week 5: I always eat my broccoli!

I have always loved broccoli. Especially when my mom covered it in cheese. Now, I prefer it with some extra virgin olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper. I like when current research supports my dietary preferences. My daughter also likes broccoli. Her veggie circuit includes broccoli, peas, green beans, cauliflower, corn, carrots (raw only), and edamame. I'd really love to get some beets and yams into her, but it hasn't happened yet.

week 5: chicken or the egg?

I'm down with the theory that the egg must have come first. It makes sense that a non-chicken parent would lay an egg with a chicken in it. I wonder, though, what would be the difference between the non-chicken parent and the chicken offspring. Feathers? Beaks? Wings? More white meat? Either way, their both tasty.

week 5: can diversification save a species?

Diversification seems like the best way to save a species. As seen with bananas, having only one type makes the likelihood of a pest wiping out the crop more likely. If only one aspect of a species' environment changes, the impact is much greater with more negative consequences, than it would be for a very diverse species. With diversity, we assume at least a few of the variations will be able to survive a change or adapt to it. Yea diversity!

week 4: how do you think chimps and humans diverged as a species?

how does any species diverge? apparently, some offspring are different, but not so different as to be ousted. then maybe they find another different and mate. maybe they have a range of infants, some closer to grandparents and some a bit farther from parents. perhaps, there is still interbreeding. perhaps some of these "differents" move along to a new location. there, maybe they become a little more different. or meet different differents. eventually, somewhere along the line, there will be fewer a little different, but still fitting in's and more very different and not fitting in at all. the lines diverge. maybe?

week4: can we change our dopamine levels ourselves?

a healthy diet, qi gong, exercise, massage, all can help raise dopamine levels. getting someone to make these changes and wait for noticeable effects is the difficult part. i've been trying to get my brother to change for a while. he doesn't want meds, but yet he drinks coffee everyday, then at least 3 sodas, smokes cigarettes, and eats a lot of processed food. he finds it hard to believe that making those changes will do anything positive for him, and since he won't try, he won't find out.

week 4: is there a drug for everything?

there could be. as science advances and we learn more about the roots of various pathologies, more and more research will be done to find us a fix. the problem is that we very rarely understand the entire picture of a pathology. we find links to diseases, i.e. this gene, that virus, this diet, that gender. we try to cure the disease by altering that piece of the puzzle. sometimes it works. often with repercussions. sometimes i think we are like children playing with our parents stuff.

i heard something on npr, maybe a month ago, about how even though people taking meds for high cholesterol have better levels when on the meds, these numbers don't reflect better health, or a decreased risk of disease. it's just numbers. with side effects. wouldn't it be better to make lifestyle changes?

that being said, why is it so hard to make lifestyle changes?

week 3: Nasa Scientists Find Clues That Life Began in Deep Space

hmmmm. i enjoyed how the creation stories resembled the soup of life theories. i also found the possiblity that the ingredients are just out in space, constantly coming in contact with other planets, and in all probability have started life elsewhere. i liked the analagy of the cell walls to little houses.

i'm gonna need a little more help with the cypernetics stuff:)

week 3: “99.4% of the most critical DNA sites are identical in human and chimp genes”

as most of you have already said, this points to the interconnectedness of life.

what you also have to think about, though, is how such a very small difference creates a very different creature. when the fda states that cloned meat is "virtually indistinguishable" from regular meat, don't you wonder what percent is different? and what that percent means?

from chemistry perspective: carbon can bond one way and become a diamond, or another and become graphite. same ingredient, just put together differently, producing vastly different results.
so when the government/researchers downplay differences between man-made and nature-made, i'm going to think about chimps and humans, not to insult chimps...

week 3: Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes, & Viruses Tutorial

squirmy and weird. i'd forgotten so much about cell parts, but remembered more than i would have thought, too. it is strange that the evolution of cells came about because they were eating each other. and then the eaten took on a new form, with new functions and responsibilities. it makes you wonder more about what you eat....

how does darwinism matter to me?

"This skepticism about truth is also a direct consequence of Darwinism--so says the well-known deconstructionist Richard Rorty. Rorty devised his own philosophy by asking, what are the intellectual consequences of Darwinism? His answer was that ideas must be treated problem-solving tools that help us get ahead in the struggle for existence. In a New Republic article, he wrote that 'Keeping faith with Darwin' (notice the term there: "Keeping faith with Darwin"), means understanding that the human species is not oriented 'toward Truth' but only 'toward its own increased prosperity.'"

I find arguments against morality and ethics, pretty frightening. I see the possibility that if we view the world through a Darwinian perspective, humans are oriented towards their own prosperity. This is apparent in how countries deal with one another, how animals and the environment are treated, how individuals are out "to get theirs." So then, does this mean that those of us who are interested in the well-being of others, of animals, of the environment, etc., must not be "the fittest?" Scary thought. Or is this selfishness just the result of a less evolved mind? Is nature all their is? No Divine Being?

I find all of the various arguments put forth with the Darwinian label inconsistent. It seems anything can be argued with Darwinian proof. Rape. Infanticide. Atheism. The Divine.

I'm still working out how darwinism matters to me.

week 2 - evo devo

evolution. development. i find it all fascinating. i was kinda sad to hear we don't make these fantastic, sudden leaps of evolution, like they do in X-men. i really was hoping to gain a mutant talent. (the butterfly article gives me hope!) although, i guess i'm kind of old. ok, what about harry potter? can we become witches and wizards? all i need is a wand, i'm sure of it. at times aimc does seem like hogwarts: qi, herbology, defense of the dark arts...

but really, how will we change? is my daughter already different from me? and how will her children be different? taller, healthier, able to see auras? i think we are alive during a very key moment in our history. environmental change is occuring rapidly all around us. things are changing and what effects will these changes have on our lives, our health, our societies. will we start trading in clean water, rice, and vegetables, rather than with money/gold? what about population control? why are fertility rates dropping? will we start living side by side with another hominid, as neanderthal did? it's all so sci-fi!

Week 1 discussion

Do we really understand our biological selves?

This question makes me think of that ever-asked question: what is qi? We try to define it, make it concrete, something a person can grasp, but it's not. We may be coming close, but certain things are so complicated/simple or so large/small that it is difficult to get our brains around their meanings, structures, functions. Sometimes the more abstract concepts, such as the ones we use in Chinese medicine, are better at explaining life than the dissected terminology of western science. Are meridians just nerve pathways? Is jing (essence) our dna? etc. etc.

We see this a lot with nutrition fad. Studies say fat is bad. Wait, no carbs are bad. Umm, meat is good??? Ultimately, eating unprocessed food that is grown nearby is the best. Grass-fed beef. Raw milk. Living more in tune with nature, perhaps would give us a truer knowledge of our biological selves than reading the latest study would. Although, I have to admit, they are fun! Kind of like the quizes in women's magazines.

michelle's bio

I have a B.A. in English, with a specialization in creative writing from the University of Connecticut. After traveling around the country, I decided to settle in Seattle for a few years. I waited tables, rock climbed, snow boarded, and attempted to surf. After 3 years, I decided to move to Lake Tahoe with some friends. From there I met my daughter's father and moved in with him in San Francisco. We moved to Oakland. I gave birth to Oona, drug-free, in a birth center in San Francisco and became a stay-at-home mom. When her father opened a restaurant, I became the pastry cook (chef always sounds too snooty for someone with no prep cooks!). After my ex-husband and I separated and he left the restaurant, I started waiting tables two nights a week and attending AIMC part-time. It's been three and a half years and I am now a full-time student, only making desserts for fun. I will be going to Japan this summer for the Tokyo Seminar in Japanese-style Acupuncture, and then graduating in December.

michelle