1. ************************************************** Week 1, Nature, the maestro..(3.5 billions years to a few millions years) Week 2, Pre-historic and Ancient (Up to 500 AD) Week 3, Medieval to WW I (500 AD to 1914) Week 4, WW I (1914 to 1918) Week 5, WW II (1939 to 1945) Week 6, Post war, Present, Future.. (1945 to present and future) From Clubs and Spears to the Invisible Cloak, the Role of Technology in Weaponry Looking at the historical development, usage and technology related to weapons. From 3.5 billions years ago till present

2. We will venture into: ◦ History ◦ Psychology ◦ Sociology ◦ Biology ◦ Chemistry ◦ Physics ◦ All fields of Engineering In this course, And my academic background is: Physics and Materials Science.

3. Any suggestions, modifications, corrections and additions to the materials covered is greatly appreciated.

4. But there are “questions of the week” A prize will be given to a person with correct answer, picked up randomly from the pool of correct answers a week later. To be fair to everyone: Please no Googling! There is no homework, PQ or exams..

5. Nature This week

6. Before 1969: Life was classified into two kingdoms: ◦ Plant Kingdom – ◦ Animal Kingdom From 1969 – 1990: Life was classified into 5 Kingdoms (R.H. Whittaker ): Monera (germs) Protista (single-celled organism) Plantae (plants) Fungi Animalia (animals) Classification of Life From: http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/N100/3domain.html

7. The Three Domains of Life (Carl Woese, 1990) ◦ Archaea, ◦ Bacteria ◦ Eukarya Now:

8. Inhabitants of some of the most extreme environments on the planet. Archaea

9. 1- “methane-makers” ◦ Use only CO2, H and N to produce energy to live, and as a result give off methane gas. Live in swamps, marshes, gut of cattle, termites, etc. 2- “salt lovers” ◦ Require an environment as salty or even10x saltier than ocean water. Some prefer up to 30% salt concentrations! These bacteria live in the Dead Sea, the Great Salt Lake, salt evaporation ponds. 3- “heat / cold lovers” ◦ Prefer temperatures up to 110 � C or near or below freezing. ◦ Thermophiles Live in hot sulfur springs, Yellowstone Park, deep sea hydrothermal vents “black smokers”, geothermal power plants. Also live in ocean waters around Antarctica, under the polar ice caps, etc. Archaea, continued..

10. They can be: ◦ cocci (spherical) ◦ bacilli (rods) ◦ spirochete (spiral). Bacteria

11. Eukarya Broken down into four kingdoms: animals Plant Fungi protists

12. From Wikipedia: ◦ They are unicellular, or they are multicellular without specialized tissues, and this simple cellular organization distinguishes the protists from other eukaryotes, such as fungi, animals and plants. ◦ Protists live in almost any environment that contains liquid water. What are protists?

13. ◦ Many protists, such as the algae, are photosynthetic and are vital primary producers in ecosystems, particularly in the ocean as part of the plankton. ◦ Other protists, such as the Kinetoplastids and Apicomplexa, are responsible for a range of serious human diseases, such as malaria and sleeping sickness.

14. How did it happen?

15. Why animals fight? (defensive and offensive) ◦ Food/water ◦ Territory ◦ Mate/offspring Lets start with the most recent life form, animals

16. Becoming stealth by: Hiding Fighting strategy

17. And the master of disguise, the octopus

18. More animals with ability to disguise.

19. Excerpt from a powerpoint by “ Phyllis Robinson, Keith Murphy and Melissa Greene” Source: www.life.umd.edu/grad/mlfsc/res/AnimalDefe nsevsPredators.ppt Chemical Defence

20. Chemical Defense  There are two main ways animals can use chemicals to defend themselves.  Animals can synthesize toxin using their own metabolic processes, or they can accumulate toxin from the food they eat.

21. Chemical Defense Animals which synthesize their own toxin are able to convert chemical compounds in their body to a poison. ► There are many amphibians that produce skin toxins. The skin toxins are produced by special poison glands, usually located on the animal's back or throughout the skin. The poison dart frog has poison glands scattered all over its body. Photo courtesy of Dr. John Daly

22. Chemical Defense In another example, the fire salamander makes a nerve poison, which it can squirt from glands on its back. Photo courtesy of Henk Wallays, Cal. Acad. of Sciences.

23. Chemical Defense Many animals accumulate toxin from their food rather than synthesizing it from scratch. For example, the larvae of Monarch butterflies accumulate toxins from the plants they inhabit. Birds that eat the Monarchs vomit and learn to avoid them in the future. Their bright coloration allows birds to remember and avoid them. Photo courtesy of T. W. Davies, Cal. Acad. of Sciences.

24. Chemical Defense ► Interestingly, many organisms which are distasteful advertise this fact to predators by having bright body colors or markings, as if to say, “Notice me! I’m dangerous!”

25. Honey Bee: ◦ A virgin queen that survives to adulthood without being killed by her rivals will take a mating flight with a dozen or so male drones. ◦ During mating, their genitals explode and snap off inside the queen! Some strange facts about animals reproduction habits From: http://www.neatorama.com/2007/04/30/30-strangest-animal-mating-habits/

26. Use sex as greetings, a mean of solving disputes, making up for fights, and as a favors in exchange for food. They practice all the techniques that we, the humans, do! Bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee):

27. ◦ They have both male and female sexual organs. ◦ In this case, the male organ turns out to be two dagger-like penises that they use to hunt as well as mate. ◦ During mating, two flatworms fight to stab each other, while avoiding getting stabbed. Flatworm:

28. ◦ The "loser" who gets stabbed will absorb the sperm through its skin and then scoots off to bear the burden of motherhood! Flatworm:

29. Clownfish live in a group consisting of the female (the largest), the male (next largest) and then the non-breeding males (the smallest). If the female dies, the male will change sex and become the female! Then the largest of the non-breeding males will get a promotion to become the breeding male. Clownfish:

30. To court a female during the short mating season, a male porcupine stands up on his hind legs, waddles up to her, and then sprays her with a huge stream of urine from as far as 6 feet away. If the female wasn't impressed, she'll scream and shake off the urine. But, if she is ready, she approaches the male and they do it very carefully! Porcupine:

31. The male releases its sperms on small twigs or stalks in what scientists call the "love garden", then lays down an intricate silken trail to the spot. When a female stumbles upon this trail, she will follow it to seek out the "artist". If she likes his work, then she will sit on the sperm. However, if another male spots the garden, he will trash it and lay his own instead! Red Velvet Mite:

32. All whiptail lizards are females. Reproduction is preceded by pseudo copulation, where two females act out the roles of a male mounting a female (they switch roles later on). Apparently, this is required to stimulate egg production in both lizards. When the eggs hatch, they will be all-female clones of the mother lizard. Whiptail Lizard:

33. At first, scientists were perplexed because they've never caught a male anglerfish. The tiny male anglerfish are born without any digestive system, so once they hatch, they have to find a female quickly. When a male finds a female, he quickly bites her body and releases an enzyme that digests his skin and her body to fuse the two in an eternal embrace. The male then wastes away, becoming nothing but a lump on the female anglerfish's body! Anglerfish:

34. When the female is ready to spawn, her "male appendage" is there, ready to release sperms to fertilize her egg. Anglerfish:

35. When the coiled sperm is straightened out, it measures about 2 inches which is over 1,000 times longer than a human sperm. Turns out the very long sperm is evolutionarily driven by the just-as- long female reproductive tract, which is like an obstacle course, complete with harsh chemicals to weed out weak sperms. Fruit Fly:

36. Body invasion: a clever and common method of survival

37. Plants NEXT

38. Plants Have one big disadvantage. THEY CAN’T MOVE!

39. So they must be much smarter than animals to defend themselves. They are! To see them in action, you must speed up the time.

41. Clips shown earlier is from “Planet Erath” series produced by BBC. One special shot is my favorite

42. 5 CD collection is the prize for question of the week.

43. More time-lapsed movie of plants

44. How do they procreate? Seeds and pollen are the most common method. Both depend on cooperation of wind or other animals (mostly birds or insects)

45. A few strange ways seeds are dispersed.

46. A murderous tree!

47. A few interesting plants..

48. The spindly orange vine known as dodder is a parasitic plant. Time-lapse video reveals that a dodder seedling twirls through the air, sniffing volatile chemicals released by neighboring plants in search of a suitable host. When it finds one, dodder entwines its victim and inserts nozzles into the host's stem, siphoning of vital nutrients.

49. Venus flytrap and Mimosa pudica You don’t need time lapsed photography to see them move.

51. Recommended: 2833 Old Gravenstein Highway South Sebastopol, California 95472

52. Alpine buttercups are known for their solar tracking abilities – their small yellow flowers follow the sun's daily journey from east to west. Researchers think that the behavior helps keep the flowers warm, which boosts chances of pollination by heat-seeking insects. Scientists have shown that the buttercup responds specifically to the blue wavelengths of sunlight.

53. A small Asian shrub named the telegraph plant tracks the sun - not with its blooms, but with its leaves. Small leaflets attached to the base of larger leaves constantly swivel to monitor changing levels of sunlight, adjusting the position of the primary leaves as needed. The leaves move so quickly you can see them dance with the naked eye.

54. Irises bloom in the spring and early summer. They know that the time for flowering has arrived because they can sense that the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter.

55. The wild cucumber's spidering tendrils, which grab onto fences and other plants for support, are super-sensers. Most people cannot feel the weight of a string weighing less than 0.07 ounces. But the tendrils of the wild cucumber respond to the touch of a string weighing only 0.009 ounces and immediately start twirling around the tiny thread.

56. In lab experiments, researchers have shown that a weedy beach plant known as sea rocket recognizes its siblings and restrains its root growth in their presence.

57. Contnued.. When planted near strangers, however, sea rocket grows as many roots as possible, since there is no benefit to helping out an unrelated plant. Sea rocket probably identifies family based on chemicals that roots secrete into the soil

58. Common bread wheat, also known as “winter wheat," only flowers and makes grain following a cold winter. If winter snows do not blanket the sprouts, they never flower.

59. Continued.. But if prior to planting, farmers keep the seeds in the freezer for a while, then the sprouts will flower even in the absence of snow. In other words, the plants remember their exposure to the cold. Slides from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?id=what-plants- smell-plant-unusal-talents#1

60. The largest flower. Rafflesia arnoldii or "corpse flower".

61. The unseen world Bacteria and virus

62. Some basic facts.

63. SEM, bacteria on the surface of tongue.

64. Bacteria Virus, side by side FROM: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bacteria_vs_Virus BacteriaVirus Living attributes: Living organismOpinions differ on whether viruses are a form of life, or organic structures that interact with living organisms. Number of cells: Unicellular; one cellNo cells; not living Structures: DNA and RNA floating freely in cytoplasm. Cell wall and cell membrane DNA or RNA enclosed inside a coat of protein

65. BacteriaVirus Ribosomes (Molecular protein synthesis machine) PresentAbsent Enzymes:YesYes, in some Nucleus:No Can cause disease?Yes Infection:LocalizedSystemic How is it treated?:AnibioticsVaccines prevent the spread and antiviral medications help to slow reproduction but can not stop it completely. Beneficial?:Question of the week

66. We know that there are some bacteria DIRECTLY beneficial to humans. Are there viruses, similar to bacteria, that DIRECTLY benefit humans? Question of the week

67. BacteriaVirus Reproduction:Fission- a form of asexual reproduction Invades a host cell and takes over the cell causing it to make copies of the viral DNA/RNA. Destroys the host cell releasing new viruses. Size:Larger (1000nm)Smaller (20 - 400nm)

68. How virus attacks

70. Engineering virus to help us fight bacteria

71. Me a few months ago..

72. Ludwig Angina

73. Dental infections account for approximately eighty percent of cases of Ludwig's angina. infection of the gums surrounding the partially erupted lower (usually third) molars. it is very important to obtain dental consultation for lower-third molars at the first sign of any pain, bleeding from the gums, sensitivity to heat/cold or swelling at the angle of the jaw. Can also be caused by piercing tongue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig%27s_angina Ludwig's angina

74. An anaerobic organism or anaerobe is any organism that does not require oxygen for growth. Anaerobic organism “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_organism”

76. Nature Goulash!

77. What is it? Collection of informative, entertaining and strange bits of subjects. Unorganized Will be used at the end of class time if time permits.

78. This weeks collection Smart animals

79. TED talk about bacteria

80. What is Prion?

81. Unseen World set to music