Initial Plant Research

a. I want to grow grapes. Grapes are vine fruits that grow in different ways depending on what breed you decide to grow.
b. The growing season for this plant is spring-summer, but will not produce fruit for a year or two.
c. It can easily be grown from seed, but needs to have a good support in initial growth time so the vine can really climb.
d. The plant can grow quite fast, but will take a lot longer than a semester to produce fruit.
e. The plant grows best by itself. It needs no extra tampering.
f. It would require quite a bit of space depending on the vigor of the previous vine the seeds came from. If the previous plant was not very vigorous, the plant can be grown within 4 feet of another, but it the parent vine was very vigorous, the distance can sometimes be up to 8 feet.
g. Grapes are very hardy plants. They like to grow in deep, well-drained soil. The soil shouldn’t be too nutritious as this can create excess plant growth, which can hinder produce growth. Grapes also like slightly acidic soil.
h. Grapes can grow in very droughty situations once they are settled in. To settle it in a slow drip feed should do the trick, but not too much.

i. This plant grows up a trellis as a vine, and requires a large amount of sunlight to be fertile. Every year or so it needs to be pruned. Up to 90% of all previous years growth should be pruned as to open it up and not shade the vine during the next spring. Depending on the variety, the grapes can be used to create wine, or be eaten raw. The more acidic and sugar filled grapes are more often used for wine. They can also be dried to make raisins, or mashed to create jam.

Pre-Senior Project Work and Write Up

My senior project is on biodiversity. The sources I have pulled up so far focus mainly on the purpose and importance of biodiversity, and a method of artificial repopulation of endangered and extinct species.

The method of artificial repopulation is reproductive cloning. It is done by taking an egg from an animal (most likely the surrogate) that is the closest (usually common) relative to the animal being cloned in question, and extracting the DNA, leaving an empty shell. Then, you would take the DNA extracted from a cell of the cloning subject and place it in that egg. From there, an electrical shock of some kind will trigger cell reproduction, and after a certain point is reached, the developing egg can be placed within the surrogate.

This method has been proven to work with animals such as the endangered African Wildcat, Felis Lybica. The surrogate used was a common domesticated house cat, so as to not possibly hurt another endangered wildcat in the pregnancy and labor process. This is a great scientific discovery because now we know that we can recreate anything that we can capture the DNA of, as long as there is another similar or related animal. As of the moment, the process is still having kinks worked out, and is highly frowned upon by many groups of people who believe cloning to be of a sort of inhumane practice.

Another example of this was an endangered Wild Ox indigenous to India and Southeast Asia that was cloned using a common dairy cow as a surrogate. This just continues to prove that this process can and should be used to not only help repopulate the food web, but keep the variance high within many dwindling ecosystems.

This ties in with the other sources where it is explained the importance of a diverse environment and how everything relates to one another and is crucial to keep the cycles of life running. An easy example of this would be where a cow is fed by wheat from a farm, and then the dung leftover is used as a fertilizer to feed the soil and crops. This then benefits the crops, which then benefit many animals and bacteria underground. Bacteria feed from many different parts of the plants, and this can be very useful to even the plant at times. More plant life also means more rodents and worms and other insects. These aerate the soil and provide areas for water to sink in and help the crops grow more.

My senior project is on the importance of biodiversity, and how we may soon be required to take action and influence the existence of life itself.

Bibliography:

"Cloning - Reproductive Cloning." Library Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2263/Cloning-REPRODUCTIVE-CLONING.html.

Some Quotes to use:

"The reproductive cloning technology used to create animals is called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In SCNT scientists transfer genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult cell to an enucleated egg (an egg from which the nucleus has been removed). This eliminates the need for fertilization of an egg by a sperm."

"On January 8, 2001, scientists at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a biotechnology company in Massachusetts, announced the birth of the first clone of an endangered animal, a baby bull gaur—a large wild ox from India and Southeast Asia—named Noah. Noah was cloned using the nuclei of frozen skin cells taken from an adult male gaur that had died eight years earlier. The skin cell nuclei were joined with enucleated cow eggs, one of which was implanted into a surrogate cow mother."

United Nations Development Programme. "The Importance of Biodiversity." UNDP | United Nations Development Programme. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. http://www.undp.org/biodiversity/biodiversitycd/bioImport.htm.

Some Quotes to use:

"Around 99 per cent of potential crop pests are controlled by a variety of other organisms, including insects, birds and fungi."

"Some 130 billion metric tons of organic waste is processed every year by earth’s decomposing organisms. Many industrial wastes, including detergents, oils, acids and paper, are also detoxified and decomposed by the activities of living things. In soils, the end product of these processes – a range of simple inorganic chemicals – is returned to plants as nutrients."

"The World Health Organization estimates that 80 per cent of people in the developing world rely on traditional medicines derived mainly from plants. In Southeast Asia, for example, traditional healers use some 6,500 different plant species to treat malaria, stomach ulcers, syphilis, and other diseases."

Shah, Anup. "Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares? — Global Issues." Global Issues : social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all — Global Issues. N.p., 18 Nov. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. http://www.globalissues.org/article/170/why-is-biodiversity-important-who-cares.

Socratic Seminar

Last week in class, we had a socratic seminar on a reading about the worlds food industry. The reading itself was a letter that was sent to President Obama concerning the way we grow our foods and how bad it is for our health, and the environment. In the discussion, we went over various topics such as eco terrorism, home gardens, and the importance of organic materials. I think that it was a very good discussion, although we did break off into side arguments at some times.

Agricultural Ancestry

My family doesn't have a very large root in agriculture other than one member. In my grandfathers childhood, he traveled with the seasons, picking cotton at whatever farm payed. This isn't a very large collection or variance of people, but this one represents a large summation of the American agricultural community back in the day.

Insignificant us

Today in Environmental Science, we discussed the vastness of the universe. To us, the world may seem big and important, but imagine holding up your hand to the sky. In that space of your hand, are billions of stars, if not more! Those stars all make up galaxies, are born and fizzle out or explode into a massive super nova, emitting vast amounts of light for many many earth months until it empties itself out. The sheer amount and variety of galaxies and solar systems within those galaxies are immeasurable, and even if they were, the numbers would be too large for our human minds to comprehend.
In short, the universe around us is over our heads, or at least mine. One could only hope to someday have a greater grasp on a reason as to our happenstance existence on this small sphere of coalesced dust we call Earth.

What Interests Me About the Natural World

There are many things that interest me about the natural world around me. On a greater scale, I am appalled at how complex and yes visually appealing all of the natural things around us have developed over the eons. Vast mountain ranges and deep running canyons are brief descriptions of the various works of mother nature that are awe inspiring. On top of that, animal migratory patterns have always been an interest. At times, millions of birds have been seen within the same square mile all flying to the same destination. Stuff like that is just mind boggling, and to try and begin to comprehend what drives their brains to do that. Add onto that the fact that they always end up in the same exact area, even without prior knowledge of the area.
On a smaller scale, the brain is something that I am extremely baffled by. It's mere complexity confuses even the most seasoned scientists in the field. Specifically what I find interesting about the brain is it's tendency to keep an individual preference different from any other brain around it. I have always wondered what makes a brain like what it does, and what makes it different from the next person around the corner. For instance one person might think that underwater basket weaving is the greatest thing in the world, and the next person might think that skydiving knitting is the greatest thing in the world. The concept of how it all works can only be described as incomprehensible, and because of this, I can only hope to learn more.