Everyone did great at teaching their various subjects!!! Now, onto the final exam questions. Create three questions from your topic of lecture today for the final. What are the things that you think your fellow geeks aught to know? Homework will be asked for at the beginning of class tomorrow.
Also, reading for tonight will be Chapters 10, 35, 36, 37. It is the world of the Autotrophs we will be discussing tomorrow!! Woo-hoo. Not that I have a bias! LOL!
Janine
3 comments:
Why does the sun shine?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMiRZ48d4Nc&feature=related
Here is an even better version of "They Might Be Giants" Why does the sun shine from the Venus Fly Trap Lady!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyz7e8iQ6Uo
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, blue-green bacteria or Cyanophyta or pond-scum, are one of the only known prokaryotes that obtain their energy through photosynthesis.
They are a significant component of the marine nitrogen cycle and an important primary producer in many areas of the ocean, but are also found on land.
Cyanobacteria are found in almost every conceivable environment, from oceans to fresh water to bare rock to soil. Most are found in fresh water, while others are marine, occur in damp soil, or even temporarily moistened rocks in deserts. A few are endosymbionts in lichens, plants, various protists, or sponges and provide energy for the host. Some live in the fur of sloths, providing a form of camouflage.
Fossilized oxygen-producing cyanobacteria have been found from 2.8 billion years ago.
Cyanobacteria include unicellular and colonial species. Colonies may form filaments, sheets or even hollow balls.
Cyanobacteria are autotrophes. Attached to thylakoid membrane, phycobilisomes act as light harvesting antennae for photosynthesis. In some cyanobacteria, the color of light influences the composition of phycobilisomes. So in red light they can be green and in green light red, for example.
Application
Certain cyanobacteria produce cyanotoxins. Sometimes a mass-reproduction of cyanobacteria as a result of excess phosphorus in the water results in algal blooms.
Hypoliths are cyanobacteria living in extremely cold conditions on the surface of rocks.
They are being sold as superfood, notably spirulina. It has been suggested by manufacturers that they could be a much more substantial part of human food supplies, but these claims have been mostly disproven by scientists.
Along with algae, some hydrogen producing cyanobacteria are being considered as an alternative energy source, notably at Oregon State University.
Pictures
http://fig.cox.miami.edu/Faculty/Dana/cyano.html
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