alive03

Best Course of Action
Phase I Are you thinking? Are you wondering what is was? Are you curious to know if it was alive? I hope so! That scenario happened; it was a real life event. Here is another. On a canoe trip at False Cape State Park with other teachers, one of my peers found floating in the water near the edge of the marsh what appeared to be a large green sweet pickle. It was the same size and color as a gherkin. It had the same outside texture. Just as he was about to bite into it, our group leader shouted at him to stop. Did he really want to taste frog poop today? In this phase, your task is to think. Think on your own; there will be time to share with others later. You may think at the computer and use a page in Word to jot down your ideas or you may open Inspiration and enter your thoughts there or you may write your thoughts down on a piece of paper. Your task is to begin a list of what you think constitutes the concept of “alive.” If you are working in a Word document or Inspiration, save your work on your H drive!
Phase II Now that you have a list of possibilities for criteria of what may be alive, utilize the following resources to help you decide if the aggregates that formed stromalites were alive and if ribozymes are a life form. These sources will not say if they are or are not alive. Read the information and compare it to your own list of criteria. It is fair to change your criteria as you learn more about stromalites and ribozymes. Your criteria list may gradually develop as you become aware of other possibilities. A simple three column table may help you keep track of your findings. You may want to list your criteria (abbreviate to just a word or phrase) in the first column, stromalite characteristics in the second column, and ribozymes properties in the third column. You will need this table for your power point at the completion of this web quest. It would be wise to note the web site utilized for each point listed for stromalites and ribozymes. If you are working in a Word document, save your work on your H drive!
Phase III It is time to consolidate your thoughts! In this phase, you will create a three slide power point presentation.

Web Resources
Group 1: Resources for determining whether or not the aggregates that formed stromalites were life forms.	Group 2: Resources for determining whether or not ribozymes are a life form.
Localities of the Proterozoic: Bitter Springs Formation, Australia http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambrian/bittersprings.html This source explains the fossils of interest are formed by bacterial activity. Stromalites are aggregates of bacteria and algae that formed mats. Some of these mats became fossilized in certain conditions and types of rock.	Ribozymes Come Ready for Action http://www.hhmi.org/news/ribozyme.html This is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In this article, opposite the 3D structure, they describe preformed, preorganized sites for enzyme function.
Bacteria: Fossil Record. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacteriafr.html Here is a description of fossils found and how they formed. There is a micrograph showing an example of a fossilized cyanobacteria.	RIBOZYME SNAPSHOTS By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA08/rna1096.html In this article, ribozymes are shown to self assemble following their own genetic directions.
Introduction to the Cyanobacteria: Architects of earth's atmosphere http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanointro.html Functions of cyanobacteria are explained in this article and examples with photographs contribute to the description of cyanobacteria.	NEW RIBOZYME MAKES THE CUT: Natural RNA enzyme alters gene expression, usually a job for proteins http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8212/8212notw1.html This article makes two points: one naturally occurring ribozymes, not engineered ribozymes have great variation and two they are capable of performing tasks usually allotted to proteins.
Research: Earth’s Early Environment and Life 3.5 Detection and geochemical characterization of Earth’s earliest life 3.5.5 Quantitative methods for evaluating the biogenicity of fossil stromatolites http://astrobiology.ucla.edu/pages/res3e.html#res3_5_2 This is a challenging article that describes methods and results for establishing biogenicity of stromalites. This is going to be difficult reading for some, but it discusses an interesting possibility for your criteria list of what constitutes life.	Tiny Ribozyme package could be future treatment of Hepatitis B virus http://www.news-medical.net/?id=93 This article discusses the evidence supporting immunological role of ribozymes. A ribozymes wouldn’t need other molecules, like T cells, to protect it from infection.
	Ribozyme Reversal of Fortunes http://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20040510/fedor.html This article serves two functions: one, it describes how ribozymes work without metal cofactors, they require only a positive ion. Two, it shows how science is a process and that our learning is not ever really complete.

Summer Sources
Monastersky, R. 1998. The rise of life on Earth. National Geographic v193(3): 54-81.

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