Saturday, September 27, 2014

squirrelzzzz r us.

Just to let you know,
things at uni are getting pretty hectic.
I've got my "major assignments" for all my units.
So it's time to start working hard!
But before that,
let me just yell 'Congrats' to all my friends back home,
who've just had their first week of uni.
I hear cries of anguish already.
I am quite excited to share the Ups and Downs of uni with them.
#UniLyfe

Not that I've got that out of the way,
maybe I'll share a bit about what these "major assignments" are about.
For Organisation Behaviour,
we have to produce an article/essay about the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
Let me explain SFP with an example.
You see a guy you don't know.
He looks like a jerk to you.
You interact with him,
but you (unconsciously) treat him like a jerk,
because that's the picture you've painted of him.
He, in turn, becomes unhappy and starts acting like a jerk.
THE PROPHECY CAME TRUE.
He became the person you think he is.
So, to put this in theory:
Your perception of someone will cause you 
to behave according to your perception.
You behaviour will affect that person and they will react accordingly.
It's quite interesting, I must say.

Alright, let's not get sidetracked.
For economics, another essay!
This time about Common Property.
I'm sure no one likes economics (I don't either),
so I probably won't explain what common property is. 
For Data Analysis, we have to….
analyse data.
Ok let's not go into that too…
And last but not least, 
for Biology, we're writing a mini-review (AKA essay…again)
about the cross-kingdom symbiosis of animals.
And that's what I'll write about in this blog post.

Forgive me if this topic bores you incredibly.
But I just thought this would be a good opportunity
to practice my Scientific Communication skills
(not that I have any…).
But more importantly,
it'll help me structure my actual assignment better.
Now that I've given fair warning,
read at your own risk. =)

So, for this mini-review,
I'll be writing about the Northern Flying Squirrel.
Scientific Name: Glaucomys sabrinus.
It's a squirrel (clearly…) located in the U.S.
And when you think about squirrels,
what usually follows is nuts, acorns and trees.
But this is a slightly more interesting species.
It can FLY glide.
Its "loose" skin can act as a parachute when it jumps off a tree,
which can be extremely beneficial.
Now isn't that fascinating?

Figure 1. A northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) exhibiting its unique physiological ability to glide.


But what my review is focusing on is its symbiotic relationship with fungi!
What kind of fungi you ask?
Mycorrhizal fungi.
As many of you know, mushrooms use wind or water to spread the spores.
The spores land somewhere and a new mushroom appears.
A mycorrhizal fungi could do that too…except,
they're all UNDERGROUND (...or at least some of them) !
How are you supposed to let the wind blow your spores away,
when your whole body is underneath the surface of the Earth?

That's when the squirrel comes in.
Our tiny lil' mammal "flies" down to the ground.
Tracks down where the mycorrhizae is (mainly through smell).
Digs it up.
And eats the fruiting body of the fungi (ie: Truffles).
The spores of the fungi are super-strong.
So it wouldn't be digested easily.
It stays safe in the gut of the squirrel.
UNTIL it's time to use "excrete".
The spores exit the squirrel and land somewhere far away from its "mother".
And it begins to germinate and grow.
This is the life cycle of mycorrhizae.

That's a pretty concise summary of the squirrel-mycorrhizae relationship.
The squirrel eats the mycorrhizae's fruiting bodies and gain nutrients.
And the mycorrhizae benefits by using the squirrel to spread its spores.
It's a WIN-WIN situation.
Both parties benefits.
Its a mutualistic symbiotic relationship.
Happy Endings !

That's how most organisms function in an ecosystem.
They can't do things alone.
They usually work with a partner organism.
In fact, some organisms are sooooo dependent on these relationships,
their names actually describe the symbiotic relationships they have.
An example would be Lichen.
Lichen isn't actually a name for an organism,
but the name for the Algal-Fungi relationship.
The algae (think: seagrass) and fungi both have their own names,
but they depend on each other so much that they're inseparable !
And that's why we call them Lichens.

Now what's another example?
How about mycorrhizae !
Mycorrhiza isn't the name of the fungi.
It's the name of the fungi-plant relationship.
Some fungi grow underground (like the one I described with the squirrel!).
And they stick to the roots of trees.
By doing so, they leech the sugar and energy that the tree produces,
during Photosynthesis.
And the fungi returns the favour by giving the tree
nutrients it finds underground.


Figure 2. The root-system of a typical plant (left) and the mycorrhizal-enhanced root system (right).


Observe the figure above.
You'll see that a tree can't take much nutrients with such a small root system.
But with the mycorrhizae growing with the tree,
it's widespread root system will highly enhance the range of area
where nutrients in the soil can be taken.
This is another mutualistic relationship.
The mycorrhiza fungi takes the tree's energy,
and the tree takes the fungi's nutrients.
What's surprising is mycorrhizal relationships exist in easily more than 60% of all trees.
Next time you see a tree,
remember there might be a fungi living right underneath it.

Most symbiotic relationships don't happen because organisms are nice to one another.
They are selfish little bast*rds.
It just so happens that,
by coincidence,
their interaction benefits both parties.
Let's go back to our squirrel.
It wants to eat and survive,
it couldn't care less about those spores its helping the mycorrhiza spread.
But, almost unintentionally,
the actions of the squirrel has benefitted the mycorrhiza.
In most cases,
this relationship ends here.
But wait !
The squirrel is actually INCREDIBLY important to an ecosystem's health,
BECAUSE it helps spread mycorrhizal spores around.
And what does mycorrhizal spores do?
It helps trees.
You can't have a lush green forest without any trees, can you?
And trees need nutrients to grow.
Its root systems aren't good enough.
What do they need to help with nutrient uptake?
Mycorrhizal fungi !
And those fungi ARE there when the tree need them.
And its ALL thanks to our trusty squirrel (G. sabrinus).
Because of it,
the spores are spread all over the forest.
Lots of trees have mycorrhizal fungi helping them.
And the forest lived happily ever after.


Figure 3. The benefits obtained from the symbiotic relationships between the northern flying squirrel 
(Glaucomys sabrinus) and mycorrhizal fungi and between mycorrhizal fungi and coniferous trees and between coniferous trees and G. sabrinus.


Can you see the bigger picture now?
The squirrel-mycorrhizae relationship helps ENHANCE
the mycorrhizae-tree relationship!
And again, all this probably isn't planned.
It's just Mother Nature making miracles happen, naturally.
This is the story,
of how a squirrel's fungi lunch,
has saved an entire ecosystem of trees.

Oh Ecology,
How I love you.

Listening to Next Chance to Move On - Shihoko Hirata


Breaking Assignments,
TK
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Friday, September 5, 2014

roasted turkey and cranberry sauce

Like the title?
It's a style taken from a TV show I'm currently watching.
Please Like Me.
No, I mean THAT is the name of the show.
Didn't see that coming?
Yeah, I get that a lot.

Anyways.
If you've been "following" me on Facebook,
you would've known that
I've been admitted into the hospital a few days ago.
And since everyone's asking what's wrong with me,
I thought I'd might as well document my short stay
at Ward 62.

So all this began,
presumably,
on Monday.
What better way to start you Monday
than with unbearable abdominal pain?
As per planned,
I went on a trip up Winthrop Tower
and took some pretty cool photos.
What's NOT so cool is
them finishing 30 minutes late.
I didn't mind that at all,
because the tour guide was pretty interesting.
He knew a lot of stuff…
Like, the student who drowned in the Reflection Pool.
Or the guy who committed suicide by hopping off Winthrop Tower.
*Ahem*
Back to the story.
So, after the tour,
I had 30 minutes to walk from one end of the campus,
over to the other end for my lecture.
All while trying to grab some grub for lunch.
Of course,
nothing of such triviality would be able to stop me.
I got to my lecture on time.
AND had enough time to have a full lunch.
(Oh gosh.
I'm feeling so sick just thinking about saying the word
"FULL" with the word "LUNCH".)
So I had a lecture after my quick lunch.
And a 3-hour lab class after that.
I brought some Red Frogs lollies with me,
so I won't go hungry.
Ahhh, I love Red Frogs.
Unfortunately,
my tummy wasn't feeling so well during the lab.
Could be 'cause of the Red Frogs I've been having.
I minimised consumption.
But I can't stop eating.
They're so good, especially in a 3-hour lab.

So my tummy pain didn't go away,
even after the lab.
In fact,
I think it got worse because I didn't have some work to distract myself with.
I had a quiz to study for after that.
But I couldn't concentrate.
I ALSO couldn't stop eating Red Frogs.
So, I decided to call it quits for the night.
Head back home and get a good night's rest.
That would be the sensible thing to do, yes?

It would be sensible…
If I could just bloody fall asleep.
I fell in and out of sleep throughout the night.
And I was just gonna stay that way for the rest of the night.
But then,
I freaked out because I thought it really was
APPENDICITIS !?
Say it with me, people.
A-P-P-E-N-D-I-C-I-T-I-S.
So I went over to Mum and Dad's room,
and slept with them.
I fell asleep this time.
Hmmm…
Could be the weird kidney pills they gave me
before I passed out…
But at least the pain was almost gone by the time I woke up!

I was quite crossed with myself.
I had lots of things planned out for Tuesday.
I had a Facelab Experiment to participate in.
And PAL Study Group to be part of.
And soil samples to unpack.
But it's all ruined.
Thanks to my weak, pathetic appendix.
WHAT IS IT EVEN GOOD FOR !?
We went to see my GP.
Our GP told us to get an ultrasound scan.
We did that.
And got redirected to the Emergency Department of the hospital.
Wheeeee~
I didn't get to sit in the ambulance though,
because it's not "life-threatening enough".

The doctors didn't think of appendicitis as much of a threat too.
They were pretty lax about getting me admitted.
I swear,
I've described my problem to at least half a dozen different people that day.
After talking to random doctors and sitting around for 2 hours,
I finally got onto a bed.
But by the time THAT happened,
the pain in my abdomen had pretty much disappeared.
I'm cured!
But the doctors still think I'm sick.
I got placed in Ward #62 on the 6th floor,
together with Mr Ashworth (love his last name),
Mr Uebbing and Mr Menners.
Hmmm….
I do kinda feel sorry for the patients in the hospital.
They're all fairly old.
And it's sad to see them struggling in bed.
But one thing that cheered me up was how nice they were.
They were relatively optimistic,
especially when you look at how frail their body was.
So,
as I laid there,
I stared up at the ceiling…
Because that's all I could do.
Oh, and that's where the TV's located too.
Pretty cool, hey?
TV at the hospital.
That means I wouldn't miss my weekly dose of Please Like Me!

The surgical team had a look at me.
And they were gonna operate on me that night.
But I looked fine,
so they decided to "observe" me more
for the time being.
And when you're under "observation",
you can't eat/drink anything.
So what they meant was,
"Let's starve him more, and then see what happens."
So I went to bed that night.
Hungry.
I'd only had a couple of cold sandwiches.
That's all they had to offer.
I missed dinner.

I hope I hadn't forgotten to mention all the special considerations
I'd have to apply for.
I missed a lab session,
a tutorial and my quiz closed that night.
And although the hospital was well-equippied with a television
for each patient,
they still had a long way to go before
they'd get WiFi access.
The next morning,
I was the last to wake.
Because I'm such a pig.
And I love sleeping.
The surgical team had a look at me again.
And then they left.
Y'know, this is getting really annoying.
They were going to get me to go for another ultrasound scan.
But because I'm such a good patient.
They decided to (surprise surprise) delay it.
And not by a few hours,
as per hospital norm,
but by a few weeks.
They fed me lunch and I was free to go.
Lunch was insanely good though.
I must've been really hungry.
Roasted Turkey with Cranberry Sauce.
(I'd say the picture for this looks the best in this blog post)
Peach Crumble and Custard for dessert too!
Ahhhh, good times.
I hope the people in my ward end up well enough to leave too.
They were nice people.
Every time I pass by the hospital on my way home from uni,
I look at it.
And I don't feel like it's such an alien place anymore.


Listening to Ghost - Ella Henderson

Catching up with Uni,
TK
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