Welcome!!!!!

Biology in the News is presented by Dr. Lamar's Biology A/B classes. Each student is responsible for posting ONE blog entry and commenting on ONE post submitted by a fellow student.

About your initial posting . . . . . (approximately 150- 300 words)

Your initial posting is worth 30 points. It must be submitted by October 15th. - Locate an electronic article about a new finding in biology. Article must be been written in the last 12 months. Your posting should include 1) the name of the article (3 point), 2) article source - be specific (3 point), 3) date of article (2 point), 4) link to article (2 points), 5) summary of article in your own words (0-10 points), and 6) significance of article (0-10 points). Comments on significance of article can include (but not be limited to) importance of article to self, to society, or to the further advancement of a particular area of biology.

NOTE: To add link, select text in post that you want to link, click on link icon above posting field, and then paste URL information into appropriate field.

About your comments to a fellow classmate's posting . . . . (approximately 100 - 200 words)

Your comments to another student's posting is worth 20 points. Comments must be submitted between October 16 and November 19 - "The more you know, the more you realize there's a lot more to know" is certainly true to science. Read our Biology in the News blob posts. Pick one post (not your own) and submit comments about this post. Comments should included 1) A question that is raised in your mind by the post. The question should have scientific relevance (0 - 5 points) 2) a response to your question. (0-15 points) Research your question and answer it. If the answer is currently unknown, provide additional background information, describe research that is being done in this field, and/or research that is required for the question to be answered.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Can Mental Trauma alter our biology?

Source-www.ns.umich.edu/
 Date of Article May 10, 2010
Link to the Article http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/can-mental-trauma-alter-our-biology/ 

Summary
 Researcher Monica Uddin  for the University of Michigan believes that people who suffer form Post-traumatic stress disorder can effect a human beings biological makeup. Some people believe that PTSD can really get under your skin an alter your biology. Monica Uddin used data collected by Detroit's Neighborhood Health Study. They collected more than 14,000 DNA samples. Where some of the patients had PTSD and it showed. They found numerous genes that were identified in people with PTSD. It appeared tthat the genes were affecting the immune functions. They found a biochemical reaction called DNA methylation, which added itself to our genetic code. The purpose of DNA methylation is to alter gene activity and sometimes reduce it. The patients in the case study where affected by the methyaltion levels of the immune genes where lower than in a healthy human being. 
What I think could change
 I think by finding this disorder there could be new drugs created to combat the methyaltion levels. It will help the people with PSTD because without this scientific find there immune would continue to get weaker. So with the help of the researchers it will be a change for PSTD victims living amongst us for the future.  This will be a great for the soldiers fighting the war of terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)