Biological pigment

What is smallpox exactly? Smallpox is actually the nickname of the virus, the scientific name is Variola which may appear as V. major or V. minor. Variola virus is relatively stable in the natural environment. If aerosolized, it will retain its infectivity for at least several hours if not exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet light. Since the virus is two hundred and sixty by one hundred fifty nanometers and contains a molecule of double stranded DNA putatively coding for some two hundred…

Sadly, terrorism continued to occur almost 60 years later in 2001. Not only did 9/11 occur, but there was a chemical war on America's hands as well. The anthrax attacks occurred shortly after 9/11 in September, eighteen victims of the attacks were identified between October 3 and November 20. This was caused by dried spores of B. anthracis that were sent through letters by the public mail. Five people are known to have died from anthrax and The 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic…

and small protozoa which are captured by them through phagocytosis, devouring a particle by “wrapping pseudopodia around it and packaging it within a food vacuole” (Campbell and Reece 2011). They also serve as the models for the study of basic biological phenomena (Görtz and Adoutte 1988). As an aerobic cell, the paramecium consists of “structures and organelles of aerobic non-photosynthetic eukaryotic cells”, including a cell membrane, a cytoplasm, an endocytic system of coated pits, and…

Josh Kennedy’s film Two and a Quarter explores what a person thinks about in their final minutes before they drown. The movie starts out with a young boy who decides to drown himself, but in the two and quarter minutes it takes an average person to drown, he thinks about his past and his future. This makes him decide to get out of the pool, and in this decision he learns to appreciate the people he surrounds himself with more. However, you might argue that it wasn’t a decision for him to get out…

Though the use of chemical weapons was ostensibly banned in the international community by the Geneva Protocol in 1925, the research and development of biological and chemical weapons was permissible until the Protocols were amended in 1975. However, a lack of enforceability by any international governing body allowed a nation like South Africa to secretly create its own such program, one that operated unchecked and actively employed its toxins and agents throughout the 1980s. With apartheid as…

Crichton V. Calfee: The Gene Patent Argument Michael Crichton and John E. Calfee both discuss the topic of gene patents in their respective articles, “Patenting Life” and “Decoding The Use Of Gene Patents.” However, the similarities end there as their opinions are the direct opposite of one another, with Crichton expressing extreme displeasure at the idea of gene patenting while Calfee is in support of the practice. Firstly, Crichton believes the patenting of genes as a whole to be a mistake.…

December 1969 by the successor of the League, The United Nations, in Resolution 2603A (XXIV), citing that the Geneva Protocol “embodies the generally recognized rules of international law prohibiting the use in international armed conflicts of all biological and chemical methods of warfare, regardless of any technical developments.” Adopted 83-3 with 36 abstentions, the resolution indicates “although the vote cannot be regarded as a resounding affirmation[... there is] a very substantial amount…

Botha and the military gained increasing control of the apartheid apparatus and created a self-reinforcing cycle where disturbances, which were often caused by the state’s severe tactics, were used as excuses to develop nuclear, chemical, and biological…

Anthrax Outbreak Out of all of the diseases, anthrax seems to have the most potential for a massive outbreak. In its respiratory form, anthrax could easily be spread globally. It’s high mortality rate and typically short incubation period would allow casualties to increase quickly. The most effective way to create an outbreak of anthrax would be through direct acts of bioterrorism. As anthrax is not communicated person-to-person the spores would have to be continually introduced into the…

Case Study Questions 1. Identify the branch of Science that aided in the autopsy analysis of Georgi Markov. The branch of science that aided in the autopsy analysis of Georgi Markov was forensic toxicology, which is the study of toxic substances and poisons. 2. What was the name of the substance that led to the demise of Georgi Markov? Why? Why was there no reliable test for this agent? The name of the substance that led to the demise of Georgi Markov was ricin. During an autopsy, a section…