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Diversity of Animals

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   Diversity of Animals The most basic type of animal is the sponge. Sponges are invertebrates and have few specialized tissues. They reproduce either asexually by budding or fragmentation or sexually, in which case they are monoecious, meaning that they are simultaneously male and female. Next are Cnidarians. These marine organisms have radial or biradial body symmetry and have two tissue layers, the outer epidermis and the inner gastrodermis, with a jelly-like layer called the mesoglea in between. Following cnidarians are flatworms. Flatworms are bilaterally symmetrical, meaning that the can be divided in half along a plane. (Bartleby) Their digestive systems are incomplete, and they also exhibit cephalization, meaning that their nervous systems are concentrated around their heads. This is the beginning of a brain. More complex than flatworms are nematodes. What sets nematodes apart from less complex organisms is that they had complete digestive systems. Next highe...

Cancer

  Cancer affects our lives perhaps more than any other disease. 9.6% of Americans will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetimes. (CDC) But what is cancer? Cancer is the out of control reproduction of mutated cells. As cancer cells divide, they become more and more resistant to the regulating signals that control their growth and reproduction. They divide with increasing frequency, which eventually creates tumors that can impair bodily functions and eventually lead to death. (Scitable) About 605,000 Americans die from cancer each year. (CDC) What causes Cancer?  How do cells go out of control and become cancerous?   While not all of the details are known, we know that human DNA has genes called protooncogenes that help and control cell regulation. A mutation in one of these genes can cause them to become activated, turning them into oncogenes, which divide continuously. This can be caused by a few different things. One possible cause is gene mutatio...