The first vaccines

Do you know that the principle of vaccination was applied by Asian physicians who gave children dried crusts from the lesions (поражения) of people suffering from smallpox to protect against the disease?


The first vaccine was introduced by British physician Edward Jenner, who in 1796 used the cowpox virus (vaccinia) to confer protection against smallpox, a related virus, in humans.

In 1881 French microbiologist Louis Pasteur demonstrated immunization against anthrax by injecting sheep with a preparation containing attenuated forms of the bacillus that causes the disease. Four years later he developed a protective suspension against rabies.

Do you know the name of the first vaccine produced by Pasteur?

Grammar. Plural forms of nouns

 Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s. Examples: a cat - many cats; a box - many boxes, a baby - many babies, potato – potatoes.

There are some irregular noun plurals. Examples: a means - many means, species – species, mouse – mice, focus – foci, cactus – cacti, fungus – fungi, nucleus – nuclei, analysis – analyses, diagnosis – diagnoses, thesis – theses, crisis – crises, phenomenon – phenomena, criterion – criteria, datum – data, bacterium –bacteria. 

But: virus – viruses! 

The pea family

 Some plants in the pea family have a rather unusual ability that sets them apart from the rest of the plant world. They can collapse their leaves and stems when touched or disturbed in some way. The best known of these ‘sensitive plants’ is Mimosa pudica, a tropical weed (сорняк) that comes from South and Central America.

It is a complex process that happens within the plant’s cells that provide support to the leaves and stems. The cells are filled with water, which keeps them turgid and firm, when the plant is touched the cells release the water deflating them, resulting in the leaves and stems to collapse (сжиматься) and fold inwards… if you watch closely, a few minutes later the water will be pumped back and they will return to normal.

 

So why do they do it? Plants have to come up with many clever ways to stop themselves being munched on by animals and insects, as they can’t run away and hide! So the drooping leaves will deter (удерживать) hungry animals and hopefully shake off insects. The sensitive plant also comes in quite useful if you get bitten by a monocled Cobra snake, the extracts from the roots can be used to counteract the venom (яд)

Antibiotics and How They Work

Antibiotics are type of medicine used to fight bacterial infections. Antibiotics are strong tools used in medicine today, but how do they really work? Well let’s take a look at how it works.

Antibiotics are like selective poison. It is made to kill the bad bacteria in your body, but not your body’s cells. The antibiotic stops one of the vital functions of a bacteria cell. If the bacteria cell can't function properly, so it dies. Antibiotics take advantage of the fact that bacteria and human cells are very different. Each contain different enzymes, or the proteins in its DNA that tell the cell what, where, and how to do things. An antibiotic disables an important enzyme in the bacteria, but does not disable the very defend enzyme in the cells in your body. This causes the bacteria cells to die but not your cells. Penicillin was one of the first antibiotics. These antibiotics disabled the enzyme that allowed a bacteria cell to build a cell wall. If it can't build a cell wall it can not reproduce and the bacteria cell dies. Part of developing an antibiotic is looking for these differences in enzymes and then developing a medicine to exploit the bacteria’s weakness. 

One of the main problems with antibiotics is that it can't stop bacteria that have mutated. Because the bacteria can reproduce so fast the chance of a mutation is high. The mutation can be through sexual reproduction or a defect in asexual reproduction, but any mutation can alter antibiotics useless. Even if there is only one cell that has mutated, the one cell can survive and reproduce very quickly, making it as if the antibiotic was never even used. Many bacterial diseases today have mutated so they are immune or almost immune to antibiotics. These kind of infections are very dangerous and can require months of hospitalization and treatment. Even so, there are many antibiotics that have been developed and that are used today. 

Antibiotics sadly don't work on viruses. Viruses are not living things; they are only filled with DNA or RNA and contain no other living parts. It uses other cells living parts to reproduce. It doesn't have the functions of a living thing, and those functions are what antibiotics stop. If there is nothing to stop, then there is nothing antibiotics can do. Below is a news report about a antibacterial resistant infection. Ever increasing use of antibiotics have caused more and more simple illnesses to become seriuos and hard to treat infection.

Famous Biologists. Part II

1. The field of biology has seen many important discoveries throughout the centuries. From vaccines to theories of the beginning and progression of life on Earth. Here are some of the famous biologists that have made significant contributions to various areas of life.

2. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), nationality: German. Known for: Plant hybridizations and genetics. When he wrote “Experiments on Plant Hybridization”, he paved the way (прокложил дорогу) for biology students to study genetic traits in peas. During his experiments, Gregor found that a specific trait would be dominant over other traits in the same species. This became to be recognized as the Mendelian inheritance (наследственность).

3. Joseph Lister (1827-1912), nationality: British. Known for: Using antiseptics for cleaning and sterilizing wounds. Joseph Lister was born in 1827 in the city of Upton, Essex, England where he attended the University of London, and later in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow. He became a surgeon (хирург) and pioneered the work of antiseptic or sterile surgery. He used carbolic acid to cleanse wounds and to sterilize instruments used for surgery.

4. Some of their discoveries have helped cure diseases, perform medical procedures, and classify animals. Others have formed the basis of the medical profession as we know it today. The many discoveries have improved not only our understanding of history but also our quality of living.

Life and its characteristics

1. Biology is the primary science concerned with the study of life. It arises such questions as: How do we know if something is living? Is a virus alive or dead? What are the characteristics of life? These are all very important questions with equally important answers.

2. Living things include both the visible world of animals and plants as well as the invisible world of bacteria and viruses. On a basic level, we can say that life is ordered. Organisms have an enormously complex organization. We're all familiar with the intricate (сложный) systems of the basic unit of life, the cell.

3. Life can also "work." No, not the daily employment variety, but living creatures can take in energy from the environment. This energy, in the form of food, is transformed to maintain metabolic processes and for survival. Life grows and develops. This means more than just getting larger in size. Living organisms also have the ability to rebuild and repair themselves when injured (поврежденный). Life can reproduce. Have you ever seen dirt (грязь) reproduce? I don't think so. Life can only come from other living creatures.

4. Life can respond. Think about the last time you accidentally stubbed (ударили, ушибли) your toe. Almost instantly, you flinched (отдернулись) back in pain. Life is characterized by this response to stimuli. Finally, life can adapt and respond to the demands placed on it by the environment. There are three basic types of adaptations that can occur in higher organisms. So we can say the key characteristics or functions of living beings are organization, energy, growth/development, reproduction, responding to stimuli and adaptation. These characteristics form the basis of the study of biology. 

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Biology as a science

1.Biology is the science of life. Biologists study the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution and distribution of living organisms. There are generally considered to be at least nine “umbrella” fields of biology, each of which consists of multiple subfields: biochemistry, botany, cellular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, molecular biology, physiology, zoology.

2.Biology has a long history. Even early humans had to study the animals that they hunted and know where to find the plants that they gathered for food. In classical times, Aristotle is often considered to be the first to practice scientific zoology. He performed extensive studies of marine life and plants. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci made detailed anatomical drawings of human beings. One of the first illustrated biology books is a botanical text written by German botanist Leonhard Fuchs in 1542.

3.During the Victorian era, and throughout the 19th century, “Natural Science” became something of a mania. On Nov. 24, 1859, Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species".  In 1866, Gregor Mendel published papers on inheritance (наследственность) and is now known as the father of genetics. In 1953, Watson and Crick explained the structure and function of DNA.

4.The 20th and 21st centuries may be known to future generations as the beginning of the “Biological Revolution”. We may “grow” batteries from bacteria or light buildings with bioluminescent fungi. We may discover ways to save our oceans while using them to produce enough food to feed the nations. The possibilities are endless; biology is just coming into its own.

Building blocks of life (cells)

1. The Cell Theory states that cells are the basic units of life, and that cells come from other cells. Cells got their name from an Englishman named Robert Hooke in the year 1665. He first saw and named "cells" while he was experimenting with a new instrument we now call a "microscope. For his experiment he cut very thin slices from cork. He looked at these slices under a microscope. He saw tiny box-like shapes. These tiny boxes reminded him of the plain small rooms that monks (монахи) lived in called "cells".

2. All living beings are made up of cells. Some of them are made up of only one cell and others have many cells. Sometimes people think of cells as a balloon filled with fluid (жидкость, газ). That is not really true because a balloon does not let things move in and out like the membrane of a cell. It is important for cells to be able to move materials in and out of the cell. Cells are amazing. They are all made of similar building blocks, but they do many different things depending on how they are programmed.

3. Prokaryotic cells have no nucleus or organelles enclosed within membranes. Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus and organelles that are surrounded by membranes. Each organelle does a specific cell function. Individual protists (протисты, простейшие) have only one cell, while plants and animals can have trillions of cells.

4. The adult human body is made up of about 37 trillion cells. If you lined up all the cells of an average human, end to end, the line could circle the earth almost 19 times! Complex creatures like humans have special cells for special functions like carrying oxygen around the body, digesting food, or making bone. Other cells defend us against invading (вторга́ющиеся) bacteria and viruses. There are cells that transmit signals through out the body like the signals from your eyes to your brain while reading this article. There are hundreds of jobs that cells can do.


Comment on how many different types of cells does the average human body have ?

a)20
b)200
c)400
d)1000

A Cell is a building block of life

There is a great variety of living things on our planet. Living material is called protoplasm that is not a chemical compound but a complex mixture varying in different organs and organisms. The amazing fact is that apart from viruses all living matter is made up from the same building blocks called cells. This was discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665 (Studying a piece of cork under a microscope he saw hundreds of little boxes).

A cell is a smallest unit of life. Sometimes one cell is one being as for Paramecium, a  unicellular that is  widespread in marine, brackish and freshwater environments.  Sometimes thousand trillions cells combine to form one organism that behaves as one unit.  And when a cell has grown to a characteristic size it divides and forms two cells. For a one-celled organism it is a process of reproduction. And for a multicellular copying of cells is only growth of organism and the process of reproduction is much more complex and is sexual or asexual.

In a multicellular organism large number of cells of the same type group to form tissue; tissues form organs. Thus different cells have different structure and are specialized to do a particular job they all have certain features in common. Cell contains organic molecules made mainly of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. Substances constantly get into a cell and chemical processes take place.

Cells differ in shape and size. Different structures have animal and plant cells. Follow the link below to know more about an animal cell:

Cells: the building blocks of life

Try to produce your glog about a plant cell. Good luck!

Words to know:
be made up from , be specialized,  behave, carbon , cells, chemical, chemical compound, combine, contain, copy, differ, discover, divide, environment, Eukaryote, feature; certain features, function, get into, hydrogen, in common/in general, organic, inorganic, living material/matter, living thing/being/organism, membrane , mixture; complex mixture, multicellular, nitrogen, nucleus, organelle , oxygen, particular, Prokaryotes,  protein, reproduction, sexual, asexual, shape, size, storage , substance, take place, the same /alike, tissue, under a microscope,  unicellular/one-celled organism, unit, variety, vary, widespread.

Introduction to the Animal Kingdom

Vocabulary list

lack - to not have something, or not have enough of something: An animal cell lacks cell walls.

share - to have the same interest/opinion, etc as someone else: All plants share certain characteristics.

enable - to make someone able to do something, or to make something possible: Many body functions enable animals to maintain homeostasis.

vertebral column / backbone - a ​spine, the line of bones down the centre of animal’s back

vertebrate - an ​animal that has a ​spine /invertebrate - an ​animal with no ​spine: Invertebrates, such as ​worms, are the ​main ​diet of these ​water ​birds.

bilateral symmetry - the fact of the two halves of something on either side of a particular line being exactly the same / radial symmetry - the condition of having similar parts regularly arranged around a central axis

homeostasis - internal conditions remain stable and relatively constant.

body cavity - any fluid-filled space in a multicellular organism other than those of vessels.

All members of kingdom Animalia share certain characteristics. Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic heterotrophs whose cells lack cell walls. The bodies of most animals contain tissues. Over 95 percent of all animal species are often grouped in a single, informal category: invertebrates. Invertebrates are animals that have no backbone, or vertebral column. The other 5 percent of animals are called vertebrates, because they have a backbone.

Animals carry out the following essential functions: feeding, respiration, circulation, excretion, response, movement, and reproduction. The study of the functions of organisms is called physiology. The structure, or anatomy, of an animal’s body enables it to carry out physiological functions. Many body functions help animals maintain homeostasis. Homeostasis is often maintained by internal feedback mechanisms. Most of these mechanisms involve feedback inhibition, in which the product or result of a process stops or limits the process. Complex animals tend to have high levels of cell specialization and internal body organization, bilateral symmetry, a front end or head with sense organs, and a body cavity.

Answer the questions:

What is an animal?

What animals can be called invertebrates?

What essential physiological functions do animals carry out?

 What type of symmetry do vertebrates have?