Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Botany of Desire wink wink nudge nudge


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RQ64mOnc1AY/TeXdlfx2_BI/AAAAAAAAAfI/xfQrdt-WFkc/s1600/honey-bee-fly-flower-fight-daisy-wings-photo.jpg

In the novel, Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan takes a much different look at the world of plants than we usually do. 

http://www.colourbox.com/preview/3090063-150969-collage-with-human-hand-holding-a-green-plant.jpg

This view is that we don't choose what plants to plant, but rather, they choose us. Pollan rails on the word "domestic," because that implies that we have domesticated animals. Instead, genomes of dogs have evolved to be the "domesticated" animals to accomodate us. Thus, it is more appropriate to say that dogs domesticate themselves.

http://www.babelsdawn.com/.a/6a00d83452aeca69e2014e8912d2e8970d-pi

Pollan preaches that plants know exactly what they're doing when they show that potential for a juicy tenderness of a french fry in their round potato figure. Plants play us like they do bees: they display certain characteristics and their genome book shows us what we want to see, and in turn we spread their seeds, much like bees spread their pollen after being enticed by certain characteristics.



http://www.babelsdawn.com/.a/6a00d83452aeca69e2014e8912d2e8970d-pi

The beautiful thing about nature is that it is one big reciprocal cycle, and we rely on so many different organisms. It is also crazy to think that plants are able to understand our desires (ie getting intoxicated) and enable themselves to pleasure us (ie marijuana plants). 


http://www.babelsdawn.com/.a/6a00d83452aeca69e2014e8912d2e8970d-pi


Thursday, April 24, 2014

Bugs Bunny vs. Wile Coyote

Today we did the wolf hunting rabbits lab. Here were the results of the lab:



Generation
White Rabbit
Light Green Rabbit
Green Rabbit
Dark Green Rabbit
Wolves
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
0
1
3
2
2
2
0
2
4
4
2
0
0
1
5
8
2
0
0
1
6
10
0
0
0
2
7
8
0
0
0
4
8
1
1
1
1
1
9
0
2
0
0
2
10
0
2
0
0
1
11
0
2
0
0
1
12
0
4
0
0
1
13
0
6
0
0
1
14
0
8
0
0
1
15
0
16
0
0
1
16
0
22
0
0
2
17
0
32
0
0
4
18
0
40
0
0
8
19
0
28
0
0
10
20
0
16
0
0
10
21
0
4
0
0
4
22
0
2
0
0
1
23
0
2
0
0
1
24
0
4
0
0
1
25
0
4
0
0
1


To see the graph please follow this link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByEdJ0zBzNIERURuNE05VlVadlk/edit
Conclusion
The first pieces of our data didn't make too much sense but here is a possible explanation: The first few generations of rabbits were still adapting to their mutations so the numbers were relatively similar with the normal white bunnies actually surviving the most. However, once the adaptations were complete, the light green rabbit population began to thrive, while every other variation of rabbit fur went extinct. This is because the light green rabbits used their fur as camouflage, blending into the light green background of the temperate grassland. Many wolves starved when there was a small population of rabbits on the playing field, obviously, because there were less rabbits to eat. Thus, the light green adaptation worked the best because it allowed the rabbits to blend in and made it tougher for the wolves to find food.