Harvest Of Fear

1. What is a GM Crop.

A GM crop is a crop that was genetically altered.

2. List 2 arguments FOR the growing of GM crops

Two arguments for growing GM crops are that they will be higher in
nutritional value than regular crops and farmers would not have to use
pesticides letting them avoid great losses and enable the produce to
be less of a cost.

3. List 2 arguments AGAINST the growing of GM crops.
Two arguments against frowning GM crops are that they will pose as
health risks to certain people and hurt small farmers.

4. Practice this simulation until you get the largest ears of corn. How many times did it take you?

I strongly feel that crops should be labeled if they have been
genetically modified because people need to be informed of what they
are introducing to their body, good or bad. Especially if it may pose
health risks to certain people. If a candy bar was made in a factory
that produces nuts, even if there is no nuts in the candy bar they
have to label that it was made near nuts.

5 tries

5. List two foods and desribe how they are being modified.

Petunias are being tested on to change their coloring and resistance
to pesticides.

Fruit are being modified to low sugar content, fruit ripening cycles,
and pest resistance.

Do you think food should be labeled if it has been genetically modified? Why or Why not?

I believe that food should be labelled if genetically modified because people have a right to know what they are voluntarily putting into their body. We should not make an exception to putting GMO ingredients on the labels because the processed materials could be fatal to one's health if they have a certain abnormality. Also, if company's are putting processed ingredients is their a reason to exclude GMO ingredients? I do not think so.

Conservation For People

• Preserving the biodiversity in hot spots is not working as a conservation strategy, and the economy isn’t getting any benefits either.
• It doesn’t make sense to help nature without getting advantages along with it.
• The hot spot strategy doesn’t make sense because only nature benefits from the projects, while harming anthropocentric ecosystems. Like a museum, tourists can come and see the attraction but can’t touch the items. However, in the preserved ecosystems, attracting tourism is not their main focus, therefore, it doesn’t make any money to help support the new method.
• The chosen strategy would be to preserve everything you can while still helping the economy. This attracts more people and benefits them with essential needs.
• The ecosystems that provide shelter for animals as well as storm barriers are being ignored due to the new engineering projects that increase the rate of habitat loss. The NOAA solved this problem by overlapping the threatened area with the most populated area that would be affected, which resulted in more followers.
• Humans don’t act upon an event until they are directly effected. One example is the vultures in India that were being poisoned from the drug, diclofenac, that was distributed to cows. They were not immediately linked to humans until rabies spread from dogs eating their carcasses.
• Maintaining the environment is the key to eliminating poverty.
• Publicize the people’s needs for certain ecosystems, then establish their status on a hot spot scale.
• Ecuador was experiencing a condor reservation problem where the water in the lower lands were undrinkable. A 2% tax on Quito, Ecuador’s citizens supply the fund for a better water system and 11 guards hired to watch over the park, developed by the USAID.
• Namibia has one of the worst child stunt problem, poverty, and depleting black rhino population. Game tracking was established bu the USAID and helps about 60 communities in the process. 3,500 jobs have been created due to the project.
• Farmers, hunters, loggers, and other civilians complain that national parks are limiting their food, water, and carning resources.
• Only 30% of the people have heard of biodiversity.
• Studies show that the world’s most diverse locations are seasonal homes where animals stop to find shelter. For example, half a million penguins stop by to find shelter in Argentina’s non-endemic plant space where 70,000 tourists visit them each year.
• Ecosystem service strategy: provisioning- supplying food or genetic resources; regulating- providing flood control, climate modulation, or other similar functions; cultural- offering benefits that are non-material such as a sense of place and spiritual well-being; supporting- delivering the most basic elements of an ecosystem, including nutrient cycling, soil formation or pollination.
• Approximately 2 million people die each year from unfiltered water. Conserving wetlands and forests would solve the problem and raise more supporters than if they were to just advertise the benefits of the land and animals in it.
• To prevent needing the help after the damage is done, conservatives should start working together with developers. This impacts causes and saves time later.
• Public organizations such as the World Bank and the Goldman Sachs Group are supporting these projects encouraging nations to be “greener”.

Guppy Simulation

Guppies are colorful because the females want to mate with the brightest male.
In the guppy gallery the fish that i found most interesting was the Poe ilia reticulata from Peru. It's size is 3.5 cm. I picked this fish based appearance because it is a really attractive color or purple and fuchsia. But here is more colors than that as well.
The fish i found most interesting was the Fat Sleeper, also known as Dormitator masculatus. He is from southern North America, Bahamas, and Latin America.
Some habitat conditions that would affect predators would be the Dams that restrict predator movements or cause them to only moving upstream. Only the Rivulus could go into shallow waters because the others cannot survive there. I would recommend a deep pool in a stream because it could host a large population of predators and guppies.

John Endler was a biologist who studied wild guppies in streams.
Guppy Coloration:
Pool 1:Brightly multi-colored with large spots
Pool 2:Medium coloration on body and tail, with medium-sized spots
Pool 3:Drab coloration, very small spots concentrated near tail Predators
Hypothesis:
If the guppies are in an area that restrict predators or restrict the predators movements (like a dam or shallow water), then the bright-brightest guppies would flourish.



Trial 1- Guppy:even mix Predators: 30 Rivulus
Results at 10th generation-
Brightest: 63%
Bright: 15%
Drab: 19%
Drabbest: 3%

Trial 2- Guppy: even mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara
Results at 10th generation-
Brightest: 46%
Bright: 44%
Drab: 9%
Drabbest: 0%

Trial 3- Guppy:Even mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid
Results at 10th generation:
Brightest: 2%
Bright: 2%
Drab: 2%
Drabbest: 94%

Trial 4- Guppy: Mostly bright Predators: 30 Rivulus
Results at 10th generation:
Brightest: 79%
Bright: 13%
Drab: 8%
Drabbest: 0%

Trial 4- Guppy: Mostly Drab Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid
Results at 10th generation:
Brightest: 0%
Bright: 2%
Drab: 11%
Drabbest: 86%

Summary:
Predators go after the brightly colored fish, but if the predators eat all the vividly colored guppies then there would be non to pass on their color genes. If there is a lack of predators then bright colored guppies would be the initial population.
My hypothesis was correct because the the trials that had all the predators had an initial population of drab-drabbest coloration while the trials the included on one or two types of predators had the initial population of bright-brightest.
I think that “male guppies live in a crossfire between their enemies and their would be mates” means that the benefit of their bright coloration is that females will mate with them, but the loss of the coloration is that they will be the most likely to be eaten.
Guppies in different parts of the streams have different colorations because of the opulation of predators in the are. Also, in some areas predators have restrictive movement so they would not be able to prey on the brightest guppies. Now the brightest guppies can pass on their genes.
I think that the drab guppies will be eaten because they are the only food for the predators. But I think the coloration would change to an even mix.
I think if brightly colored guppies were placed in a stream with many predators then they would become a mix of coloration-brightly colored. Their population will remain in the same range as well.

Biodiversity

By preserving biodiversity locally will have a global effect how? Well if we did not preserve biodiverseity then there would be a reduction of oxygen and there would be a lot more pollution. The pollution would cause illnesses which we might not be able to cure because Their ingredients come from organisms which will not have a large population if at all. They will not have a large population because their keystone will die and because they depended on that organism they will also die. By preserving biodiversity we can further our studies that could save lives.

A habitat is where an animal reproduces. When humans takeover their habitats they are forced to move somewhere else and they will not reproduce until they find a new habitat. This is usually a place where already inhabitated by other species. So now the breeding grounds are smaller and because of an increase of population there might not be enough food to go around. Another factor is that it might have taken the animals a while before they abandoned their home, so they might be ill because of being exposed to something their body is not used to and it could spread to the other animals in their new habitat.

Preserving biodiversity could enhance human life with their contribution to medicines and drugs. Because of tiny microorganisms and bacteria people can be cured of an illness.

Resources:
http://nativeplants.evergreen.ca/learn-more/02_sar_habitat.php
http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-and-extinctions#LongTermCosts
http://redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/2.About%20Biodiversity/importance.html

Gases and Climate Change

Hypothesis:If the fire enters the bottle then the gas inside the bottle will ignite causing soot and dark colored gas will develop.

Observation: when the fire is held close to the cap of the bottle it seemed like a blueish orangish fire lit and shot the bottle 8 ft. Back. There is some condensation in the bottle and black soot on the very bottom.

Combustion: Combustion is a process of which when two or more chemicals are combined to produce heat or fire.

Co2 gas demo: when the baking soda and vinegar is confine then but on the flame the flame will go out

Observation: The carbon dioxide put out the flame because it deprived it of oxygen

Hydrogen gas:

Hypothesis:If the atoms split then it will buble and fizz and the fire will go out but it will take some gas with it

Observation: when the metal was introduced it bubbled fizz And smoke formed then when the fire was introduced it broke down the metal i t sounded like rice krispies except 10x louder ( snap crackle and pop!)

Air Pressure
Air pressure has total control over the weather because it controls the moisture in the air and can change weather patterns by changing the circulation.

Hypothesis: If the soda can is heated and then placed in the ice bath it will crack and steam up.

Observation: When the soda can was placed on the burner the water inside turned to vapor and I could see it come out as vapor from the opening on the top. When it entered the ice bath nothing happened.

Hypothesis: If the soda can is heated and then placed in the ice bath it will crack.

Observation: The soda can was crushed from the sides.

Ten years of Chernobyl Era

1. What are "curies"?
2. What were the precautions they took so that this wouldn't happen?
3. What are other nuclear plants doing to prevent this from ever happening again?
4. Did they know the risks of there test before they started experimenting?
5. Where did they send their children to get away from the radiation? Was this location also contaminated?
6. What other countries were affected?

5 Questions for the Panal

1. Can the water seep under the clay cap?
2. Is it possible that the toxins still remain?
3. Do the toxins stay in the air like it did with the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima?
4. Can it be contained if it reaches the water again?
5. How isolated is the Love Canal?