Natural Selection Is still present.

Article:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/natural-selection-is-still-with-.html

Summary:
This Article expalins that in a world where technology is driving excellence in the human race, we still cannot isolate ourselves from the elements of time, and the world. Thus Natural selection in still present in the human race. Through and analysis of four key points: Who lived beyond age 15, who got married and who didn't, how many marriages each person had (second marriages were possible only if a spouse died), and how many children were born in each marriage, data from 5923 people in finland through the years 1760 and 1849 suggested that in fact Natural selection is more present than ever before. Since this time era was decided, as by that time a healthy life could be obtained through the technology of farming, It is legitimate enough to say the majority of deaths were not influenced by starvation. That being said, the data suggests that most people dieing before the age of 15 died of a disease, thus Natural Selection favored those who were immune to the disease. Next data was collected that the stronger, more appealing humans were selected to have children and marry, thus through the data, This article proves that natural selection is still very abundant in modern life, even though we have seemed to stray from it.
Relevance:
This aricle is relevant to our current term because we are studying the paths and patterns of Natural selection. However I personally find it even more interesting because normally for homework, or in class we discuss how natural selection has effected species that happened to have lived many years ago, or present species that are not humans. So to have an article that relates to both us as a Human race and the topic we are studying in bio is interesting.

Evolution of Life in 24 Hours

Evolution of Life Compressed in 24 hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2_6cqa2cP4

Summary:
This video is a simplified overview of the evolution of life on earth it was to be compressed into 24 hours.
4:00 am- arise of first single cell organisms that spend a lot of time alone
1:00 pm- first eukaryotic cells with internal organs
6:30 pm- cells form colonies and first multicellular life develops
8:30pm- sea plants appear (animal life erupt)
9:57 pm- plants and land mammals
10:24- forest and winged insects appear
11:41- mass extinction event vanish dinosaurs
age of mammals 11:59 humans emerge

Relevance to Class:
Our unit in class is all about the evolution of life and this video gives the basic outline of what we are learning in detail. The video also has vocab words we are learning like "mass extinction" and etc. This video would help at the beginning of the unit to give a preview of what is to come in full depth and detail.

Did Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals Interbreed?

Did Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals Interbreed?

Study casts doubt on human-Neanderthal interbreeding theory

August 13, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/14/study-doubt-human-neanderthal-interbreeding?commentpage=2

Summary: When it was found that modern humans contain DNA from Neanderthals, people came to the conclusion that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals had interbred. Recent studies at Cambridge have lead them toa new hypothesis. Instead of interbreeding, The Neandertal DNA we contain is a remnant of a common ancestor we share with Neanderthals. It was accepted that all non-African peoples have about 4 percent Neanderthal DNA based on an analysis in 2010. Andrea Manica says the analysis hadover estimated the amount of DNA shared by Neanderthals and modern people. The analysis had not taken into account the genetic variation already present between different populations of the ancestors of modern humans in Africa. 

Connection to Our Class: In our class we are both learning about interbreeding and common ancestors. Interbreeding can change the gene pool of a population resulting in microevolution which leads to macroevolution, then a new species is formed. A common ancestor is a organism that evolved into 2 or more organisms. The closer a common ancestor is to a pair of organisms, the more related they are.

Are Humans Still Evolving?

Are Humans Still Evolving?

By Jay T Stock

2008 (which, evolutionarily, is barely a blink!)

http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v9/n1s/full/embor200863.html

This article is about how some people think human evolution has changed from us having pressure on us from the world and weather and other organisms, to more of us having to culturally adapt. In the past, before we were at the top of our food chain, we had to work together, hunting and scavenging for food. Physical strength and lack of abnormalities such as bad vision and deafness was what helped us survive. Nowadays, even with abnormalities, the rest of society helps you by giving you glasses or hearing aids. We have taken over the world and now we have no competition. In fact, our competition is slowly becoming ourselves. We are becoming so overpopulated that we have split cultures by countries, and with the combination of animosity towards other ethnicities and simple over-population, we are killing ourselves off. As Malfus suspected, our population has grown past our resources, and I believe we are reaching our turning point after which our population will drop.
However, even with such a drop in population, our innate tendency to "spread the wealth" which, in this case, will probably be food, will make our genetic drift randomized and it will be random selections from our gene pool that will survive. It will not be the our fitness, but more of a bottleneck effect in which we will start anew from a random selection of people who survive.

Evidence for Evolution of Life

The Evidence for Evolution of Life

Summary:

This video summarizes Charles Darwin's voyage and the explanation behind some of this theories and ideas. It goes through the different pieces of evidence, such as: the size of the beaks of the finches, or that each island had its own climate, that ultimately allowed Darwin to publish his theory of evolution and natural selection in his book, The Origin of Species. It also talks about artificial selection and the use of fossils to make inferences and predictions about the past. Then at the end, it talks about DNA and how DNA can be used to discover the complete past of the Earth.

Relevance to class:

This unit was called,"Evolution."  At the very beginning of the unit, we learned about natural selection and adaptations that allow organisms and species to thrive. We used Darwin's example and we went through how exactly he could come to that examples. We also learned about whales and how through fossils and phylogenetic trees, he can conclude that whales have evolved from land dwelling mammals. This video explains much of what we have went over in class and what we learned in the textbook, specifically chapter 14. It thoroughly explains the discoveries of Darwin and the evidence he used to find it. It also talks about fossils and how they can be used to analyze evolution.


Video Information:

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC8k2Sb1oQ8
Author: bozemanbiology
Date of Publication: March 31, 2012

Parrots Pushed to the Brink of Extinction

Video by National Geographic
Published 17 December, 2012
Link: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/ng-on-assignment/parrots-deadly-virus-ngoa/

Deadly Virus Pushes Parrots to Brink of Extinction

Summary:
The Eastern Cape of South Africa is home of the Cape Parrots. The main food source of these birds is the fruit produced from the Yellow Wood Tree. However, deforestation has lead to a major decrease in this tree. The parrots have been forced to eat alternate food sources, but these alternate food sources make the parrots more susceptible to the Psittancine Beak and Feather Disease. This disease has affected and killed many of the parrots, and the population has decreased so much that there are only around 1000 Cape Parrots left in the wild. Dr. Steve Boyes has helped nurse sick Cape Parrots back to health in an effort to prevent the extinction of the species. However, if deforestation does not stop, then the extinction of this species could actually occur.

Relevance:
In concept 15.3, we learned about extinction, when a species is permanently lost. Some extinction, such as these parrots, is caused by human interference. This also relates to the Bottleneck Effect in concept 14.4. Although deforestation is not a natural disaster, it has the same results of the Bottleneck Effect. The population of the Cape Parrot has been dramatically reduced. Because the parrots are not able to resist disease and adapt to the environmental challenges, there must be little variation in their gene pool. This type of result of the Bottleneck Effect is also found in cheetahs. It is possible that one of the parrots could one day have a mutation that makes it resistant to the beak and feather disease, and through natural selection that trait could be passed on and end up saving the species from extinction.

Prehistoric Cancer

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0607-jurassic_docs.htm
 Summary:
  Scientists are using newer technology such as CT scans to look at fossils. This technology is enabling scientists to discover things, such as cancer tumors, that they couldn't see before. Discovering that even dinosaurs had cancer has given med students a new incentive to learn more about cancer and other medical problems we have today.
 Relevance to Class:
We have recently learned that paleontologists use fossils to study evolution of species and modern species that they can be related to. Paleontologists are now working with doctors and med students to see if fossils contain prehistoric versions of the medical problems we have today.