Random things I learned this week as a 4th-year Biology major.
I don’t love college, but I do love learning. So, I compiled random things I learned this week from school, so I feel like I deserve my degree.
Reintroduction of wild African dogs in Mozambique
I learned in my animal behavior class that Mozambique has had a sharp decline in predators due to the Civil War in that region and bushmeat poaching. The war left the habitat devasted and caused a decrease in large mammal predators. This leads to the prey having changes in behaviors, diet, and grazing techniques. Animals such as deer and bushbucks started venturing out of the forest to open land where predators once reigned, acquiring nutritious meals and minimal fear.
A new project realized this shift in behavior and concluded it was abnormal. They decided to restore balance by reintroducing predators to the land. They first started with lions and recently introduced the Wild African dogs. It is fascinating the role humans are playing in forming ecosystems and how, as we progress and gain more technology, the possibility of reviving and balancing various ecosystems. It makes me think of different possibilities for changing nature for the better with the knowledge and technology we acquired.
Discovery of a centimeter-long bacterium
A defining feature of a bacterium is its significantly small size, which is not visible to the naked eye. However, a discovery revealed a bacterium that is larger in length and visible to the naked eye. This brought forth a lot of questions about how we define biological cells. In the science realm, so much has not been cultured or discovered, and as we learn more and more, the preexisting definitions are altered. It’s a field that is never exact. There are so many outliers and so many newer discoveries that challenge a previous presumption—leading to a new array of theories and discoveries.
DNA Barcoding
The Genetics lab taught me a genetic technique called DNA barcoding, which differentiates different species. Popularly compared to a supermarket scanner, a pre-existing database is searched when DNA is being compared or “scanned.” DNA must be extracted and isolated from tissue or plants for this to work. The extracted DNA is then amplified using PCR, so there are multiple copies of that gene, making it more accurately sequenced. Once the PCR product is sequenced, then, the results can be used through an identification method, DNA Barcoding. This will compare your results to numerous data within its system to identify a similar species and even produce a phylogenetic tree to find ancestry if multiple different DNA copies were used.
This technique is quite popular among taxonomists and ecologists. When the morphology of a cell looks very similar, many can mistake it for the same species. The only way to differentiate and confirm that the two are indeed different is through genetic material. Thus, DNA barcoding can be an ideal tool when this problem arises.
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That's mostly all I learned this week that was interesting. My other two classes are Organic Chemistry and Spanish, and there is not much I can write about those classes.