bio1101project

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I decided to go to the Cambridge Science Festival for this event challenge. A classmate and I decided to go to the human microbiome event on April 15th at 9am. We took the red line to Kendall/MIT and walked a little while to to Forsyth building. This event allowed us to participate in a study of the human microbiome and look at samples under a microscope. When we arrived we had to answer a quick survey that asked about our health and demographics. We then were given stickers with our numbers in the study. We were told to take a long cotton swab and move it around the inside of our nose (a different swab for each nostril) for about 30 seconds. This was probably one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done because it made my eyes water and made me sneeze. After we were done with this we had to rub the swab onto bacteria food in a small dish so our nostril bacteria could grow in the lab. The next station we had to scrap our tongues and place the tongue scraper into a sterile jar. We also had the opportunity to look at the microbiome up close in a microscope but not our own microbiome which was disappointing. It was really cool to connect this back to learning about the human microbiome in class this semester. The human microbiome is microbes that live within the human body. This was really interesting to participate in also because it was part of a study that was researching how good bacteria help keep bad bacteria out of your nostrils and mouth.

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I chose to do Clover food lab as a subject matter for the challenge ecology of a business because it is one of my favorite restaurants. You can find me there on most weekends having a bite to eat for dinner and usually eating the chickpea fritter sandwich. This business uses food that is locally sourced to make its food. According to the Clover website 40-80% of their ingredients are locally sourced in the Northeast and freshly sliced. There are no freezers in Clover because the company wants to make sure that customers get the freshest ingredients in their food. The menu changes according to what is in season to ensure quality in their food as well. It is also advertised on their website that 100% of what they distribute to their customers is compostable. This business has a relationship with the environment in the Northeast because of its locally sourced ingredients. This allows the food to be in its purest form with no preservatives that will decrease the quality of the food. Another relationship with the environment is that Clover is eco-friendly. As mentioned before 100% of what they put out is compostable so they are doing the earth a favor. These relationships are healthy because they don’t connect back to the HIPPO threats to biodiversity. Since everything Clover gives to their customers is compostable it is cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions that come from waste management. This also cuts back on pollution in the environment. Clover is paving the way for fast food chains to be more eco-friendly and model themselves after itself.

(https://www.cloverfoodlab.com/food/)

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I am from a small rural area south of Boston and we have a lot of farms there. This particular one is called C.N. Smith Farm in East Bridgewater, MA. There are so many farms around me that this one is a new find and it was interesting for me to look into its ecology services. This farm mainly grows strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, apples, and pumpkins. They provide opportunities when each season comes around to have the public come and pick the fruit on their own (which I will definitely utilize when I’m back home this summer). Their website also gives an insight to their other products that are grown right there on the farm which include tomatoes, asparagus,  lettuce, corn, plums, nectarines, pears, etc. They pride themselves in only selling products that were made directly on the farm. They adhere to strict health code policies and are a Commonwealth Quality Farm. I didn’t know what this meant so I googled it and found out that it is, “a brand designed by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, serves to identify locally sourced products that are grown, harvested and processed right here in Massachusetts using practices that are safe, sustainable and don’t harm the environment.”

( https://www.mass.gov/service-details/commonwealth-quality-program)

It is a common practice to utilize this ecosystem services especially in southern Massachusetts. All of the locals try to utilize locally sourced food because of its quality and also to show support for the family run farms in the area. If their ecosystem service was not available they would probably have to resort the the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals on their products or try to get products else where and sell them on their farm. There are other businesses that are certified as a Commonwealth Quality Farms all across Massachusetts that meet the same standards as C.N. Smith Farm. 

(http://cnsmithfarminc.com/)

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Pet World is an independent business in Natick, MA that has been providing service to the community for over twenty five years. They pride themselves with the loving treatment of all of their pets and most importantly their hedgehogs. These cute little creatures have recently become a popular exotic pet in the United States. I chose to do this blog post on hedgehogs because I’ve always wanted to have one as a pet and I know some people at Lesley University who have them as therapy animals. The hedgehog that is being sold in pet stores like Pet World are known as the African pygmy hedgehog or Atelerix albiventris. This specific breed has been domesticated from the European four-toed hedgehog that runs wild through the gardens of people in Europe and the North African hedgehog. This mix of breeds created the hybrid that is the African pygmy hedgehog. In the pictures listed above the first is of the African pygmy hedgehog, the second is of the European four-toed hedgehog, and the third is of the North African Hedgehog. Hedgehogs in the wild act as a sort of pest control, eating insects, snakes, and worms. Wild hedgehogs also hibernate when it is cold out and are nocturnal animals that will curl up into a ball when threatened. They are natural foragers and exercise through wandering around and digging. The domesticated version of the wild hedgehog doesn’t have to forage for its food and gains exercise from running on a wheel. A pet hedgehog also is more docile and has a longer lifespan than that of a wild one. A wild hedgehog lives between two and four years and a domesticated hedgehog lives between eight and ten years. The hybrid of the two wild hedgehogs maintain its small size, small ears, and short snout but it’s coloring is different. The pet hedgehog has a more peppered look to its spines and has bigger eyes like its North African counterpart. Hedgehogs have been shaped by selective pressures by man kind soliciting it for its adorable qualities. Humans probably bred these two specific species of hedgehog to make a new animal with big eyes and a small body that would draw in people to buy their “product”. This business model is simply that cuteness sells. This pet store is not doing anything that is different from other pet stores selling hedgehogs besides maybe the treatment of the animals they house because it is more of a local business. There are definitely other species used by this small business with birds, dogs, and cats. There are many different variations in the breeds at the pet store mostly exhibited by selective pressures that make the animals look cool and cute to draw in customers. This has been something that has been happening for centuries and probably for centuries to come.

(http://www.hhpz.org/files/hhpz/documents/AnimalFactSheets/African%20Pygmy%20hedgehog.pdf)

(http://www.petworldnatick.com/small-animals-resources/hedgehogs)

(https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/h/hedgehog/)

(http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hedgehog)

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I chose to do this non-profit on the post for preserving life. I come from a small town in Southeastern Massachusetts that borders the city of Taunton. The Taunton River is just a short walk away from my house and its many off shoots of brooks and streams run right through my neighborhood and backyard. Stereotypically everyone around my town knows the Taunton River for its pollution and usual flow of trash. I remember going to a local craft fair a few years ago and meeting people of the Taunton River Watershed Alliance where they explained their role in preservation of the Taunton river and teeming with life. 

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance has been around since 1988 and has been successfully pursuing its mission statement of being a voice for the river. Their mission statement is to preserve and protect the river and also advocate for fragile ecosystems, water quality, forests, farmland, and wetlands. Their website has a list of events for 2018 that will occur to help benefit the river. Some of these events include training to be samplers to test the quality of the water in different locations throughout the region and assessing the turtle population. The preservation that they are engaging in is making sure the river is maintaining its ecosystem and staying clean. It is important for the community to have a clean river because it is a big part of the region and its life including some recreational activities such as kayaking. My definition of preservation is making sure something maintains its natural state.

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance preserves the river by doing monthly testing in 20 locations along the river to make sure the water quality is okay. The Taunton River Watershed Alliance volunteers test for measuring levels of nitrate, total phosphorus, fecal coliform bacteria, dissolved oxygen, total suspended solids, pH and temperature. The reports are measured by poor, fair, good, and excellent and determine what actions should be taken in decreasing levels. One of the most critical things measured are nitrate levels which can result in high algae production. The high nitrate levels are mostly caused by wastewater treatment plants and the constant monitoring of the water’s nitrate levels has led to the removal of nitrogen used in wastewater treatment plants. The goal of the Taunton River Watershed Alliance is to identify the problem, figure out a way to make sure it is eliminated, and the water is clean. The community benefits from this preservation because they are able to use the river for recreation such as kayaking, fishing, or swimming without any worry about pollutants. 

(http://savethetaunton.org/water-quality-monitoring/)

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In Danvers, MA there is a genetics company founded by George Church in 2014 called Veritas. George Church has always had a fondness for genetics and is also one of the founders of the Human Genome Project. The company’s mission statement is “to help people understand their genetics and make more informed health and lifestyle decisions with the involvement of their physician and access to skilled genetic counselors”.

(https://www.veritasgenetics.com/sites/default/files/media/documents/VG_PressKit_CompanyOverview_Feb2018.pdf)

This company was the first to give the public access to view their genetic information for under $1000. They use a method called whole genome sequencing which gives the customer a bigger picture of their DNA than most genetic testing services. It started with the idea that George Church and his colleges wanted to provide the public with access to their genetic information in the most cost effective way while still providing top rate services. Church’s colleagues, who supported this project in the beginning, came from the Harvard Medical School and included numerous scientists. This company is harnessing genetics to provide services by allowing people to send in their saliva and get a full report of their DNA. This report includes if they are carriers for diseases, ancestry, longevity, and also how your body reacts to drugs to treat a variety of conditions including depression and epilepsy. The goal that the company is trying to achieve is to provide access to anyone who is willing to pay to $1000 to get a detailed overview of their well being and ancestry. The company also brings up the notion of your fitness and how long you will live if you fix certain aspects of your health such as your diet or exercise. Another goal of the company is to provide information to people who want to start families and know if their children pose a risk for any genetic diseases.

(https://www.veritasgenetics.com/sites/default/files/media/documents/VG_ProductOnePager_myGenome_email.pdf)

The materials involved in this process are the customers’s physician approval and saliva collection kit. The customer spits in the vile provided to them and sends it back to the lab where their DNA gets looked at in depth by scientists. The labs are based out of the U.S. and China and both are accredited. According to the Veritas website the DNA extracted from the saliva is viewed in the lab by a team of bioinformaticians, geneticists, computer scientists, and genetic counselors. The final step is a review by a clinical team and the results are at your fingertips online as soon as they inform you they are officially ready. The location in Danvers is a lab location where some of the genetic testing takes place but I’m not sure if they have other locations in the U.S outside Danvers and internationally in China.

(https://www.veritasgenetics.com/about-veritas)

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Hi Rise Bread Company is a family run business that has been in Cambridge since 1996. They pride themselves in making quality foods using locally produced products. Hi Rise originally started with making breads from scratch using ingredients from small independent mills in the area but later extended their menu to sweets and meals.

(http://www.hi-risebread.com/about)

The cell that is being looked at here is yeast. Yeast is traditionally found in soils and on plant surfaces. Yeast gives bread its ability to rise and expand into something less dense and more airy. Yeast is a living fungus that is dormant until activated by warm water. The yeast then feeds on the sugars in the bread dough and it begins to produce carbon dioxide which is why bread has all those air pockets inside it. The scientific name for yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae and it gives bread its distinct taste. 

(https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/bread_science.html)

(https://www.britannica.com/science/yeast-fungus)

Yeast is a a eukaryotic cell because even though it is a single celled organism it has a nucleus containing DNA. Its special characteristics include that it is the simplest eukaryotic cell. Yeast also has similar cell division to human cells and because of this similarity yeast is used in studies for humans. In 2001, a couple scientists used yeast to study how mutated cells divide. They discovered a gene in yeast that controlled itself cell division. This discovery led to the scientists finding that same gene in humans. 

(https://www.yourgenome.org/stories/using-yeast-in-biology)

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 The Boston area company Third Piece is creating a unique scene with their custom knit clothing. Each item of clothing inside the store is handcrafted by either a member of their team or a customer. They use yarns that include cotton, alpaca, wool, and polyester. The macromolecule I will be focusing on is inside cotton.

The scientific name for cotton is Gossypium and it is known for its use in clothing. Cotton can be characterized by its soft quality, strength, and high absorbency. Cotton is composed of the macromolecule cellulose which is a polysaccharide. 

Cellulose has three hydroxyl groups which creates hydrogen bonds between cellulose chains. This makes cotton hydrophilic because it gives it high reactivity which gives it the ability to absorb dyes well and blend with other fibers. Since cotton contains cellulose it also gives it the property of high absorbency in water.(http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2015/4/15.04.01.x.html)

Third Piece uses cotton in its line of yarns sold by the company itself and other companies that produce yarn (i.e. Knit Safari, Twinkle etc.). Some of their cotton yarn is made from up-cycled scraps of clothing and some of it is mixed in with other fibers. Cotton is used for is versatility due to its ability to absorb dyes well and blend with other fibers. Cotton’s special properties have been listed in with its characteristics above. 

Cotton is mostly grown in the southern and western parts of the United States.  It originates from the Gossypium plant which produces blossoms that change color, wither, and fall off after three days. The thing that is left over after this is called a cotton boll. This is what the cotton is kept inside before it eventually makes its way out of the cotton boll. The cotton is then picked and then put into a cotton gin where it is cleaned out. The cotton is then cleaned and straightened even more inside a carding machine. The cotton is then put into a spinning frame where its fibers get spun into yarn.

(https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/story/spun-and-woven.cfm)