Exam Results and Avatar Biology Part 1

Hi Hi,

Just a short post to tell you readers my academic results:

Didn't do as well as I hoped for and my already miserable CAP of 2.89 have dangerously dipped to 2.86. drats!!! 

Here are my results for this semester

GE 2229 & LSM 2251 B

LSM2101 C

LSM2102 & ST2238 C+

Crappy results when I am expecting a CAP of around 3.0 for this semester. According to the CAP calculator, I can only get to qualify for honours with As for the rest of my modules. Must mug my socks off!!!!

Anyway, I had a movie outing today with Cheng Long and Binzan today to watch Avatar at Shaw House, and walked around City Hall with them. Apparently, Cheng Long was interested in buying slippers and basil paste. Couldn't find the basil paste, but he got himself the slippers. I hope he was satisfied with his purchase.

My topic for today actually is my opinions on the alien life on Pandora, biologically speaking.( I could have blogged about the astronomical aspects and chemical aspects, but i am a life science major).

One thing that strikes me is the fact that terrestial bioluminescence is quite common on the Planet Pandora. The Na'tl tribesmen are blue with bioluminescence spots on their body and the plant life is quite bioluminescent. However, as we shall see later, compared to real life on Planet Earth, the distribition of bioluminescence is very different in Pandora.

Firstly, what is bioluminescence? It is best defined by any light produced by any living organism. It is mainly produced when energy given out in a chemical rxn is produced as light, mostly with the release of ATP. In the tree of life, bioluminescence  has evolved independently several times during evolution. Contrally to Pandora, most bioluminescence on Earth occurs  in deep sea marine organisms, where it is given out as blue to green light as these colours better pass through seawater. On land, bioluminescence is not seen often, but it utilizes a much more variety of colours .

Why evolve bioluminescence? Well, bioluminescence has been utilized by many animals (and microorganisms and fungi. No plants so another reason why alien lifeforms on Pandora are unique)

- Camouflage: Some squid uses bacterial bioluminescence for counterillumation such that as seen from below, the animal appears invisible. There are light organs in these squid that can fine tune the camouflage to suit the squids environment. However, these organs are separated from the tissues harboring the bacteria.

- Mate attraction: This is the most obviously seen in fireflies where flashing of the abdomen is used by males to attract females. In other words, they are telling the females ' I AM HERE. MATE WITH ME!!!' In the marine realm, small crustaceans such as ostracods also do it for the same reason.

- Predation: Used by some deep sea fish like the anglefish, it usually utilizes some kind of  apppendage with a lure to attract prey within a distance easily reached by the big mouth.

- Defence: Some squids squirt out a bioluminscent ink when attacked by predators. This usually has an effect of startling or confusing a potential predator to buy some time for the squids to escape.

-Illumination: The Black Dragon Fish (Malacosteus sp.) produces a red light. As most prey in the deep sea tend to be red which makes them invisible in the inky black surroundings, the red light enables the fish to find its prey.

What are the applications of 'biological light'? One use of bioluminence for research. Luciferase systems for example are commonly used as reporter genes. One particular example is that of the Green Fluorescent Protein from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. With the advent of modern genetic technology, we can engineer any organism with bioluminescence. How about a glowing pet dog? How about glowing street trees so that we can save $$$ and energy on street lights? And how does a glowing Christmas tree? Cool or what? =) 

Well, i think i should stop here and continue another time =)

Sayonara for now!!!!

Post Examination Utterings and Module Review Part 2

Continuing from below...

LSM 2251 had 2 field trips one to Labodor Beach and another one in Pulau Ubin. I had a fun time doing field trips. Maybe i should make field biology a career. After that, however, we had to do the field reports. Basically, for the labodor beach, we went to see the various distribution of flora and fauna in the littoral zone (explanations another time). My practical group split up into 3 sub groups and I worked in the group focusing on the lowest littoral zone. There was a diversity of animals in our quadrants and my group had a highest diversity of animals of all. We found a lot of different types of crabs both large and small.

3 days later, ( the field trips took place on e-learning week) on one lovely sat morning, I woke up at 5.30am ( first time that i woke up these early since I ORDed). I waited at Boon Keng MRT together with a few of my fellow students and TAs. I was expecting a big bus for transport but i saw a minibus instead.=( We quickly reached the ferry terminal at Changi at 8am. At a Pulau Ubin, we stopped at the visitors center and took a ferry there. We focused on looking at the bird and butterflies and looked at the diversity of habitats like secondary forest, degraded land and mangroves etc. Halfway through our trip, it rained and we took shelter underneath a drink stall. The interesting thing about the stall is that 12 different mangrove plants can be found nearby, so you can get and learn to know mangrove plants in Singapore and Tropical East Asian region. Shortly after the rain, we went a bit further and we retraced our steps back to the jetty.

The first lecturer for this module, Mr Siva has a good way of making our lectures more interesting. I look forward to his lectures every week when he is lecturing. He is very experienced in the biodiversity scene in Singapore and he uses his experience to make  his lectures more enriching. Lala.. I look forward in taking his other modules in yr 3 and 4.=)

Well, i think i will talk about my other modules another time.. Cheerio!!!

Post Examination Utterings and Module Review Part 1

It has been a week since my exams ended. I have studied the following modules for this Sem 2009/2010 Semester 1.Oh , I am so not looking forward to exam result release on 22 Dec.

GE 2229 Water and the Environment (Breadth Module)
LSM 2101 Metabolic Pathways
LSM 2102 Molecular Biology
LSM 2251 Ecology and the Environment
ST 2238 Introductory Biostatistics

GE2229 seemed to be an easy module. I mean after you have studied all the technical terms, the concepts are easy to understand as they relate a lot to our daily lives. Who will have thought that water falling on top of a tree and going into the ground can be described by using "interception" and "stemflow"? No field trips for this module though. However , I went together to the prof, though one Saturday morning, together with a few others to the World Water monitoring day briefing at the Kallang river. What is that you may ask? Basically, you are given a kit containing pH and dissolved oxygen tablets, water turbidity and temperature. This stuff is good for measuring water quality on a very cheap budget. however , it is very "primitive" compared to the equipment in the Geo Lab. =( I will take the latter given a choice =).After that briefing, it is only the matter of finding a waterway to measure.

After the "3/4 term test", she invited us to tag along with her the following Monday to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.(Lectures were on every Wed). Having too much time to kill, i went with her. It turned out that it was a graduate field trip for a graduate module. ( I didn't do O or A level Geography and i skipped to taking university geography modules for breadth). Basically , we met after lunch in the Geography meeting rm. Only four students in the graduate module (3 geography and one life science). After that, we were on the way on the Geography van to Bukit Timah. After that it was one whole afternoon of field practical work on field techniques. I guess it was the only chance i get to handle geography apparatus. (usually for the usual practical sessions my group mates handle the apparatus while i usually take down results) We learnt the usual field techniques ranging from:

1. ways to measure slope angle and distance
2. measuring soil compactness.
3. measuring canopy cover.
4. usage of a currentometer to measure water current rate (mentioned in lecture class but that day was the only chance i got for hands on practice)
5. measurement of water turbidity using a turbiometer.

Overall, not a wasted afternoon. It is very useful just in case i need to do fieldwork for UROPS (drats Only people with CAP> 3.0 can do but my CAP is 2.89) or Honours project.=) And we saw quite a fair bit of wildlife: giant millipedes, long tailed macaques (can be seen in the car park), drongos and colugos Nice!!=)

And i saw that if i am going to do field biology for a living, i need to be more fitter physically. LOL =) The Jungle Falls slopes were the most tough.

Anyway, after the field trip, we had roti pratas at the nearby hawker stall. That is obviouly one perk about during fieldwork in Singapore. Civilization is never too far away. Gee, graduate school is so much fun...I want to go there =)

Well, that is I have to say for now. I think I will continue my chronicles of my life science major modules at another time. =)