Beginning on page 49, Dr. Moalem discusses the importance of the sun to Earth's living organisms. He describes our relationship with the sun as a "can't live with you, can't live without you" sort of situation. This relationship with the sun is represented by Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis, because it demonstrates how organisms gain energy and resources from their environments to function and maintain internal conditions suitable for life.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Prompt 3: "Can't live with it, can't live without it"
Beginning on page 49, Dr. Moalem discusses the importance of the sun to Earth's living organisms. He describes our relationship with the sun as a "can't live with you, can't live without you" sort of situation. This relationship with the sun is represented by Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis, because it demonstrates how organisms gain energy and resources from their environments to function and maintain internal conditions suitable for life.
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DeleteAndrew Komarov
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Living with the sun is something that we have all become accustomed to. The sun is a crucial part of our life, and most people embrace it. Many people go out into the sun just to try to get some color on their skin, little do they know of the dangers that are posed to them. The problem with the sun, is that it when it sends rays of light to the earth, part of this light contains Invisible Ultraviolet light, which causes damage to the Melanin, your "natural sunblock" The Ultraviolet radiation often causes skin cancer, most commonly melanoma, associated with the Melanin. Another very crucial downfall of the sun, is that "it destroys your body's reserves of folic acid." (Moalem 49) Folic Acid is very important to the human body, because it assits in cell growth and DNA replication. If a woman plans to be a mother, she should make sure that her Folic Acid levels are normal, because "When a pregnant woman has too little folic acid, the fetus is at significantly higher risk for serious birth defects." (Moalem 52)
ReplyDeleteOf course the sun has some upsides to it as well. The sun is one of our main sources of life, because it promotes our skin to produce Vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential to human growth and development, because it is very helpful in absorbing calcium, which will eventually lead to stronger and healthier bones. The body has its own way of making Vitamin D, cholesterol. Cholesterol is essential to human life because "it is required to make and maintain cell membranes." (Moalem 51) If the body is exposed to the proper sunlight, then the skin converts cholesterol into Vitamin D.
The skin color adapts to sunlight because when the sun makes contact with the skin, it is actually making contact with the Melanocytes, cells that live in the lower part of the epidermis. These cells secrete melanin, which gives color to skin, hair, and even parts of the eye. APOE4 is a protein associated with the secretion of Vitamin D, which as previously stated is very important, and is absorbed by proper light from the sun.
I do not believe that there is a "can't live with can't live without" relationship with APOE4, because APOE4 mostly has negative consequences, such as possible diseases like Alzheimers. There is only one positive to APOE4, which is the help of secretion of Vitamin D. If that was the only way that Vitamin D could be secreted, then maybe it would be a "can't live without" relationship. There are a myriad of other ways to secrete vitamin D, as Dr. Moalem mentioned, like Cholesterol absorbing the correct light, and turning into Vitamin D. Vitamin D, as we can see is essential to our living, and the sun helps us live, even with all of its setbacks.
I believe that this relates to Big Idea #2, because as Big Idea #2 states, "Biological Systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis." We as humans, utilize the sun, which is free energy, to help our body produce Vitamin D, which is essential to our living. We as humans store the energy provided by the sun to not only produce vitamin D but to maintain homeostasis. A long time ago, before modern treatments were founded, the sun would be used to treat patients with tuberculosis. "No one knew why it worked, just that TB patients sent to rest in sunny locales were often restored to health." (Science Reference Center). As now discovered "Vitamin D has potent anticancer actions and also serves as an important regulator of immune system responses." (Science Reference Center) This shows how crucial the sun is to life on earth for human beings, and how it used to maintain homeostasis, all because it helps our body to produce Vitamin D.
Outside Source:
Scientific American; Nov2007, Vol. 297 Issue 5, p62-72, 8p
Andrew Komarov
akomaro4@students.d125.org