I read the article,
“Images of 300 million old insects revealed”. This article was very interesting
to me because I take an interest to paleontology. The story came from Philip
Withers a professor at the University of Manchester. The scientists used a CT
scanner to reconstruct the image of an insect 305 million years old. The insect
was a fossilized rock with three-dimensional holes in it. The scientists put
the fossils in the CT scanner and took 3,000 x-rays from various angles. This
formed 2,000 different slides showing the fossil in cross section, which is the
intersection of a 3 dimensional body with a plane. Using these slide they made
a 3D digital reconstruction of the insect. From this they could determine the
biology and diet of the insects. The paleontologists suspect the insect fed
from the rotting litter of the forest floor. They are a new species and genus
which no longer exists; even though it is extinct it is closely related to the cockroach.
They both belong to a group called the Polyneoptera, which consists of roaches,
crickets, and grasshoppers.
I found this article very
interesting mainly because I always find it fascinating when a group of
scientists discover something so old, yet well preserved. The method of
technology is also very interesting because this year we learned about electron
or SEM microscopes. Although the CT scan and the SEM scan aren’t the same I find
them very similar, because they both create a 3D image. This article was mind
blowing for me and I was very surprised to hear that they found a new species that
lived millions of years ago; I personally find it very impressive.
I read Jim’s article based on the new insect that was discovered to be extinct for almost three hundred million years. I thought that you very clearly expressed the main idea of the article and it was easy to understand. The process of the CT scanner was very descriptive allowing a better idea of what was happening in my mind. I also like how you were specific with numbers and details. For example you told us that the scientist is from Manchester, England or that the scanner takes 3,000 x-rays. The last thing I like was how you compared it to what we’ve learned in class, in this case the SEM microscope with the 3-D pictures it takes.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that you could make better is the description of the insect. You could tell us its species name, where it lives, you told us its similar to a cockroach but maybe tell us what it looks like and its color. Other than this maybe tell us why the insect went extinct. Also more detail on how the scientists came upon the insect.
I thought this was so cool; I love when new species of animals are discovered because it makes me feel like the world of science is improving every day. I was very interested in the new insect and thought it was very interesting how they can learn about this insect through a fossilized rock. It is just amazing, I hope Philip Withers and his Coworkers can learn more about it.
I read Jim Grant's article on the discovery of an insects that are 300 million years old. I was just fascinated by this number because I didn't even know that there was animal life on Earth at this time in history. I really liked how Jim included the process in which the scientists made the discovery because it made me realize all of the work that scientists put in for just one discovery. In addition, I likes all of the details, such as the scanner takes 3,000 x-rays. All of the details helped improve the review greatly. Moreover, i loved Jim's summary of the article. I thought that Jim presented the article in great fashion and helped me grasp the main idea of the article.
ReplyDeleteEven though the article was very well done, a few things could have been done to make the review even better. For example, he could have provided a critique on the article. Jim's summary and analysis was amazing, but he failed to say what could have made the article better or easier to understand. In addition, Jim could have added something about what the scientists are doing to improve on their discovery. One last thing that could have made the review better is if there was a description of what the insect looked like. Not to mention, some of the physical characteristic of the insect.
In conclusion, I really loved Jim's review because it provided me with tons of new knowledge, such as there was life 300 million years ago. Jim also included how the scientists have used some of the things that we have studied this year, such as the SEM microscope. In conclusion, I loved Jim’s article and hope these scientists will continue to make great discoveries on the insects 300 million years agoe
My fellow classmate Jim wrote an intriguing article on a new insect that was discovered. Jim did a really good job on this article, and did it in a clear way. Jim said that he like paleontology, and you could tell from his write up, he enjoyed it. This helped him write the article, because he took a real interest in it. Jim was very thorough in his article, and included a lot of details, which made his write up very clear. I also like how Jim told us what he found interesting, and his all around thoughts on the article. Something Jim could have worked on was possibly adding in a quote or two from the actual article. One other thing I thought Jim could have improved on was possibly talking more about the insect, and adding more details, and information about it. The most interesting thing that I took away from this article was the fact of how all of this technology was used to discover a new species, which shows how much the world has advanced.
ReplyDeleteI read Jim’s review on the article “images of 300 million old insects revealed”, which is about the discovery of a new species and genus lived in 300 million ago. The topic he chose was already very interesting, but his review makes it more fascinating. Jim did a great job on summarized the article including the important details. For example, he described how the scientists observed the fossils and then determined it’s a new species. He also used the numbers to give the readers a deep impression, such as “300 million ole insects”, “3,000 x-rays in the CT scanner from different angles”, “2,000 different slides showing the fossil in cross section”… He also explained the reason why he chose this article. It shows us he has real interests in it. He also made a connection of the CT scanner and SEM microscope of they both make 3D images of an object. It helps a lot on showing what exactly the paleontologists did to determine the biology and diet of the insects.
ReplyDeleteThe article can be improved by adding more information around the topic, because it really interests me on how they adapted for survival 300 million years ago. So maybe you can talk about the reason why the species of Polyneoptera, which consists of roaches, crickets and grasshoppers, is “one of the great survivors of the insect world”. It will also be better if Jim can describe the 3D image of the insects a little bit.
In conclusion, I really like Jim’s terse and interesting article. It was really eye-opening for me to know about roach has lived that many years through the adaption for survival. I hope there will be more discoveries about the livings millions of years ago.
Jim’s review on the article “images of 300 million old insects revealed,” discussed the scientific discovery of a bug related to the cockroach that lived 300 million years ago. In the review I found it very easy to follow what Jim wrote. He presented all of his facts in a clear way. I like how Jim talked about the CT scanner and how the scientist used it to make a 3D image of the bug. Jim as well gave a lot of details on the article he read and helped me really get the idea of what the article was all about.
ReplyDeleteThe article review could be improved if physical traits of this new insect were given so readers could picture the bug. Doing this would also make his writing a little more interesting. What also would have made Jim’s article better was if he talked about what he didn’t like about the article, Jim only talked about what he liked and would have been nice to hear what he didn’t like. Also, if he added in a couple quotes from the scientists who discovered the new bug would be nice giving us an idea on how they feel about this great discovery made.
What really impressed me about this article was that there was even life on earth 300 million years ago. I always thought no life was present that long ago. This article has definitely showed some great facts and made me interested in learning about what else was alive during this time period.
I read Jim Grant’s article review on “Images of 300 million old insects revealed”. Jim did a fantastic job giving strong examples from the article. For instance, the point that scientists were able to recreate such a prehistoric animal, I found to be very cool. Also, I liked how Jim included words from the article and his reference to our classroom notes about microscopes to help him show how these scientists were able to create this 3D picture.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Jim’s review could have been improved if he incorporated a little more about what the animal was like when it was alive. When I read the article, I found that to be a very interesting part how they identified the animal in such detail that they could predict what the animal did back then.
One aspect that impressed me in this article was how the scientists were able to use the CT Microscope to generate such a meticulous photo. This was intriguing because the animal existed over 300 million years ago and I am fascinated that they this animal was even found on the fossil in the first place. Overall, I think Jim did a fantastic job on this review and it really opened my eyes to see how technology has affected our world and enabled us to learn more about our history than we ever could have imagined.
Peyton Elder
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Biology
10.10.12
Jim did a great job on his article. One thing he did well was explaining what the article was about. He put in many details and wrote like he really knew the subject at hand. Another thing Jim did well was his personal reflection at the end was nice because it gave an opinion to the paper. A third thing Jim did well was making connections between the article and our classroom about the microscopes.
Two things Jim could work on was one explaining some of the terms from the article like what a paleontologist was or what a Polyneoptera group was. Another thing that Jim could work on was explaining what the insect was like more.
What impressed be about Jim’s article was that you could basically recreate the insect from billions of years ago by taking many ct scans of it and looking at it from all different angles.