Ashland University Blog of Science

My mother has a 50/50 chance of growing old. That means I also have a 50/50 chance of having the same outcome as her. Why? Huntington’s Disease, or HD. HD is also known as the family disease because just like having the same eye color as your dad, you can have the same disease as him. This disease runs in the family, meaning that it can be passed down from generation to generation. In a family, the disease will die off if it happens to never get passed down. For example, the father in the family has HD, he has one kid so that child has a 50% chance of developing the disease. If the child does develop the disease, then his children all have a 50% chance of also developing that disease. But if the father never passes down HD to his only child then the disease can never be passed down again, the disease can not skip generations. Everyone technically has the gene that causes HD but only the people who get passed down the expansion of the gene will eventually develop HD. More than 200,...

          It’s 2:00pm on a Wednesday afternoon and you are on your sixth trip to the bathroom since waking up at 8:00am. You have had enough, as this has been happening day and night the entire week, and decide to make a visit to your doctor’s office for a checkup. While there, you explain that you have had excessive diarrhea for the past four days. Your doctor takes a stool sample and tells you to avoid any trigger foods you may have for the time being. Later in the week you hear that your stool was found to contain a bacteria known as Clostridium difficile .           C. difficile , or C. diff , as it is commonly known, is a bacterial species that attacks the large intestine, causing inflammation known as colitis. It is most commonly acquired in a healthcare setting, where many patients have an already weakened immune system. This germ is highly infectious, with close to half a million infections in the United States in 2011. That y...

 Biologists have spent a large amount of time discovering these invasive species as well as analyzing them to gather as much information as possible on these species. So, first what is an invasive species let alone an invasive plant? An invasive species is defined as a non-native plant to the ecosystem, and the introduction of causes are to health of humans or the ecosystem or economic damage. Given that one of the defining features of an invasive species is does it cause harm, this a serious issue if certain species find there way into an ecosystem. There are several species of plants that are labeled as invasive in the united states. Some examples are, Purple Loosestrife, Japanese Honeysuckle, Norway Maple, and Reed Canarygrass. These species are very effective at invading and their spread and control of their ecosystems. So, how and why can these plants take control of ecosystem? Usually these invasive plants find their way into disturbed ecosystems such as ones that are distu...

The California condor is one of the most magnificent feats when it comes to the avian world in North America. This large bird has wingspan of about 9 feet and can weigh up to 20 – 25 pounds. This particular condor can be found throughout the western United States, but mainly in California, Arizona and in southern Utah. Their habitats include isolated rocky cliffs and crevices. The kicker with this species is that they have been protected by federal law as an endangered species since 1967. The species was almost lost as a whole, if it were not until the 1980s where conservation efforts lead to people finding the remaining twenty or so wild condors and bringing them back into captivity. As of 1987, there were no wild California condors in the wild. They were all brought into captivity and were initiated into breeding programs with the ultimate goal of reintroducing the species back into the wild. The California condor species inevitably got to this point because of human centered a...

Influenza Vaccination: Beneficial to Everyone, Every Year Fever? Headache? Body aches and pains? Constant need for a nap? Respiratory discomfort?  Then you probably have the flu! The flu can be no joke, with symptoms lasting for two to three weeks. Most people, typically people with good overall health, can let the flu run its course. However, very young children and the elderly may benefit from antiviral medications, since their immune systems can be weaker than healthy teens and adults. To treat and prevent influenza A and B (different, common strains) there are 3 typical medications given, Relenza, Rapivab and Tamiflu. The flu also makes people susceptible to other infections, so there is a high possibility that secondary infections can occur and will need to be treated. BUT! Everyone over the age of 6 months old benefits from an annual flu vaccine! It is typically a shot in your arm, which contain and inactive virus. Sometimes it is available as a nasal spray though,...

When I was a little girl I had the dream that I could become anything I aspired to be whether it was a lawyer, doctor, president, or scientist.   Women haven’t always been able to go to school and have jobs like men do but there were women that pushed passed those boundaries and taught other women that they can be better than men.               Marie Curie was a brilliant scientist born in 1867 and the only education she received was general education and a miniscule amount of scientific training from her father who was a schoolteacher.   In 1891, she acquired licentiateships in physics and mathematics and later in 1894 surpassed her husband to become the new Head of Physics.   She then gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903 and following her husband’s death she became the Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences where she was the first woman to hold this position.   ...

As an aspiring science teacher, I’ve often wondered just why students don’t love science as much as I do. I mean, I love science, so much that I want to teach it! So what I did was I sent out a survey asking about their high school science classes and what they thought about it. The former students surveyed were students who had not pursued a degree in the natural/physical sciences like biology, chemistry, physics, or geology; or a profession in those same sciences. The survey was designed that way to truly get a feel for why students were turning their back to science, and what we as science teachers can do to increase interest in science. The survey received nineteen (19) responses. The vast majority were between the ages of 19 and 22 with 52.6% of responses. The next highest group was the age group 23-29 year olds with 21.1% of responses. The ethnicity of responses was heavily (84.2%) white non-Latino. Most respondents had only completed high school (15.8%), at least some colleg...

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to our oceans and the organisms living there. In 1997, a boater discovered what is known today as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is larger than the state of Texas and contains around 79,000 tons of trash. However, what some people don’t know is how this trash gets into the oceans and how it affects marine life. Scientists estimate that around 100,000 marine animals are strangled, suffocated, or injured by plastics in the ocean every year. So how does it end up there? When trash ends up on the ground, it gets blown into storm drains, makes its way into sewers, and is released into waterways. The sun’s rays break down plastic trash into smaller and smaller pieces, which become “microplastics.” The plastic moves through the waterways and eventually is deposited into the oceans. In a National Geographic study, published in March of this year, individual pieces of trash from the Pacific Garbage Patch were collected and...