The Department of Defense (DoD) has recently awarded a contract to Boeing and a team of U.S. biological defense companies that will employ particle counters to help combat terrorism.

Their mission is to design, develop and alter the ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial Car (UAV). The aircraft will carry a payload that can detect the presence of airborne biological warfare agents. The DoD’s Threat Reduction Bureau (DTRA) developed this program specifically to protect against biological terror attacks.

The plan incorporates 2 ScanEagle aircraft in a pre-strike phase when a target suspected of housing biological agents is identified. The UVA’s fly over the suspected target collecting meteorlogical data to update the predicted plume tracks. Once the plume track is identified, a ScanEagle equipped with a biological collector and a particle counter performs particle collection.

When the aircraft returns to base, the biological collector and the particle counter payload are removed for analysis. The particle counter is integrated into the front end of the aircraft and determines where the highest concentration of particles are. This breathtaking technology has the ability to locate, track, collect and detect biological warfare agents in a designated area.

Particle counters play an important role in the defense industry due to the extremely high manufacturing standards that are required. HITCO Carbon Deposits uses particle counters in its production of heat shields, rocket motor nozzles and jet exhaust protection. Another company, Aero Components, Inc. performs calibre control spot checks with the Lighthouse 3016 Handheld Laser Particle Counter.

Biology essay writing includes all essays that are written about living things. Biology encompasses a wide range of topics within one vast area of study. Different writers tend to specialize in different areas of this field. While some might be healthy to write extensively on botany, others might specialize in zoology. Biology essay writing is usually research based writing. When writers construct biology essays, they will draw on other scholarly sources to validate their arguments. Even if these essays are easy descriptions on any life form, for example, writers will use scholarly sources to back their statements.

Writing a Biology essay requires step-by-step preparation. You need to accumulate all your required matter first. You also need to organize the matter according to the stipulation of your topic. Additionally, you will need to have an organized approach to writing your Biology essay. Working with an outline is important. It will help you remain within the boundaries of your essay. While your topic helps you to search and obtain pertinent information for your essay, your essay outline prevents you from drifting away from the topic.

When you begin writing your Biology essay, you must develop an introduction to the topic. This introduction begins with a general understanding of biology. It then transitions towards your specific topic. By the time you reach the end of your introduction, you should be prepared to present your thesis statement for your Biology essay. You must think about your thesis statement to be tentative because you are likely to alter and perfect it as you write your essay. This is because you might come crossways points in your research that can help to fine tune your thesis statement.

Once you are done with the introduction of your Biology essay, you can begin building up your arguments. You can do this with coherent paragraphs that highlight apiece important point. In apiece of these paragraphs, you will need to back up your claims with scholarly sources that support your arguments. In a Biology essay, it is a good intent to use as many sources as you can. These sources should also be up-to-date or they should be accepted this day as well. These validate your claims in apiece paragraph as your essay progresses.

After presenting your arguments in your Biology essay, you might want to examine the claims you have made. This is a good intent and demonstrates your keenness to question what you have written. You should try questioning what you say in your Biology essay from as many angles as possible. While doing so, you could reinforce your arguments with scholarly sources that justify what you have written.

Your Biology essay will end with a conclusion. You can end your essay with words that restate your thesis statement. At this point, you might also realize that your thesis statement needs fine-tuning. You could alter your Biology essay thesis statement along with concluding your arguments. This last step is commonly done, and helps to tie up anything you might have not thought about earlier.

A history of terrorism requires a very specific definition to refrain a never-ending summary of each violent act ever recorded. The brief, neutral definition proposed by Dr. Boaz Ganor, an Israeli political scientist and deputy dean of the Lauder School of Government and Diplomacy at the Interdiciplinary Center Herzliya, works well for this purpose:terrorism is the intentional use of, or threat to use violence against civilians or against civilian targets, in order to attain politician aims.

This avoids subjective interpretation based on the perpetrator’s motivations, tactics, and civilian versus military status. When we discuss terrorism in the 21st century, however, we must include weapons of mass destruction, and broaden the defintion slightly to include indiscriminate targets, since many of the weapons and tactics of modern terrorism are capable of killing large numbers of people at once.

Additionally, some forms of modern terror, such as cyberterrorism, do not start neatly under the rubric of “violence”, at least in their initial employment, even though in this increasingly computerized world, viruses and database intrusions could finally lead to deaths.

How real are the threats of WMD terrorism? What new or highly mutated forms of terrorist activities might lie ahead? And more to the point, how can countries hope to counter such violence, when one of the key components of “successful” terrorism is the element of suprise?

If you have ever seen pictures of ordinary household germs and dust mites under an electron microscope, magnify your visceral and immediate recoil by ten-fold and you have a clean intent of how most people think about biological weapons.

Terrorism feeds on fear, and one thing people fear is fighting something likely invisible, insidious, and irreversible. Certain chemicals (and hot fallout) meet this description as well, but many do not. Biological pathogens, however, seem especially frightening to people perhaps because they seem, to the lay person, the easiest to disseminate and, unlike with other weapons, can be passed from one mortal to the next, expanding an attack well beyond the original point of deployment, using such contagious diseases as small pox, ebola, AIDS, or plauge.

Adding to this is the reality that the first responders are not members of law enforcement or the military, but members of the public health sytem: doctors, EMTS, firefighters, and other civilians.

Think about some staggering facts. According to a report issued by the World Health Organization in 1999, “Over the next hour alone, 1,500 people will die from an infectious disease- over half of them are kids under five. Of the rest, most will be working-age adults-many of them breadwinners and parents.

Both are vital age groups that countries can ill afford to lose.” That adds up to 13.1 million people a year. Perhaps more frightening still, just six infections diseases statement for more than 90 percent of those deaths: pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS. (WHO,p.2,1999)

Improper use of antibiotics, as well as increased virulence and human tolerance due to the natural mutation process, have led to highly resilient strains of pneumonia, tuberculosis, cholera and malaria.

Considering that accidental and naturally occurring outbreaks can cost so many millions of lives, it’s not difficult to envision the effect deliberately mutated and weaponized strains of biological pathogens would have around the world.

Armies and individuals have employed biological weapons throughout recorded history. Many of the primeval recorded instances involve poisoning food and water supplies. During the BC 6th century, Assyrians poisoned enemey wells with rye ergot, a fungal parasite that causes hallucinations and brain damage. Solon of Athens poisoned Krissa’s water supplied with hellebore, a depressant that can also cause heart attacks. Ancient armies routinely infected tossed rotting animals into the enemies; water supply; in the 12th century Barborassa used the bodies of his own dead soldiers.

Contaminating food and water supplies is not the only-time honored form of bioterrorism. Spreading infection and disease using conventional weapons and each day objects has a long history as well. As far back as BC 400, archers poisoned their arrows by dipping them into decomposing bodies or in blood blended with feces. During the Second Slavonic War, in a crude but effective precursor to missiles with biological warheads, Hannibal won the naval effort of Eurymedon by launching pots of venomous snakes onto the decks of the Pregamon ships.

In 1346, when many of the Tatar soldiers attacking the Crimean port of Kaffa were dying of bubonic plauge, their leader, DeMussis, capulated the diseased corpses into the city. When the infected Geonese defenders fled, precipitating the Black Plauge epidemics that killed enemies with wine blended with blood of lepers.

Two hundred years later another Spaniard, Franciso Pizarro, tried to speed along his invasion of South USA by distributing clothing infected with smallpox. British forces tried the same manoeuvre in the French and Indian War.

In the primeval part of the Civil War, a Confederate surgeon tried to infect the Union army with clothes carrying yellow fever, while his compatriots were tossing dead animals into wells as they retreated. At this time, the U.S. Government, concerned that its Union soldiers were far less experienced in military matters thatn were their Confederate counterparts, paid German lawyer Franz Lieber to prepare a code laying out the accepted principles of warfare.

The articles in the resulting document,”Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United Says in the Field,” became part of General Order No. 100, issued April 24, 1863. One key article read as follows: “The use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or food, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare. He that uses it puts himself out of the pale of law and usages of war.”

Other countries were at work drafting similar codes. The nations participating in a conference in Brussels in August 1874 issued a declaration banning specific weapons, including poison. A 1907 addition prohibited the “employment of projectiles containing asphyxiating or deleterious gases.” These same prohibitions were upheld by later declarations, including the “Protocol for the Prohibion of the Use in Ware of Asphyxating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods fo Warfare”- the Geneva Protocol, signed June 19, 1925-which said that “the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all similar liquids, materials or devices, has been justly condemned by the general view of the civilized world.”

Countries that ratified the prescript before WWII were Iran, Iraq, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The U.S. did not sign until 1975. The prescript was further strengthened in 1972 with the Biological Weapons Convention, but efforts to make it legally binding unsuccessful in 2001 when President George W. Bush refused to sign.

One business-oriented publication that often supported the president’s policies had this reaction: “Alongside Mr. Bush’s refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, and his moves to scrap the ABM(anti-ballistic missile) treaty, this was more than an undiplomatic blunder. It seems to represent a dangerously philosophic aversion to any sort of binding arms control.”

These noble agreements, however, unsuccessful to prohibit governments from continuing to research, develop, store, transport, or produce biological weapons, and implied that all that was truly outlawed was being the first to use them in a particular conflict. The result is that countries around the globe still have active biological and chemical stockpiles or, as in the case of the United States, maintain active facilities engaged in defense research.

Is Aggressive Behavior Biologically or Environmentally based? By Daena V. De Souza

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The nature versus nurture topic has been an unremitting debate for various aspects of human behavior including aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior is any behavior exhibited verbally or physically with the intention to destroy property or to injure or infuriate another person. There are studies supporting the source of aggression to be innate, indicating links between behavior and biochemical activities, while other studies have considered environmental and societal factors as influences on behavior.

The founder of behaviorism John B. Watson argued that the conditioned response was viewed as the smallest unit of behavior, from which more complicated behavior could be created. Evidence supporting aggression as a learned behavior comes from studies of behavior in experimental and natural settings, social learning theory and the effect of cultural and social variables.

Biological theories propose that aggression might have a chemical, hormonal or genetic component. Scientists have explored various possibilities of behavior. Some of the most compelling evidence comes from genetics, serotonin research and the influence of hormones on aggression.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the existing theories and research findings that support both the nativist view and the empiricist view and to reveal the relationship between biology and the environment in determining behavior.

Aggression is learned

2.1 Studies of behavior.

Controlled studies of behavior in experimental settings have demonstrated that aggressive behavior is similar to other operant behavior because it is influenced by rewards and punishment. We can use the example of the rat in the “skinner box” to demonstrate the effect of operant conditioning in experimental settings. When the rat presses the bar, it is rewarded with a food pellet. The food is the reward which reinforces the action that leads to the rat pressing the bar again in order to obtain another reward. This concept can be applied in the natural setting. If you give a child a toy to stop him or her from exhibiting temper tantrums, the toy will reinforce that behavior. Kids then learn that aggression can enable them to control resources such as toys and acquire parental attention. If after behaving aggressively, a subject receives positive reinforcement, they are likely to repeat the behavior in order to acquire more rewards. This is a form of operant conditioning where the positive reinforcement encourages further display of aggression, concluding that aggression is learned through reinforcement.

2.2 Social learning theory.

Bandura, (1977), pioneered the social learning theory which emphasized the role of learning by attending of behavior. Bandura disputed that social imitation rather than Skinner’s model of reinforcement was responsible for aggressive behavior, implying that aggression is imitated rather than learned through conditioning. Research such as the Bobo Doll study (Bandura) has shown that aggression can be learnt through imitation. Kids learn aggression by imitating adult actions from live experiences or from viewing violence through the media. Bandura concluded that viewing aggression increases the likelihood of the viewer acting aggressively. By demonstrating aggression one can unknowingly encourage aggression in suggestible children. They can learn that aggressive behavior is common and acceptable and can be used to solve problems, attain needs, influence another mortal or even make them a hero. The media portray the violent model as a hero who is rewarded. Kids by imitation learn how to be violent and this behavior is reinforced by learning the “rewards” of violence.

2.3 Aggression is influenced by cultural and social factors.

Cohen and Nisbett (1994) attributed the existence of regional subcultural differences in aggression in the United Says to different local norms for aggressive behavior. Society plays a fundamental role in influencing behavior. Poverty and crime has become an intrinsic part of society; which unfortunately molds the behavior of people through imitation and reinforcement. The residents of a high crime area such as Laventille, Trinidad form a social order where their lifestyle reinforces criminal activity as a means for survival. Members of this society know who the criminals are and do not report them. When residents of these communities commit crimes or aggressive acts such as robberies, their actions are reinforced when they escape the law and obtain positive reinforcement such as material possessions. The kids in these communities learn aggression through social imitation. They also become desensitized towards aggression and view it as common and acceptable behavior in their community.

Aggressive behavior can also be a function of national culture. Residents of some countries show a more pervasive tendency to think of violence as means of solving problems than persons living in other nations (Archer & McDaniel, 1995). In some cultures, ones religious view is expressed aggressively with the subject sacrificing his or her life (in some cases risking the lives of others) for the intoxicant of their god. In other cultures, aggressive behavior is influenced by sports. American football, Wrestling, Ice Hockey and Boxing promotes behavior that is intended to physically injure another person. I am by no means diminishing the sport to a mere exhibition of rough play but simply stating that some sports disguise aggressive behavior as part of the art.

Biological Perspectives

3.1 Electrical stimulations

Electrical stimulations and lesion in specific parts of the hypothalamus can influence one’s tendency to behave aggressively (Moyer, 1976). When a cat’s hypothalamus is stimulated using implanted electrodes, the animal hisses and would strike at any goal that is put in its cage. However, electrical stimulation of a different area of the hypothalamus causes the cat to act in a different way. Similarly, a work rat bred in isolation from other rats and has never seen the aggressive behavior of a wild rat can live in harmony with a mouse. However, when the hypothalamus is electrically stimulated, the rat will attack and kill the mouse by using a similar technique that its untamed kin uses. By injecting the rat with a neurochemical blocker in the same area of the hypothalamus that was previously stimulated, the rat then becomes temporarily peaceful. These responses wage proof that animals have an innate aggressive drive that can become active or inactive with the right stimulus.

3.2 Neurotransmitters and behavior.

A neurotransmitter is a chemical that diffuses crossways the synaptic gap and stimulates the next neuron. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine are three of the most common chemicals found in the brain and are associated with aggressive behavior.

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is produced in the brain from an amino acid tryptophan and is involved in inhibiting impulsive responses to frustration such as aggression. Tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) is an enzyme that controls the rate of synthesis of the neurotransmitter serotonin. It can limit the production of serotonin since it is the only catalyst in the reaction producing serotonin. Therefore, serotonergic activity is linked to the deficiency of TPH. Serotonergic activity can be determined by measuring the levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid. Individuals who exhibit abnormal low levels of serotonin are stated to suffer from serotonin depletion and were found to be more violent or impulsive than those who had normal serotonergic activity. Studies done by Linnoila and colleagues (1983) have found that men imprisoned for violent crimes have lower levels of serotonin than nonimpulsive violent offenders. Decreased serotonergic activity might produce some symptoms such as irrational behavior, anger, and psychoneurotic worry; which can be treated by drugs such as Prozac. Prozac is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that manipulates serotonin levels. It inhibits the reuptake of serotonin into the neurons, enabling serotonin to remain active in the synapse for a longer period of time and therefore controls impulsive behavior.

Dopamine is used to regulate emotion and is also converted to norepinephrine which is affected by stress and moods in the brain. The release of norepinephrine and dopamine can be stimulated by the drugs classified as amphetamine. Prolonged use of amphetamines can result in hallucinations, paranoia and violent behavior. Scientist recommends that schizophrenia results from excess dopamine activity in certain brain regions or as a result from an abnormal sensitivity to dopamine. Evidence supporting this claim comes from the antipsychotic drugs which reduce psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia by blocking brain receptors from dopamine.

3.3 The influence of hormones on aggression.

The male sex hormone testosterone is associated with aggressive behavior in both humans and animals. Testosterone contributes to antisocial behavior in some women especially during the premenstrual period. The imbalance of the estrogen-progesterone ratio during the premenstrual period triggers both physical and psychological impairments such as changes in mood, depression, irritability and aggression. These elevated levels of aggression and irritability is associated with the hormone testosterone. Research has found that a significant number of females imprisoned for aggressive criminal acts were found to have committed their crimes during the premenstrual phase, and female offenders were found to be more irritable and aggressive during this period. Reinisch (1981) found that girls whose moms were treated with a hormone similar to testosterone while pregnant grow up to be more aggressive than comparable control subjects. Research done by Olweus (1988) has also shown that adolescent boys who have more testosterone behave more aggressively when provoked. To control aggressive behavior in stallions, horse owners usually remove the testes of males that will not be used for breeding. All these studies have provided a link between testosterone and aggressive behavior.

3.4 The frustration-aggression hypothesis

Aggression, according to the drive theory, is created by some innate human need. The frustration-aggression hypothesis assumes that whenever a mortal is inhibited from reaching their goal an aggressive drive is induced that motivates behavior that causes the mortal to injure the mortal or goal that is causing the frustration. This basic drive is like behavioral units of capability that are switched on or off as an appropriate challenge or task presents itself. In animals, this drive tells them when to migrate, when and how to court one another, when to feed their young, and so on. Animals like humans know what to do instinctively. For instance, if a mortal is being attacked by someone, their initial response might be to retaliate; frustration stimulates an inner drive that leads the victims to respond aggressively. This aggressive instinct or drive is what has granted human beings to survive and protect their interest. Even though aggression is not a guaranteed response to frustration, it is certainly a frequent one. Laboratory studies have shown that animals behave aggressively in response to stressful situations. Caged animals respond aggressively to apiece other when they are shocked and the behavior then stops when the shocking has ended.

3.5 Psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud, the dad of psychoanalysis, asserts that human behavior is motivated by sexual and instinctive drives. When expressions of these instincts are repressed, these urges are displayed as aggression. Examples of expression of aggression are explained by Freud in his studies of childhood aggression and the Oedipal complex. A young boy begins to develop an intense sexual desire for his mom because she is the eventual bourgeois of love and food. The desire for his mom causes the boy to reject and display aggression toward his dad because he views his dad as a competitive rival for his mother’s affection. The boy later recognizes his father’s superiority and learns to reject his mom as a love goal and eventually identifies with his father. The Oedipal complex relates to childhood aggression in girls. The theory is similar, in which the girl develops penis envy while trying to relate to her dad and rejects her mother. The girl eventually realizes that her dad is an inappropriate love goal and identifies with her mom instead. These examples reveal the intent that aggression is an innate personality characteristic in all humans which is motivated by sexual drives.

3.6 Genetic contributions.

Behavior genetics combines the methods of genetics and psychology to study the inheritance of behavioral characteristics. Genes are the basic unit of heredity that determines the traits of human characteristics ranging from intelligence to height to emotionality. Selective breeding and twin and adoption studies have provided evidence for an association between genetic makeup and behavior. Selective breeding studies the inheritance of particular traits in animals. A study done on the inheritance of learning capability in rats provided evidence that intelligence is hereditary (Thompson, 1954). Rats that did poorly in learning to run the maze were mated with similar dull rats and those that did well (bright rats) were mated with other bright rats. After a few rodent generations, bright and dull strains of rats were produced. It is complicated to perform selective breeding studies on humans; however similarity in biological traits can be shown using twin and adoptive studies. In most studies of twins, the degree of consistency between the criminality of same twins is approximately twice that of fraternal twins. In adoptive studies most cases reveal that criminality of the biological parent is a superior predictor of the child’s criminal involvement than the criminality of the adoptive parents. Research has shown that there is a hereditary predisposition for schizophrenia, since the risk of developing the illness is higher if an individual is genetically related to a schizophrenic person. In all the above studies subjects shared the common characteristic of genes, showing the relationship between non typical traits and genetics.

Links between biological and environmental factors

4.1 The Link between the frustration-aggression hypothesis and social learning

According to the frustration-aggression hypothesis, frustration stimulates a drive that leads to aggression. However, frustration is not the only variable that causes aggression. The response to frustration might differ depending on the kind of responses a mortal has learned to use in coping with frustrating situations. If a mortal has learnt (through imitation or social learning) that aggression can elicit a desired result, then they would respond to frustration with aggressive behavior. For example, people in poorer communities become frustrated when their physiological needs can't be met and some are motivated to acquire these needs through crime. This is where social learning plays a role. When a mortal becomes frustrated they are motivated to react in a way that they learnt would produce results. People can learn that crime pays. Therefore, while frustration and aggression seem to be closely linked, the mere presence of frustration does not seem to recommend aggression, social learning is also an instigating factor.

4.2 The Link between aggressive behavior and people in poor communities

People in poorer communities might exhibit more aggression; not only because of frustration but their monetary limitations might hamper their capability to have proper diets, particularly one high in protein. The link is serotonin. Serotonin is produced in the brain from the amino acid tryptophan which is derived from foods high in protein. Tryptophan hydroxylase enzyme is the only catalyst in the reaction producing serotonin and can therefore limit its production. Therefore a person’s diet might control the levels of serotonin that their body produces. People with low serotonin levels are more likely to act aggressively.

4.3 The relationship between genetics and environment

Genetics might influence both development and behavior however, it fully determines neither. Genes are hereditable and are not affected by environment factors such as rearing conditions however rearing conditions can influence gene expression. A person’s genes might predispose them to mental illness, diabetes or aggressive behavior however environmental factors might cause the emergence of these conditions. Someone might carry the gene for diabetes and might never develop it however, blubber increases their risk. There is a hereditary predisposition for schizophrenia and the risk of developing it depends on how closely a mortal is related to someone with schizophrenia. Conversely, environmental stress can also trigger schizophrenia in a mortal that is predisposed to the mental illness. Even though some kids might be biologically inclined to behave aggressively, their behavior can be controlled by the environment. Instead of rearing an aggressive child in an environment that fosters more aggression, it is superior to wage an environment that reduces the inclination for the child to act aggressively. Parents who promote hitting as a means of discipline and often quarrel in the presence of their kids encourage their kids to resolve conflict by using aggression. The probability of aggressive behavior transpiring depends on the situational factors. Sometimes the same stimulation that causes a mortal to react aggressively to one mortal might not trigger the same reaction towards someone else. These reactions are controlled by the cortex and are influenced by previous experiences and social influences. Aggressive behavior in monkeys can be induced by electrically stimulating certain areas of the brain. The final behavior depends on the monkey’s position in the hierarchical structure of the monkey colony. Dominant monkeys will exhibit aggres¬sive behavior when electrically stimulated in the presence of a submissive monkey but would suppress the aggressive behavior in the presence of another dominant monkey.

4.0 Freedom of choice

Unlike animals, humans are equipped with a massive cerebral cortex that grants for reasoning, consideration, creativity and behavior control. Humans are not hard wired like computers, where given a fixed command or stimulus results in a fixed response. We have the capability to select our course of action and our decisions are preceded by will and thought. This capability has enabled us to survive and stand greater than animals. Because of our capability to consciously select the values we instill in our children, our species can influence the outcome of our children’s behavior. Choice is the capability to select from a number of alternatives. When frustrated an individual has the choice to react in a certain manner. They can think about something else, distance themselves, suppress their anger or even laugh it off. The magnificence of human complexity is our capability to select from an infinite amount of doable reactions.

Conclusion

Is aggression biologically or environmentally based? The answer is simple. Aggression can't be credited to just one origin. Biological and environmental factors are complementary in understanding the origin of aggression. The traditional phrase for the debate nature versus nurture should be re-phrased as nature being nurtured. A normal mortal must be angry and aroused to act aggressively. A mortal might have a genetic predisposition to aggression but the act would not occur unless certain environmental influences are present. It is ideal to approach the nature nurture debate from a position that embraces both view points in order to truly comprehend the basis of aggression. Biology provides the instrument for aggression but environment instructs us how to use them.

REFERENCE LIST

1. MORE THAN TWO AUTHORS

Atkinson, Smith, Bem & Nolen-Hoeksema. Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology (13th edition)

Taylor, Stout, & Green. Biological Science one and two (2nd edition)

2. NO AUTHOR / EDITOR GIVEN

Does media violence really influence human behavior?

Genes and aggression: Is the propensity for violence inherited?

3. INTERNET ARTICLES

D’Orban, P.T. & J. Dalton. Violent crime and the menstrual cycle

McCawley, S. The nature of aggression (or is it nurture?)

Silvis, D. Brain-behavior and nature-nurture: Two interacting scientific debates.

4. WORKS IN SEVERAL VOLUMES

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2003

5. DOCTORAL DISSERTATION (PUBLISHED)

Fishbein, D. Biological Perspectives in Criminology. Published Doctoral Dissertation, University of Baltimore, Baltimore.

6. ARTICLES

Geen, R. The importance of learning in aggression. University of Missouri- Columbia

Rowell Huesmann, L. How biology influences human aggression. University of Michigan.

Biology to Molecular Biology Changing scenario in Medicine

 

Dr.T.V.Rao MD

 

The greatest accomplishments in the Medical sciences are attributed to developments in Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of several diseases. This day progress in the world is mainly contributed by control of Infectious diseases. We are heading to cross roads, many of the past technologies are giving way to several microbes, they escape our present methods of detection and resistant to several drugs we use to eliminate them. We the scientific communities have no options left, except to search for new paths in science and newer technologies. Till recently the Science prefabricated ideal progress with phenotypic methods, however in the current past Molecular methods have dominated all other forms of technologies. The division of Bioinformatics changed the advances in Science which is bringing together the fields of Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, and Genetics under the fold of personal and soft ware advances in personal technology.

 

The discoveries of Watson-Crick in basic understanding of Bacterial DNA (Genome) prefabricated us rich to know about ourselves. Many commercial establishments, with help of Scientists, are targeting majority of diseases, important fields being AIDS, Mental illness, Autoimmune diseases, Obesity, Alzheimer’s diseases, Heart diseases, Parkinson’s disease and emerging trends on Multidrug resistant tuberculosis ( MDR ). The molecular medicine prefabricated the doctors know the realities of the disease before taking heroic decisions

 

Need of Molecular biology in Microbiology

 

All the great accomplishments with discovery of pencillin are diluted with, onset of pencillin being inactivated with genetic alteration of Staphylococcus aureus,gaining resistance. The progress of dealing with gram-negative bacteria is hampered with production ßlactamase making the Cephalosporins being not useful in several infections. The major bactericide therapies are throttled with Genetic mutation in Microbes. The present system of finding is limited as there is a grwoing list of unknown and less known Microbes emerged by human activities as mass migration and aforestation. The Medical profession is challenged with onset of immunodeficiency in 1981, prefabricated a bottle neck in progress of developing countries. Major advances in Medicine as Transplantation prefabricated the people venerable to less known infections, however genome based studies still in infancy to locate the infection and find appropriate solutions.

 

Role of Molecular Biology identifies less known Infections

 

The emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases with selected Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes along with several viruses, yeasts, moulds, dimorphic fungi pose a ever growing challenge to clinical Microbiologists. On many occasions the traditional and age old techniques rarely help for survival and saving a life. Newer generation of Physicians and Microbiologists await newer technologies in particular Molecular Biology techniques in life saving circumstances

 

 

 

 

How to Implement Molecular Biology

 

It is true that molecular biology is in infancy, many in the developing countries can't afford. However we have to impress on the new generation of Physicians and Scientists and Microbiologists and educate and instruct about using the newer technologies.

 

 

 

 

Email doctortvrao@gmail.com

 

 

 

Molecular biology is the science of study of biology at the molecular level.

William Astbury in Nature described molecular biology as:

“… not so much a technique as an approach, an approach from the viewpoint of the so-called basic sciences with the leading intent of searching below the large-scale manifestations of classical biology for the corresponding molecular plan. It is concerned particularly with the forms of biological molecules and ….. is predominantly three-dimensional and structural – which does not mean, however, that it is merely a refinement of morphology – it must at the same time inquire into genesis and function” (W.T. Astbury, Nature 190, 1124. 1961)

Molecular biology has granted us to uncover the mysteries of the human body, viruses, bacteria and all other life. As such, it has granted the progress of medicine to advance to such a degree so that we might start to cure the previously incurable, and to eventually find cures for apiece disease that afflicts human kind.

Molecular biology depends not only on biology but also chemistry, genetics, and biochemistry. The understanding of the interactions between DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids is vital in understanding how cells work and how diseases affect these interactions. Researchers and scientists are slowly piecing together these interactions and how apiece biological molecule functions. By understanding this, scientists can then analyze disease conditions, and see if the function of any of the molecules has changed. If a molecule or interaction is affected by disease, scientists can then create therapies which target these alterations and repair them.

In conclusion, molecular biology is a vital field in our advancement of medicine and technology. By understanding how biological molecules interact and function, we will be healthy to not only acquire an appreciation of the workings inside the cell, but also it will grant us detect and to fix any problems that arise during disease states.

Joe Mann is a contributor for Molecular Biology at Molecular Station. You might ONLY use this article, if you maintain the author’s information and website address.

http://www.molecularstation.com

“How to Learn Biology Fast”

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“Dr. Wayne Huang is a rapid learning coach, who is the co-author of over 10 published books and 100 24-hour rapid courses in chemistry, physics, biology, medicine and mathematics. He is also the founding editor of Chemistry Tips, Physics Tips, Biology Tips and Math Tips, the regular student eZines freely acquirable at http://www.RapidLearningCenter.com, the learning portal of Rapid Learning Inc.”

 

 

SYNTHETIC SYSTEMS BIOLOGY

 

Learning is a continuous process from level to level from higher to highest & commitment itself is enough to realize this beliefs. The need and the urge to comprehend complex biological systems in an integrative way so as to accumulate in-depth knowledge of biological systems. For accomplishing this task we are in need of understanding biology at systems level. As systems biology aims at systems level understanding of biological systems to unravel the mysteries of cellular network whose approach often involves the development of mechanistic models such as the reconstruction of dynamic systems from decimal properties of their elementary building blocks.

Systems biology has the capability to obtain, integrate and examine complex data from multiple experimental sources using interdisciplinary tools. For instance, a cellular network can be modeled mathematically using methods coming from chemical kinetics and control theory due to massive number of parameters, variable and constraints in cellular networks, numerical & computational techniques are often used. Even though systems are composed of matters, the essence of system lies in dynamics and it can't be described merely by enumerating components of the systems. At the same time, it is misleading to believe that only system structure, such as network topologies, is important without paying adequate attention to diversities and functionalities of components. Both structure of the system and components play indispensable role forming symbiotic say of the system as a whole.

Last but not the least:

The payoff for systems biology research is not merely nonfigurative mathematical understanding, but empowerment to design new and improved functions via synthetic biology.

There are number of exciting and profound issues that are actively investigated, such as robustness of the biological systems, network structures and dynamics and applications to drug discovery etc.

Systems Biology is in its infancy, but this is the area that has to be explored and the area that we believe to be the main stream in biological sciences in this century.

Everybody concurs that education is important. Likewise, it has become a commonplace to state that we aren’t educating the nation’s kids as well as we should. Improving education is an exceptionally complex task, but one part of the problem is that we’re having trouble as a society defining what a “good education” actually is. This is a particular problem in subjects that are politically and emotionally charged. One of the most acrimonious areas of education is the one that is also nearest to my own heart: biology. Grant me to lay out some thoughts on what a sound education in biology ought to look like, and what the benefits of this might be on both the individual and the societal level.

First, and perhaps most importantly, it is critical that all sciences, including biology, are taught as a process and a way of thinking, rather than a set of facts that are “true” and must be memorized. For example, one of the more startling ideas in biology is that much of the weight of an oak tree has actually been pulled out of thin air. If someone just told me that, and I had no intent where the information came from, I’d think they were a bit loopy at ideal or trying to sell me a bill of gods at worst. Equipped with an actual understanding of the scientific inquiry that went into this discovery, I not only believe it, but more importantly I comprehend and remember it as well. Now, copying even the simplest of the experiments scientists used to unravel the question “How do plants acquire weight?” would be difficult in the average classroom and probably not the ideal use of precious time. But looking into case studies like this one is a mythologic way to learn about both scientific facts and scientific thinking.

Once we begin thinking about biology as a process of acquiring knowledge about living things and biology education as an opportunity to comprehend that process and hone critical thinking skills at the same time, we will be in a much stronger position to improve science education than we are in now. At that point, we’ll be well put to reliably turn out scientifically literate high school graduates and also to face teaching more politically charged aspects of biology education.

Without question, the most politically charged aspect of biology is evolution. It is also among the very most important scientific ideas ever elucidated. If we present evolution in the classroom as “great man, Charles Darwin, discovered evolution, and now we know that people descended from apes without the help of God” we have only ourselves to blame if 65 % of American citizens are creationists . Evolution education might not be quite that bad in most schools, but I’ll warrant that it’s not too much better. What do we lose if evolution is understood by only a minority of Americans? Well, from an aesthetic point of view, it seems a shame that so many of us don’t comprehend one of the huge ideas about how the world works. From a practical perspective, it’s just plain scary that most of the farmers who use antibiotics to help their livestock acquire weight and most of the patients who don’t follow their doctor’s instruction when it comes to taking antibiotics don’t comprehend the role they are playing in promoting the evolution of bactericide resistant bacteria.

One frequent complaint I hear from students in high school biology classes is that there is so much memorization. This is more closely linked to the failures of our educational system than you might think at first. True, there is a significant amount of new vocabulary that students must learn if they are going to be healthy to speak, think, read, and write about new concepts. However, a biology class should never feel like a pile of memorization to slog through. The most important thing we can do to change this is to focus on the how’s and why’s of biology rather than just the conclusions that biologists have drawn over the years. In this way, students will be making connections and developing huge picture concepts rather than just memorizing niggling tiny facts.

An important result of this type of education is that years after high school is over, a student who actually developed a genuine understanding of biology is far less likely to be the mortal frivolously abusing antibiotics.

Another way to greatly improve this situation is to eliminate pure survey classes and require students to study one or two areas in much greater depth. One model that I have seen work quite well at the introductory high school level is to have a traditional survey-style class supplemented by two significant research projects. One of the research projects was a hands-on experiment (or series of experiments), much like a traditional science clean project. The other was an in-depth library-based research project, much like a term paper more traditionally seen in history classes. These types of projects are not without costs. Most notably, they are very hard on the teacher. It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to coordinate a hundred (or usually more) projects, apiece on a different topic. This is daunting for a instructor even under the ideal of circumstances and can be impossible in more difficult situations. Nevertheless, the benefits are clear and significant. Not only do these types of projects give students an opportunity to develop a real understanding of scientific thinking, but they also give the students a library of interlinked facts to refer to when they are trying to make sense of the huge picture in biology.

For example, a student who chooses to do a research report on handedness and brain asymmetry in humans will undoubtedly learn about neurology, evolution, and epilepsy as well. As an added bonus, if the projects are structured properly, students get much needed practice making visual and oral presentations and writing non-fiction papers. Rather than just throwing up our hands and saying that this type of education is too difficult to organize, we need to structure our schools (and exert peer-pressure on parents) so that this type of higher-level learning becomes feasible.

A good education in biology should be a routine part of the education that each American student receives. We need to structure curriculums and classrooms so that science is taught as a process and method rather than some sort of received truth. This type of science education is an important part of teaching students to have strong critical thinking skills and for ensuring that they have the tools to not simply negotiate the modern world, but also thrive in it.

Biology is the science of life. It is concerned with the physical characteristics and behaviors of organisms alive this day and long ago, how they come into being, and what interactions they have with apiece other and their environments.

The word biology in its modern sense seems to have been introduced independently by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur, 1802) and by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Hydrogéologie, 1802). The word itself is sometimes stated to have been coined in 1800 by Karl Friedrich Burdach, but it appears in the title of Volume 3 of Michael Christoph Hanov’s Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae dogmaticae: Geologia, biologia, phytologia generalis et dendrologia, published in 1766. This day the term encompasses a broad spectrum of academic fields that are often viewed as independent disciplines.

Overview of biology

Biologists study life over a wide range of scales:

at the atomic and molecular scale, through molecular biology, biochemistry

at the cellular scale, through cell biology

at the multicellular scales, through physiology

at the level of the development or ontogeny of an individual organism, through developmental biology

at the level of heredity between parent and offspring through genetics

at the level of group behavior through ethology

at the level of an entire population, through population genetics

on the multi-species scale of lineages, through systematics

at the level of interdependent populations and their habitats through ecology and evolutionary biology

and speculatively through Xenobiology at the level of life beyond the Earth.

Fields of study in biology

Aerobiology — Anatomy — Astrobiology — Biochemistry — Bionics — Biogeography — Bioinformatics — Biophysics– Biotechnology — Botany — Cell biology — Cladistics — Cryptozoology — Developmental biology — Disease (Genetic diseases) — Ecology (Theoretical ecology, Autecology, Synecology) — Ethology — Genetics (Population genetics, Quantitative genetics, Genomics, Proteomics) — Ichthyology — Immunology — Pathology — Epidemiology — Limnology — Malacology — Marine biology — Microbiology (Bacteriology) — Molecular Biology — Mycology / Lichenology — Neuroscience (Neuroanatomy, Biological psychology, Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology, Behavioral science, Computational neuroscience, Cognitive science)– Oncology (the study of cancer) — Ontogeny — Paleontology — Phycology (Algology) — Phylogeny, Phylogeography) — Physiology — Structural biology — Taxonomy — Toxicology (the study of poisons and pollution) — Xenobiology — Zoology

Related disciplines

Physical anthropology

People and history

History of biology — Nobel prize in physiology or medicine — Timeline of biology and organic chemistry

Evolution and biology

One of the central, organizing concepts in biology is that all life has descended from a common origin through a process of evolution. Charles Darwin articulated the concept of evolution that remains central to this day, which he did by proposing natural selection as a mechanism. Genetic drift was embraced as an additional mechanism in the so-called modern synthesis. The evolutionary history of a species–which tells the characteristics of the species from which it descended–and its relationship to other species is called its phylogeny. Widely varied approaches to biology generate information about phylogeny. These include the comparisons of DNA sequences conducted within molecular biology or genomics, and comparisons of fossils or other records of ancient organisms in paleontology. Biologists organize and examine evolutionary relationships through various methods, including phylogenetics, phenetics, and cladistics

Classification of life

The classification of living things is called systematics, or taxonomy, and should reflect the evolutionary trees (phylogenetic trees) of the different organisms. Taxonomy piles up organisms in groups called taxa, while systematics seeks their relationships. The dominant system is called Linnaean taxonomy, which includes ranks and binomial nomenclature. How organisms are titled is governed by international agreements such as the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB). A fourth Draft BioCode was published in 1997 in an attempt to standardize denotive in the three areas, but it does not appear to have yet been formally adopted. The International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN) remains outside the BioCode.

Traditionally, living things were divided into five kingdoms:

Monera — division — Fungi — Plantae — Animalia

However, this five-kingdom system is now considered by many to be outdated. More modern alternatives generally start with the three-domain system:

Archaea — Eubacteria — Eukaryota

These domains reflect whether cells have nuclei or not as well as differences in cell exteriors.

There is also a series of intracellular “parasites” that are progressively less alive in terms of being metabolically active:

Viruses — Viroids — Prions