deconstructing biological terms
We all went crazy over this quiz that was forwarded to me by my friend, some months ago (thanks zenk). The e-mail was dated July but I just saw it yesterday as I was cleaning my inbox. So there I found myself answering the quiz when we were supposed to go to the Consulate for this meeting chuchu.
kaloka! it took me six attempts before i could correctly spell "ulaanbaatar" which folks, if you must know is the capital of mongolia. I was absolutely sure it was, but i can't believe i couldn't spell it right so it wouldn't register my score!!! hah! i was actually good at geography, (i better be coz it's one of my fave subjects). Mogadishu is the capital of somalia, and no, sydney, nor melbourne is not the capital of australia but Canberra. The only question i couldn't answer is the capital of vermont. hey, i'm not from here, ok? i only know vermont because of ben and jerry's, and st. albans, where one of the USCIS service centers is. but i dared not cheat so no google for me please. My american colleague thinks he knows but it wouldn't give us score so i assume we misspelled it.
Well, the quiz has questions on geometry, arts, history, mathematics, etc. That's part I. Part II was movie soundtracks, and by the time i get to it, everybody was hovering around me and we were all answering it like crazy. most of us couldn't answer the part about commercials (i call it part III) because we don't have tfc. I should be the authority here, but I suck. Geez, alam ko sya at the tip of my tongue but yeah, simply put, I suck. I think i got 32 out of 100. whew! and we were doing good, when out of excitement, my colleague tripped on my computer wires and kaboom!!! it crashed down and we did not save our answers. some fun!!!
Anyway, I am so giddy about it all that I was suddenly reminded of our periodic tests in high school. (I am actually grinning like an idiot recalling our biology lesson. Thanks to the same quiz i'm talking about.)
Hey dig these:
Commensalism refers to "situations in which one species benefits from the presence or activity of another species, but the other species gains no benefit nor suffers any loss."
Yup it was one of the questions in science. I actually first answered symbiosis, although i'm sure it wasn't that. But symbiosis is "situation when species live in an intimate contact and may manifest in interactions like mutualism (relationship between two organisms that benefits both); commensalism (defined above) and parasitism (one benefits while the other suffers). Ammensalism has been added for "the interaction in which one species is hurt, but the other does not benefit."
Mutualism by the way can be (1) obligatory - organisms cannot survive in the absence of the other partner or (2)
Facultative - organism can lead an independent existence, since mutualistic relationship does not have to be symmetric. One organism may be obligated to the mutualism, while the other can live without its mutualistic partner. So mutualism may or may not be symbiotic.
Now dig this, "Diffuse Mutualisms" which as the term 'diffuse" implies, manifest when "the strength of the connection between any two species is not as strong as when each species has one and only one other species with which it can form a mutualism". Hence, diffuse mutualisms may involve many species, when (a) each partner may interact with more than one other partner and (b) the species involved in the mutualism may change from place to place or through time.
Well, what the heck is my point? My point my friends is this, everything we need to know, we all learned from the old schooldays (that most of us hated, probably). Tsk! tsk! It has been laid down for all of us, as early as our grade school days. Except that our teachers are ummm...rigid(?) they never bothered to expound. I mean, they always use examples like the algea, the orchids, the corals...haha! But go figure now, list down at least five of your so-called friends and classify them. (Not to judge them, no i'm not suggesting that). Just for the fun of it, I'm sure we could all apply these scientific terms!
So for example, we say, "My relationship is complicated. I think we have symbiosis, but we're not exclusive" when you could perhaps mean "We are FWB or friends with benefits" (the term these days?) Hmmm...mutualism or parasitism (you may actually be the parasite). Or we can say, "A lot of people are now into 'diffuse mutalisms' (instead of saying: into "the game of love')".
Blah,blah, blah..aliw di ba? Why reinvent the wheel? we have interesting terms here!!! while i'm at it folks, let me further explore our lessons in science. Karma, i would say can be translated to newton's laws of motion, which says that in every action, there is an equal or opposite reaction. Now, for those who claim that they love two persons equally? say, those who claim that they hold both dearly to their hearts? nah, chuck it. It isn't possible, according to the law of matter (at least) which says that "no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time." i know, i know, they're humans, not objects. But, they can't share A space. so, it follows that one is on top of the other, one is stepping on the other, therefore, in the final analysis, one's got more bearing than the other.
By the way, do you know this --> (yeah, still part of the quiz) "A hypothetical object whose gravity would be so great that nothing could escape from it? I do. Black hole. Only i'd say it's not a hypothetical object. (grins)
Arghh..i still have more items to figure out. (but i would like to explore this topic.....)
Oo nga pala, happy birthday ate =) miss na kita. Forgive me if i had ever been a parasite at any given time. har!har!
