Los-Marck

The following link send us to a page where we can download an application that explains us the Lamarckism:

http://mobincube.mobi/3378SW

If you install BIDI you can download the app from the next QR: 

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII)

8/3/2015

http://noticiasdelaciencia.com/not/13033/la-nave-dawn-llega-a-ceres-como-el-primer-visitante-de-un-planeta-enano/


Summary:

N.A.S.A has always improving and his final achievement was to be the first space agency that visits a dwarf planet with a spacecraft. Ceres is the first of the dwarf planets to be visited by a spacecraft. Dawn has taken 7.5 years to reach its destination. His arrival has seen it pass behind the dwarf to hos "dark side". The satellite has turned up at Ceres having previously visited asteroid Vesta. Vesta is the 3th bigger asteriod from the Asteroids's belt (location between Mars and Jupiter).

Researchers think Ceres' interior is dominated by a rocky core topped by ice that is then insulated by rocky lag deposits at the surface. A big question the mission hopes to answer is whether there is a liquid ocean of water at depth. Some models suggest there could well be. The evidence will probably be found in Ceres' craters which have a muted look to them. The speculation is that Ceres has been struck by something, exposing deeply buried ices. The Dawn mission is expected to work at the dwarf planet for, at least, 14 months. 

Critical appraisal:

Every time people are innovation. I think that if we are arriving now to investigate dwarf planets for first time, maybe in 10, 20 or 30 years we will can know all about our solar sysitem. Maybe it discoger can show us a new incredible discover that we will can imagine. As we know more, we are nearer to be perfectly. Maybe this discover shows us that there exists life in other planets. Why not?

Glossary:

A spaceship is a vehicle, vessel or machine designed to fly in outer space. 

The scientist corner

The scientist corner: a deeper look to DNA.

Biography: Gregor Johann Mendel

Johann Mendel was born the 20 of July in 1822. He was the only boy in the family and worked on his family farm with his older sister Veronica and his younger sister Theresia. Mendel took an interest in gardening and beekeeping on the family farm as he grew up.

He went on to the University of Olomouc where he studied many disciplines including Physics and Philosophy. He attended the University from 1840 to 1843 and was forced to take a year off due to illness. In 1843, he followed his calling into the priesthood and entered the Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno.

Upon entering the Abbey, Johann took the first name Gregor as a symbol of his religious life. Gregor Mendel is most well known for his work with his pea plants in the Abbey gardens. He spent about seven years planting, breeding, and cultivating pea plants in the experimental part of the Abbey garden that was started by the previous Abbot. Through meticulous record keeping, his experiments with pea plants became the basis for modern genetics.

Mendel's first experiments focused on one trait at a time and gathering data on the variations present for several generations. These were called monohybrid experiments. There were a total of seven characteristics he studied in all. His findings showed that there were some variations that were more likely to show up over the other variation.  He called the one that seemed to be missing from the first filial generation "recessive" and the other "dominant" since it seemed to hide the other characteristic.

Mendel's work wasn't truly appreciated until the 1900s -- long after his death. Mendel had unknowingly provided the Theory of Evolution with a mechanism for the passing down of traits during natural selection. Mendel did not believe in evolution during his life as a man of strong religious conviction. However, his work has been added together with that of Charles Darwin's to make up the Modern Synthesis of the Theory of Evolution. Much of his early work in Genetics has paved the way for modern scientists working in the field of microevolution.

Article: Britain Set to Approve Technique to Create Babies From 3 People

Summary:

British lawmakers voted earlier this month to allow in vitro creation of babies with the DNA of three people. They are still discussing whether it should be put in practice or not.

This technique could prevent genetic diseases in women with mithocondrial diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, loss of vision or even premature death. By using in vitro creation, the embryo would have nucleous DNA from the child's parents but mithocondrial DNA from a donor.

Despite all this advantages, this situation has lit a fierce debate. There are people who are in favor of allowing it. For example, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, highlights the benefits it would provide, but others are not so sure. The Human Genetic Alert, for example, has said that we are crossing an ethical threshold. Its leaders have warned that if we start giving support to this kind of pioneering techniques, we might be tempted to create DNA modified babies in the future, and that wouldn’t be ethical.

(Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?ref=topics&_r=0)

STRIKING IMAGE

Dolly was the first domestic sheep to be cloned from an adukt somatic cell using the process of nuclear transfer. The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone therefore proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual. Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 and had three mothers (one provided the egg, another the DNA and a third carried the cloned embryo to term).

This is the clone process that has been used to create this sheep.

On 14 February 2003, Dolly was euthanaised because she had a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis. Dolly has a life expectancy of around 11 to 12 years, but Dolly lived to be 6.5 years old. After cloning was successfully demonstrated through the production of Dolly, many other large mammals were cloned, including pigs, deer, horses… and more animals.

The 21th of february of 1953 the cientists Linus Pauling and Robert Corey published his theory of ADN.

This theory tells us that in proteins , the α helix is ​​the main cause of secondary structure. It was postulated first by Linus Pauling and Robert Corey. The amino acids in an α helix are arranged in a right-handed helical structure where each amino acid residue corresponds to a 100° turn in the helix.

DISCOVERY:

In the early 1930s, William Astbury showed that there were drastic changes in the X- ray fiber diffraction of moist wool or hair fibers upon significant stretching. The data suggested that the unstretched fibers had a coiled molecular structure with a characteristic repeat of ~5.1 ångströms (0.51 nm).

Astbury initially proposed a kinked-chain structure for the fibers. He later joined other researchers (notably the American chemist Maurice Huggins) in proposing that:

• the unstretched protein molecules formed a helix (which he called the α-form)

• the stretching caused the helix to uncoil, forming an extended state (which he called the β-form).

Although incorrect in their details, Astbury's models of these forms were correct in essence and correspond to modern elements of secondary structure, the α-helix and the β-strand, which were developed by Linus Pauling and Robert Corey in 1951; that paper showed both right-handed and left-handed helixes, although in 1960 the crystal structure of myoglobin showed that the right-handed form is the common one.

Linus Pauing was amazed with the Nobel Price in Chemistry for his theory in 1954.

CMC's NEWS REVIEW (VIII), by Marina Dorca

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII), by Marina Dorca

News' title: Britain Set to Approve Technique to Create Babies From 3 People.

Date of publication: 3^rd of February, 2015

Source of information: New York Times

 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?_r=0)

Scientific field: Genetics (biology)

Extract:

British lawmakers voted to allow in vitro creation of babies with the DNA of three people. They are still discussing whether it should be put in practice or not.

This technique could prevent genetic diseases in women with mithocondrial defects, such as muscular dystrophy, loss of vision or even premature death. By using in vitro creation, the embryo would have nucleous DNA from the child's parents but mithocondrial DNA from a donor.
Despite all this advantages, this situation has lit a fierce debate. There are people who are in favour of allowing it. For example, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, highlights the benefits it would provide, though others are not so sure. The Human Genetic Alert, for example, has said that we are crossing an ethical threshold, and that this technique shouldn't be put in practice.

Critical appraisal: Where the limit is?

When science collides with such sensitive issues as the ones related to humans' lives, it's very difficult to determine which is the good thing to do. The ethical limits of science are pretty unclear, and the opinions related to this matter are varied. Should we leave poor babies in the hands of natural selection? Or should we interfere and try to prevent the possible diseases they carry with them?

On one hand, if we approved this technique, we could prevent most of the genetic diseases. Science has advanced enormously last decades, and it has developed pioneer

procedures which could help humans' lives to improve. This technique could be applied to women with defects in the mitochondria. By doing this, they could make sure that its son wouldn't suffer a genetic mitochondria disease, which would be great.

Despite this advantage, bioethics may not be in tune with this kind of techniques. It's true that it could prevent lots of pathologies but, on the other hand, babies would be genetically modified.

I think we shouldn't do anything against nature laws. Science is capable of doing incredible things, but I believe this advances shouldn't go in the opposite direction to what nature establishes. Furthermore, if we start giving support to this kind of pioneering techniques, we might be tempted to create DNA modified babies in the future, and that wouldn’t be ethical. We shouldn't «design» our babies under any circumstance. Does it really matter whether your son will have blue or brown eyes? We may stop caring about such things and embrace the gift of life as its given to us.

Glossary:

Threshold: the sill of a doorway.

In vitro: made to occur in a laboratory vessel or other controlled experimental environment rather than within a living organism or natural setting.

DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid: an extremely long macromolecule that is the main component of chromosomes and is the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms.

Womb: the uterus of the human female and certain higher mammals.

Kidney: either of a pair of bean-shaped organs in the back part of the abdominal cavity that form and excrete urine, regulate fluid and electrolyte balance, and act as endocrine glands.

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII)

Mice can teach us about

 human disease

Student Society for Science                                                                                              27-2-15

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/mice-can-teach-us-about-human-disease?mode=topic&context=39

SCIENTIFIC SHIELD: Humans & Health

SUMMARY:

Scientists understand what fewer than one-fifth of human genes do; probing mice can help fill the gaps.

Zorana Berberovic works at the Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics (FEE-no-geh-NO-miks) in Toronto, Canada. There she and other scientists are working together to figure out the function of every mouse gene.

That's because between the mouse and humans even they look and act very differently  85 to 90 percent of our genes are the same or at least very similar. So by understanding the instructions in every mouse gene, people should get a pretty good idea of the instructions in virtually every human gene too.

As we can see in the article Zorana uses the pee oh the mouses to research humans diseeses:

Zorana Berberovic coaxes a mouse to pee into a vial. Later, she will test its urine for signs of illness that could be related to "knocked-out" genes.

Berberovic and her fellow researchers even want to know which genes affect pee. They especially want to know whether chemicals that the body dumps into urine can tell us how healthy — or sick — an individual might be.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL: 

For a long time a lot of animals experiments were made. The humans normally use mouses, cows, goats...as an objects wich gives us profits.

In the article it's said that many scientists are looking well beyond pee. Their research may tease out which genes affect an animal’s size, weight, behavior — even lifespan. Matching a gene with the effect it has on those characteristics or traits is called phenotyping. But then what is the price? The death of thousands of mouses for their experiments?

It's true that we demostrate that the DNA is the genetic material with the Griffith's experiment or that we could cure some diseeses through animals but many of them die or have to be self-sacrificing for the sake of science.

Then is when we enter in the world of the bio ethics. We can kill animals if then we save lives? If we can, why not experiment with humans? Where's the limit? 

In my opinion we have to go on in science. Experience more and no matters the way. The limits? Humans. The animals, even I'm not agree at all are a little price that takes us to the glory and discovery.

GLOSSARY:

beneficiaries    The individuals who receive money, better health or some other type of benefit from some activity, decision or process.

DNA  (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

ethics    A code of conduct for how people interact with others and their environment. To be ethical, people should treat others fairly, avoid cheating or dishonesty in any form and avoid taking or using more than their fair share of resources (which means, to avoid greed). Ethical behavior also would not put others at risk without alerting people to the dangers beforehand and having them choose to accept the potential risks.

gene    A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

phenotype  (in biology) A term derived from the Greeks terms for “to show” and “type.” It refers to all characteristic features of an organism that can be observed. This would include its size, shape, color — even how it would typically behave. These traits stem both from its genes (what it inherited from its parents) and its “environment” — including its diet. Although individuals of a species — or even a subgroup, such as a strain —may vary somewhat, the common traits of the entire group will be its phenotype.

(The video explains the Griffith's experiment and what 

happens with the mouses used)

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VII)

Marc Dorca Fernàndez

Summary:
By measuring the rotation of gas and stars that make up our galaxy, scientists have found that there is a lot of dark matter between the Solar System and the center of Milky Way. 

According to calculations by the researchers is five times more abundant than ordinary matter. The problem with this enigmatic matter is that it is very difficult to detect because it does not emit visible light or other radiation so, the question is, how scientists achieve to demonstrate that dark matter exists.

The existence of dark matter was firmly established in 1970. Scientists has observed that, comparing the rotation velocity, something was wrong so thay thought that it would exsists another kind of matter, the dark one. By measuring the rotation of gas and stars that make up our galaxy, scientists have found that there is a lot of dark matter between the Solar System and the center of the Milky Way.

Critical appraisal:

Scientists are always discovering new things. The dark matter is one of the most difficult science field to investigate. It's good for us that they can discover more properties about this kind of matter because it could be so dangerous. So if we know where is this matter, how can it react and which are the hazards of this matter we'll understand lots of things about universe because dark matter hide a lot of information.

Glossary:

Dark matter:  Dark matter is a hypothetical kind of matter that cannot be seen with telescopes but accounts for most of the matter in the Universe.

http://www.lavanguardia.com/ciencia/20150209/54427051567/halladas-pruebas-presencia-materia-oscura-via-lactea.html

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VI)

9/2/2015

Is your toddler really smarter than a chimpanzee?

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141012-are-toddlers-smarter-than-chimps

Summary: 
The article tells us that we aren't the unic specie that learns in a large time, the chimpanzees does it too. We learn a lot of things that seems difficult but there are really simple, there are cognitive abilities that has got a great many species. 
While time pass, our abilities are more complex that the chimpanzees one, of course but, in a battle of  wits, who will win it?
All of yours are thinking that it will be win by a person but that's not true at all, it depends from the battle. In reality, when it comes to cognitive development, the divide between infant chimpanzees and infant humans is often small. A trained animal should can distinguish about a Picasso an a Monet.
Many skills that we consider complex are in fact the result of relatively simple cognitive abilities shared by a great many species.

Critical appraisal:
I think that that's not true at all. Of course that a chimpanzee can be so clever but i think that human are more intelligent that chimpanzees could ever be because, we are the most developed specie that have ever been in the Earth. We create societies, cars, houses, trains... and we were as stupid than chimpanzees a thousand years ago so we developed because we're cleverly than they in all directions.

GLOSSARY:
Cognitive abilities: are brain-based skills we need to carry out any task from the sim­plest to the most com­plex.
Startlingly: To cause to make a quick involuntary movement or start.