Essay Sample on Sharks and Their Similarity with Humans

Essay Sample on Sharks and Their Similarity with Humans Sharks are well known for their incredible resistance to disease. The exact reason for this resistance has always been a bit of a mystery. While performing research as a graduate student almost thirty years ago, John Marchalonis took several milliliters of blood from the heart of a shark. Marchalonis discovered two proteins, one large and one small, which could link together to form a Y-shaped structure. This Y-shaped structure, which consisted of the two proteins, had the ability to stick tightly to chemicals that did not belong inside the shark. This was an immune system response that would destroy the foreign invaders. This finding showed that sharks have disease-fighting antibodies that are similar to those found in humans. Currently, as the head of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Arizona, Marchalonis is still studying sharks, skates, rays and shark cousins. He is comparing them with humans in the hopes of uncovering some of the early stages in the evolution of the immune system. Even though sharks are vertebrates, our evolutionary paths went their separate ways over 400 million years ago. This may uncover possible answers to questions concerning the evolution of the immune system. The immune response depends on antibodies and three other immune proteins known as T-Cell receptors (TCRs), MHC proteins and RAG proteins. Scientists have been unable to detect the presence of these proteins and antibodies in any group that evolved before sharks. This is one reason that sharks are being studied so heavily but, even with the presence of antibodies and other important proteins, sharks exhibit a rather sub-par immune system. There have been experiments in which sharks were injected with foreign proteins. The sharks did create antibodies to bind to the foreign proteins but the response did not improve upon repeated injections as it does in humans. Even with these findings, sharks are known to be very disease resistant. Contrary to popular belief, sharks do get cancer but it doesn’t happen easily. Scientists must somehow make sense of the shark’s rather substandard immune capacity. One possibility could be that sharks do not require the same immune system fu nctions humans do in order to survive. A human’s acquired immune system is made up of antibodies and T-Cells. The acquired immune system is responsible for recognizing foreign invaders and allows our body to make the distinction between self and non-self. Antibodies recognize antigens and bind to them. As antibodies bind to antigens, they essentially are being singled out for destruction. Humans can produce as many as one hundred million distinct antibodies, which allows for quite a bit of protection against foreign invaders. As our body cuts and rejoins DNA to make up the Y-shaped antibodies (found in sharks as well) many tiny mistakes are made which leads to even more diversity. This diversity, along with DNA cutting, allows humans to fight off many different foreign invaders without requiring one dedicated gene to create each antibody and TCR. Even though a shark can cut DNA in a similar fashion to humans, they also have more light and heavy chain genes. Sharks not only possess a remarkable immune system but also produce a steroid called squalamine. According to Mike Zasloff, President of Research of Magainin Pharmaceuticals, sharks rely less on TCRs and antibodies and more on squalamine. Squalamine, as well as other shark chemicals, are considered potent killers of many bacteria and also seem to ward of viral infections. Magainin Pharmaceuticals is trying to develop squalamine for commercial use in prescriptions like the health food stores which sell shark cartilage since the early 1990’s. Many companies and people have been quick to point out the benefits of shark cartilage even though most of the claims have not been proven by true scientific research. Unfortunately, sharks are being over fished worldwide because of the cartilage craze. The research that John Marchalonis began is really just the beginning of a significant study. As the research has found, sharks are very resistant to infection and sickness. If these abilities can be brought to the human species, then we have a lot to look forward to. Less sickness and better resistance to viral infections are only two possible benefits that could come from Marchalonis’ research. There will always be a debate on ethics when DNA is concerned. Many religious sects do not believe in research involving DNA because they feel it is science’s way of â€Å"playing God†. I feel that if this research can prevent sickness or be able to fight off infections, then science should pursue in the effort to do more research. 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20 Tips For Winning Writing Contests

20 Tips For Winning Writing Contests 20 Tips For Winning Writing Contests 20 Tips For Winning Writing Contests By Guest Author Submitting stories to writing contests (Reedsy has an updated list with over 300 contests) can be quite lucrative if you know the tricks of the trade. At the same time it is easy to make an avoidable mistake and miss out. Many books published now use single quotation marks for speech. I followed this format for an entry in an American contest. After the contest I received an email from the main judge which said: You may have done well in this contest but for the fact that I could not get past the abominable use of apostrophes instead of quotation marks. Don’t let this happen to you. Worse, you will probably never know why you were not among the winners. Tip 1. Always adhere to traditional standards of correctness (see above). A contest is not the time to throw the rule book away. This applies most strongly in writing contests which are run by universities or colleges. Tip 2. If it says Literature contest, thats what it means. They are looking for subtlety, depth, a subtext, creativity, and clever (even poetic) use of language; an emphasis on interesting often dark characters, and setting rather than plot. Tip 3. If it says Writing competition, well written popular fiction is what will win. Now your emphasis must be on plot. You need a great opening line and an absorbing plot. Plot follows your main character’s conflict. Give this person an interesting difficult tussle of some kind. Your story ends when your character has resolved the conflict against all odds. Tip 4. If it states a particular theme in the rules, then that theme must be intrinsic to your story. Tip 5. Whatever kind of work you are writing, title is everything. The title is the judge’s first impression of your work. Spend time thinking of something relevant to the story that is eye catching and appealing. Tip 6. Use your delete key. Read and reread your work. That paragraph you really like that you spent hours over. Does it advance your story? No? Then delete it. Does your story only get going on the second page? Delete page one. Tip 7. Short stories work best from a single point of view. Don’t confuse the judge. Tip 8. Does your entry use the right tense? Present tense may be fashionable but it doesn’t work for every story. If your story is immediate and all is happening now, use present tense. If it spans a time period coming up to the present use past tense. Tip 9. Strive for active rather than passive voice. Tip 10. Do not use real people for your characters. Real people in fiction are boring. Your main character should be larger than life yet still believable. Tip 11. Do not use exclamation marks except possibly for a single word exclamation such as Ouch! Tip 12. Beware of clichà ©s. It is easy to use one without noticing. Tip 13 Use strong verbs rather than adverbs. Likewise avoid strings of adjectives and NEVER write suddenly. Tip 14 . Try to write something DIFFERENT. Think of the poor judge reading hundreds of stories set in her home country; then she gets to a well written entry set in Antarctica. Tip 15. If you know who the judge will be, read his work; try to read the entries of previous winners. Do everything you can to fit your entry to the contest. Tip 16. Use the entry form for all your details. NEVER put your name on the manuscript. Tip 17. Font: Use 12 point Times New Roman or Arial unless the rules ask for something else. Tip 18. Some contests give you a choice between paper or online entry. Choose paper whenever you can and pay the postage. Emailing submissions (unless as a Word attachment) can play havoc with your careful formatting. Tip 19. Please do not decorate your manuscript or add that nice picture of your pet dog or the photo of yourself. All that work to end up shredded. Don’t add a cute little note for the judge (Yes some people do). Tip 20. Proofread, proofread and do it again. If entering online print out to check your work. Read it out loud to yourself. If judges cant decide between two entries and one is missing a comma or has a word spelled incorrectly and the other has been submitted perfectly set-out without typos; guess which one will win? Good luck! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'ts7 Patterns of Sentence StructureHow to Address Your Elders, Your Doctor, Young Children... and Your CEO