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A circadian rhythm is a biological rhythm that happens over a 24 hour period. The human brain contains a tiny mechanism called a biological clock, which regulates things such as hormones in a day. Humans secrete increasing amounts of melatonin around 10pm which makes them feel sleepy. Melatonin levels drop in the morning, so we wake up. Our Biological clock needs exposure to day & night to keep in sync with our 24 hour cycle.
Photoperiodism
Plants respond to changing day length & use it to help them grow/flower at the right time. Many plants die in winter, with their seeds surviving. The seeds sense longer days in spring & start to germinate. Some plants grow throughout winter but respond to longer days, growing faster. In autumn, when days shorten, the plants stop growing survive the winter conditions. Flowering is also controlled by the length of light or dark periods during a 24 hour cycle.
Plant Defences
Many plants such as the Lupin make their leaves poisonous to insect pests or larger herbivores that might want to eat it. Many also use chemicals to defend themselves against pathogens. People depend of plants for food; if pathogens destroy or damage crops, then our food supply is at risk.
Louis Pasture
Showed that microorganisms were responsible for some disease & some food going off. He proposed the idea of keeping microorganisms away from people & food in order to preserve food & stop disease. This was called aseptic techniques. This includes the process of pasteurisation, in which food such as milk are heated briefly before being stored, in oder to kill bacteria in them.
Vaccines
A weakened pathogen is injected into the body. A lymphocyte (white blood cells) with an antibody which fits the antigen (a chemical in the outer shell of viruses) is activated. This lymphocyte divides over & over again to produce identical clones. Some of the lymphocytes secrete antibodies, which stick to the antigens and destroy the pathogen. Other lymphocytes stay in the blood as memory lymphocytes to respond if the antigen turns up again.
Risks of Immunisation
It is common for a person to get swelling or redness around the site of vaccination. Some children may get a mild form of the disease they are being weakened against. Very rarely, a child suffers an allergic reaction.
Advantages of Immunisation
A child can become immune to a disease without suffering it. Chances of long-lasting harm are much less than if a person actually has a disease. If enough children are vaccinated against a disease, then it becomes so rare, that even unvaccinated individuals are unlikely to get it.
Antibodies
The entry of pathogens into the body is known as on infection. The 1st time the pathogen infects someone, only 1 or 2 lymphocytes recognise the antigens on it. It takes a while form them to multiply & secrete enough antibodies to destroy the pathogens. (Primary response). After the infection memory lymphocytes remain & their knowledge to react & produce antibodies more quickly. (Secondary response).
Monoclonal Antibodies
Scientists can use antibodies to identify specific substances. Scientists need large quantities of identical antibodies to do this. (Monoclonal antibodies). Lymphocytes can clone themselves, however once it starts to make antibodies it becomes a B lymphocyte and can no longer divide.
Infertility Treatments 1
IVF
Eggs are taken from ovaries & mixed with sperm cells in a dish. One or two healthy embryos are placed into the womans uterus to develop. Positive: Useful if a man produces only few healthy sperm Negative: IVF babies can be born early, which can cause problems.
Egg Donation
Eggs from another woman are fertilized using the mans sperm via IVF. One or two healthy embryos are placed into the womans uterus to develop. Positive: mother can experience bond through birth. Negative: The egg donor may want access to the child.
Infertility Treatments 2
Surrogate Mother Egg & sperm from the couple are mixed in a Petri dish. The embryo is then inserted into the uterus of a surrogate mother. Positive: Baby is born normally. Negative: Surrogate mother may find it hard to had over the baby. Hormones The woman is given extra hormones to help her ovaries release eggs. Positive: Baby is genetically theirs. Negative: Greater risk of more children being born earlier, which may cause problems at birth or in later life.
Sex-linked Inheritance
Haemophilia is a sex linked, genetic disease. There is no haemophilia gene on the Y chromosome. Therefore boys can only be a carrier of the disease.
Courtship
A mate that is healthy & well adapted to its environment is likely to have healthy offspring than a mate that is struggling to survive. Elaborate courtship helps to choose a mate. This often involves the male displaying to females, advertising that he is a high-quality choice. Some animals mate for life with the same partner, others will only pair up for breeding season. In some animal species, groups of females bread with one dominant male. These groups often remain together with the dominant males being replaced every few years.
Innate behaviour
An innate behaviour is an automatic response to a stimulus that is hardwired into our brain. This can be shown in small animals using choice chambers. 5 woodlice are put into each chamber & left for an hour. The woodlice move towards the darker damper conditions they prefer. This is an innate response.
Habituation
Habituation is learning to switch off from repeated stimuli. For example, the sea slug has a gill sticking out of its back, which if touched, will be withdraw. If you continue to touch the gill without hurting it, the slug will eventually stop withdrawing it.
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov found dogs salivated at the smell of food. He investigated whether they could respond to stimuli in a different way. He rang the bell before he gave them food, & the dogs learnt to associate food with the bell, so they now salivated at the sound of the bell. This is known as classical conditioning: it starts with an innate reflex, but then the animal learns to respond in a different way.
Operant Conditioning
Occurs when an animal discovers that a particular kind of behaviour can make something good happen. After a few times the animal then learns to associate this behaviour with an award, and will eventually carry out the action on purpose.
Social Behaviour
Social behaviour can increase the chance of a groups survival. By for example defending a large territory, working in a group to fight of predators & finding food. Dian Fossey was an ethologist who studied social behaviours in gorillas. She learn the meaning of many of their calls, had complex social relationships & werent violent.
Co-evolution
Plants have co-evolved the shape of their flowers so that only one or two animals species can feed at the flower. This benefit the plant as it means the plants pollen is more likely to be taken to a flower of the same species. This means that the animals is also less likely to compete with other animals for the flowers nectar.
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondria have their own DNA. All mitochondria comes from cytoplasm in the eggs cell (all from the mother). mtDNA mutates over 100 times faster than nuclear DNA. As a cell contains more mtDNA, it is easier to extract from fossils due to a high abundance of it, and is more likely to be in a good enough condition to identify genetic sequences. Studies into mtDNA suggests that we all evolved from a woman in Africa 130-200 thousand years ago. This is evidence for how humans spread out from Africa & into the rest of the world.
Microorganisms in Food
Using microorganisms in food has advantages because:
They grow more quickly than plants or animals. They are easy to handle & manipulate. Fermenters need a small area & can be built virtually anywhere, whereas plants & animals need particular environmental conditions. Using microorganisms can be cheaper & can reduce waste projects.
Mycroprotein
Made of a fungus called fusarium, which is made up of tiny fibres called hyphae. It is produced in a fermenter:
Ammonia & air are added (for a source of nitrogen & oxygen). Rising bubbles cause the broth to circulate & excess gases are removed. The dense broth falls to the base of the fermenter, where glucose is added to add energy for growth. A cooling system then removes excess heat . It is then heated, to kill cells, and dried & pressed to remove water.
Benefits of Mycoprotein
It has no saturated fat (risk factor in heart disease) however read meat does. The high fibre content of mycroprotein stop glucose being absorbed. This reduces glucose absorption and therefore glucose & insulin surges (factors of type II diabetes. Fibres also move through the intestines faster, allowing carcinogens to be removed more quickly, reducing the risk of bowel cancer.
Immobilising Enzymes
Lactase is an enzyme that breaks down lactose sugar. It can be immobilised in alginate beads to produce lactose free milk. Immobilising enzymes means they can be easily separated from the product so it can be used again. To immobilise: The enzyme (in sodium alginate solution) it is added one drop at a time to calcium chloride solution. The solutions react to produce calcium alginate beads containing the enzyme. The enzyme is now immobilised in the bead.
Biofuels
Made from plants such as maize or oil palms. They are used as a replacement for fossil fuels which are running out. They are renewable & it doesnt take long for them to be produced. They are also carbon neutral as the CO2 released into the air when they are burnt are removed by the growing plants during photosynthesis. However, the plants do take up a lot of land that could be used for food.
G-M Foods
Genetically modified maize, soya & cotton are used widely grown in developing countries. Many of these crops have a herbicide resistant gene which means crops are not damaged by the chemical but the weeds are still killed. In 2008, a new purple GM tomato was developed that contained extra pigments called flavonoidas. Tests have shown that it helps mice with cancer to live longer.
Making GM Plants
A transgenic organism genes transferred from another organism. Transgenic plants are often produced using a bacterium called Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The required gene is cut from DNA & inserted into the plasmid which has been removed from the bacterium. The plasmid with the required gene is then put back into the bacterium. The bacteria with the gene is then allowed to infect plants. This introduces the required gene to the plant cells.