400 Breeds & Counting

400 Breeds & Counting

By Meg Gardner

I found it interesting how 400 breeds (and counting) of dogs have derived originally from the wolf and the breeds were create by man using eugenics to create the perfected breed. to me it’s interesting that humans can breed from one animal, a species that is the most diverse in size, shape and color than any other species in the world. All of this to design the perfect companion. I liked learning about the breed perfecting of the boar hunting, Dogo Argentino, especially since one of my friends has one. I liked learning how the traits were selected from other different breeds. Such as the pointer for it’s nose and sense of smell, the Great Dane for it’s size, the Irish Wolf Hound for it’s instincts, the Mastiff for it’s power, the Great Pyrenees for it’s white coat for visibility during the hunt, and the Boxer for it’s gentility. Although designing and perfecting dog breeds is cool to think about I found it sad that it comes with defects, like breeding pure breed Bull Terriers could resulting in them getting Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or how the white and black spotted coat of a Dalmatian can result in them having deafness. It was interesting to learn that the pure bred dogs had more diseases than other breeds or mutts. I would have thought the opposite. Another interesting fact about eugenics is that they are so many variations of dogs but when humans breed cows to make their meat taste better the cow always will look like a cow, where as dogs change in shape, size and color. Why is this?

The other part of the Documentary I found interesting was the Sulimov dogs. Dogs that were specially designed to sniff out chemical components used in bombs and explosives. First bred from a Golden Jackal and a 7th generation Laponian herding dog, they were found hard to train so they breed it with a reindeer herding hound, fox terrier and a Spitz.It took 25 years to perfect this super sniffer breed. I found it interesting how Russia would keep these dogs to themselves not even other countries could have them as pets. I also was interested in how the Sulimov dogs have their own initiative where as other sniffer dogs like German Shepherds and Beagles, that are used in other countries need some sort of direction. This was similar to the behavioral experiment, shown at the end of the documentary, with the dogs and the wolves attempting to get the piece of meat tied inside of the cage. The wolves would try an try to get the meat and just get agitated when they would fail, where as the dogs would easily give up and ask their owners for help. I found it interesting that although the wolves were raised and trained by people like dogs they still had their own initiative and wouldn’t look to the people for help, they would look to their pack. Over all I found the documentary very interesting and learned a lot about eugenics and dogs.

What Darwin Never Knew

I really enjoyed What Darwin Never Knew.  I think most people are familiar with Darwin and The Beagle and it was very interesting to watch a documentary that reviewed that history and then told us what happened (and is happening) next.  The technological advances in genetic research are absolutely incredible!  And yet the fact that scientist can now study individual threads of DNA and still not understand the vast majority of how DNA behaves is humbling.  I’m excited to see what happens next in genetic research.

Of the many interesting topics raised in the film, the one that really stood out to me was the fact that evolution is the result of old genes being “reconfigured to make new things.”  On a basic level this makes sense.  If any species had to rely on coincidental radiation exposure or something nuclear to mess with their cells, then I don’t think much evolution would happen.  However, the weight of that fact is really interesting.  It means that everything on the planet with genes has the ability, however slowly, to change.  I think that is the accepted definition of evolution, however it leaves me a bit in shock on a personal level; who we are and what is on the planet as we know it now, is a result of those changes, but we are all carrying the same genes as our very different ancestors.  It’s interesting to think where our genetic coding has been!  We all are carrying the gene that made our ancestor a walking fish!  Again, it’s humbling to think about.

In a recent issue of National Geographic, the magazine did a short piece on how long it takes mammals to get big.  Although “three million generations” is a hard thing to wrap my mind around, it still gets me thinking about the fact that mammals were not always whale-size and what biological factors may have caused such a need to get big.  I think it’s fun to think about and makes me all the more in awe of this changing world we live in.

Ariel Silverstein

National Geographic. August 2012: 25. Print

What Darwin Never Knew

While watching this documentary, I particularly found the variation of tortoise shells differing from island to island to be interesting. Depending on the environment a tortoise in the Galapagos has to adapt to, they can either have “dome shaped shells” or “saddle back” shells, and some even have aspects of both( some of these are known to have “table top” shells). The raised rim above the neck of the saddle back shell allow the tortoise to raise their head and eat from taller vegetation where as the dome shaped shells are owned by tortoises whom are able to reach their food( grass, water, etc.) easier since it is grown from the ground. The dome shaped shell species tend to be the largest and weigh the most out of any of the other subspecies on the Galapagos islands. Saddle back shelled tortoises generally have longer, thinner limbs, where as the dome shaped shelled tortoises have shorter limbs. For all of the subspecies, the males have a concave under-shell that makes mating easier. All Galapagos tortoises have a daily routine where they use the same pathways to maneuver around the island and then return to the same area that they’ve designated for sleeping.

Sources: http://www.theanimalfiles.com/reptiles/tortoises_turtles/galapagos_tortoise.html

http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/galapagos/gianttortoiseshapes.html

What Darwin Never Knew..

What Darwin Never Knew

Kathryn Harrison

Evolution has always been an interesting subject to me because I find the branching and adaptations of species incredibly unique and mystifying. Charles Darwin released his famous publication of life on Earth, On the Origin of Species, nearly 150 years ago and it is still considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. I wonder where we would be today if he never ventured to the Galapagos or had such a desire to uncover the missing pieces of science. In the beginning of the film it was said that there are over 9,000 species of birds, 28,000 species of fish, and 2 million living species and counting. That is quite extraordinary, especially because humans are just 1 of those +2 million.

The Galapagos islands off the coast of Ecuador (http://youtu.be/CCIacOeB9cs NatGeo video) is a fascinating place to see unique variations in species: penguins living in opposite climates as “traditional” penguins in the Arctic; or the giant tortoises with shell variations based on which island they came from. I understand that animals evolve to survive, but how does a genetic mutation even begin? How do they know what they need to survive? How do we modify ourselves to survive?

If we evolve and have genetic mutations which give us all our individualism, what makes blue eyes different from brown eyes? Why did we as a species produce a mutation for different shades of colors in our eyes? Or our hair? What makes red hair different from black hair? Do our environments affect our traits?

The theory of humans having less muscle in our skulls than apes in order for our brains to continue to grow is also pretty interesting. Seeing the different skulls side by side was humbling, regardless of knowing that apes are significantly larger than humans. It was pretty cool to see the differences and learn about those muscles. I can’t imagine how much force an ape has in its entire body in comparison to the average human. A link to Natural History Collection’s images of various ape skulls and comparisons to humans: http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk/index.php?page=493.504.508.505

What Darwin Never Knew – Tim Paik

I really liked the concepts in this movie, they weren’t too far fetched and had plausible reasons. The only downside was the horrid animations. What really captured my attention was when they started talking about the “gene switches”. I never knew those existed, hadn’t even thought about it, which makes me curious as to what other “secrets” there are in our body. And of course, it was also cool to know that we’re not any different from a fish mainly because of this tiny little switch.

I wanted to know more about the Galapagos Islands, to see what animals dwell there, and mainly to see what Darwin saw. I am also more curious about the Hox Genes, it’s crazy that these genes can determine the basic structure of whatever they’re going to be. It’s terrifying really, if someone out there has the mentality to manipulate hox gene’s for corruption, things can go bad. Also, I really liked how we’re missing two DNA that causes a muscle disease, but in turn we are granted intelligence? Knowledge? A conscience? I don’t know, but the fact that jaw muscles affect skull growth is hilarious.

I didn’t really disagree with any of the concepts/theories they discussed. They have pretty solid evidence, some of them were true, others it’s just up to the viewer to decide whether or not they were born from dirt, or from an evolutionary mutated ugly ass fish. I prefer the fish.

What Darwin Never Knew – Response

What Darwin Never Knew – Response

Megan Breukelman

Until watching this film, I had never really known too much about Darwin’s theories. I knew the basic thoughts to the theory of evolution but had never taken the time to learn about it. From what I saw in this film, the research, time, thought and energy put into these discoveries is truly amazing.

It was really funny for me to learn that Charles Darwin originally attended medical school, but was too squeamish and couldn’t pursue practicing medicine. What if he hadn’t been squeamish? How would the world’s progress in discovering the intricacies of life have changed? Learning about his background from his childhood and the beginnings of his research was also really interesting to learn – to see where his “out-of-the-box” thinking came from.

The most intriguing part of the film for me was learning about the transformation from the embryo to birth. For example, snakes having feet in the embryo but losing them by the time they were fully developed shows a connection between snakes and other reptilian families. I think the research with embryos is a very valuable link for the research of evolution, to see where possible links lie between species.

Something I want to know more of is about human gene strands – learning that we carry less than an ear of corn is fascinating. I also want to learn more about evolutionary adaptation to environments. For example, when the grey mouse evolved into a brown mouse when living on the dirty rock surfaces to blend in with the environment. I want to know how the changes actually begin to happen, and how long it takes for a species to adapt like that.

I wonder thinking about this whether one day another species will evolve to have human-like qualities, and how long it would take for something like that to happen. Watching this film was a really wonderful learning experience for me, and I hope to learn more about evolution and how different species can develop.

Tumbler Giveaway on Campus

Tumbler Giveaway on Campus

Megan Breukelman

On campus they gave away free reusable drink tumblers to students. In return, students were to sign a petition to try and create a “bottle-free campus” at Ringling College to be more environmentally friendly. From what I learned while signing the petition, the goal is to try and get the campus stores to stop selling water in plastic bottles. I really liked this effort, but the only problem I saw with it was that every tumbler came with a plastic wrapping around it. I kind of felt that it was against the effort they were trying to make to stop wasting plastic. I like the overall initiative, but the campus needs places to fill up the tumblers. I hope it works out for Ringling as a bottle-free campus!

What Darwin never knew too

I found the documentary very informative and intriguing. I found it fascinating that only a small difference in the sequence of a living organism’s DNA structure could result in a vastly different outward appearance. Knowing that humans and chimpanzees genetic makeup is nearly ninety nine percent identical is astonishing in the fact that it takes such a small amount of difference in structure to the sequence of DNA to create such a large difference between species, however at the same time it is humbling, to know that no matter how intelligent or evolved humans may be, in the end we still are just animals, made up from the very same building blocks that every other living organism is made from as well, and thus are really not that much different than any other species. Even the embryos of vastly different species are indistinguishable in the early stages of development inside a womb. To think that the beginning stage of chicken embryo can look identical to the beginning stage of a human embryo is quite astounding. It is as if in birth all forms of life stem from the same design or origin, and then slowly diversify from that central blueprint of life to become the uniquely different species that they are. These revelations make it feel as if humans are not so different than other living creatures; it is as if we can say that a simple fish could be seen as a distance relative to us. It is also interesting to know that even a small mutation can impact the evolutionary process to a significant effect, to think the evolution of humans was caused by a simple mutant gene in apes that stunted the growth plate of their jawbones to allow room for the brain to develop is quite breath taking. Knowing these things, should not only help our understanding of how we came to be and broaden our understandings of how things work, but also should enlighten and humble us, knowing that we are not that different from the many other species living on this rock we call Earth.

What Darwin Never Knew

The film “What Darwin Never Knew” is a documentary that is packed with interesting information and facts that I personally have never heard of. I’ve watched a number of scientific documentaries throughout my life and found this film notably grasping. Darwin’s scientific theories are strong standing for many years. Scientists today still rely on information gathered by Darwin for their scientific methods. The foundation that Darwin laid down for other scientists is exponential. Even though some of his theories were not complete, he gave future scientists an establishment for future studies.

I am very interested as an artist in how current scientists can study theories from such a long time ago. I can develop my skill by studying artists and ideas from the past. His studies show such broad knowledge and expertise. Modern scientists benefit strongly from his studies, just as I hope to benefit from past artists techniques.

The study that attracted my attention is the idea of analogous structures. In the documentary it is said that humans have a bone that relates to the structure of a sharks gill. I researched this idea a little further and stumbled upon the different types of analogous structures. Upon reading about these structures, I came across the definition of speciation. Speciation is the change over time of one species into a new species. The change of speciation takes place over millions of years. The idea of natural selection is one that plays a similar roll to speciation.

While researching, I came across an interesting fact that the human eye is similar to an eye of an octopus. An octopus eye does not have a blind spot like a human eye does. Eyes are a common study among analogous structures as well as wings.

The subjects that I researched on Charles Darwin’s methods snowballed into different theories and ideas. I can now successfully say that Darwin broadened my knowledge toward the ideas of science and evolution.

Sources:

http://evolution.about.com/od/Evolution-Glossary/a/Analogous-Structures.htm

Hints of Evolution (What Darwin Didn’t Know)

Evolution has always been a part of my life: My science classes, life, and even in video games like Pokemon.  It’s a scientific theory that I’ve always enjoyed hearing, reading, and listening about. What Darwin Didn’t Know was a nice film. It gave me insight on topics I didn’t know, and I could tell that it was a film simple enough for people who aren’t familiar with evolution.
What caught my attention in this film was the dark matter in DNA. I didn’t know there were unused portions of DNA. I had always assumed every piece had a purpose in the body. I also didn’t know about the switches in DNA. I wondered if the switches are permanently on or off. Do switches ever turn on or shut down? It’d be scary if switch in your DNA that controlled intelligence suddenly turned off for no entire reason at all. The fruit fly with glowing wings was an interesting experiment. Can the switches only be turned on and manipulated by the next generation? (Like how they messed up the egg before the fruit fly was even born). That mouse-hand thing was also creepy. I used to own rats and I noticed they had little bumps on their hands that looked like thumbs, so it isn’t impossible to imagine them not only with little paws, but grabby paws!

I have an example of an on-off switch. My Dad used to tell me of scientists were experimenting on Chicken genes. They were able to raise chickens with teeth. Just recently I found an article on the subject that discusses the un-extinction of dinosaurs by digging up hibernating DNA. http://www.livescience.com/17642-chickenosaurus-jack-horner-create-dinosaur.html

There weren’t many things I disagreed with the video. I don’t remember this part was in the movie, or if I’m just imagining things, but I thought I heard something like, “Humans are the only (fill in the blanks).” I don’t agree with that concept, it makes people feel too high-and-mighty. If people take the time to look around outside of their houses, or look in a science magazine, they could see that animals can be just as good, and bad as people. In my own experience, I’ve seen animals steal just like people too (I’m sure others have too). A heron had caught a catfish. At the same time the pelicans saw it and tried to take the fish from it. The heron ran off, and was able to hide in the brush until the pelicans became impatient and swam off. Only one stayed behind, an adult pelican (it was interesting to see that the pelicans who left early were youngsters), but it swam away too once when it knew it was beat as the heron started eating its fish. That right there shows patience, dedication, attempt at thievery, and impatience. I’ve also read an article on spiders (unfortunately I don’t remember where). It showed a species of spider with two kinds of ‘personalities’. One would build normal webs, while another spider of the same species was more likely to add on decorations. No one was sure why, because it appeared that the spiders that decorated their webs were more easily spotted by predators. The simplest conclusion that I remember was that some of these artistic spiders became bored and decorated their webs to pass the time.
That’s all I have to say. Very enjoyable movie. I’d watch it again.