For your second blog, I'm giving you a couple of options. One is a nice, safe, do it in the comfort of your home kind of response. The other is for the more adventurous. So here you go...
1. For the stay-at-homers: Check out this article online: Lampreys give clues to evolution of immune system
I came across this article, and since we're starting with fish this week, and specifically with jawless fish (like lampreys), this caught my eye. I'm curious to know what you think about it. After you read it, identify a part of the article that raised a question or a curiosity in your mind and research it further. Share your question/curiosity on the blog, along with what you found in your research. Also, feel free to respond to any other bloggers who have shared your questions. I'd love to see a conversation!
2. For my adventure-seekers: This week I've also been thinking a lot about animal tracks. This is such a great time of year to be out spotting tracks, especially with the snow we've been having! Just last week I found myself on a quiet snow covered road in West Bath, standing in front of the car, headlights shining down the road, trying to figure out if the tracks were dog or coyote (husband thought he saw a coyote!). My parents have seen both turkey tracks and (they claim!) moose tracks on their road.
So are you willing to go out looking?? I have animal track posters for all of you, and I'll be handing those out this week. I don't care if you're in your backyard looking at your cat's tracks or squirrel tracks under the bird feeder or willing to trek a little deeper into the woods for bigger critters. Get out for a little fresh air and see what you can find. Get any pictures? Email them to me and I'll post them- don't forget to put something near the track for size reference. And what if you don't find anything? Share the highlights and lowlights of your adventure! Tell your story, and good luck!
Andrew Hart's walk down his drive...
"We can now assume that the lamprey has a dual immune defense system similar to that of humans," says Boehm. I think that is amazing. They are living fossils, and also place a threat to fishermen.Two types of cells develop in separate places thats my curiosity, ]its t cells and b cells.
ReplyDelete"For commercial and recreational fishermen, lampreys represent a threat" I do not really understand this statement. How exactly do they purpose a threat? I also think like Tiffany that it is amazing that they hold both types of cells. - Larisa M.
ReplyDelete"Having two companion arms of the immune system may be important so that the two arms can regulate each other and prevent autoimmunity." says Max Cooper regarding his research with lamprey's. I think that this piece of his studies is really the key element of this article. Many people all over the world suffer from many forms of autoimmunity diseases. I think that the research of lampreys done, can help to heal the lives of many worldwide. I hope that we can harness the special characteristics of many organisms in the future to help better human medicine as well. Though I am familiar with some autoimmunity diseases, I even have friends who suffer from forms of autoimmunity, I thought that knowing more about the disease itself will help me to better understand the work of these scientists.
ReplyDeleteAutoimmunity is a abnormality within the body when your own immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake. These diseases tend to run in families. Women, particularly African-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American women, have a higher risk for some autoimmune diseases. There are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases, and some have similar symptoms. Because of the huge range of different types of diseases with similar symptoms, it makes hard for any doctor to know which one or if you have any of the autoimmune diseases. Since there is ambiguity between the types, I wonder if the lamprey research will ideally be able to help a single type of autoimmunity or all types. How will doctors know which patients to treat and for what. Max Cooper also addressed not only regulating autoimmunity, but also preventing it all together. I am hopeful that due to research like this with the lamprey's and future research, autoimmunity can become an outdated disease.
When I went out searching for tracks I just went out in my back yard. I started looking around and I couldn't find anything but I didn't give up so I went out around back of my house. There wasn't as much snow back there because there was a path. It was getting dark out and I was about to go inside, but as I was walking back I saw some tracks on the ground. I wasn't sure what they were exactly so i took out my tracks chart. I identified them as cat tracks and I took a picture. There were several steps so I felt that this was an accomplished mission.
ReplyDeleteI started off this morning ready to go on an epic adventure to find some awesome tracks in the cemetery across the road from my house. At first I couldn't find my camera. When I did find it, it was out of batteries. I charged it up for a few hours while I went out into my backyard to see if I could find anything interesting in the snow. Of course I found a ton of dog prints. Other than that, there was nothing, not even a squirrel. I went back in a got my camera and started off for the cemetery. Before leaving, I checked under the pine tree in the front yard. I found some footprints from my neighbors' giant cat and where there snow was still soft, there were squirrel tracks. I went across the road into the cemetery. There had been deer there a few days ago, so I was ready with my camera. I search for about 30 minutes, but I found nothing. And so my epic adventure that was not so epic came to an end.
ReplyDelete"Taken together, the results suggest that this basic feature of the immune system, where two types of cells develop in separate places, may have evolved before jawed and jawless vertebrates split onto different paths,"
ReplyDeleteI think that if the mutated gene of mice not having hair came before jaws and jawless, this could be where fish started not having hair and when they got scales for protection. When jaws and jawless came that could be when lampreys and other jawless fish were separated from the fish with jaws like sharks.
As Boehm stated, "We can now assume that the lamprey has a dual immune defense system similar to that of humans." Essentially, the immune system of a lamprey is surprisingly similar to that of a human. Due to this similarity in the species' evolutions, scientists are able to utilize the lampreys to conduct experiments that could later be compared with humans.
ReplyDeleteAs Cooper explains, "Having two companion arms of the immune system may be important so that the two arms can regulate each other and prevent autoimmunity." Autoimmunity is something that some humans suffer from. Because lampreys are primitive creatures, with ultimately minimal change, they have proven to have acquired a successful biological makeup. By studying this makeup, scientists will be able to link the lamprey's ability to withstand autoimmunity to a human's inability to withstand the disease. Lampreys could hold the answers to the cure of such harmful, autoimmune diseases.
On my adventure outside to search for tracks, I found mostly tracks of my cats and my dog. Later in the week when I went to ride my horse, I looked at the hoof prints in the snow, and of different sized dog prints. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures. and sorry for the uninteresting story. (:
ReplyDeleteI went outside to look for tracks around my yard and found cat, dog and squirrel tracks. Also found a big foot print but realized it was my foot print from running outside bare foot. Other than that nothing to cool to mention
ReplyDeleteAt my house I found nothing but my dog's footprints which was disappointing because something has recently been eating our trash, so I guess it's my dog... and I was at the barn today and it may not be outside but I was riding in the indoor arena and noticed all the different sized hoof prints, the shapes of them , and a bunch of dog prints mixed in!
ReplyDeleteSo, that guy who "took care of the porcupine" helped me spot some really cool tracks. The snow was very thick. Oh and I forgot to mention that I live in the woods with about 8 acres behind my house. There was a big track, well more like a bed where a deer slept one night, and then you could see it walking around, eating some acorns from the bottom of a tree, and then going to the bathroom.... I was able to get some cool pics out of it, except for the massive pile of well ya know. I love seeing deer in my backyard, they are such cool creatures, and I like their ears.
ReplyDeleteSometime this morning I was reminded by a class mate that we had to do this assignment. So I got my track chart, my dog and my snow shoes and headed out into the woods. I found deer tracks pretty quickly and followed them to the area which we hunted this previous fall. I then noticed that my dog was gone but i saw some of his tracks and decided to follow them. After a short while i became hungry and tired and figured my dog was sitting on my deck waiting for me. On my way back there was a large bang probably from my neighbors door. This caused me to jump and momentarily forget that i was walking fairly close to a 15 foor ledge. when the snow bellow gave way i had a small panic before I realized that there was a good 6 feet of snow below the ledge. It ended up being one of the funniest falls I have ever had. After getting the snow out of my shoes and other places I had a safe rest of the way home, where I found my cold, semi pissed off dog waiting for me on our deck.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was out during the week and over the weekend I kept my eyes open for any tracks that I could find. Although, I kept coming across the same few kind of animal tracks. I ended up finding my dog’s footprints in my backyard and some other dog footprints in several other places around town. I found cat footprints in a couple places close by my house, and I also came across a few squirrel footprints by my friend’s house.
ReplyDeleteThis weekend I decided to set out on my adventure to find animal tracks. Living right in town, I wasn't expecting to find anything. In summer nights I have seen many skunks, as well as foxes, fishers, and raccoons. However, I doubt those animals would want to come out in the winter, at least for me to see. Because of the abundance of snow in town, the snow banks are my heigh or taller. So it's unlikely that an animal would be climbing through the monstrous, powder snow piles. Nevertheless, I still went on my 'epic adventure' in my tiny back yard. It's kind of difficult on the back deck to distinguish animal footprints from other possible things which could make holes in snow. For instance, huge icicles are frozen on the side of my house, and as they fall in the snow they make prints that could be mistaken for animal tracks. However, on my deck I did definitely see animal tracks. I'm assuming they belong to a cat though. Under my garage there is a little hole dug out for animals to stay while it's snowing. I have seen my cats use it, as well as other wild animals. The hole is very distinctive, and it seems that maybe another animal beside a cat created it. I am not sure what animal created the hole, but I will certainly pay attention this week to see if I can figure it out. I will also observe for other possible animals.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Hart.... While waking to my bus stop I found these footprints. So then I had to stop right in the middle of the road and started to take pictures of the footprints. Then I tried to use something as a ruler but I didn't have any money so I used my hat as a ruler. Unfortunitly they are not very good because I could only take pictures with my laptop's camera. I think that it is a cat's footprints since it is less then an inch and I saw a cat walk by on driveway last night. Yet I tryed to get better pictures after school but all the rain had washed it all away. So that is my story and here are your pictures.
ReplyDeleteTaylor Callan wrote...I went out this week just walking down the road to catch the bus, on the way there were several different tracks that I saw, I know that a few were dog tracks from my dogs & the neighbors running around. There was also some deer tracks going up & down the road, which isn't un common for us. Besides the dog & deer tracks I think there might have been some squeril tracks & some others that i wasn't sure what they were. I tried too look through the paper & see if i could possibly find out maybe what type of animal it was but it looked like it had been sitting there awhile & i couldn't really still see all the features to it, so I couldn't locate it on the paper. I was hoping to see something more exciting like moose tracks or something like that, we have been known to occasionaly ave moose around our house, I think I have seen one once or twice before & the actually came into the yard. I have seen plenty of turkey tracks this year, we have at least two turkey familys that live right next to us & its really cool cause the mom brings her baby's in our yard so we get to see them grow all year & then come back when their full size. I haven't really seen any turkey tracks this year.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, the scientists were talking about how they had discovered the lampreys had a dual defense system. To be honest I was not even aware we as humans had a dual defense immune system. Now that I read the article I see how it make sense. I didn't think that both the B cells and T cells were considered separate from each other.
ReplyDeleteThe Lamprey and human similarities could potentially be a major roll in the study of our own immune systems. Weaknesses due to environment and illness that attack the system could be studied much more easily. I find the research fascinating.
Felicia Hagerthy said...My question for the lamprey article was what kind of things can a lamprey cure? I found out that research has been done on the spinal cord of a lamprey and that it could possibly enable paralyzed people to gain control of their legs again and be able to walk. What they found was that a lampreys spinal cord could reactivate the circuits in a humans spinal cords
ReplyDeleteGuerin said... What are T cells and B cells?
ReplyDeleteT cells: A T cell is a lymphocyte (a form of white blood cell) produced or processed by the thymus gland (an organ in the neck of vertebrates) and actively participating in the immune response.
B cells: A B cell is a lymphocyte NOT produced or processed by the thymus gland and is responsible for producing antibodies (a blood protein produced in response to and counteracting a specific antigen)
I am amazed by the people who figure this stuff out. Who really just thinks "oh maybe this lamprey has some special human way about it"? We are lucky to have people like that that think outside of the box and realize there are cures and clues in the most random places. It's hard to believe that so many other organisms are so closely related to our body and way of life, I never would have thought by looking at this nasty thing that it is somehow like us. It's kind of gross.
ReplyDeleteI was walking around popham forts the other day, the ones in the woods. i saw a deer standing out there and ran up to it and scared it. when i looked closer there were more than just one set of tracks there was a bunch. Dogs, deers, and it seemed like a lot of little different type of birds. also i was playing disc golf in waste high snow and found a bunch oh wholes that looked like something had hoofs i dont know what it was though. i went through the snow just as easy as us. animal traces are cool if you really serch for them. but there always camoflauged.
ReplyDeleteOne time during the summer, the whole football team was at the beach, and we decided to go play wiffleball and football, so we walked to an open part of the sand and on the way we saw animal tracks, they looked like deer tracks but it was hard to tell, then we found really smooth sand, no waves or nothing, and then we followed it. We found that it was a seal and it went up on the beach and died... it was pretty smelly. But i thought it was cool that it came up on the beach to die instead dying in the ocean.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this i did not know what a thymus was. I found out that it is where T cells grow. T cells are what helps your immune system as in fighting of diseases. This process has been going on from the beginning. Lampreys are living fossils and us humans are simliar to them, we both develop T cells and B cells.
ReplyDelete-Late Post-
ReplyDeleteI thought the article was overall pretty cool. As an AP biology student I love to see the evolutionary connections between species. I think that this connection will only continue to prove just how closely linked the biodiversity of the Earth is.
"Taken together, the results suggest that this basic feature of the immune system, where two types of cells develop in separate places, may have evolved before jawed and jawless vertebrates split onto different paths," I think that this statement is very interesting, it shows that even though all the animals are very, very, different, they are also very much the same. Not always in appearance, but in how we all function. It's pretty cool to think that some ugly fish could have the same type of immune system as humans, who are supposed to be the most evolved of all.
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