Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Experiments That Keep Going And Going And Going


1. What is Richard Lenski studying and why does he think it's important?
Richard Lenski began his evolution experiment in 1988 with a simple question: Does evolution always lead to the same end point? if he started with 12 identical flasks,full of identical bacteria, would they all change over time in the same way? If he started with 12 identical flasks, full of identical bacteria, would they all change over time in the same way? or would random mutations send each bottle's population spinning off in a different direction? 
 Richard Lenski thinks it's important because,he could find new and interesting results that can lead to new discoveries. 
2. What is Telewski studying and why does he think it's important?
Telewski is studying to see how long seeds might remain viable in the soil. We know that seeds can remain dormant for a long period of time so, he wanted to find out Professor Beal's key question, which is, "how long?"
Telewski thinks it's important because it's been going on for so long and he wanted to work on this experiment also.
3. What benefits do you see in performing long-term scientific studies like these? 
 The benefits I see in preforming long-term scientific studies like these is when you work on long-term scientific studies you will have more information than a short-term experiment. you also will find new results.

2 comments:

  1. Why did Telewski think the project he's working on was important to know? He didn't just think it was important because it's been going on for a while. Also, long-term studies don't always provide MORE information than short-term studies. What is one obvious benefit of long-term studies?

    grade: 75

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  2. Telewski thought the project he's working on was important because botanist William J. Beal who started this long term study The only writings from Beal about his experiment are dry scientific reports, but Telewski assumes it meant a lot to him.

    "He had to be passionate about it," says Telewski. "You don't do something like this, you know, with that long-term desire, without being passionate." so he decided to continue it.
    Beal opened six bottles before he retired. Then he passed it on to a colleague, Henry Darlington. Eventually it was taken over by others, including Robert Bandurski and Jan Zeevaart, who passed it on to Telewski.

    One obvious benefit of long-term studies is some long-term studies are required on what your studing some studies take longer than others.

    Reference: http://www.npr.org/2012/11/23/165030844/experiments-that-keep-going-and-going-and-going

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