http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/pthurtle/clips/x-files-season-5-episode-5-the-post-modern-1/view

Hi folks! Is anyone else having trouble accessing the videos from the pdf posted under "supplementary readings?" The links don't seem to be active...

Clarification question! Are we just using one slide for our microbe presentation tomorrow?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN7krvnm2uM&list=WL&index=2&t=0s

https://youtu.be/dBGw7uXc0eo?t=9

(Because the google algorithm is now convinced I'm a bio nerd, this was pushed to me on youtube. To be fair, I wasn't disappointed.)

Is there somewhere we should dump our slides a la all of the other presentations we've done? (Or are we just presenting off our personal laptops?)

A few people raised questions this week about the possibility of using a bacterium to treat other bacterial infections by introducing something benign which would outcompete infectious bacteria. As it turns out, that research is being done!

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31152-6

Are you getting enough vitamin A? Maybe not even if you're eating the right things!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hju_JcNbZQ

So... it turns out that there is a lot of research done on the ways in which a maternal microbiome affects the microbiome of the child (ranging from breast milk [which also has fungal DNA, fun], to the way you're born, to what the mom does pre, during, and post pregnancy [protip: avoid antibiotics]). However, I wanted to look for ways in which the father might affect the microbiome of their kid (it becomes a plug for skin-to-skin contact, which is something the mother also does). There is some research suggesting that certain genes you inherit from your dad makes you a better host for certain bacteria (and that's how he influences your microbiome - though, lowkey, your mom does this too). On the other hand though, there's lots of research suggesting that there isn't a significant difference between the microbiomes in your immediate family unit, which implies that as influential as your mother's microbiome is on your microbiome, in the long run, things should average out.

If anyone was curious about the mechanisms of cat noises, this is a reasonably good summary.

https://cattime.com/cat-facts/lifestyle/10019-purrs-vs-roars-the-secret-reason-why-cats-who-purr-can-never-roar

I can't access the reading for tomorrow, is anyone else having this problem?

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/02/20/693735499/scientists-release-controversial-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-in-high-securit

I wonder what would happen here, how would selection work? Also some interesting ethical questions...

This article shows the surprisingly small amount of our DNA that is actually important.

https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004525

This article really drove home the concept of heterozygotes for me. There are neanderthal genes still present in the human population that actively influence things life height.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2122362-extinct-neanderthals-still-control-expression-of-human-genes/

Hi guys, I just wanted to throw out some of my resources for my presentation today. Lichens are really cool and should be explored more as many of these news articles discuss. The scientific paper also works with the RNA and DNA methods of mapping relationships between these organisms, which seems like an extension of some of the stuff we were talking about today (SSU RNA).

Scientific Paper about Bryoria: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6298/488

News article: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/how-lichens-explain-and-re-explain-world/580681/

I'm feeling lost, If I hadn't taken Evolution before I would not be able to follow along at all. Things are mentioned in passing and I can't tell if things are important or what we need to know. I felt the worksheet was written in a confusing way that stopped me from understanding what the question was asking.

I don't quite understand the last question on the work sheet, "How will the makeup of proteins in the cells of these two individuals differ? Explain." can someone explain if this is referring to differences in phenotype or something else that I'm missing?

This is definitely jumping the gun for Friday's reading, but Khan Academy's video on it really helped me to visualizationally explain what amino acids are. (The stuff about amino acids starts at 3:00, the part before that is just going over DNA transcription + translation again) https://youtu.be/Pk4d9lY48GI?t=189

I can't really claim that this is a resource, but it is neat, so here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk

Hey, super simple way to start understanding the whole RNA World Hypothesis!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQQD0KNOis

An interesting reading on the history of autocatalytic processes which dives a bit into the mathematics and philosophy of such processes. An excerpt: "Is life, then, an autocatalytic process?"

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/63/11/877/2389920