Digital Scavenger Hunt Final

This is a picture of my arm having an allergic reaction due to a skin test at the Allergist's office.  My skin was pricked with a plastic prick covered in either nut or peanut extract.  For example the black dot to the far left is peanut butter and the third dot from the right with the mist redness and swelling was cashew.  The rest of the dots were walnut, pecan, almond, and the two far to the right were the control and histamine.  I have food allergies because my body produces an antibody called immunoglobulin E which reacts violently to non-harmful substances such as peanut and nut protein.  The IgE starts to produce histamine which causes the allergic symptoms.  A possible reason my body produces IgE is due to a genetic trait carried by my Dad's family since my cousin also has allergies.

Continued from above, this is the inside of my elbow where no extract was pricked but surprisingly it also broke out in hives.  This could be because the extract from the cashew traveled through my vein into my elbow.  But don't worry as I took antihistamine which relieved the hives, redness and irritation.

                                                      

These deer and bunny along with squirrels, a fox, doves, cardinals, a party of blue jays, finches, robins, and black birds make up a  small community in my backyard.  They all focus on the bird feeder where we put out excessive amounts of seed, bread and carrots.  Sometimes they get along as the squirrels climbs on top of the bird feeder and shakes the seeds onto the ground for the others.  But other times they fight each other as I've witnessed the squirrel attack the bunny and scare the birds away.

This my lizard Coco's tank, where I've simulated her natural habitat.  I have two hot lamps, the two on the right, to heat up her enclosure.  In the summer it can reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  The other light is a UV light which provides essential Vitamin D to Coco.  Coco likes to bask on the rocks which help her undergo thermoregulation.  Also Coco needs little water as she gets her water from her food which is lettuce and vegetables.  Coco's ability to live in extreme heat is a result of evolutionary adaptions.

This is Coco, a Mali Uromastyx, who is currently shedding her skin which happens around twice a year.  She doesn't shed her skin like a snake, all in one piece, rather in small sections.  Her back and belly usually shed first then her face and tail last.  Coco's taxonomy is as follows: 

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Reptilia
Order Squamata
Family Agamidae
Genus Uromastyx
Species Uromastyx maliensis

                                                                             

This is Coco's spiky tail which you can see is discolored due to her shedding.  Usually she gains a section of tail after every shedding period.

These pictures are of an albino porcupine and an albino raccoon.  These animals are extremely rare in the wild as their discoloration makes them easy to spot for predators.  Their discoloration is caused by the absence of the gene that produces melanin, which causes pigmentation. 

This a bumblebee collecting pollen or nectar from the sunflower, during this process some of the pollen gets stuck to the bumblebee then as it moves to another flower it accidentally deposits the pollen.  This transfer of pollen is known as cross-pollination.

This is a picture of a chimpanzee using a toothbrush.  In the wild chimpanzees are one of the few animals to use tools to aide them in tasks, they will use sticks and stones to get at insects in trees and plants. Thus it is not surprising that in captivity they would do the same when given more tools.  They share this tool using ability with us humans as we share much of the same DNA.

This is a red panda in captivity but in nature they live in China, Nepal, and Myanmar.  Although their name includes "panda", they are more closely related to raccoons then to the panda bear. But their diet closely resembles the diet of the panda bear as they eat bamboo and various insects and small lizards. Their taxonomy is as follows   

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Family: Ailuridae                                 
Species: Ailurus fulgens (Himalaya)

These are some examples of monosaccharide, disaccharides and polysaccharides.  The granulated sugar is an example of the disaccharide sucrose which is formed when a glucose monomer connects to a fructose monomer.  Stevia is a natural sweetener made from the stevia shrub. This shrub produces steviol glycosides which are 50-450 times sweeter as sucrose.  The honey is a mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose.

This ice water is a simple demonstration of hydrogen bonding in water molecules.  When water freezes the hydrogen bonds cause the molecules to spread out into a three-dimensional crystal.  But in liquid form there aren't as many hydrogen bonds thus the molecules are more packed together then the molecules in ice.  This causes a density difference in which ice is less dense than liquid water and floats on top of it.

These are pictures of a spider web and the spider (the small dot in the center of the web).  The spider's silk used to spin the web is a protein.  The spider silk protein is in the scleroprotein group which also includes collagen (in ligaments) and keratin (nails and hair).

 These are several of the Eastern White Pine trees (Pinus strobus) that form the population around my house.  They're evergreens which means they keep their needles all year regardless of the season.  These particular trees are around 175 feet tall. 
 

 This is a compost pile consisting of cut grass and various dead plant matter.  Decomposers such as worms and flies convert the dead plant material into mineral nutrients that can be reused by plants. 

These are Eastern White Pine pinecones.  They are the fruit or egg cells of these trees. Each pinecone has two seeds inside it which can be fertilized by the tree's pollen/sperm cells.

After doing some research I believe this mold on the window sill to be of the Cladosporium genus under the Kingdom Fungi.  The spores circulate through the air and are normally attracted to moisture.  This mold is not considered as a serious health threat compared to other molds such as Black mold but it still may cause allergic reactions.