The Ur-Plant

3 Vocabulary Words

1. Introns- A segment of a DNA or RNA molecule that does not code for proteins and interrupts the sequence of genes.

2. Liverworts- A small flowerless green plant with leaf like stems or lobed leaves, occurring in moist habitats.

3. Botanists- The scientific study of plants, including their physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification, and economic importance.

The Ur-Plant Article

DNA analysis reveals the identity of the first plants.

Land plants, the fossil record shows, evolved some time before 476 million years ago. Unfortunately, the earliest fossils are just spores and don't reveal much about what sort of plants they came from. But where fossil hunters have failed, molecular botanists studying plant genes may have succeeded. Genetic studies suggest that liverworts--humble, stumpy plants related to mosses, which now commonly grow on damp soils--are the most ancient group of plants alive today. Liverworts share some traits with green algae, the single-celled marine plants from which land plants most likely arose. For example, alone among land plants, liverworts don't have stomata, or pores, in their leaves. The study looked at the DNA of 352 plant species ranging from liverworts to flowering plants. All the plant groups the researchers examined, except liverworts, contained at least one of three distinct introns--useless chunks of DNA located inside the coding sequence of a gene--in two different genes. That means that liverworts probably branched off the land-plant family tree before the introns were acquired and are the descendants of an ancient species ancestral to all other land plants. "We are not trying to imply that liverworts were really the very first land plants," says Jeffrey Palmer of Indiana University, who helped conduct the experiment. "Most likely there is some distinct lineage that represented the very first land plants, and it gave rise to two extant lineages. One consists of the liverworts; the other, everything else."

This article is about how scientist have found a plant name Liverworts, the liverworts is an ancient plant that they have found, Liverworts share some traits with green algae, the single-celled marine plants from which land plants most likely arose, and it different than an original pant.

I think that this is a pretty cool plant to make a study of because its a little different that than the other plant that are here in Earth.

Back in Black

Back in Black

http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2006/feb/ed_1/

With or without a stocking program, the black bear is returning to East Texas.

By Joe Nick Patoski

This article is about how the black bear are coming back to East, Texas, and people have seen them travel through the land. They are coming back to look for food, especially the bears who have cubs to feed.They are trying to save them from people trying to hunt them down.

I would say that this is a good thing to do because the bears are part of this nature and trying to get kill them and all that stuffs is not good because in some way they can help us.

Juvenile Fish From the Gulf and the Mediterranean Mingle in the Atlantic

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/10/02/juvenile-fish-from-the-gulf-and-the-mediterranean-mingle-in-the-atlantic/

Vocabulary words

1. Otolith, a calcium-carbonate deposit that is laid down after a fish hatches.
2. Subsidze- Support(an Organization or activity) financially.
3. Mingle- Mix or cause to mix together.

Robotic Woman

The robotic woman is a woman that had a motorcycle accident and in that accident she lost her arm. So the doctors did an experiment on putting a robot arm and connect all of the muscles, veins, to replace the arm that ones was there, and see how this would work on her. It work out really great, the robot arm worked so well and could distinguish what was what like cold water and hot water and so on.


My opinion

My opinion about this is that it think it's a good idea for them to do things like that for example like in the Iraq war soldiers come home with out arms or legs, and this would work really good for them and they wouldn't have to suffer with out having a body part missing I think that they should start to making more robots arms, and star to try it on different people to see if it would really work for everyone.