6/26/14

DNA wasn’t a foreign concept to me. But I couldn’t really say I KNEW what DNA exactly was. Although I only had time to watch half of the video (It’s extremely long) I know about the four amino acids guanine, adenine, thymine and cytosine. And that the two strands made of biopolymer that twist around each other is called a double helix. And that in order to “create” a human, that the DNA converts “itself” (which would be incorrect) into RNA. And a handful of other things.

          

6/24/14

         Now I heard of many people saying " Genes evolve by WANTING to get smarter and stuff so they like are like gonna like you know get smarter cuz they wanna". Which is mixing up evolution with adaptation which is a "life-time" change that an organism undergoes. Darwinean evolution can be re-phrased as natural selection. Which is COMPLETELY different. Evolution occurs over long lengths of time, sometimes over 10 years sometimes 100. Very often much longer. It is how nature selects the "most fit" organism.

         For example, let's take butterflies. In every species of organism there most likely WILL have variation. Viruses and Bacteria are changing every time they reproduce (I have no idea what to call it). So if you look at butterflies, there is TONS of variation. I'd like to see two butterflies that look EXACTLY like each other. Impossible. And once in a while, a type of variation gives that certain species or even one SINGLE butterfly to have a .001% chance more to reproduce. Repeat that 1000 years and perhaps the majority of that species has dominated the butterfly kingdom.

6/23/14

Today’s video was on the Roman capital architecture of the year 320a.d. and the speakers used a 3D simulation of Ancient rome created by Dr.Bernard Frischer.  it is EXTRAORDINARY . It made the presentation much better.

The speakers talked about what the buildings were called and what they were used for. For example, the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus or Jupiter the best and the greatest. It is thought that it was the center of the Roman religion because 1) Jupiter or the equivalent of Zeus in Rome is the most powerful  of the gods. and 2) the placement of the temple is on the Capitoline hill, which is one of the centered hills of Rome.

I noticed that many important structures are placed on hills, especially the palace which envelopes an entire hill.

I also learned about the Roman Aquedects. it is a water way that brings in fresh water from the mountains 20~30 miles away. The most amazing thing is that in order to keep the water going, they were able to calculate and BUILD a slope of 1 ft downward every 200 feet! That’s absolutely amazing and shows how man’s skill and knowledge can grow to an extent where they can “control” nature in the way that humans didn’t have to settle by water but they can bring water to them.

Ancient Rome is indeed a very interesting and fascinating city.

I watched the khan academy video on Ara Pacis Augustae. Ara Pacis Augustae is an old altar made in Rome, commissioned by the Roman Senate on the 4th of July 13 B.C. .It stands for "Altar of Augustan Peace" and it commemorates the return of Augustus, the nephew of Julius Ceasar, to Rome. Parts of it had been discovered in the 1460s as well as the 1930s. It was a miracle as to how much of it was recovered and was restored. There are only a few missing fragments but they don't seem to have much of an impact on the meaning of what is carved on the altar.

         Ara Pacis Augustae is a square shaped altar with a opening on one side. It is made of marble and shows the new era of sculpture which is when Romans transitioned from clay to stone and marble. It has elaborate designs on the bottom half, showing off great craftsmanship and the top half telling a story. The most important reason this altar was made is to show that Augustus brought peace and prosperity to Rome. The bottom half has over 50 species of plants carved into it. This amazed the excavators, that how easy it was to tell what the plants were. Many thought it was to show how fertile Rome was in agriculture and in life. Many people also believe it was in color before but it faded away.

         Ara Pacis Augustae to this day stands in the museum of Ara Pacis or Museo dell'Ara Pacis in Rome.

LINK TO ARA PACIS IMAGE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Ara_Pacis