Mass Extinction

I feel that we are not currently in a mass extinction. I think if we were in a mass extinction, there would be more news about it and what should be done to stop this extinction. I think some people may think we are in a mass extinction because there are animals and plants that are going extinct but not to an extent that we could call it mass extinction. If we were going through a mass extinction, I think people would be a lot more concerned about it.

Evolution

When people say "evolution is just a theory," some may mean just that. They may not believe that evolution is happening. I really think the speakers are not intending to mean this. I think that many people take offense to the idea of evolution because many people don't want to think about how everything may have come about in a scientific manner. I believe that many people don't want to think that we could have possibly come from an animal that "fligs poop around." I've tried to avoid anything related to religion in any of my posts up until now. It is hard to talk about the evolutionary theory without thinking about religion. I have been brought up to believe in anything I want to believe in. I'm open to the idea of a lot of different ideas on how we as a species came about. This topic is very controversial and I don't even really fell comfortable talking about it. I believe that the evolutionary theory doesn't specifically attempt to undermine the beliefs of any one. I do believe that it is just an explnation of the natural world, which is all we really know.

Clone my pet?

This topic is an interesting one. While I think that its a great idea to research cloning and it can have a great benefit for us, I don't think that it should come to a point where we're thinking about cloning ourselves or our loved ones. Cloning can be a great benefit to us if used properly. We could perhaps clone human body parts, like liver and kidneys, to prolong some of our lives, but not necessarily clone ourselves so that, in some instance, we can "live forever." Cloning a pet is in theory a great idea, but think about all the pets that don't have homes, which is a lot! I would much rather go and get a new pet and make that pet's life more enjoyable. Yes, it is sad if a pet dies, but we must all die, its the cycle of life! I would not clone my pet if I could.

I think that cloning would affect our ideas of death beacuse we would think that everything could live on forever, and frankly, I don't want to think that I can live forever. Forever is a long time! Think about how boring it would get after a while. I would be bored to death...if only I could die! Like the science fictional characters of vampires, I too would envy "mortals."

Cloning brings up a lot of questions of ethics, but that isn't something I want to get into! What do you guys think about cloning animals?

Ahhh genetics problems!

I'm not sure what to do for questions 6, 7 and 9. I know we went through 7 in class, but I didn't write it down. DOH! Question 3, I have half the work and I can't figure out how to find out the sex of the children. Anyway, I'm not really quite sure where to start on any of those problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Genetic Darwinism?

I do not believe that insurance companies should be able to know your genetic information. I think that it should stay private and it is definitely your right to keep your genes to yourself! We may already be subject to medical exams, but what is the point in insurance companies having our genetic information? I feel that if insurance companies had our genetic information they would be essentially be playing a huge role in our society. The companies are controlling what genes gets past on to the next generation. Those that do not get insurance are more likely do die because they will not be able to pay for their medical bill by themselves. Those that do have medical insurance will most likely live longer because they are able to afford the medical care that they need. The insurance companies would be acting as filters for future generations. I don't doubt for one second that the insurance companies would be discriminating against those of us who are predisposed to genetic problems. An insurance company could easily raise the amount you pay for insurance, or they could give those of us who are not predisposed to diseases "discounts," which again would be discriminating against those who are genetically predisposed.

Genetic Testing

This subject is a little tough for me. I think that if it were me having a child and being able to determine if that child has a disease, I would of course want to know, but if it came down to me having to chose to keep that embryo or destroy it, I think I would choose to destroy it. On the other hand, I also feel like destroying an embryo because that child has a disease is wrong. It would also be awesome to pick and chose an eye color for my child, but again, I think the "old fashion" way of having children is the best way to go. I don't have any children, but I do plan on having children, it just seems that the all natural way is the best way, just my opinion! What do you guys think?

Anaerobic Cellular Respiration

As I understand, humans would not be able to survive using just anaerobic cellular respiration because we would be usuing more oxygen then our bodies could produce, leaving the body drained and unable to work correctly. Humans rely on anaerobic cellular respiation when they are exceeding the amount of oxygen the body can make, like exercising. From my research, I found that "cold-blooded" animals produce less ATP then "warm-blooded" animals, this would explain why "warm-blooded" animals are more active then "cold-blooded" animals.

Photosynthesis

This week's lecture and reading has been a terrible headach. Understanding how photosynthesis works is a hard topic to understand, but a topic not so hard to understand is the consquences in deforestation. There are many reasons why we need to plant 3 trees for every tree we cut down, one being that planting more trees mean planting more life. Not only do trees need and thrive off Carbon Dioxide, but they also emit a very important thing we call oxygen. I don't know how much energy is produced by photosynthesis, but I do know that it is a ton! Before reading this week, I didn't realize how much we need plants to live. We're extremely dependent on plants. Not only do they proved oxygen, which we need in order to breathe and live, we also need plants in order to eat. Plants provide the animals we eat with nutrients and those animals provide us with the nutrients that we need. Granted, we don't only get the nutrients we need from animals and meat, but we also get them directly from plants!

Back to deforestation! There are people who have thought about what deforestation has done to the environment, so much so that they have created Tree farms. Watch this video: Tree Farms

America is overweight!

I think one of the reasons why America is so overweight is because we are a fast pase society. We don't think about the decisions we make with food, we just think about what is the fastest and easiest way to get food. We eat out a lot more than we should eating at places like McDonald's, Taco Bell, or Carl's Jr. Another reason why we're so overweight is because our serving sizes with foods is much bigger than other societies. We have 62 oz. drinks for what we call "large."

I think our society being overweight makes a huge statement saying that we don't care about our health, as long as the food is some what tasty, fast, and convenient, we don't care what it does to us. Our culture likes to flash the television screen with weight loss pills that claim that they work and you don't have to change a thing in your life in order for them to work. I think that our culture makes it somewhat difficult for people. People think that they need to be a size 1 to look beautiful, which is definitely not the case. The more pressure our society puts on being thin, we can expect that in the future we will have even more overweight people. We have created so many different diseases because everyone wants to be thin. It doesn't matter how you get skinny, as long as you get skinny. Puke it out, binge, or get tummy-tucks.

I think parents can eliminate sugar, fast food, and fast and convenient living styles. Parents need to teach their children at a young age to eat healthy and to eat the right serving sizes, don't teach children to eat whatever is fast and convenient!

Pseudoscience!

Kinoki Foot pads are an obvious pseudoscience. Putting some pads on your feet that take toxins out of your body is a bogus idea, but hey, some people fell for it! http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Stossel/story?id=4636224&page=1

Psychoanalysis is an example of pseudoscience that I am not too sure on along with a lot of other people. Here's a website that decribes what Psychoanalysis is http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/definition.html. This is a website article that tries to separate fact from fiction with psychoanalysis being a pseudoscience http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/15-10-2008/106563-Psychoanalysis_Pseudoscientific-0.

The risks that we need to understand with pseudoscience is that some people may believe that something like Kinoki Foot Pads actually does release toxins in your body onto a pad fo you to see. What we need to understand is that these "fake sciences" may become engraved into our cultures and may actually be believed by many, changing what we know about science and what we know about our world today.