you mad if you could look at people and know they don't like you.

week 4 Primates

Diet comparison
Lemurs
A.) Lemurs are only found in Madagascar, which is in island in the Indian ocean just east of Africa. The reduction in rainfall to there environment is endangering the lemurs, because they need fresh water to live. Lemurs spend most of their time up in trees or bushes.
B.) A lemurs diet consists of mostly vegetables such as, leaves or flowers. Also they will eat some fruits, little insects and sometimes little animals. Lemurs will eat almost any plant that is edible.
C.) The environment of the lemur has effected there diet. Since lemurs live in the rain forest there is a lot of trees with leaves and also insects which are part of there diet. Lemurs are small, so they couldn't hunt large animals,  they had to find food that they could survive on and the food they eat does just that.

Spider Monkey

A.) Spider Monkey's live in the tree tops from southern Mexico to Brazil. These primates live in the rainforest's and like to stay in there natural habitat, they don't wonder off. They are found in wet rainforest's in the trees and hardly ever found on the ground.

B.) Spider monkey's eat mostly different fruits, seeds, nuts and insects. These new world monkey's also will eat bird eggs found on the top of trees.  Spider monkey's will also from time to time eat certain leaves and flowers.

C.) The environment has not effected there diet much but provides them with food. The rainforest's they live in have a lot of different fruits which make it easy for spider monkey's to get to, so the availability of food may have cause them to eat what they eat.

   

Baboon
A.) Baboon's live in east Africa and can be found in a number of different habitats. These primates can be found in rainforest's or in the desert. A requirement for the baboon is where it sleeps at, they like to sleep on a cliff side or in tall trees so they can sleep safely.
B.) Baboon's are omnivores but grass makes up most of there eating habits. They also eat berries, seeds, leaves, and bark depending on where they are. A baboon will also eat different animals such as fish, shellfish, birds, small antelopes, and velvet monkey's.
C.) The environment the baboon lives in does effect there diet. Since baboons are found in many different habitats they eat many different things depending on if they are by water, in the rain forest, or in the desert.

 Gibbon
A.) Gibbon's live in old growth tropical rainforest's located in southeast Asia. These monkey's like to stay up high in the trees to stay away from danger on the ground.
B.) Gibbon's are omnivores but almost three quarters of there diet is fruits. When there is no fruit to be found they also eat leaves flowers, seeds, and bark. Other then trees and plant life for there diet they eat insects, spiders, bird eggs, and small birds. Gibbon's drink water from rain or dipping there hands in water and slurping it from their fur coat. Gibbon's usually only eat in the mornings from around 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
C.) The environment this primate lives in does effect there diet. Since Gibbon's like to stay high in trees they only eat what is up on trees or birds that will fly from tree to tree.

Chimpanzee

A.) Chimp's live in in large communities in the tropical forests of Africa. Communities of chimpanzee's can range anywhere from 10 to 150 primates, while the males will stay in one community there whole life and once a female are adults they will leave to a neighboring community. Chimp's spend just as much time on the ground as they do in trees. 

B.) Chimpanzee's eat mainly fruit are not limited to eating only fruit. They also enjoy eating leaves, seeds, bark, honey, nuts, and termites. Also, they eat mammals including birds and other monkey's. Meat only consists of about 5% of there diet so they do not eat to many mammals in there life time. The types of monkey's they eat are baby bushboks, colobus monkey's, and baby baboons. The chimp's success rate for hunting is very high from 55-80%.

C.) The environment does not effect the Chimpanzee's diet to much it seems they eat anything that they can. Living in a forest makes them more inclined for eating leaves and plants. 

The environment each primate lives in does effect there physical and behavioral traits. Most monkey's diet's are about the same, vegetables, leaves, fruits, seeds etc. The difference is the monkeys that go on the ground eat bigger animals and insects also they eat more of a variety. Monkey's that stay high in the trees only eat things that go up that high or what the plant life provides for them.

  

week 3 Homology&Analogy

Homology
1. The arms of a human and of a seal are homologs and have a common relationship even though each look different from the outside, structurally they are the same.
2. In the human arm each bone is a little longer including the humerus, radius, and ulna. The bones in the seals limb is thicker then that of a humans and the ulna is shaped a little different. There are differences because humans use there arms to pick up and grab objects while seals use there limbs to crawl and swim.
3. Both seals and humans are mammals.

Analogy

1. An example of two species with analog traits would be the wings of a bird and of a butterfly. Both have wings but did not come from the same ancestor.

2. Both birds and butterflies have wings wings so they can fly around there habitat. Both have wings because of the way they have evolved and to better fit there environment.

3.The common ancestor of the two species, birds and butterflies, did not have wings.

Protein Synthesis

GATCGTTACCACGGCATTTTGTAGAGCTTAAGTCCCATC

Historical Influences on Darwin

1. I believe that Sir Charles Lyell had the biggest influence on Darwin and his development of on his theory f natural selection.
2. Sir Charles Lyell popularized the idea of uniformitarian which proved the earth was very old and has been around for a long time. He believed that geology could become a science on its own and not be tied to the Bible. Lyell wanted to prove that the earth didnt just form from major natural disasters but over time by the levels of the sea and tectonic plates. Lyell made geology what it is today.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0_0/history_12
3. There are many ways which Lyell could have influenced Darwin on his findings. Darwins thought that people do not evolove but populations do. Lyell always thought about the big picture, people in his time thought landmarks on the land such as mountains were formed by a volcano erupting and he looked back to find it happened over time, like Darwin with evolution. Lyell found that things happen over a time not overnight and Darwin followed this idea.
4. Darwin was a great scientist and would have still developed the idea of natural selection. I believe that Darwin would have developed this theory with any person as his influence. Lyell forced Darwin to look at the big picture of things but Darwin found how living things evolve and how there is not an over population of certain species.
5. At the time of Darwin was alive to go against the church was a big mistake and Darwin essentially was going against the church at the time. Darwin kept most of his findings to himself, close friends and relatives. When creating his book he was nervous to get it published because of all of the ridicule that could harm not only to him but his family and friends as well.

Scientific Method

1. It is possible that this student is not getting enough sleep at night to be awake during each class time. The student could stay up late doing homework for this class and figures as long as he shows up he will pass this class. Also many students work and this student could stay up late working.
2. I would test this hypothesis by asking the student what time they go to bed at night. Also follow up to see really what time the student goes to sleep to see if there is something that keeps the student awake at night. If the student goes to bed early enough to get at least seven hours of sleep and stays awake in class this would support my hypothesis. The hypothesis would be falsified if the student came into class and still fell asleep.
3. An example of an untestable, unfalsifiable would be the student was hypnotized at a young age to fall asleep everyday at the same time.