Summer 2012 selection
Explanation/disclaimer: click to expand/contract
These howlers are real students' mistaken answers to Biology questions and explanations of Biological phenomena.
Some show problems with spelling, expressing themselves clearly, comprehension or recall of scientific concepts.
In other words do not take these seriously - they are all wrong in some way.
It is my hope that they first make readers laugh, and then make them think.
Other sections of the BioTopics website are more educational and informative but not so entertaining
- lofty ideals shared with the Ig Nobel prizes and the BBC mission statement.
Action of contraceptive implant:
- As the egg is implanted into the lining of the womb it is not easily accessible by sperm so cannot be fertilised.
- Progesterone inhabits FSH
- Because of the lower FSH and LH the woman will not be able to fertilise the baby
- Fertilisation is when the sperm successfully mates with the egg.
- An egg cannot be stimulated into a corpus luteum
Action of snake venom:
- lungs can't contract to cause diastole
- muscles in the lungs would lose control
- muscles used in breathing around the wind pipe will contract
- Acetylcholine breaks down and is used in aerobic respiration in glycolysis
- An action potential cannot be transmitted across the synapse
- There is a constant infux of sodium ions
- Usually the enzyme choline esterase's function is to aid gas exchange
- The lungs are no longer able to contract
- The inhibitor may break down the enzyme
- This means a synapse cannot occur
- This causes constant excitement
- Muscles needed for breathing : the heart, intercostal
- This means that only half the breathing mechanism can work
- Proper breaths cannot be taken
- It stops synapses sending message to the diaphragm to breathe
- Continuous contraction of muscles uses up all the the oxygen for respiration therefore no oxygen for breathing
- This inhibits the enzymes at the joints
- The lungs can't be stimulated to change shape
Advantage of incorporating engineered gene next to sheep milk protein promoter:
- So that gene for Factor IX is not recognised as foreign
- This increases the chance that the gene will be produced in the milk.
- It enables fast replication of the wanted gene enabling protein synthesis to occur allowing the proteins to be greater in number
- Only that protein will be produced and not the undesired protein in sheep's milk
- Milk proteins can coagulate and help in blood clotting
- So people can get factor IX by drinking the sheep's milk
- This can cause the proteins for the milk to be copied
- You only need to insert one copy of the gene as it will be replicated using transcription and translation.
- The promoter increases the chance of success
- Sheep's blood can clot which increases its survival advantages
- Only one application of cloning is required for generations of sheep.
- Offspring will not be haemophiliac.
- The lambs don't require milk because proteins are already present.
- More milk is produced by the sheep
- It prevents the whole sheep being fluorescent
Advantage of fluorescence gene from jelly fish:
- Milk can be viewed under UV light and any proteins that glow green can be identified and purified
- Milk will glow in the dark
- So the right DNA strand can be isolated
- So that the scientists can see the gene sequence
- It allows scientists to differentiate between the human DNA and genetically engineered DNA
- This enables sheep successfully producing factor IX to be located
- Under fluorescent light you will clearly be able to see the human gene and the jellyfish gene and be able to distinguish between them
- This means that fluorescent light can be detected
Comments about graph showing 2 lines of points, each showing standard deviation:
- Aerobars do not overlap which makes the results accurate and valid
- The margins of error fail to overlap
Reasons why very few live births result from many embryos that are implanted:
- The embryos have not been able to divide into a particular sex and may be mutated
- The embryos are artificially inseminated so there is a chance they are not properly fertilised
- Transgenic organisms have an uneven amount of chromosomes
- Only one embryo can fertilise at a time
- There is a low chance of meeting sperm
- They do not receive sufficient nutrients
- The sheep's immune system rejects the implanted embryo, attacking it with its white cells, basically killing it. This causes it to be dead and not lead to a live birth.
- It will be rejected by the sheep's digestive system
- Because the embryos are produced outside the internal part of the mother (in a lab) the embryos may find it hard to adapt
- This may be due to an auto-immune response where it is attacked by its own cells
- Its DNA will be identified as foreign
- If there is more than one embryo it may need assistance at birth
- The DNA may be mutated and therefore produce issues
Diabetic issues:
- Diabetics used to die previously as insulin was harvested from dead dogs - a limited supply
- The need for sheep farming for insulin would be gone, so less ethical issues
- Injecting insulin relies on people donating insulin
- Constant injection into fingers can become painful
- This could save artificial insulin being created from animals
- Insulin injections are only effective for as long as the proteins are alive and working
Action of IAA:
- IAA causes roots to elongate and become heavier
- IAA causes roots to become top heavy
- IAA detects light or gravity
- IAA moves to the side with least effects of gravity
- There was more IAA in the root to stimulate downward growth
- Both sides of the root are in darkness so both grew against each other and gravity pulled
- IAA moved to the top of the plant
- More IAA will be on the darker side of the root, so the tip will grow curving it upwards
- IAA may have caused less elongation of the cells closer to the gravitational pull
Comment on electrophoresis results:
- The charge would be less to attract the negative to positive
- Small fragments normally sink to the bottom
- K has one of the least travelled DNA fragments
- As the repeat is CAG which has 3 bases it is logical that the third lowest band has three base sequences
Suggest how a bull is selected to increase the probability of producing cows with a high milk yield:
- A bull carrying the allele for high milk yield
- A bull that can eat a lot and has a high body mass will affect the calves by also being able to ingest high amounts of food leading to more productive milk yield
- A bull that has high levels of calcium
- A bull that is least prone to heat stress so that this is passed on to offspring
- A bull whose oestrogen levels are abnormally high
- A bull with a high milk yield ...
- The cooler the bull's core temperature the more likely of a higher milk yield from its offspring
- Select a big beefy bull
- Select the bull with the highest dm3 milk production per kg of food intake
- A bull with large mammary glands
- A bull with less fat and muscle so that more energy goes into producing milk than body mass
Appearance of Huntington's
- There is a large window in which to reproduce
- This is after the age they are reproducing or thinking of children
- It develops at the higher end of the age bracket, once they have had sex
- Symptoms occur later in life giving them time to have children
Lactose tolerance/intolerance:
- This increases the chance of mating with someone that is similar
- Diary is good for your growth as it contains calcium
- Offspring of this area (where no dairy products consumed) down the line will not have the gene
- Lactose intolerant people are less attractive because they are prone to burping and farting so they will have less sex
- As more and more mating occurs, the evidence for the gene increases.
- In a country where lactose is not commonly consumed people will neglect the gene that produces lactase
- Lactose tolerant people get greater
- The most advantageous alleles are more likely to survive.
- In countries that drink a lot of milk more people would have adapted to be able to survive on diary products
Comment re development of lactose tolerance:
With water being scarce we may have drank more milk
Advantage of taking rectal temperature of cows rather than skin temperature:
- It gives a metabolic temperature
- The rectum is inside the body and not affected by wind
- The skin is designed to keep heat in or release it
- Blood vessels in the rectum are not necessarily subject to vasoconstriction and vasodilation
- It is usually covered by the cow's tail so it would provide a more accurate reading
- The skin might absorb temperature
- Vasoconstriction: less blood on the surface of the skin
- Skin temperature will be influenced by outer body factors
- Measuring from the rectal will be more reliable
Random points
Barrow receptors ...The phallopian tube ...
White blood cells digest bacteria that gets into the blood to stop infection
Carrier proteins transfer sodium and potassium ions to either side of the axon
TB enters the body by being breathed in as tiny water droplets in the air
Bacteria are a unicellular organism, and usually live in colonies
Bacteria can pass on resistance to other bacteria.
The enzyme rubiscose is used in the calving cycle
Proteins are coded for by DNA when in triplets
Bacteria reproduce by horizontal transmission
Shapes are important in muscle contraption
Bacteria can change their appearance and move different antigens so a secondary response cannot take place
Vaccines are given before the person becomes ill so they are usually given when young
At lower temperature more energy is burned
In hot conditions heat evaporates off the skin
The sliding filament theory requires ATP to contract during exercise
The level of progesterone fell, suggesting no embryo was planted
Adrenaline causes glucagon to convert to glucose (glucagonosis)
Bacteria contains (sic) digestive enzymes which aid the digestion of humans and other organisms
Nitrogen fixation on pea plants is very useful as the plant provides the starch to the bacteria and bacteria provide enzymes.
Cows have thick leathery skin that heat struggles to travel through
A bacterium has a flagellum which aids its direction when swimming
Hospitals in many countries are host to numerous bacteria
The nerve impulse moves by salutatory conduction
Insulin used to come from sheep
Bacteria from a cow's stomach is used to make cheese
Water cools the cow when drunk
By decreasing food intake you enable your body to be lighter which causes you to lose more heat to surroundings and cool down
As your body temperature rises enzymes used for digestion denature so less food is needed as the stomach is already full
Energy is required for insulation
Food is used to produce energy from heat
More energy is produced from breakdown of fatty acids in the nucleus
This increases the amount of calories available to be burnt
The metabolic rate gives off heat when in use
Cheese is made from an enzyme from cows called chymosin