LAST SUNFLOWER UPDATE

Well, It's been a bit stressful at times, but I somehow managed to keep this SUNFLOWER plant alive the entire semester - after a failed starter one :). Although, as you can see by the yellowing leaves at the bottom, it's not in the greatest of health. I must admit I'm not really a green thumb unless its a Very Hearty plant!!!!...Oh well! I guess my talents lye elsewhere! It's been fun! and I did give it an honest try!!!

What's The Hype about Biodiesel Fuel??

This week's lab was about Biodiesel Fuel, which is a growing alternative for traditional gasoline! We toured Dr. Rood's science lab over at the Law School. Interesting place to house a LAB, but he explained the sorded past of it all. :)....There's alot of top of the line equipment, and it certainly is being used! After the tour, he talked to us a little while about Biodiesel fuel.

100% vegetable oil + Sodium Methoxide = Biodiesel + Glycerine  

What is Biodiesel?
Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.


Is Biodiesel the same thing as raw vegetable oil?
No! Biodiesel is produced from any fat or oil such as soybean oil, through a refinery process called transesterification. This process is a reaction of the oil with an alcohol to remove the glycerin, which is a by-product of biodiesel production.

HOW TO MAKE BIODIESEL FUEL 


Here is a link to learn how to make Biodiesel Fuel. Good luck!!




http://www.biodieselfuelonline.com/index2.html




Biodiesel is safe, biodegradable, and considerably reduces serious air pollutants. Blends of 20% biodiesel with 80% petroleum diesel (B20) can generally be used in unmodified diesel engines; however, users should consult their OEM and engine warranty statement. Biodiesel can also be used in its pure form (B100), but it may require certain rubber components of the engine to be modified to avoid maintenance and performance problems and may not be suitable for wintertime use.

Maybe this will catch on globally - and I mean everyone on board! Will it help - does it help the environment? It seems so. It would be great! Perhaps one day all of us will be driving a biodiesel car:

A greater hope is that all of us can do everything we can to keep our world beautiful and clean! :)

Information retrieved from:
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/; and,
http://www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/re_biodiesel.htm

MITOCHONDRIAL EVE

In the field of human genetics, Mitochondrial Eve refers to the matrilineal "MRCA" (most recent common ancestor). In other words, she was the woman from whom all living humans today descend, on their mother's side, and through the mothers of those mothers and so on, back until all lines converge on one person. Because all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is generally passed from mother to offspring without recombination, all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in every living person is directly descended from hers by definition.Mitochondrial Eve lived much earlier than the out of Africa migration that is thought to have occurred between 95,000 to 45,000 BP.^[4]

The dating for 'Eve' was a blow to the multiregional hypothesis, and a boost to the hypothesis that modern humans originated relatively recently in Africa and spread from there, replacing more "archaic" human populations such as Neanderthals. As a result, the latter hypothesis is now the dominant one.

As tribes began to migrate to different parts of Africa, or even to different parts of the world by the Land Bridge, but water....they had to adjust to their different environments, climates, etc. Over time and generations, the people began to adjust and their appearances began to change - determined first by their environment......For example, those who stayed in certain parts of African retained dark skin to help protect them from the long, hot sunny days, and very warm climate. Those who arrived in Europe or further north to places of colder climate - lost much of their melanin - so over time these peoples skin became very light. Their hair long ad straight to help insulate them from the colder climate. The variations go on!

Of course as our world has become smaller due to airplanes, ships, etc., generations are becoming more of a melting pot...but there are still lingering and specific phenotypes and genotypes that can identify people from different continents, and different countries.
Here are some photographs of different peoples who have evolved from Mitochondrial Eve:

NOTE: Excerpts of The definition of MITOCHONDRIAL EVE retrieved from

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

AMPHIOXUS

This is a great abstract about AMPHIOXUS that I retrieved from the International Journal of Biological Studies online - -  http://www.biolsci.org/v02p0030.htm

AMPHIOXUS:
The cephalochordate amphioxus occupies a central place in evolutionary thoughts to the origin of Vertebrates. With a prototypical vertebrate-like body plan and a preduplicative genome, the friendly lancelet seems to be in morphological and genetic motionless since its separation from the major branch of evolution that eventually ended up in our corner in the Animal Kingdom. This makes it an ideal model system with which, with the current development of genomic and experimental tools, an Evo-Devo approach to the understanding of the origin of vertebrates looks proper, reliable, and excitingly promising.

The photo below is a picture of Amphioxus. Not the cutest specimens you want to see. They remind me of baby corn, or a fishing Lure. It is amazing to see these types of animals! In class we are learning about the evolution of single cell to multi-cell organisms. It is fascinating to see that this is one of the first vertebrate animals!

LAB #9 - MACON DOG PARK

This is a picture of me and our Toy Poodle SCOOBY :) He is a wonderful part of our family :)....Scooby loooves to play, cuddle, chase birds, squirrels, and eat the pecans in our yard :)...He loves running, and chasing his Blue Frisbee, so we love to take him on walks! Which brings me to today's Lab Entry:

Today was a fun lab. We took a short walk over to the Macon Dog Park.
It is a fun place where dogs can get great exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and even socialize with other dogs. It is also a good place for the community to get together. This sets up a great chance for communities to become closer, form friendships, and enjoy their outdoor community in a safe and inviting way.

You do have to keep in mind the few negatives about having a dog park, though. Because there is a constant influx of different dogs congregated in a restricted area, the chance for disease is always present. Bacteria, viruses and other maladies can affect young puppies, older dogs, and sometimes even humans. Of course, much of this can be contained if the community takes good care of the park, keeping it clean and free of animal waste each day.

The Macon dog park has the Vineville Branch creek that runs through it. This creek eventually runs to Ocmulgee River. Because this creek is in an Urban area, it is called an "Urban Creek".  Urban creeks are a combination of water run-off (Rain) and natural water. Because they are running through urban areas, they tend to have a higher concentration of bacteria in the water. We took multiple samples of the creek at different areas. Bacteria did grow in the cultures Dr. Rood had. It was a high concentration of fecal bacteria....yuck!!!....
Well, other than that bit of TMI - the lab was very informative, and maybe when we are in the area, we will bring Scooby to the park to play and meet new friends!

I got this picture off of the Macon Dog Park website.

http://www.macondogpark.org/

LAB #7 - Hititchi Experimental Forest

I love the forest and I love hiking. Here is one of my favorite pictures I saw on the Internet.! Well, our field trip was not to THIS forest, but the one we went to was still very nice. We went to HITCHITI Experimental Forest. This field trip was a lot of fun, but definitely tiring! One great thing about the day was the weather - it was perfect!!! :)

Here is a brief background on the Experimental forest, and below that - some pictures I took during the hike!
Here is a Picture I took when we first started hiking:

BACKGROUND ON FOREST:

The Brender Demonstration Forest also known as the Hitchiti Experimental Forest occupies 4,735 acres of land in Jones County, Georgia about 18 miles northeast of Macon at longitude 83 42'30 W., Latitude 33 1'30 N. It lies on the east bank of the Ocmulgee River in the lower piedmont. The areas first known inhabitants were the Hitchiti Indians. They used fire to clear land for planting and to herd game animals during hunts. Through time, timber and cotton were the area’s primary crops early in the twentieth century. However, cotton was short-lived when the boll weevil and an agricultural depression struck. In 1946 the Federal Government established the Hitchiti Experimental Forest that now makes up the Brender Demonstration Forest. Today the Forest is an active research facility of the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station.

Some of the subjects now under study or demonstration on the Forest include:

• The effects of varying intensities of site preparation on survival and growth of loblolly pine
• Effects of prescribed fire under mature loblolly pine
• Interplanting of Loblolly Pine
• Precommercial thinning of natural Loblolly Pine
• Natural regeneration systems for loblolly pine in the lower Piedmont
• Comparison of Winter & Summer prescribed fires
• Demonstration of methods of site preparation before planting Pine
• Methods for maintaining red-cockaded woodpecker habitat and endangered bird species
• Effects of improper planting of pine seedlings
• Planting of mountain variety of Longleaf in Piedmont of Georgia
• Forest insects & diseases
• Wildlife plantings on utility line
• Proper logging road construction

TREE HUGGING: 

Dr. Rood had us hug a tree during the hike. Here are the pictures of me, as well as 3 other class mates "hugging" a tree:

 

me, hugging a tree :)

TREE-PLAYING:

As usual, some of my classmates, took the Tree to a new level, not only hugging it, but climbing it :)

A COOL TREE:

Here is a picture of a tree, with Exposed Tree Roots. We surmised that it was in soil, but perhaps water moved the soil/dirt away, and left the tree growing with exposed roots:

Here is the CREEK that we hiked to! FALLS CREEK. It was very pretty, and scenic. Two classmates fell in the creek trying to cross over...sorry I did not get a pic of that!!!

WILD GINGER PLANT:

Along the trail, Dr. Rood pointed out WILD GINGER plant. Here is a photo of it:

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is a low growing native perennial about 6 to 12 inches high that sometimes is hidden under fallen leaves. Popular with pioneers and Native Americans.Pioneers dried and pulverized the root of wild ginger and used it as a spice or as a cure for whooping cough. Native Americans also used the ginger for a variety of ailments including heart pain and heart arrhythmia. A root tea was used for indigestion, cough, cold, cramps, throat ailments, and nervous conditions. Roots were steeped by the Meskwakis and applied to the ear to relieve ear ailments.

Background information on the Forest  retrieved from:

http://www.gatrees.org/forestmanagement/brender.cfm  

Information on Wild Ginger retrieved from:

http://nature.sbc.edu/fnh/medicginger.html

LAB #6 - JACKSON SPRINGS/The Great Rock Expedition

Jackson Springs Park is located in Macon, Georgia. It is a beautiful city park. Our lab was to learn about and discuss the different types of rocks/minerals that are present in this area, and of course, in the park. First, we surveyed the area and talked about the plant life there, especially near the creek. We also identified some trees (sycamore, Mulberry, dogwood and hickory trees. We also took a look at how the plant life changed as it got closer and closer to the creek. First grass, then moving closer to the water - moss, and algae in the water. We even saw a cute little baby turtle :)

We went over to the creek and played with rocks! Here are a few pics I took of the minerals and rocks we saw.

FELDSPAR: a mineral

QUARTZ - unbroken; and broken examples

SANDSTONE Sedimentary Rock. Sedimentary rocks are formed when dirt, gravel, sand are pushed down together, and the pressure over time causes them to fuse together to become Sedimentary rock








We also found GRANITE Rock - Granite is a rock that is formed by three minerals: Quartz, Feldspar, and Hornblende:

We found GNEISS - which is a Metamorphic rock: A rock that is formed when rocks, minerals or both is exposed to pressure and heat, which causes the chemical structure of the rock to change

I really enjoyed this lab, and learned more about rocks!. I have always liked collecting rocks when I go hiking, or just if I see a really cool looking rock. Now, when I collect, I will try my best to identify it!!! :)