Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Group 3 Ch. 11,12

During the last class, primarily, our group was targeted with a thought-provoking question of whether we would want to live forever. In my opinion being able to live forever would be a privilege; a privilege that would allow me to have a choice of whether I was done living my life or wanted to live on (possible forever). Many issues and concerns were brought up against my response, including overpopulation and/or resource scarcity. Due to the lack of time we could not have a full discussion on the issue and hopefully we will have enough time tomorrow to finish what we have started.

FQ:  T/F. There is as much biomass in the subsurface of the Earth as in the entire visible world.
(T) p182

FQ: What are some key producers of genetic mutations?
(oxygen and UV) p.181.

FQ: What makes phages a possible alternative to anti-bacterial disease?
(their specificity for the targeted bacterial culture)

DQ:  Do you agree with a quote made by Claude Bernard that was used by Ventor in the Acknowledgments section of his book, ''Art is I; science is We?''

link: http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/tardigrade/index.html

This link talks about one of the most durable animals that we know of: tardigrades. Animals like these make the theory of panspermia more plausible.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, let's talk some more about life extension as well as the concluding chapters on humanity's extended presence (courtesy of digital teleportation etc.) in the cosmos. I'm always surprised when I hear a young and healthy person say they don't want to live a lot more than four-score. Bored with life?

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  2. I would love to live for ever or at least for a thousand years. Maybe by then we would also know how to remove the sensation of boredom so we would lack wanting to die because of boredom. Something I thought about the other day was that making someone stay alive could be used as a punishment too. There is definitely more to talk about.

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  3. FQ: What method is used to speed up the identification and distribution of the seed viruses?
    A: Reverse Vaccinology (P. 167)

    FQ: What are the 2 basic ways in which Influenza viruses change/evolve?
    A: Antigenic drift and antigenic shift (P. 169)

    FQ: What do some microbes use to eject the antibiotic out of itself before the drug has time to act?
    A: Efflux Pump (P.171)

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