David Weild AP Bio, C-odd Current Event 23 4/30/18 “Why a Robot Can't Yet Outjump a Flea.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 26 Apr. 2018, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180426141515.htm.

David Weild

AP Bio, C-odd

Current Event 23

4/30/18

“Why a Robot Can't Yet Outjump a Flea.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 26 Apr. 2018, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180426141515.htm.

The article which I reviewed “Why a Robot Can't Yet Outjump a Flea.” by Science Daily was about creating a robot with the speed and power to possibly outjump a flea. The article starts off by saying “Take the smashing mantis shrimp, a small crustacean not much bigger than a thumb. Its hammer-like mouthparts can repeatedly deliver 69-mile-per-hour wallops more than 100 times faster than the blink of an eye to break open hard snail shells.” This sets the stage for science to raise the bar on mother nature. Before getting into the actual science, the article lists more animal features like “One of the fastest accelerations known on Earth is the hydra's sting. These soft-bodied aquatic creatures defend themselves with help from capsules along their tentacles that act like pressurized balloons. When triggered, they fire a barrage of microscopic poison spears that briefly accelerate 100 times faster than a bullet.” to build up suspense. A Umass scientist says “However, it's not clear how these mechanisms work together to enhance power.” To challenge mother nature the team "tries to develop a model that is equally generalizable to biological or engineered systems.” This team is doing trials to get closer and maybe actually completing their goal with different robots like the tested bugs. "If you have a particular size robot that you want to design, for example, it would allow you to better explore what kind of spring you want, what kind of motor you want, what kind of latch you need to get the best performance at that size scale, and understand the consequences of those design choices," Bergbreiter said. The article never concludes the experiment since it is ongoing but this is bound to be a big breakthrough for science once the team completes their goal.

This article was relevant because of the constant tests scientists are doing to be able to uncover the secrets of the animal kingdom. This will affect society by allowing us to use new and better technology for travel and just to plainly make life more simple. In addition, this will help scientists uncover new information by further exploration of this new technology.

This article was strong in the sense that it cited a lot of scientists doing the experiment. However, it was rather disappointing to not have a conclusion to the experiment. To improve this article, the author should update the article when the conclusion is found or should have just posted the article when the conclusion is found.

AIDS Researcher Top Candidate to Lead the C.D.C.

David Weild

Mr.Ippolito

AP Biology- EF Even

March 18th,  2018

Kaplan, Sheila  “AIDS Researcher Top Candidate to Lead the C.D.C.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Jan. 2018,

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/health/cdc-robert-redfield-director.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

This week I decided to read the article, “AIDS Researcher Top Candidate to Lead the C.D.C.,” by New York Times writer, Sheila Kaplan. This article focused on an AIDS researcher to be the top candidate to lead the C.D.C.. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, a founder of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is the leading candidate to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has been cited to lead a “program providing H.I.V. care and treatment to more than 6,000 patients in the Baltimore-Washington area, according to the university’s website. The institute has received more than $138 million in C.D.C. grants to combat H.I.V./AIDS and other health issues in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.” The previous leader of the CDC was Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, who resigned in January after about six months following reports that she held investments in tobacco and health care companies that posed potential conflicts of interest. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend a Democrat and a former lieutenant governor of Maryland states that “I think he’s a superb candidate, first rate.” In an article like this about a strong candidate, it is essential to have professional opinions being cited as why or why not they think that this person is a good candidate.

This article is relevant in many ways. First, it gives us an insight on a strong candidate we may see running the CDC someday. This allows us to form somewhat of our own opinions on if we think he is well suited for the job. This article also informs us on as to why the former president of the CDC is not in that position anymore.  

I read this article because I have heard a lot about corruption in the government while I took APES and I figured this to be a reason why the president of the CDC is no longer the president.  The article did not go into depth on who the other candidates are for the job. I also wish that the author had given more information on Dr. Redfield. The author did a good with explaining why the former leader of the CDC resigned. This was an interesting article to learn more about who is behind leading the CDC formerly and who will be in the future.

“Prospective birth control pill for men has its origin in an arrow poison”

David Weild

Mr. Ippolito

CE14

1/19/18

“Prospective birth control pill for men has its origin in an arrow poison”

Society, American Chemical. “Prospective Birth Control Pill for Men Has Its Origin in an Arrow Poison.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180117164007.htm.

This article is about a new pill which has not been released but is a possible future contraceptive for men. This option comes from ouabain. This is a drug that comes from two African plants “ that are thought to help control blood pressure; doctors sometimes prescribe small doses of the compound to treat heart attack patients.” In addition, “Ouabain disrupts the passage of sodium and calcium ions through the membrane protein Na,K-ATPases, which are are found in cell membranes and are made up of protein subunits.” Ouabain has proven to stop sperm by binding to Na,K-ATPase subunits. Unfortunately this causes a high risk of heart damage. The ouabain causes  stops the sperm “cells' ability to swim, which is essential to its role in fertilizing an egg, the scientists showed. The compound had no toxicity in rats. The researchers say that the contraceptive effect should be reversible because ?4 is only found on mature sperm cells.” This means that once this drug is no longer taken, sperm production will go back to normal.

This article is very relevant to society for many reasons. First of all, currently the only birth control drugs are for females. Having a birth control option for men would allow men to make the same choices women have while considering a child.In addition, this would not put all of the pressure on women to take birth control if men had a safe option to do so as well.

This article had strengths and weaknesses. A strength of the article was citing that the drug was not safe but possibly will be in the future. This was important to tell people if they were wondering when the drug would be available. However, some of the article lacked information about how this drug would work in some places filling some spots of the article with only “?4.” I suggest to improve, the author should do more research on this topic and edit the current article once there is more information discovered.