14. Contemporary organisms on planet earth encode their design information using nucleic acids polymers that have four different monomers. These monomers are read three at a time to produce tool polymers – made up of a different kind of monomer. [This is a straightforward case of combinatorial coding of information.] This means that the number of different monomers in the tool polymer could, in principle, be 64. In practice, this number is actually 20 – because different nucleic acid monomer triplets (called “codons”) are read as NOT different. [Such codons that are not distinguished from one another are said to be “degenerate”.] If nucleic acids had three different monomers instead of four, triplet codons could encode 27 different tool monomer units, in principle. This would be plenty of coding capacity for the 20 different tool monomers that are actually used. In view of this, which of the following is the most likely explanation for the fact that contemporary organisms use four NOT three nucleic acid monomers?

1. It is an historical accident, of no mechanistic importance.
2. There were originally more than 27 tool monomers, but some have been lost in the evolution of contemporary organisms.
3. Double stranded nucleic acids (like the DNA double helix) wouldn’t be stable with only three different bases.
4. The requirement that nucleic acids replicate themselves means that they must have an even number of monomers (2, 4, 6, etc).

15. When an organism has two copies of each piece of design information, we refer to this state by which of the following terms? (Choose the most specific term.)

1. haploid
2. diploid
3. asexual
4. somatic

16. When an adult sexual organism (“parent” here) makes a gamete (egg or sperm) she/he places one copy of each chromosome into the gamete. This chromosome is chosen at random from the two copies this parent has – one received, in turn, from its father and one from its mother (the “grandparents” here). This process of choosing one of these two chromosomes is referred to specifically by which of the following technical terms?

1. crossing over
2. recombination
3. independent assortment
4. random mating

Now describe the flower with these terms: dicot/monocot, complete/incomplete, perfect/imperfect, regular symmetry/irregular symmetry, florescence?

Tell about what type of insect might be the pollinator for this flower. What type of characteristics would make it a good fit for that insect?

With a paragraph, explain to meiosis. Include the steps that happen and the purpose of meiosis in a plant.

1) a) How might plant adaptations affect the evolution of herbivores?

b) How might the adaptations of herbivores affect plant evolution?

The mammalian heart has no valves to control blood entering the atria but does have valves for blood exiting the ventricles. Explain why this adaptation makes sense for efficient circulation.

4) What is bioremediation? What makes some plants particularly useful in bioremediation?

Give an account of the sequence of events that pertain annually in coastal wetlands in Ghana indicating how they drive the life cycle of inhabiting organism

What is wrong with the traditional historical geology view that successive petrified fossil forests at Specimen Ridge, Yellowstone were created by volcanic eruptions which buried and petrified forest trees right where they stood over a 50 million year period?

Group of answer choices

Their petrified trees lacked bark and branches.

All the above.

Some petrified trees at different levels have tree rings that match.

The roots of their petrified trees were just stubs and the soil was gone.

Why can the inside of the endoplasmic reticulum functionally be the same as the outside of the cell

Explain the Proton-Motive force across the Inner mitochondrial membrane that both generates the H= gradient and aids In pulling H+ back Into the mitochondria matrix

1. how biotechnology benefits society both medically and in other ways

2. how eukaryotic genes can be expressed in bacteria and be able to describe the process involved

explain why the various plants appear the way they do in each of the following demonstrations: phototropism: gravitropism: etiolation: holly leaf abscission: leaf movement in the sensitive plant ( mimosa pudica):

A student was given 6 plates taken from the incubator from a serial dilution done two days earlier and told to get a standard plate count.  The student, not sure what to do, attempted to count the colonies on all the plates, then add the counts from all plates and get an average.  Was this the correct procedure? Yes or No? Explain!

1. Using the sequence below give an example of an insertion, deletion, SNP, inversion, and translocation.

3’-ATTCGGCCAGTTAGCCGATG-5’

Answer questions 5-9 below using the information in this experimental description. Dr. Meyer wants to study the effect of Kava root on insomnia. She recruits 150 people who experience long term insomnia (more than 4 months experiencing insomnia) and divides them into two groups. One group of 75 individuals takes 125 mg of kavalactones one hour before bedtime. The other group of 75 individuals takes a placebo every day. For the duration of the study, the two groups follow two common guidelines: no added sugars or caffeine intake after 12pm and no screen time an hour before bedtime. Dr. Meyer follows the individuals during four weeks. She collects data on sleep patterns which include the number of hours slept each night and a scale of difficulty to fall asleep scored 1 to 5 (1 = feel asleep right away; 5 = more than one hour awake in bed).

5. 1pt. What is the independent variable?

6. 1pt. What is the dependent variable?

7. 1pt. What is the experimental group?

8. 1pt. Which is/are Dr. Meyer’s controlled variable(s)?

9. 1pt. Write a possible hypothesis for this experiment.

10. 1.5pts. Is the following statement a prediction or a theory? How do you know?

“If Vitamin C supplementation shortens the length of the common cold, then adults taking 1g of Vitamin C a day will recover from the common cold faster than adults who aren’t taking Vitamin C supplementation.”