SciX Issue 2

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Change in a Nutshell: From Evolution to Revolution VOLUME I ISSUE NO. 2

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LIVING THINGS & ENVIRONMENT

CHANGE in a NUTSHELL

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What if you were given the ability to morph a part of your body for it to become stronger and sturdier? Would you modify your feet, so that you’ll reach higher lengths? Or would you rather alter your teeth to make your favorite food more digestible? Because according to French naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, all of these is possible in his theory of Evolution. This, however, was started through his observations on animals.

Lamarck was the first biologist who suggested that organisms undergo evolution.

His assumptions toward this process were based on the basic facts of fossil records, wherein he had observed that the modern fossils compared to those of the past are different and the organisms have adapted to their environment.

The Evolution theory has three branches: the theory of need, the theory of use and disuse, and the theory of transmitting acquired traits. These three

circulate to create the possibility of terrestrials being able to naturally change, moreover, these characteristics should give pictures of its mechanism.

WHY THE NEED?

Lamarck believed that organisms change because they need to. And according to him, this change comes naturally so that organisms will make themselves better and more suited to their environment.

He explained this by giving the process of how birds have

developed wings because of their ancestors’ need to fly. Other examples are elephants’ long trunks -for gathering food-, lions’ claws and jaws for capturing prey, and deers’ swift legs for escaping predators. Thus, creating a theoretical conclusion that each organism adapts to its environment.

Lamarck also believed that organisms have innate, biological capabilities to reshape their bodies in many ways.

Body structures can be altered in shape and size depending

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

- Charles Darwin

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on the organism’s need. Like some birds who have long limbs because they need it to step on waters habituated by their preys.

WHAT TO DISCARD?

If organisms can develop more body parts, then most definitely they can also discard them. This process, however, comes naturally through when their parts no longer function with their bodies. Lamarck called this the theory of use and disuse.

This can be justified using the differences of some animal parts. He first used giraffes as an example. Lamarck said that giraffes of his generation have slightly longer necks than those of the past. He explained that this specie naturally elongates as times pass because of its eating process of getting leaves and shrubs from trees. Another case is that of snakes, whereas it was believed to have short bodies and legs, until the time when it eventually disappeared be-

cause of their necessity to get and to slip through narrower surfaces rather than walking.

WHICH NEW TRAIT TO ACQUIRE?

Lamarck’s last the-

ory points out how creatures obtain new features, namely the theory of acquired traits.

He specified that the changes from body structures like long limbs or necks that occur in an animal’s lifetime could be passed on to its offspring.

The height or size of every human being on Earth may not have been what it was millions of years ago. Lamarck’s three theories on evolution circulate on how creatures may have lost or developed their traits in order to adapt to the environment and to survive. The need, use, disuse, and acquiring of traits are the most basic concepts to help everyone in picturing the past and in remembering the answer when you’re asked: how came giraffes have long necks?

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Perks of being a

Living Thing

You possess a cell

As a living thing, yourself, what do you think are the basics that make you a solid, living object?

You have & can use energy

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For you to be able to work and move, you will need energy. Using the chemical activity of your body, you’ll be able to carry out your life processes and The cell was and named by Robert Hooke in 1665, you cannot be a living organism if you cannot use or obtain these observed further under the microscope by Anton Van energies. Living things obtain energy from their surroundings. Plants Leeuwenhoek in 1674, and studied more extensively by obtain energy from sunlight through the process of photosynthesis Matthias Schleiden and Theodore Schawnn in 1838.

Primarily, for something to be considered a living thing, it should first and release energy from the breakdown of food molecules in the process of respiration. Humans and animals must take in food to have a cell. It is the building blocks of our body and without it, it is obtain energy. impossible to function or exist. That is because cells perform various tasks within an organism. Moreover, cells of the same kind group to form tissues. Tissues form organs and with different organs, an organ system can be built. Thus, an organism may survive with these systems’ interaction.

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You get thirsty

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As simple as it sounds, still water is vital for a living thing. This is because the protoplasm, a part of a cell, needs water molecules in order for it to function. Water is also needed by our organs for digesting food and in organizing and submitting useful substance in the body. This is also crucial in plants, because it carries dissolved nutrients into the roots, stems, and leaves.

You need Homeostasis on Internal Balance

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In order to stay alive, your body needs to be stable or balanced.

This state is called Homeostasis. For example, you are in the middle of summer; your body has an internal thermostat that maintains a constant temperature. Homeostasis starts to work by making you feel hot and sweat. Then if you sweat for a long time, you become thirsty and want to drink. And when you drink, you replenish the water that your body has lost. So, without Homeostasis, you will not survive a hot summer or a strenuous activity. Homeostasis does not only work in your internal temperature but others as well; such as water content, oxygen level, heartbeat, blood pressure, and many others.

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You can grow and develop

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Being able to increase in size and volume is a process called growth.

As living things, we do not grow from the outside, rather our internal substances organize in our bodies through time. An example of this is the process called intussusception, which is the growth by addition of substances into existing cells. Another is the enlargement of tree trunks and the production of roots and stems.

Development, on the other hand, includes the changes that an organism undergoes in its life cycle. The life cycle refers to the stages where an organism is processed; from the time it starts as a fertilized egg until the time it matures.

You can respond to your environment

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There are various external factors that may affect living things. Factors that include light, temperature, water, pressure, chemical substances, and source of food. These factors are called stimuli and the response of an organism toward a stimulus is called tropism.

A plant for example, has the sun as its stimulus. And its growth, elongating toward the direction of the sun’s light, is the reaction called phototropism. Another example is Makahiya (Mimosa pudica) responding swiftly to touch by closing its leaves instantly. This phenomenon, where a plant responds to a mechanical stimulus like touch is known as thigmotrophism.

You can reproduce

You can move

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Being able to move is a basal characteristic of a living thing. Though movements or locomotion varies in every species, still, this distinguished skill has already been adapted to by its user. Like snakes slithering, kangaroos jumping in great heights, and birds flying, or plants bending and extending their roots and branches.

You can adapt and evolve

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The last characteristic as living things is our ability to adapt and evolve. Primarily, adaptation may refer to how we and other species change to live and survive in a specific environment. An example of this can be found in birds migrating during summer or winter and rabbits hibernating in the winter.

Evolution may not be obvious in the present time. However, billions of years have led to our and other species’ forms. This was first observed

by Charles Darwin when he was in Galapagos Island. He found out the same species of birds had different types of beaks, depending on their location and the food that they ate. The concept of Evolution also lies in us, humans.

It is hypothesized that we have all evolved from apes. There also had been fossils and paintings of large human heads and eye sockets that may point out how different we are from those in the past.

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Living things can multiply through the production of organisms of the same kind. Because organisms age and eventually die, reproduction is vital to proliferate and for each type of species to survive.

Reproduction has two types: sexual and asexual. In sexual reproduction, two genetic information from both parents are combined. Thus, the offspring will have some characteristics from the father and some from the mother. That’s why you may find others looking like their mothers or fathers, or look like a combination of both.

Asexual reproduction is where one organism does not have a partner because it can produce an identical offspring by itself.

This is present in bacteria, plants, and animals and can take place in four ways: First is Fission or Budding, this is present in corals and hydras where individuals form from the original.

The second is fragmentation, this occurs in planarians, where a parent breaks into fragments that eventually form new individuals. Third is regeneration. Starfishes are capable of doing this, wherein these organisms lose a body part and can grow a replacement. If the lost part contains enough genetic information from the parent, it can regenerate into an entirely new organism.

Truly, the perks of living are the best privileges that someone can possess. And through these distinctions, you will learn and realize that being a living thing is worth living for.

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Forget your intense multiplayer games like the Defense of the Ancients and League of Legends, because the battle of species is the real deal! Scientifically named Bioinvasion by researchers, this kind of biological pollution can harm the economy, the environment, and human health because of organisms such as aquatic or terrestrial plants, animals and microorganisms that dwell into habitats where they do not naturally belong. Thus, alterations and destructions may occur.

BIOINVASION BIOLOGY IN CONTRAST

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Direct Introduction usually involves human intervention, wherein indirect introduction would imply that the species hitched a ride by itself or was accidentally transported to another ecosystem.

An example of direct introduction is when people introduce biological species without considering the long-term impact on the environment or threat to biodiversity. An indirect introduction on the other hand, is when species migrate their own or when they attach themselves to ships as barnacles do, or get sucked in with the ballast waters that are eventually released when the ship reaches its destination port.

In a more specific perspective, this alienation has also occurred in the Philippine waters: Thai catfish, janitor fish, golden apple snail, white goby, eleotrid, and the piranha.

In order to control these exotics, legislation as well as public awareness is necessary. The Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998, also known as Republic Act 8550, is an example of legislation that aims to eradicate the importation of exotic aquatic species.

There are also conflicts that exotics may bring that may affect the places where they are foreign. First is how exotics are being brought in a foreign country may contain diseases and pathogens that may infect local species. Similarly, our own species’ inherent pathogens may

affect those alien species. Another is how the alien species can out-compete with the resident species for food and other resources that will affect the growth and survival of the latter.

However, there are also considerations to the ban. The importation of exotic species can only be approved for research purposes and that the researcher must ensure biosecurity of the species.

The research must not throw the exotics into any environment unless it has been proven that doing so is safe.

Controversies and conflicts are the main reasons why exotics are prevented from being put in a new environment.

But, there are also some foreign organisms that may not be truly troublesome to the land where it’s considered foreign.

Just like the zebra mussel, which was brought into America through the bal-

last waters from ships coming from Europe, that have flourished in the shallow waters of the Great Lakes in the US. At first it was feared that these organisms might clog up the water pipes of water and power plants. But they are credited for clearing up the water column of excess nutrients which come the from the municipal waste discharge.

Another is the green crab specie, it is native to Japan and entered the waters of New England. It was not considered pests in New England because they’re used as additives in misu.

Control and proper management are the principles that should be injected to those who plan to introduce and import foreign organisms to their lands. This is primarily to not wreak havoc in the way species live, and in order to find bonuses that can lead to peace and betterment.

Control and proper management are the principles that should be injected to those who plan to introduce and import foreign organisms to their lands.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISS, 2008 Retrieved from www.flickr.com/photos/chriss/2224218542

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Imagine you have trillions of Lego blocks that got turned into a sumo wrestler or a dragon because you have organized and built it properly. Imagine you have disconnected one block and the whole structure crumbles to the ground. Imagine you’re the one who’s built out of Lego blocks and someone snatches one block, causing you to fall and eventually, get destroyed. How would you feel? What wonders would come into your mind? Would you be curious of how such a small piece could deteriorate you? Or would you want to get the secret of how small pieces, once joined together, can create a perfect creature?

Well, the know-how is simply the Lego blocks themselves, only that in Science, these are pictured differently, and are called cells.

The Cell D

Know the prominent shape the know about ce

The concept of cells, seemingly, has been built through time by famous geniuses.

So if a cell truly had a diary, surely it would be brimming with these persons for their discoveries:

1665 1674

1831

ROBERT HOOKE

1635 - 1703

In 1665, Hooke examined a thin slice of cork under the microscope. He observed that the cork has many minute compartments that resembled little rooms that are surrounded with walls. These were named compartment cells. However, his study was not fully-blown because he merely concentrated on the structure or the cell wall and did not continue to investigate the cell’s content.

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ANTON VAN LEEUWENHOEK 1632 - 1723

ROBERT BROWN 1773 - 1858

A dutch inventor, unlike Hooke, he did not observe corks but pond organisms.

This is where he founded red blood cells, sperm cells, and other single-celled creatures.

He was the main persona behind the nucleus’ red blood cells and he discovered bacteria, free-living and parasitic protists, and other microscopic organisms. He pioneered the opening of microscopic life to other scientists.

Brown gave the name nucleus to the cells, though it was only observed by Leeuwenhoek. Aside from giving the cell nucleus its name and how it is the basic component of the cell, he also created the Brownian Movement from the random movement of particles of matter suspended in a fluid. He founded the term as he had watched the plant spores in water.

1838

e Diary

MATTHIAS SCHLEIDEN 1804 - 1881

Schleiden, a German botanist, stated that all plants are made of cells.

t people that helped wledge we have ells today.

1839 1835 THEODOR SCHWANN 1810 - 1882

FELIX DUJARDIN 1801 - 1860

Dujardin was the one who discovered that iving cells contain an internal substance.

However, he was unsure of this substance, so Dujardin gave it the name sarcode. It was also in 1835 when Jan Evangelista Purkinje (1787-1869) was the one who made a thorough investigation of Dujardin’s internal material. In lieu of the sarcode name, Purkenji named it the protoplasm, the colloidal substance in the cell.

1858

Schwann concluded that animals are composed of cells. Together with Schleiden, they formulated that all living things have cells.

RUDOLPH VIRCHOW 1821 - 1902

Virchow theorized that all living cells come from pre-existing living cells.

All of these observations, from the corks, compartment cells, protoplasm until the theory that everything that has life contains cells have brought the cell theory. This theory states that every living thing has one or more cells that come from other living things through the process of cell division and cells are the basic units of structure and function in organisms.

So, if you could imagine the use of Lego blocks in the body, well now you know that these help formulate and build the bodies of sumo wrestlers, imaginary dragons, and yourself.

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FANTASY BIRDS

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What comes into your mind when you hear the words: Nightjars, Swifts, Mockingbirds, and Fairywrens?

Would you think of Science fiction and fantastical worlds, light and dark beasts, hunters, and medieval monsters? Or has it crossed into your mind that these words could be the names of real birds? Because, guess what? They are.

There are more than 9000 species of birds living on Earth and these numbers are organized into 190 bird families. Species in a fairly share distinct characteristics such as body, shape, and size.

These bird families also are divided into larger groups called orders. Largest of these, is the pirching bird orders, with more than 5,000 bird species. Here are some:

Nightjars are medium-sized birds characterized by long wings, short legs and very short bills.

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NIGHTJARS These birds hunt at night and rests by in a tree. They are most active at dawn and dusk when they hunt for smaller creatures such as moths and beetles. They pose a remarkable aerial agility whenever they are in pursuit of their prey. One of its species, the Pootoo, has colors that let it camouflage and make it look like a broken branch. It has about 70 species found in warmer parts of the world. One of its relatives is the great weight during its infancy that it may weight greater than its parents. The old name for nightjars is goatsuckers, because people mistakenly thought of these birds as drinker of goat’s milk, not knowing that they are merely preying on the insects that disturbed the animals.

A Fairywren is common and familiar across southeastern Australia. The fairywren species is quite territorial and has other peculiar behavioral characteristics such as being sexually promiscuous.

FAIRY-WRENS Fairy-wrens are tiny little blue birds that only grow about 14 centimeters long, which includes their 6-centimeter long tail. They live in small groups, who all help to raise at least three chicks that are laid every brood.

They have 26 species that live in Australia and New Guinea, and like other birds, they prey on insects on the ground and air with

their astounding speed and short and wide bill. They also have a unique way of courting where you may see its bright blue males present a yellow flower to their mates.

If predators come too close to these birds’ nest, the mother fairywren would make sounds similar to rodents, to drive away and confuse it.

The swifts are a family, of highly aerial birds.

They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any of the passerine species. Swifts are placed in the same order with hummingbirds.

SWIFTS Swifts are a medium-sized aerial bird. A superb flier, swifts’ call is a loud scream in two different tone pitches, the higher of which issues from a female.

Just like what the definition of “swift” in the dictionary, this specie’s most unique attribute, aside from

being fast, is its ability to do almost everything while in the air. They can eat, drink, court and even mate while flying. There are about 74 species of swifts all over the world, except in the extreme north and southern areas.

MOCKINGBIRDS You’ve probably heard of this name because it was featured on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” or because of the Hunger Games Trilogy, where the fictional term “Mockingjay” was coined from the Mockingbird and Jabberjay. Although the latter is of fictional origin, trust that mockingbirds are real. They are also called as “Mockers” and they are quite territorial, which means they

Mockingbirds are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession.

are very strict or aggressive with their environment. They may swoop down threateningly on animals such as cats, dogs, or other birds that enter the range they are defending.

Mockingbirds are called such because of their unique ability to mimick the songs of other birds.

In fact, male mockingbirds begin their “courtship” by singing. Males become quite restless and sing constantly during mating season.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE RSPB Retrieved from www.rspb.org

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AS TOLD BY HANK GREEN / (YOUTUBE.COM/CRASHCOURSE)

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Pollution is the term for any substance that’s in the wrong place or in the wrong concentration in the environment.

Trashing the environment, that’s pollution. But chemicals, both naturally occurring and synthetic, those are the real killers. We tend to think of pollution in terms of weird synthetic chemicals made in big chemical processing buildings and they’re certainly a problem. But as you read along, you have to understand that natural compounds in the wrong concentrations can do just as much damage as whatever chemical products we buy from the supermarket were making.

One of the main ways for altering concen-

trations of natural compounds is by messing with the biology of chemical cycles that your teachers should have taught you about. You’re probably tired of hearing about it but the most obvious cycle we’re screwing up is the carbon cycle which shuffles the carbon around the planet into various reservoirs – the atmosphere, the oceans, rocks, the bodies of living things. The cycle keeps going on, fortunately.

But we’re overloading it by digging up all that carbon-rich oil, coal, and gas and burning it to fuel our 21st century lifestyles.

All of a sudden, there are more carbon getting released than the amount the reservoirs can handle so it hangs around the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, thus the climate change.

We’ve also been tampering with the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles to similar effect.

Nitrogen and Phosphorus are nutrients which we and other organisms need in order to grow and respire and exist.

But when we go and make large amount of these nutrients available, ecosystems get very confused. It’s like the typical high school dilemma that you thought you can spend your whole allowance on a single item. It’s fun at first, but then it’s not.

Phosphates and nitrates are basically the main ingredients in fertilizers; and phosphates are also found in some detergents. So, when wasted water from our houses run off to rivers and streams, it can cause a huge algal bloom that choke out the rest of the plants and ani-

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mals in the stream. It’s totally gross-looking, but that’s not the end of it. When all the phosphorus and nitrogen are used up, the algae die and then bacteria get started on decomposing that dead algae. But of course, the decomposes need oxygen, which they take out of the water and then the oxygen levels in the water plummet, killing all the fish and just about everything else that needs oxygen. That’s how phosphate and nitrogen pollution causes deadzones.

The biggest example of this happening right now is on the other side of the world, in the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Gulf of Mexico Dead-Zone covers 18,000 square kilometers of river delta and coastline and is basically a swathe of totally de-oxygenated water caused by all the fer-

tilizers from the entire Mississippi River basin, which drains 2.6 million square kilometers of land drained into this one point in the gulf.

The size of the dead zone fluctuates seasonally, as it depends on how much fertilizer is being used by pretty much half of the farms in America. So yes, pollution isn’t just synthetic compounds with just like 17-syllable-long names, sometimes they’re just imbalances of

chemicals that we need for our survival.

However, not all chemicals found in nature are good for us. In fact, our Mother Earth comes up with some of the most toxic stuff that you’ve ever heard of. Take cyanide, for instance. It’s in a lot of stuff that we come in contact with every day.

Foods like almond, spinach, and Lima beans contain cyanide, and so do the seeds of apples, which you have heard, and the pits of peaches.

Cyanide is useful to plants because it’s a primitive insecticide, causing a sort of molecular suffocation, preventing a bug’s cells from being able to use oxygen. Now it takes a lot more cyanide than you’d find in an almond to finish off a human, but guess what? Mankind has figured out how to collect a whole bunch of cyanide in one place because of their love of gold. Yes, cyanide exists in most jewelries.

Another super toxic, important pollutant is Mercury. You’ve probably heard of it in the classroom and in the news. Do you watch news? Anyway, Mercury is fine when it’s hanging out underground in a coal seam.

But when that coal is burned to make electricity, the mercury is released into the air.

Such problems exist mostly in first-world countries since they usually have coal power plants to supply their electricity demand.

When the mercury falls on the land, where it makes its way into groundwater and eventually into the food chain, specifically into the marine food chain. As a result, only a little percent released by first-world power plants and factories actually ends up in their country. The rest enters the global cycle, which most people end up ingesting by eating fish. Mercury acts as a powerful neurotoxin in animals, interfering with our brains and our nervous systems.

So, if you think that pollution is purely manmade, think again. It might be, since these toxic natural elements are being circulated by humans themselves, or maybe not, since they also play a vital role in the ‘development’ of our world.

INFOGRAPHIC BY: TESTEACH

Retrieved from www.tes.com

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Opinion

TREES BEYOND SIGHT Mornings in the Philippines have been tormented by a vicious mixture of scent and smog that it can already be mistaken as the identity of our country’s architectural landscape. In imperial Manila, for example, air pollution at 5 a.m. seems to quickly overwhelm the cityscape, generating a stark contrast between the atmospheres of the city and the neighboring suburban district that can be easily observed from a towering point of view.

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As cities grow bigger, traffic and population congestion always go on top of mind. And whenever officials start the fight against (air) pollution, natural solutions, like trees, are often overlooked.

One of the main functions of cities is to become a commercial and/or industrial hub for the convenience of all its residents. Everybody loves a place that can cater to their common needs, but when civic facilities overwhelm the needs of the public, the pollution they produce become toxic to our health, causing us to become sick. One major culprit behind it is what we call in science, particulate matter—the hazardous airborne particles in dust, soot, and smoke that get released whenever we burn fossil fuels or kicked out during construction. When we inhale them, it results to some people getting asthma, and it can also enter our bloodstreams, causing some people to get stroke, and eventually, death. Experts say that an estimate of 3 million people around the world get killed due to air pollution.

As cities grow bigger, traffic and population congestion always go on top of mind. And whenever officials start the fight against (air) pollution, natural solutions, like trees, are often overlooked. In the Netherlands, designers created a giant air purifier they call, “The Smog Free Tower,” and in the early 2000s, then Metro Manila Development Authority chair Bayani Fernando implemented the number-coding scheme around the capital region to trim the

number of cars in the road in an attempt to lessen the amount of traffic during rush hours and lessen the hefty air pollution they get from cars. What officials like Fernando did not realize is that there are more ways to battle pollution without pouring out a vast amount of money, one example would be planting trees.

A new report from The Nature Conservancy said that planting trees is a cost-effective way to improve public health by doing it in two ways: First, a tree removes particular matter when air flows through its branches. The particulate matter settles on the leaves and when it rains, the dust is washed down the canals so that we don’t inhale it. Second, trees cool temperatures by providing shade and releasing water through photosynthesis. But there are some catches: One, a tree can only clean and cool the air that is around its 100-ft radius. Officials would at least need to plant trees every 100 feet in order to achieve the ideal amount of reduced air pollution; and two, planting trees will never come across officials’ minds since they are the same people who wants to chop off trees to give way for wider roads, more cars, and businesses.

If the government or any corporate power that reigns in cities invest

more money on planting trees along walkways, people might become more productive as they can adapt with the intense heat of the sun. And when people get more productive, a lot of things will be done, thus, a higher yield and return on the government’s investment.

But truth be told: our government and a good number of our population think of trees only as an aesthetic luxury on the streets and not as a public health resource. They basically categorize these environmental wonders under the parks and recreation department, that it’s okay to chop down trees for a while because we can easily plant twice the number in years’ time. However, as we prioritize urban development over sustainable development—something that goes along with environmental development—we will continuously lack the time and capacity to do so.

For a tropical country like ours, we obviously have the capability to grow a staggering number of trees in the forests, suburbs, and the city centers. Then again, we might forget that this is the Philippines. Our goal of solving air pollution and other environmental problems might just again fall under another dilemma of political will.

...This is the Philippines. Our goal of solving air pollution and other environmental problems might just again fall under another dilemma of political will.

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About The iconic illustration of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution symbolizes the growth of human physique and mentality from the primitive era. All thanks to the birds of Galapagos Islands, we now think of evolution beyond its scientific explanation: A symbolization of the marvels of mankind’s distinction from every living thing in the planet, and human’s nature of improving oneself, creating and curating all kinds of revolution that are now stored as a memory in the brain, while some are printed in paperbacks.

SciX is a science journal dedicated to freshmen high school students. It is the brainchild of 19-year-old John Cyril Yee, a senior Journalism student of Bicol University College of Arts and Letters. He is the creator of almost everything visible and invisible within the premises of this journal.