Here is my final project!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oceGQM-eP7iubuCdp44Ir6GhGfAvnIsT/view?usp=sharing

Mind Map:

Summary:

This week we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn about space, stars, and meteorites from our guest lecturer Dr. Santiago Torres. To be honest, I don't really know that much about stars and space. I believe that when I was younger I used to be a bit more interested, but as I grew up I had become more interested in biological topics on the microscopic level in contrast to space, which is on the macroscopic level.

This week our class had the pleasure of meeting Professor Christina Albu as our guest lecturer and had the opportunity to listen to her presentation on “Vibratory Fields: Artists as Neural Orchestrators, Cartographers, and Translators.” Professor Albu’s lecture discussed various types of artists and exhibits that used brain imagery and data to create art.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fx03sMHZpGWHiDQHVz3qV7qTqr23vn4gja_ScBjVaSc/edit?usp=sharing

It was interesting to listen to professor Marta de Menezes’ guest lecture this week and her take on nature and ethics. What really stood out to me was her perspective on ethics versus morality, especially on the topic of altering an organism’s genetic makeup. I was particularly favorable of the neutral stance that was taken and emphasized on this topic.

This week we covered the topic of plastics in lecture. I think it was an amazing coincidence that it lined up with my Environmental Health lecture on Exposure to Toxic Chemicals, which introduced and discussed the toxic effects of Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical commonly found in many manufactured plastics. It was quite unfortunate to hear that many of the plastic wastes that end up in the ocean often get degraded into microplastics that are consumed by organisms in the ocean.

We learned a lot of things in class this week, but the main topic that I would particularly like to focus my reflection on was what we learned about fungi and what people are trying to do with it today in their attempts to better the environment. We first covered the topic of mycelium, which was something that I have heard about before, but I never really thought to look more into it. It was incredible to find out that fungi and many trees had such a reliant symbiotic relationship.

Introduction: