Star Genetics Fruit Fly Exercise 1 Level 1 Answers: Fill & Download for Free

This is an answer in progress (I'll update it from time to time, so it should make for a very interesting list). I'll also make more citations when I have more time (I'm just reciting out of memory for some of these). For some of these answers, you may have to use google for the headlines (for now, since I don't have enough time to elaborate at the moment). Anyways, I find that google is usually sufficient enough once you get the headlines anyways.-the heritability of IQ increases with age.- That amphetamines are neurotoxic, but that administering methylphenidate (ritalin) ALONG with amphetamine actually blunts the neurotoxic effect of amphetamine (through a complicated mechanism involving the redistribution of VMAT2). Also, that ritalin isn't neurotoxic even though adderall is- That dinitrophenol is very toxic, but that it can actually extend the lifespan of mice if administered in VERY small doses (http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/06/mitochondrial-uncouplers-as-cr-mimetics.php)- That EVERY atom (except possibly Iron-56) is ultimately radioactive (http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/g5zch/is_everything_technically_radioactive/)- That given a planet of sufficiently large tilt (and certain other parameters), you can get a planet where the poles are warmer than the mid-latitudes even in winter-time (I'll link to the simulation later)- That humans MUST consume Vitamin C due to a mutation (in our primate ancestors) that prevented us from synthesizing Vitamin C in our own bodies- That the moon is receding from the Earth (capturing some of Earth's internal angular momentum), and will eventually reach a state where it becomes tidally locked with the Earth [from Kibble Classical Mechanics]- That the direction of a planet's rotation determines whether or not its orbit will eventually decay (this is why Triton will get ripped apart by tidal forces in several billion years)- That all gases will eventually escape from the Earth's atmosphere, if given sufficient time (of course, it will be consumed by the Sun long before this happens)- That crows actually *share* information with each other. Also, how crows can be so much more intelligent than mammals with brains MANY times the size of their tiny brains. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/introduction/5838/, http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think.html- The eyes of the mantis shrimp- how glutamate excitotoxicity is actually mediated through calcium ions that decrease the permeability of the mitochondrial membranes (promoting lipid peroxidation), and how this causes neuron death (and also how you can observe the signal of calcium channel collapse after you decapitate rats).- That the uplifting of the Himalayas may have actually caused the Ice Ages (because all the snowcover from the increased elevation means that you get more radiation efflux than influx in a region that should experience a huge amount of net solar influx due to its location near the equator).- Oceanic gyres- Polish hussars - "In the battles of Battle of Lubiszew in 1577, Byczyna (1588), Kokenhausen (1601), Kircholm (1605), Kłuszyn (1610), Trzciana (1629), Chocim (1673), and Lwów (1675), the Polish-Lithuanian hussars proved to be the decisive factor often against overwhelming odds. For instance, in the Battle of Kluszyn during Polish-Muscovite War the Russians outnumbered the Polish army 5 to 1, yet were heavily defeated. The hussars suffered some defeats, particularly during the Khmelnytsky Uprising (Battle of Zhovti Vody, 1648)."- how the Mongols were able to conquer much of the known world with a very small population- Differential susceptibility hypothesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_susceptibility_hypothesis)- Thought suppression => rebound effect- That Wikipedia can produce information with an accuracy comparable to Encyclopedia Britannica (was very mind-blowing back in 2005 - and should be mind-blowing to any alien from Earth)- Each major step in animal evolution (again, should be quite mind-blowing to aliens) - from endosymbiosis to the evolution of sex to the evolution of self-awareness in multiple evolutionary lineages, to the evolution of complex culture in a single evolutionary lineage. Also, the evolution of humor (which might possibly also be present in cetaceans and parrots+crows)- That prokaryotes can survive forces up to 20,000g, but that eukaryotes cannot- That orcas are such picky eaters and refuse to eat mankind (hard to explain transient/resident behavior with anything other than culture and possibly even food taboos)- That the "meat" of penguins, pelicans, and other seabirds is often "nasty" tasting due to the nature of their diet (salty fish), and that only vultures taste worse (since they eat carrion)- That people would eventually spend more time on Facebook than any other website on the Internet (would have been mind-blowing in 2005, again)- That there may be numerous Earth-like planets in other solar systems (mind-blowing only several years ago)- how at ADVANCED ages, poor people actually have a longer expected remaining lifespan than rich people (because in poor people, the few people left at advanced ages tend to be more robust than rich people who might have the drugs/surgery to carry them through). Source: US Actuarial Tables (I'll get those sometime)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysia_chlorotica, or the "photosynthetic slug"- Selfish genetic hypothesis (amazingly insightful when it comes to explaining bacterial and viral genomes, as well as phenomena like horizontal gene transfer, as well as the fact that humans get 9% of their DNA from bacteria), as well as the extended phenotype hypothesis- Kin-selection in social insects (and the coefficients of relatedness in them)- Reducing environments and oxidizing environments (and their corresponding atmospheres)- how ocean currents tend to stagnate with warmer temperatures (and decreased pole to equator temperature gradients). also how increased pole-to-equator temperature gradients in the ice ages caused MASSIVE winds to form back then- how you can find the spectrum of a planet by subtracting it out from the spectra of its parent star, and how this spectrum can produce information about the atmospheric dynamics of the planet- how the upper atmosphere of Venus is actually COLDER than the upper atmosphere of Earth (because at the upper levels, CO2 radiates incoming solar radiation back out)- The Cytochrome P450 system - it's the complexity of the system, and how many enzymes that are really involved in it (and the implications this has for drug interactions).- how the Turkic languages are so related to each other even though the Turks are all separated from each other (and also how the Turks are genetically the average of their neighbors, just as the Hungarians are pretty much genetically the average of their neighbors despite having a totally different language from their neighbors)- decline of fluid intelligence with age (that starts in the LATE TEENS)- That the Sun's orbit around the center of the galaxy may have an effect on past global extinctions (it passes through the plane of the Milky Way twice per period, where the solar system may encounter more supernova and GRBs)- Out-of-Africa migration selected novelty-seeking genes- That human evolution may have accelerated, rather than decelerated, in the last 20,000 years- why certain drugs (CX717, modafinil) can make people stay alert (with no sleep debt) even when they've stayed up for over 48 hours- the possible connection between diabetes and alzheimers. Also, that cancer and alzheimer's are inversely associated- the weird effects of cellphones on the brain (still inconclusive, but SOMETHING is definitely happening). http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/cell-phone-brain/- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey#The_seven_types_of_aging_damage_proposed_by_de_Greyalso, mTOR signalling. Caffeine, a mTOR inhibitor, actually INCREASES lifespan in yeast - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18513215http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreasonable_Effectiveness_of_Mathematics_in_the_Natural_Scienceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreasonable_ineffectiveness_of_mathematics- Dyson spheres- ketosis and the brain- http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/02/bisphosphonates-and-an-unusual-longevity.php- Warburg hypothesis- telomeres and cancer- auxin signalling in plants- Nice model, how Jupiter migrated inwards and how Neptune was closer to the Sun than Uranus, but then migrated outwards- Io and Titan- How land distribution affects El Nino and La Nina cycles- that differences in the density of oceanic crust means that the African plate could subduct under Europe, and then halt (when all the high-density rock in the African plate is gone), and then the European plate can start subducting under the African plate- how there can be so many different types of Na receptors that correspond to different mutations (and that one of the mutations confers resistance to tetrodotoxin)- how deprenyl can actually be neuroprotective by interfering with MAO transmitters (which produce cytotoxic byproducts)- all the interesting facts from the blog and results at yourmorals.org- genetic engineering, and animal hybrids of each other- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_transplant- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isostasy - glaciers actually depress landmasses- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/gangster-birds.html- Steven Chu's proposal for increasing the albedo of Earth by painting all the rooftops whiteNeeds more elaboration: (I'll elaborate more later)- evolutionary economics- morphine in small doses actually increases lifespan in fruit flies- effects of LSD and other psychedelics- creation of virtual particle-antiparticle pairs (significant soon after the Big Bang, and possibly around black holes)- that red dwarf main sequence stars actually turn blue towards the end of their lifespans- degenerate matter on neutron stars- white dwarf chemical composition depends on the mass of its parent star- geological evolution of the terrestrial planets (magma ocean and all that)- convergent evolution- stellar collisions and blue stragglers- quark stars (possibly)- atmospheric rivers and atmospheric bridges- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_decadal_oscillation (and other atmospheric oscillations too - at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Climate_oscillations)- how plate tectonics keeps the earth from being covered by a global ocean- how mesons can hold matter and antimatter together, if only briefly- how the increasing luminosity of the sun means that earth's oceans will all boil away within 1 billion years, and how this will happen EVEN if the average temperature isn't 100 degrees Celsius yet- rogue planets and stars with peculiar velocities- galactic halo- evolution of leaf spectra (and evolution of ice spectra) depending on how conditions are, and how these spectra can cause feedbacks in terms of climate change- how super-Earths have more plate tectonic activity than Earth itself- Io's plasma torus- Enceladus geysers may have formed one of Saturn's rings- rain/snow of non-water chemicals- how bigger chemicals actually have LESS carcinogenic/toxic potential than smaller chemicals (especially in the aldehyde chain)- hormesis- All the developments that keep Moore's Law in effect- Newcomb's Paradox, and how it highlights the problems with Nash-equilibria- relationship between personality traits and political attitudes- inverse correlation between creativity and conscientiousness (at least at very high intelligence levels)- species-wide PTSD among elephants, and how they take their revenge on both humans and rhinos- A huge number of weird animal behavior videos I've collected at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DE906F607CB50BEB- why manta rays let humans ride them- people in hotter climates put in more spices per recipe than people in colder climates (possibly due to parasites)- Finland (high test scores on TIMSS, certain violence statistics I can't recall off the top of my head, Winter War, genetics and language different from that of most Europeans, )- 1st-order,2nd-order, and higher-order language entropy among human languages (and dolphin whistles too) - we just need more data on this right now- jet streams and temperature gradients - did you know that if the pole is warmer than the equator, that the jet streams actually start to reverse?- blue light is actually MORE harmful than red light (and can significantly damage your eyes over a lifetime)- melatonin, its anti-carcinogen effects, its anti-amphetamine neurotoxicity effects and how its production can be shifted SO MUCH by the wavelengths of light hitting the eyeballs- the nervous system in the gut (and all the serotonin in there too)- the HUGE bacterial floral diversity that exists inside all humans. also, prokaryotic diversity in general- Vitamin D is actually used as rat poison- people who get over 7 hours of sleep die more often than those who get 7 hrs for some reason- polyphasic sleep/uberman- effects of lithium on the brain. also, ketamine as a "reboot" agent- reverse tolerance of certain medications- http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/05/titans-atmosphere-spawned-by.html?rss=1- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100617120714.htm- http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/04/is-iq-much-less-heritable-for-the-poor.html- http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/007080.html- methane clathrates and all these feedback effects- Empires of the Steppe - how a "tribe" of several million people could devastate China, with a MUCH higher population- Sitting is a lethal activity (independently of exercise)- Why some corpses, like the Han Dynasty Mawangdai one, don't decompose- hungry judges: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110411/full/news.2011.227.html?s=news_rsshttp://nakedlaw.avvo.com/2010/07/12-insane-but-true-darpa-projects/- http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevC.83.025804?referer=rssSource Discovery for Amazing FactsHm, there are a lot more of them on http://www.cracked.com/humor-science.html. Also try http://www.reddit.com/r/science/top/ and http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/top/. And http://physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=82&daysprune=-1&order=desc&sort=replycount (as well as for the other forums), although many of these threads are pointless debatesfor more recent top articles, try http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top_news/ and http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/strange_science/also, i've collected a lot at https://profiles.google.com/u/0/simfish/buzz. but it's a pain to look for several-year old entries in Buzzhttp://simfishthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/science-news/ is where I also collected a huge number of science news articles long ago (should be some mindblowing headlines in there - just google them, really)