Twinning is Winning

 As someone who struggles with asthma, (as does my sister), I thought this would be a fitting "disease" to look at. I have a much more moderated case than my sister, as she is on multiple daily medications for it, and was once hospitalized when we were five. My mom was asthmatic when she was young, but mostly grew out of it. Asthma is a condition in which your airways are restricted and can sometimes form a mucus-like substance. This then leads to the inability to catch one's breath, wheeziness, and coughing. Triggers can include environmental things like cold air, allergens, and smoke, and it is a heritable condition. Many cases of asthma are in children, being 6 million of the 26 million people effected by it. Cases have steadily risen since the 1980's, as has the death rate from asthma. Asthma has actually been known about since ancient Greece, and was probably around before that too. Hippocrates was the first person to give asthma a name, and to also connect its s...

  I think the rate of speciation depends on the variables involved, and what type of speciation it is. Obviously, speciation cannot occur overnight, but it also doesn't have to take centuries at a time; it's a highly variable process. I think sympatric speciation takes longer than allopatric, with parapatric speciation occurs quickest of all.  For an example of parapatry, the fish in the R assignment could either move back to NS waters, adapt to the S waters, or die. Every instance of breeding in the population results in either the adaptation for S waters, or no adaptation, and it divides the populations relatively quickly. Diversification has the possibility to occur in a matter of a few generations. Is that always the case- no, but it is theoretically possible.  Allopatric speciation I think would generally be the next quickest, but there is a catch. An example of allopatry are the different squirrels in the Grand Canyon. The formation of the Canyon itself (plus the ri...

  After watching the video, its no secret that the pipefish is a rather unique organism. With the males being the less colorful, more sought after individual, it is backwards than what we normally experience in the animal kingdom. It definitely makes me question how something like this arose.  I think that possibly a reason for this might be that the number of females might outnumber the males, so the males have to be selective with who they want to pass their genes on with. The female courtship might have evolved due to this necessity to be chosen to breed with, and to make themselves more appealing to the males. I don't know if there's anything necessarily about the pipefish's biology that supports this hypothesis, other than the males are the dull and drab ones while the females are boots the house down mama, yes God, slay queen.

       One animal I have always found interesting is the Aye Aye, found in the forests of Madagascar. The Aye Aye is the only member of the family Daubentoniidae, and I only recently found out about this species' amazing adaptations for eating. Aye Ayes have an insanely long third finger, which basically looks like a skinny little stick. The Aye Aye will climb on tree trunks and begin to tap its fingernail from the long digit on the tree trunk, figuring out where the hollow spaces in the trunk are. It presses its large ears up close to the tree trunk, and can hear when there is a bug inside. When it has located a grub, the Aye Aye will then use its modified incisors to carve out a hole in the trunk leading into the hollow tunnel. Then it uses that long digit to poke down into the tunnel until it hooks the grub and can bring it up and out to eat.  I literally have not been able to stop thinking about this since I found out how they eat. Here's a video of the proc...

    Selection doesn't mean that genetic variation is eliminated; it simply means one allele or one pairing of alleles is favored. Those that aren't favored (variation of group genetics) are still passed on in the background, and thus are still heritable.       Mutation is always a great way to gain genetic variation in a population. Mutations can randomly arise, and because they are random in what genetic material they affect, can increase genetic variation. Of course, how long it sticks around in a population's gene pool depends whether the mutation is advantageous or not.       Another great way for a population to increase genetic diversity is immigration. When new individuals come into a population that originated from a separate population, they bring a portion of their previous gene pool with them. That previous gene pool might have some different variations of genes than the new gene pool, and thus the organism's immigration incre...

  What have you learned so far? Not in the sense of what did we cover in class, but where have you personally have had some real breakthroughs or changes in your understanding? I have learned the importance of our class discussions, and how much you can learn from talking with different people who help you think in new ways. If you go back to your original blog post where you defined evolution, how would you change it? How has your understanding of evolution changed since then? I would add to my post, is that not all adaptations or steps of evolution are necessarily beneficial to the organism. There can also be negative effects, and mutations that can wipe out populations. My understanding of evolution has broadened, there's not just a set explanation of what it is; it's a whole melting pot of natural phenomenon. What concepts are you still struggling with? Where do you think you need additional help and clarification? I think I have a hard time when trying to understand the ge...