The Bio Blog

For this cartoon the biological concept is reproduction. Both parents thing that the child will have their dominant gene of having a human head, but in the end the child gets both undesired parts – the recessive gene is not having a head, and the child is a combination of fish and horse bodies. The information about reproduction, that it is in fact sexual reproduction does not necessarily need to be explained. The information about the dominant and recessive genes adds an interesting dimension to the cartoon. This cartoon shows reproduction well because you never really know what the outcome will be. This is the same as having two brunette parents and one of them carries the recessive gene of red hair and the kid being born a red head (although, undoubtedly, being a red head is not nearly as strange as having a fish head). It is humorous because the kid comes out with recessive genes; everything that the parents did not expect. 

The tortoises of the Galapagos Islands are the most interesting and perplexing subjects for many scientists that support the idea of evolution, including the famous Charles Darwin. Giant tortoises were very common during the Pleistocene era, but now most of them are extinct (those on the islands of Mascarenes became extinct in 1804, and those on Seychelles have a very small population). Those on the Galapagos Islands are the only ones that have managed to evolve with the times so that they can continue to exist. The tortoises on the Galapagos Islands have evolved into 15 subspecies, out of these 15 there are only 11 left. The tortoises differ in many ways including carapace shape, or the shape of their shells, and length of the neck (origin and evolutionary Swarthmore).

            There seem to be three main types of tortoise body shape on the island: domed, intermediate, and saddle. The “saddle” tortoises have developed a long neck that is not really seen in any other subspecies of tortoise. This neck length allows the tortoises to flourish on the islands in dry climates where they forage for food from large bushes and cacti (swarthmore).

            The Galapagos has been something of interest to me since viewing the movie Master and Commander. In the film the crew visits the Galapagos, and after seeing the diversity of species I researched the Galapagos themselves a little bit. The tortoises were particularly noteworthy because of their giant size and long years. The tortoise Lonesome George, a Galapagos tortoise, has been called one of the rarest creatures in the world, and is the last surviving subspecies of Geochelone nigra abingdoni. Lonesome George is about five feet long and weighs in around 650 lbs. The fact that something this large and rare is still living in the world is amazing to me. It’s almost as if dinosaurs still exist in some places of the world, but instead of having large teeth like a T.Rex they just have longer necks to survive.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/gps/images/caccone.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_George

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/evolk12/gps/tortoise.htm

In this cartoon, there is an elephant that appears to be playing tennis, he says “Since Darwin said its survival of the fittest, I thought i’d better take up an aerobic sport.” (http://www.pioneer.net/~mchumor/science_genetics_toons.html)

 Mr. Elephant is alluding to Darwin’s theory of evolution, where individuals that are better adapted to their environment and other individuals tend to survive better than less adapted individuals.

This Cartoon pertains to the biological concept of evolution. Over time species adapt to better fit their enviornment. This cartoon is humorous because it depicts the events of millions of years in one instance.

Joke: Biology is the only science in which multiplication is the same thing as division.

The biological principle used in this joke is “cell reproduction”.  The explanation for this joke is that multiplication in biology means reproduction, which is accomplished by cell division.  When a cell divides, the number of cells multiply.  The humor of this joke is that in math, division and multiplication is completely opposite, but in Biology, in cell reproduction at least, division is equal to multiplication.

Reference:

http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/jokes/biologyjokes.html

The eukaryotic cells are very similar in the structure and function of their membranes and organelles.  Although two structures look very different on the outside and vary in functions, they could be called homologous if the skeletal structures are similar, which reflect common ancestry.  For example, a bat, a human, an alligator, and a penguin are known to evolved from a common ancestor, because they share common anatomical trait: the forelimbs.  The forelimbs of the human, the bat, the penguin, and the alligator look very different and vary in function, however, when comparing the humerus, radius, ulna, and carpals in each forelimb, they are very alike in skeletal structure.  More importantly, the forelimbs from the human, the bat, the alligator, and the penguin are derived from the same structures in the embryo.  Because of this homologous structure, some believe that these animals evolved from a common ancestor.

Similar to homologous structure, vestigial structures or organs can be another way to prove common ancestry among different species.  Vestigial structures or organs are the structures or organs of some organisms that seem to have no useful function.  For instance, humans have a tailbone at the end of the spine that seems be useless.  Vestigial structures are often homologous to structures that are useful in other species.  The vestigial tailbone in humans is homologous to the functional tail of other primates.  Therefore vestigial structures can be an evidence of common ancestry.

Reference:

http://bioweb.cs.earlham.edu/9-12/evolution/HTML/live.html

Joke:
Biology is the only science in which multiplication is the same thing as division.

Any one who has studied biology would know why this is funny. The mulitiplication of cells in biology is done by cell division. This is why “multiplication is the same thing as division”. Whithout this understanding of biology, the joke would not make sense. This joke is correct because it is true that when cells divide, they create another cell (multiplication). It funny because in math, it is impossible for multiplication to be the same thing as division. They are two opposites.

http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/jokes/biologyjokes.html

Progression of man--from apes to humans/ and with increasing rise of technology it might soon be possible for the human body to be made of mechanical parts

Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations.

 The theory of evolution of man is that humans were derive from an apelike ancestor that lived on earth a few million years ago. Studies show that apes skeletons are very similar to humans. This could be because of environmental changes which lead to natural selection (is the process by which favorable heritable traits become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms). Each time the environment changes the organism (apes) would have to evolve to keep living. Charles Darwin who is the author of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, (6th edition of 1872 the title was changed to The Origin of Species.) Darwin did research of the subject by traveling around the world for five years. He said the evolution was due to natural selection but some people found him and his book to be controversial because it contradicted religious beliefs. But his theory has not been total shot down. There are many concepts of Evolution but natural selection to me is the best example. and this does not only happen for humans and apes, this is the same for all living things. Example the world way before we were alive was said to be very hot but eventually the ozone changed and it started to cool down, that’s why there is ice in Alaska. If the earth use to be hot the there wouldn’t be lots of organisms living in fur, but  when temps changed the organisms in the cold area had to adapt to survive i.e. fur.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species
• http://www.allaboutscience.org/evolution-of-man.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection

This cartoon illustrates the biological principle of natural selection.  Each bird has evolved a different type of beak, which one can assume will better help the bird survive in its habitat.

Joke: Biology is the only science in which multiplication is the same thing as division.

Explanation: Multiplication, or reproduction, occurs by the biological process of cell division.