Practice GRE

After taking the practice subject GRE test for biology, I realized that I knew next to nothing about plants seeing as I'm more of an animal person. I almost wish that I wasn't graduating in May so that I could take Dr. Brauner's General Botany class to learn more about them. But since there are already enough blogs written about plants, I thought I would address another set of subject questions that I did not do so well on this practice GRE; molecular/cell processes.

It's not that I don't understand molecular/cell processes, it just that it doesn't interest me as much as my vertebrate and invertebrate classes do so I guess I didn't retain much of that knowledge after I learned it in Genetics (a class in which I did really well in). The sad part about this is that I'm currently relearning this stuff in my Microbiology class and I still got many of those questions wrong. I believe that this is an important aspect of biology that every Biology major should know upon graduation, so I guess I'm going to have to try harder to retain the information this time around.

Here, there, everywhere

Has anyone seriously thought about how some of the food in our diet comes to our table to be eaten? If not, the arthropod phylum (especially the honey bee) assists with pollination to create many of the foods we eat. The arthropod phylum is very important in the delicate earth ecosystem. I feel that there are two sides to this particular phylum, the good side and the evil side. An example of a creature on the on the evil side, in my opinion are wasps because the sting and are very annoying. On the flip side, the honey bee as described earlier is a trigger for the development of many other things (ex: pollination of flowers for apples we eat).

I thought some information about the phylum is appropriate because probably many people do not have much knowledge. Arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs. The limbs form part of an exoskeleton which is mainly made of α-chitin, a derivative of glucose. Now the most important part is the diversity of this particular phylum, which is very astounding. The diversity in a small area of forest can reach hundreds of different kinds, or any type of living environment. In the end, I feel that this particular phylum is very important to the earth’s survival, but the threat of global warming can threaten earth’s survival life line.

Fish with a Transparent Head!?!

The phrase "I can see right through you" is more than just a phrase to this bazaar creature. Macropinna microstoma is the only species of fish in the genus Macropinna, belonging to Opisthoproctidae, the barreleye family. It is recognized for a highly unusual transparent, fluid-filled dome on its head, through which the lenses of its eyes can be seen. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has more information on this deep sea dweller.