Biofuels ^_^

Ethanol is a volatile liquid and has a slight odor. Ethanol was mainly used for drinking alcohol and is colorless. It's also used in thermometers, as solvents, and as fuel of course. The United States became the world's largest producer of ethanol fuel. In 2011 most cars, trucks, and minivans mainly use ethanol as fuel now. The RFA (Renewable Fuels Association) reported 204 ethanol distilleries in operation and another 9 under construction. Most of the ethanol was created from corn. One of the main problems of ethanol is the amount of land needed to grow all the corn to acquire materials to being the process of making ethanol. I'm just ready for someone to find a renewable resource that gives us the same power as gas in our cars. Water is a great choice but I don't think we would be able to gain much power. There is a huge spike in electric cars and many people are buying into that portion of car. Many different types of materials are being used as fuels like cellulose, sugar, corn (of course) even human waste. This just goes to show people are out there willing and ready to make the world a better place so we don't have to depend on fossil fuels because sooner or later we will run out and it won't be a nice day for anyone if we haven't found a new source of fuel.

Mitochondrial Eveeeee

Mitochondrial Eve is said to the woman every body stemmed from and is related to by their mother's side of the family. People will eventually mate and become more diverse. We have all picked up different traits based on our location we grew up in and that is one of the answers to how we have come to be different from one another. Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived 200,000 years ago. Her location was determined to most likely be in East Africa. Variations of mitochondrial DNA can be used to date back to Mitochondrial Eve because the mutations in mitochondrial DNA happen about every 3,500 years.

Doggie Parks

Dog parks are great to have in a community. These parks serve as a designated area where people can go and all have on thing in common, a dog. The dogs can run around and enjoy their new founded playground and meet new dog friends. People can meet others with similar dog interests and develop relationships. Overall I see dog parks as having the ability to create relationships which would help the community become a better and friendly place. I wish to soon be able to own a dog of my own... A Siberian Husky. I also do appreciate the cities for trying to build a place for Man's Best Friend.

Burgess Shale....?

The Burgess Shale was founded by Charles Walcott in 1909. The Burgess Shale is signifiant because of its ability to preserve soft body fossils. It's located in the Canadian Rockies. The Burgess Shale is one of the most celebrated fossil fields.
 

The Burgess Shale played a huge role in the Cambrian Explosion. The Cambrian Explosion was a rapid increase and appearance of different types of organisms, which later became the fossils found at Burgess Shale. There is still much debate about the Cambrian Explosion and how it came to be. The Cambrian Explosion serves as a main source of evidence for Darwin and the theory of evolution. Lots of fossils get destroyed by erosion and metamorphism which are some of the difficulties archeologists come in contact with. These fossils serve as huge evidence for new discoveries and theories. Yes, the Cambrian Explosion still possesses unanswered questions and the Burgess Shale is still being used today to find those answers. But what would life be if there were answers to every question?

Amphioxus!!!

Amphioxus is important to the evolutionary view of the developing vertebrates. It's also known as Lancelet. They have translucent fish like bodies. Amphioxus is believed to be the most simple animal that has the basic characteristics of vertebrae, possessing a nerve chord along their back. Amphioxus is very strange because it has gills, but uses them for eating. It has no sensory organs, brain nor skeleton. Unlike other vertebrates, Amphioxus has a notochord which is basically compacted cells toughened up in the shape of a rod. The notochord protects the nerve chord unlike other vertebrates that use bone.

Hitchiti Ginger =D

We went hiking through the Hitchiti Forest and got to take in the great nature. There are controlled burns in the forest to observe  and study the ecosystem and how it works. Me and a couple of others took a crazy route to go up the river. I wish we could've taken pictures and a video but a couple of people fell into the river. There were two plants in particular that we emphasized and it was sassafras and wild ginger. The wild ginger is low growing and they prefer the shady areas under the giant oak and pines in the area.

The other plant we emphasized was sassafras. It was very interesting because it had multiple different types of leaves growing from the same stem. Sassafras can also grow to be a medium sized tree. I'm still waiting on Dr. Rood's answer on how sassafras and genetically grow 3 different leaves at once.

Dr. Rood also found this nice hole that seemed to be a rotting trunk but we could stick our arms in there and explore. I definitely didn't want to be bitten by anything so I decided not to. But here is a great picture of me hugging a tree at Hitchiti =)

Jackson Springs!

     Jackson Springs Park is located within the three oldest suburbs in the city of Macon. The park used to be apart of Baconsfield park and had an in tact zoo. The park was split up for commercial development. We had rock hammers and picks. We also used a magnifying glass to examine the quartz and different elements of rocks we found. There were a lot of granite and quartz. We found some feldspar and other rocks that had mica and hornblende crystals as well. Some people decided to go through the tunnel and come around back to the group. I couldn't do this due to unsuitable footwear, but I still had a fun time bashing rocks and examining them =) We found a nice salamander to play with as well.

Lake Mayer in Savannah, Ga.

Lake Mayer is one of my favorite places to go and relax. It's basically a huge lake with a giant piece of land in the middle. There is a bridge you can go over to reach the middle and that's where the tennis courts and basketball courts are located. There is also a common building people would use for barbecues, but can be also used for festivals, such as the Lunar Moon festival that the Vietnamese community likes to celebrate. It's awesome. I have many childhood memories. There is also a 2 mile path that can be traveled to exercise and there are different exercising stations around the path. There are a lot of ducks that you can interact with but apparently there are some alligators in the lake as well. People often sail in the lake and kayak. It's a beautiful place to be and I always go there to relax and have a moment to myself.

Ocmulgee National PAAARRRRRKKKK.

It was quite fun. We listened to one of the workers at the park tell us the story and timeline behind the people that were native to the region of the park. We learned about the different reasons Native Americans settled in Macon. Great environment and weather were perfect reasons to settle in Macon. They lived by a Fall Line, which both had rolling hills and good coastal land in order to farm. The Fall Line gave the people different areas to live in but can navigate through a central river and have great land that they could grow crops and flourish in. We went as a class on a trail and Dr. Rood took us through the woods. At first we saw a snake about 4 ft. in length, it was pretty interesting. Then we saw this decaying tree and talked about the different levels of decomposition in the floor of the forest. The leaf litter piles on top of each other and the bottom most level would start to decay and be taken over by some fungi and continue to break down to create a rich soil. We also passed by a creek bed and Dr. Rood explained that flash floods would roll through and erode the walls of the creek bed. The erosion helped us see the different layers and types of dirt and soil that characterized the creek. We also saw holes and pockets by at the bottom of the creek and Dr. Rood explained that those were the week points which where dirt would be washed away by the floods and creek water.

This was the entrance to the structure that the native americans would meet and congregate on topics, such as laws, or have meetings. It was rather large 

Negative Feedback Loops...Bad for us?

Simply the negative feedback loop is an occurrence, wether positive or negative, that will change the current stable levels but will ultimately end right back at homeostasis. For example, blood sugar will increase with the amount of sweets eaten, but after a certain period of time the blood sugar will return to its stable level that it has always been at.

The reason for the return to homeostasis is due to insulin and glucagon. If there is a spike in glucose in the blood then the pancreas receptors will release more insulin and targets the liver. The liver will then store the glucose as glycogen for later use. If there is a decrease in glucose the pancreas receptors release glucagon and tells the liver to use the glycogen stored, and turn it into glucose.  The chart above shows Dr. Rood's blood glucose level rising as he ate the snickers and drank the can of sprite. His blood glucose spiked but his body's natural response was to release insulin to control the extra glucose and store it in the liver for later use and returned his blood glucose level back to normal which was 104 mg/dL. It was an interesting experiment watching him prick himself and continuously check his blood levels haha.

12 Soil Types Of The WORLD! Plus Lab!

Easy Acronym to remember...

I.H.A.S.M.O.V.E.G.A.U.A

Inceptisol- soils with weakly developed subsurface horizons


Histosol- organic soils


Andisol- soils formed in volcanic ash


Spodosol- acid forest soils with a subsurface accumulation of metal-humus complexes


Mollisol- grassland soils with high base status


Oxisol- intensely weathered soils of tropical and subtropical environments


Vertisol-  clayey soils with high shrink/swell capacity


Entisol-  soils with little or no morphological development


Gelisol-  soils with permafrost within 2 m of the surface


Aridisol-  CaCO₃-containing soils of arid environments with subsurface horizon development


Ultisol- strongly leached soils with a subsurface zone of clay accumulation and <35% base saturation


Alfisol-  moderately leached soils with a subsurface zone of clay accumulation and >35% base saturation


All descriptions were taken from this website. All credit is given the University of Idaho. =)


http://soils.cals.uidaho.edu/soilorders/orders.htm


GELISOLS!
I found gelisols interesting because there are only about 9% of it on the Earth. They show very little morphological change. Most gelisols store large quantities of organic carbon. The frozen condition of some gelisol landscapes make it hard for human interactions.


LAB!

We had a pretty fun time with Dr. Rood. He destroyed a lot of ant colonies but we dug into the land and found a new adjective to describe some levels of soil as Clayey. We used a sieve, which had several levels of fine mesh in order to separate the dirt. But since the dirt was so moist it was hard to get past the 2nd or 3rd level. In some picture you could see Joshua and Leslie using the tools we would use in order to get solid samples. We also went to the public garden and observed all the plants including certain bugs that were in the vicinity, such as spiders, ants, and grubs. We all had a fun time playing in the mud as well and had a mud fight with Dr. Rood. It was pretty Awesome.

Shrub, Plants, and TREEESSSS!!!!!!!

Plants

Species: Chrysanthemum indicum

Genus: Chrysanthemum

Species: Green Onion

Genus: Allium

Species: Mexican Petunia

Genus: Petunia

Species: Tradescantia pallida

Genus: Tradescantia

Species: Zinnia elegans

Genus: Zinnia

Shrubs

Species: Aloe vera

Genus: Aloe

Species: Brugmansia arborea

Genus: Brugmansia

Species: Japonica

Genus: Camellia

Species: Ilex aquifolium

Genus: Ilex

Species: Ligustrum japonicum

Genus: Ligustrum

Trees

Species: Birch

Genus: Betula papyrifera

Species: Crape Myrtle

Genus: Lagerstroemia Indica

Species: Dogwood

Genus: Cornus sanguinea

Species: Gingko Biloba 

Genus: Gingko

 

Species: Magnolia grandiflora

Genus: Magnolia


Plant of Choice:
I chose to describe the Angel's Trumpet. It contains a high level of toxicity, contact with eyes could cause pupil dilation.The name Angel's Trumpet refers to the large, very dramatic, pendulous trumpet-shaped flowers, 14–50 cm to 20 inches long and 10–35 cm across at the wide end. They are white, yellow, pink, orange or red, and have a delicate, attractive scent with light, lemony overtones, most noticeable in early evening. Very attractive... but very dangerous! DO NOT INGEST!