The Next Assignment!!

Zimmer 2009a, Origin of Life
1. What hook does the author use to capture your attention?
The author Carl Zimmer has a straight and direct way of keep you the reader interested in his article, first he starts out bring the thoughts and the theory of one of the influential scientific minds of the 19th century, Charles Darwin. Zimmer highlighted the controversial idea that human kind originated from a very basic one celled life form.
2. How could you adapt this hook in your own case study?
This hook leads to a very interesting and compelling set of questions that could be asked and then answered using the information gather and theorized by Charles Darwin, in regards to the thought that human life can be traced to a basic life form.
3. What is RNA (specifically mRNA, for those of you who have some background in this area)? Why is it essential for using the genetic code?
Messenger RNA is a strand of nucleotides that contain three different parts, a base, a sugar, and a grouping of phosphorus and oxygen atoms. The job of the mRNA is to become a copy of DNA and then translate itself (RNA) into different amino acids, which then links together to make proteins. mRNA is essential because it’s the device in which, DNA can build different proteins and therefore an organism.
4. What is the RNA world hypothesis?
The RNA world hypothesis theorizes that RNA-base life forms could have come from organisms made of a different genetic material, and that the different material is no longer found on the earth or in other natural processes. Scientists think it’s a possibility that life could have emerged from a simpler type of molecule then RNA that no longer exists and the RNA was the byproduct of a evolutionary change.
5. Why was lightening so essential to the origin of life?
In the 1950’s a experiment was done that proved that if you push lightning through ammonia, methane, and other types of gases, there is a product of amino acids the starting source for the production of proteins. This experiment was later to be proven possible with formaldehyde and other organic compounds known to be on the earth during the time of life’s beginning making the argument that lightning is the true spark of life. 
6. What ideas does Zimmer present on how cells may have originated?
Zimmer present that idea that cells originated from RNA molecules coming together and connecting to each other growing in size and then produce more of itself by ripping apart from each other creating new bonds with more RNA. RNA replicating then would become packed and trapped inside of fatty acids producing the first real cell.
7. Do we have any conclusive evidence to support hypotheses on how life originated?
I don’t believe conclusive is the right word, this article has shown a great deal of supporting evidence that we are on the right track to finding out the processes and reactions that may of led to the first origins of life. The spark of lightning could bring us to the moment of cellular generations, the studies of RNA can bring forth the ideas of how the cells started to make living organisms, and the study of how the RNA became trapped within fatty acids provides the mean of how the RNA molecules could in fact make the organisms that would change and mutate into me . 

Zimmer 2010, What the rocks say
1. What hook does the author use to capture your attention?
In this piece the author Carl Zimmer bring you in with the story of Abigail Allwood’s adventure down to a dig site or formation entitled the North Pole, it is at this site that scientists are finding proof of life 3.43 billion years ago.
2. How could you adapt this hook in your own case study?
This would be a great hook to study for a case story, the North Pole site would be a great place to start your research on what exactly is being found and how the scientist doing their work there have come to their conclusions. You could also research how accurate their testing methods are and see if there is any room for error in their research. ( I might do this one….it’s pretty awesome topic )
3. Why was Lord Kelvin’s estimate of the age of the Earth wrong?
Lord Kelvin’s estimate was found to be wrong because the temperature of the rocks in the mine shafts were warmed and heated by radioactivity and very unstable energy source. This unstable source of energy would later make radiocarbon dating possible.
4. Use Figure 3.3 to explain the most common way fossils form.
Fossils form over time in a series of stages, first foot prints, poop, and other evidence is left behind by a living thing, second the living thing dies near water, third the dead body of the living thing is picked clean of its soft tissues and other eatable parts, next the rest of the organic material rots away leaving only the bones and other hard pieces of matter, then the nearby water raises covering the body and evidence left behind by the now dead organism, next a series of thick layers of sediment cover and encapsulate the bones, foot prints, poop and other evidence of the organism and finally many thousands of years later the bones, foot prints and evidence are exposed by erosion.
5. How does coal form?
Coal is form when organic material is buried in sediment before it has the chance to rot and then begins to break down ,due to a bacteria present that does not need oxygen to survive. The bacteria breaks down the organism into a substance called lignin that when introduced or subjected to extreme pressure and heat turns into a hard rock like material called coal.
6. What are 12C and 13C?
12C and 13C are both a forms of carbon. 12C has six protons and six neutrons, where 13C has extra proton or neutron. Why does the ration of 12C to 13C differ between plants and air? The ration of 12C to 13C differs because 13C is a heavier molecule therefore slows the absorption of 13C whereas 12C is easier for a plant to absorb. How do we use this difference to infer details about fossil ecosystems?
7. Find some images of Ediacaran fossils and post them in your blogs. (SEE BELOW)
8. Why do plants colonize land before animals?
The plants colonized the land before the animals because plant could use the 12C for a source of growth and procreation, whereas there were no animals that breathed carbon as there source for cell creation. Not to mention it was too hot to support animal of land.
9. How does this reading tie to the learning goals for this course? This reading, forces us to think critically about what is being theorized and discover with in the field of science. It also shows us a good source of research, and then shares methods and practices in which the scientists used to find their conclusions. So it touch on two of the four learning goals we have in this class!

Sources
1) Zimmer, C. (2009). On the origin of life on earth, Retrieved from e-reserve
2) Zimmer, C. (2010). The Tangled bank: an introduction to evolution (Roberts and company publishers), Retrieved from e-reserve
Picture sources
A) http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G102/102prot3.htm
B) http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2215/change-ancient-seas-allowed-life-spread