Friday, May 20, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
A Tribute to Extinct Plants
As my last post was pretty pointless, I decided to do another post that is awesome. As today is Earth Day, I created a little tribute to extinct plants of Africa and North America. There is a lot of attention on endangered animals, but not nearly enough attention on endangered plants and fungi. The power-point is below. I hope that in future weeks, I can do more plants from Asia, Oceania, South America, and Europe.
-Mister Pip (DZ)
The Black Death...and the Bloody One
Plague is caused by Yersina Pestis. It's transmitted mainly by fleas and has a rodent reservoir...which means that plague's here to stay. If we can get rid of or vaccine EVERY SINGLE RAT ON THE PLANET, then sure we can get rid of plague.
Eventually.
On a brighter note, plague is becoming antibiotic-resistant!
Oh, that wasn't good. My bad.
Anyway, plasmids (DNA in circles instead of strands) containing the genes necessary for antibiotic immunity are frequently transferred to the plague bacterium in the flea midgut. Flea has resistant genes. Flea eats plague. Plauge gets resistant genes.
And in case you're worried, here are the symptoms!
Three to seven days after infection you become feverish, nauseous, and experience chills, fever, head/body aches, weakness and vomiting. In the most common form of plague, bubonic, the Yersinia pestis bacillus replicates in your lymph nodes, inflaming them to create "bubos".
These things hurt and sometimes burst, creating open, festering sores.
Eventually.
On a brighter note, plague is becoming antibiotic-resistant!
Oh, that wasn't good. My bad.
Anyway, plasmids (DNA in circles instead of strands) containing the genes necessary for antibiotic immunity are frequently transferred to the plague bacterium in the flea midgut. Flea has resistant genes. Flea eats plague. Plauge gets resistant genes.
And in case you're worried, here are the symptoms!
Three to seven days after infection you become feverish, nauseous, and experience chills, fever, head/body aches, weakness and vomiting. In the most common form of plague, bubonic, the Yersinia pestis bacillus replicates in your lymph nodes, inflaming them to create "bubos".
These things hurt and sometimes burst, creating open, festering sores.
Isn't nature lovely?
And if that wasn't all, here's the bloody death to cheer you up!
Ebola is caused by an RNA virus. RNA is what came before DNA, but in this case, it does the same thing. It was first seen in Africa and causes illness in primates and humans. We don't know what the reservoir of the virus is yet, but there is strong evidence to suggest that it is an animal native to Africa.
And if that wasn't all, here's the bloody death to cheer you up!
Ebola is caused by an RNA virus. RNA is what came before DNA, but in this case, it does the same thing. It was first seen in Africa and causes illness in primates and humans. We don't know what the reservoir of the virus is yet, but there is strong evidence to suggest that it is an animal native to Africa.
The first infection (we think) results from contact with an infected animal. The next wave is when other people are infected. These people are usually the ones who care for the ill person i.e. their friends, parents, and/or doctors.
Just so you don't accidentally care for one of these unfortunates, here are the disputably worse symptoms!
After two to twenty-one days, headache, joint/muscle aches, fever, sore throat and weakness appear.
Isn't this sounding familiar.
Next comes vomiting (the similarities abound), diarrhea, and stomach pain. In some patients, rashes, red eyes, hiccups and internal/external bleeding is present. Death can be caused by "bleeding out"; this is when the internal organs disintegrate into blood and leave the body through any orifice. It's not understood why some people recover and others do not, but it has been observed that those deceased had very few antibodies in their bloodstream...Ebola attacks quickly.
And now that we've outlined the symptoms, which would you prefer? The black death...or the bloody one?
-[Asian X]
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