Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection changed many views of life on this Earth. However, Darwin presented of his theory after seeing many sights and gathering much evidence. however, there were some problems with Darwin's theory. Most people in Darwin's time believed that  the Earth was just thousands of years old. Unfortunately for Darwin, for natural selection to have created the diversity of life on Earth, an immense number of years were needed.

This was because most adaptions started with a single genetic mutation. The genetic mutation would then be passed down through offspring, letting the adapted organisms live longer while the others died out. While this may sound relatively quick, the fact is that it took one generation for the trait to spread to just half of the average litter size of the population. Depending on the speed at which reproduction happened and the size of the ppopulation, evolution of a single population could take anywhere from a thousand to a mimillion

The Grand Canyon is an excellent example of superposition and crosscutting, because it is extremely deep, wide, and long, and has thus exposed many layers of rock. Superposition states that layers of rock above other layers will be younger, if undisturbed. Since the Grand Canyon is so deep and has so many layers, it has been possible to date the layers, and prove this theory. The theory of superposition is based on the knowledge that rock layers form on top of one another, i.e. a volcano erupts, laying down an ash layer, the a mudslide dumps some other materials on the top, then maybe the wind blows stuff above that etc. 

The Grand Canyon also demonstrates crosscutting, but it proves it through superposition.The Law of  Crosscutting Relationships states that if a layer cuts down through an otherwise undisturbed body of rock, the layer cutting downwards will be younger. This is proven by the fact that for a layer to cut down, it has to be 

In England, the peppered moth population suffered some drastic changes. As the trees were turning black, due to pollution coloring their bark. There were a few theories explaining why this was happening. One was that the pollution was also dyeing the moths' wings, as it was the trees' bark. The most prominent one, however, was that the moths were adapting to suit their environment better. The moths were originally colored to suit the peppered shade of the tree bark, as to provide a form of natural camouflage. As the trees became darker, the darker moths were harder for predators to see and thus survived longer. There had been very few dark moths seen earlier, as they were spotted and eaten quickly.

One of the main scientists promoting the theory was Kettelwell. Kettelwell went through a long series of experiments to test that the black color was actually a genetic mutation, and that it was rapidly spreading through the population due to natural selection. All of these test confirmed Kettelwell's theory, and as England's pollution is decreasing, and most scientists belief that as that happens the population of light moths will go up as well.

When organisms face a situation with limited resources and overpopulation, they begin to compete over the decreasing amounts of food, water, and space. The organisms will fight each other, and many will not live very long. The organisms with beneficial traits, such as longer claws, being taller, running faster, etc. will live longer than those without, and pass those traits on to their offspring, who will live longer, and so on. The changes will build up over time until the other organisms die out completely, or become a different species.

Take for example, a herd of horse-like animals, that eat leaves on trees in Africa. If the resources become limited, such as all of the leaves being eaten off the lower parts of the trees, it is likely that some organisms will begin to starve. The organisms with longer necks would be able to reach leaves still, and survive to produce offspring. Those organisms could eventually eat all the leaves on their part of the tree, and so only the longest of the longest necked animals would survive. Their necks could keep genetically stretching over a period of time, until all of the organisms had an extremely long neck, creating the giraffes. 

When making paper pet families in Science I learned a multitude of things about genetics. First of all, I learnt that when there is a parent with homozygous dominant alleles, the children from that cross will all have the phenotype of the parent with homozygous dominant alleles. Also, I learned that a lot of things don't turn out exactly how probability says they will. My paper pet family only had one male child, and five female children, even though the odds were 50/50. However, the skin color ended up turning out 2/3 blue and 1/3 yellow, even though the odds on that were also 50/50. (There was a heterozygous and a homozygous recessive as parents.)

The paper pet families taught me much about genetics and probability, and I was able to put much of the knowledge that I learnt from it into use in many other situations later in the year. The paper pet families made it easy to understand Punnett Squares, and helped me with other "genetics problems." Although I would have most likely been able to do well without the practical experience of the paper pets, it would have probably taken me longer, and the concept would have been harder to grasp.

Punnett Squares are often used by geneticists to determine the possible results and probability when different levels of dominant and recessive alleles are mixed. Punnett Squares are traditionally drawn with the dominant allele first. Also, tradition dictates that the female is usually on the top, while the male is on the left, although neither of those has an effect on the overall outcome of the square. Punnett Squares can be very helpful, and the picture labeled Figure 1 above is an example of one. 

As dominant traits are symbolized with a capital letter, while recessive traits are symbolized with a lower one, it can be seen that a homozygous (the word for something with two identical alleles for a trait) dominant, and a homozygous recessive set of organisms are being crossed. As seen in the actual square above, the results will all be heterozygous (the word for something with two different alleles for a trait). This means that while the offspring will all look like they are homozygous dominant, they have a hidden recessive trait that will show up in the next generation.

To make DNA replications out of beads and wire, you first need to gather supplies. You need about 1 meter of metallic wire, six beads of red, six of green, six of blue, six of gold, 22 white beads, and 24 gold beads. After that, you need to take the a yellow, white, yellow, and red bead and string them on the wire in that order. Then you must take the opposite side, and do the same but with a green bead instead of  red. Then do you best to center the beads.

After that, take one end of the wire and thread it through the first yellow bead on the opposite side. Pull it through almost completely, and then do the same with the other end, and other yellow bead. After you have done that, finish pulling the treads through. Then thread a yellow, white, and gold set of beads on the wire, and a yellow, white and blue set on he other side. Pull the ends of the wire through the gold beads again, and continue the yellow, white, color pattern, making sure to match red, green; and blue, gold.

Due to the natural fault of human memory, and the limited time I had to write this post, my instructions may be incorrect or incomplete, so please find another source to compare me with if you intend to replicate this project.

One concept that I struggled with in Science was, for a short while, the vocabulary. It would take me a few days to learn the vocab at first, but then would have to think extra in the meantime. Once I started using Quizlet more, my problems with vocabulary were much less common. One time, I struggled with learning the meanings of cell parts and organelles. After the edible cell project, I reviewed them some more and got to know them better. 

I didn't really struggle with much else, but a few other students in my class had a hard time with ratios and averages. They had to work harder in while the tried to grasp the concept, but it was easier for them after they had. One mistake that was made was that students would sometimes divide when averaging by a different number than they were supposed to. This was especially commonly in problems that included a zero.

To start, I am making my argument from the point of view that everything Santa does is physically possible. I will start with the issue of time. When, as brought up in one of the rebuttal articles, Santa's reindeer are fed the magic corn and the ability to fly passes down as a dominant trait, I have my own expansion theory on the subject. I believe that because of its magic, the trait did not only stay of the same power, but it increases exponentially from generation to generation. So the starting speed of flying reindeer would have been their normal 15 mph, then up to 225 mph the next generation and so on. I also must make a point that there is no reason to assume of the recency of Santa's exploits, and that the filmmaker simply redistributed the events in a later time period, for more connectivity with the audience. This means that Santa's reindeer have had an indefinite time span to allow the magic feed to grow in their systems. They would eventually be able to travel the speed of light, and faster. This would have a stopping, or backwards effect on the time/space continuum, as theorized by many scientists. Santa and his reindeer would have ample time for the trip.

Because of the built up magic feed, I feel that the huge amount of energy has supercharged the electrical auras that surround each reindeer. Auras are the electromagnetic fields that surround every living thing. The supercharged electricity would have no place to go, but into Santa's aura, who is such close contact with the reindeer, and of course, Mrs. Claus, who "tends the reindeer and their sleigh," as according to the popular Christmas song. The extra energy would increase the reindeer's wind protection, that they would have evolved into after generations for flying. The energy would saturate Santa and the sleigh with protection, because of their close and continued proximity to the reindeer. This would, of course, also extend their life span beyond their usual, and up their metabolism, which would take care of most of the multitude of calories, but not all. To address that problem, we first have to address another.

Even with the built up power of the reindeer, the huge amount of mass on the sleigh would quickly unbalance and all of the toys fall into the ocean. To solve that, Santa would have to engineer a teleporter. The physics of teleportation are very simple in theory and explanation. First, one would have to develop a type of scanner that would be able to memorize all of the molecules and patterns in an object. Then one would have to break away all of the bonds holding the molecules in a solid state, and transmit them like a light wave. The human light wave could then be bounced off of orbiting satellites and received by another machine in Santa's bag. The receiving machine would have to be able to reform the molecules and recreate the bonds. It would also have the scan taken at the beginning to use as a reference. While there is no telling if a living thing could survive such an experience, it is reasonable to assume that a present could.

Santa could also use this teleportation network to send milk and cookies back to his base at the North Pole and pay the elves with them, save them for late, or give them to Mrs. Claus. He would also, of course, eat a great many of them, and feed the reindeer, who unlike dogs, probably can be given chocolate. He would then have an average sleigh weight, which would be kept up right by the speed of the reindeer. Santa could use a teleportation unit, like the one in the bag, but with a fan, long-range reformer, no reception unit, and a high powered vacuum to get him back up.

If there is anything else you doubt about Santa, I will be happy to share or make up a theory to counter your dark thoughts.

When DNA replicates, the first thing that happens is that the bonds that hold the bases break apart, leaving two strands of nucleotides. Nucleotides consist of a base, deoxyribose sugar, and phosphate.  Because certain bases bond with certain bases, the cell can produce new nucleotides that will follow Chargaff's rules. The bases are then bonded together in their pairs (adenine with thymine, and cytosine with guanine). The DNA has then replicated into two identical strands. DNA is shaped as a double helix, with the phosphate groups (a sugar and phosphate) on the outside, and the base pairs going across the inside. When the bonds break apart, helix separates into two inverse strands of the DNA.