Thursday, January 28, 2010

Wooden Bowls: For Kokopelli1015

Response to the Story: "Wooden Bowls"


This story was story was very touching for me because of the powerful vocabulary used, such as the word "gently". This word probably doesn't look like much, but used in the context, it made a large change in the way I looked at the story. The author made a great impression on me by pressing the value and importance of not neglecting any family members, just because of some minor faults. Empathy plays a big role in the feelings that I experienced when perusing this story. This is because of the barrage of emotions that I felt. I felt such things because I thought of myself, when I come to the age when I have the responsibility to take care of my own parents, and when my children take care of me when I am the age of the Grandfather. I will make an attempt to remember this story and pass it on to many others through my life.

Genetics Review Assignment

Genetics Assignment


I think that it is very interesting that both humans and chimpanzees had the same number of chromosomes in at one time in history. At the present time, they seem alike in many ways, though chimps don't act as evolved as we humans do. What I would really like to figure out is why the genome for humans and chimps started to differ, and how it occurred. I think this is why paleontologists all over the world have been searching for ancient human skeletons, to prove new theories on how the human race originated. Also, I find it intriguing that we have not yet discovered a species that is as technologically advanced as us. What made us different from all other creatures on the Earth? How did humans evolve from primitive animals such as bacteria? These are all questions that I want to uncover in the future.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Basic Genetics Homework: Due Jan. 5th

Source

Two things that I was able to absorb through reading the informative animation at the source above, was what heredity is and what traits are. Traits are characteristics passed on generation to next generation. These traits include physical, mental, and emotional characteristics, like how a person looks. For example, one person may resemble their father or grandfather very much, due to the fact that the person's genes contain traits that resemble their father or other relatives.

Heredity is also a widely discussed and adventured topic in genetics. Heredity is basically defined as the passing of traits from parents to offspring. The reason why this portion of genetics is held with great importance is because heredity also includes the passing of genes. Genes make a person look how they do. They contain instructions to on how the body will appear. Even the name Genetics has the word 'gene' in it. In conclusion of the topic, genetics is the study of heredity.