10/5/14-10/10/14

The most memorable activity for this week was definitely the BLAST lab. It was a bit confusing at first, due to the expansiveness of the phylogenetic trees, but eventually I understood it. It was interesting to see how biotechnology can be applied to criminal justice; the two seem like very unrelated fields, but they are really complementary. I also attended the lecture at Whitney Lab on bioluminescence in marine organisms. While it was definitely engaging, I'd like to see more applications of the research besides science for science's sake. I remember hearing something about inserting fluorescent genes into other organisms allowing us to see them more easily, but I feel like that could have been elaborated on more.

9/29/14-10/3/14

This week wasn't particularly stressful; I didn't really have trouble with anything in class and understood everything fairly well. We got our assignment to campaign for a specific piece of evidence that supports evolution. My group is doing embryology. It seems like a lot of work, but it's also interesting, and the competitive aspect is certainly a good motivator. I can't help but wish I'd gotten DNA or fossil records instead, though. I'm more familiar with those than with embryology, so I'll have to conduct more research. Our first FRQ is coming up soon; I'm not worried about it, but I certainly don't think I can just breeze through it either.