In the article “Crickets Warn Young Before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders”, tests proved that crickets could warn their offspring about the dangers of the outside environment, before they were even born. Crickets leave their young after they are born, so a baby cricket is very vulnerable when danger lurks nearby. This is why it would be incredibly useful for a mother to be able to forewarn her young about predators that could be of harm. An experiment was set up in which a pregnant cricket was placed in an environment where she was stalked by a wolf spider (the spider's fangs had wax on them to protect the cricket). Another pregnant cricket was placed in an environment with no wolf spiders. When the new crickets were born, they were all placed in an arena with a wolf spider whose fangs were not waxed, which meant that the spider could eat the crickets. It turned out the the crickets whose mother had been stalked by the wolf spider survived longer than the others. They could hide for longer and detect when the spider was around, because they sensed its silk and feces. Scientists aren't sure how the crickets could have warned their children about the nearby predators, but there is a theory that some sort of hormone is transmitted between mother and child.
This article is important to society in several ways. One being the fact that people can now get deeper into this topic. We can find out about other animals that may be able to forewarn their prey about danger. This article is important to me because it was very interesting. I never thought that simple crickets could be the base of a very intriguing new discovery.
Overall, the article was very well written. However it could have stressed more about why it's hard to figure out why the crickets can forewarn their offspring. It also could have talked about what kinds of tests would be needed in order to do so.
This article teaches alot how when you grow up in a dangerous enviroment you learn how to deal with it and what you should beware unlike the crickets put in the safe enviroment on the other hand have completely diffrent experience becaus they dont get their naturally prederatiry instincts of fear a spider so when they put the cricket into the unsafe enviroment they are mostly goners compared to the ones growing up. i found it amazing how even though the cricket grew up in a dangerous enviroment they get the skills they need to survive longer i also liked how they have a conspiracy about hormones from the mother to children. a thing i thought they could have talked about more was maybe why they think it is hormones from the mother to child
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Minah’s review of “Crickets Warn Young before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders". Minah did a great job stating the components of the experiment which was conducted and explained in the article. She also explained that the discovery explained in her article could be the base of a great new discovery of animals and there children. I thought she explained the experiment in a very clear way and it was straight to the point which I liked. I probably would have gotten bored of Minah explaining the article but she did it in such a clear and easy way that it was easy and not boring to read. I also thought that Minah explained the outcome of putting the newborn crickets in a ring with a wolf spider very clearly so it was not boring. Finally Minah wrote the article in a way that everyone can understand what the article is talking about.
ReplyDeleteOne part that I think Minah’s review could improve on is that she did not explain the theory that mother’s pass on a hormone enough so I was a little bit confused and thought that she could have explained in more depth so that I could know more about the theory. I also thought that Minah could have been more elaborate on why it is so hard to figure out why crickets can forewarn their offspring and if scientists are conducting new experiments to further see if all animals can forewarn their offspring.
After reading Minah’s review I learned that the environment in which pregnant animals or people are in could affect the baby or offspring. Before this I did not know why some animals are more aware of predators then others but the answer maybe because of the environment in which the mothers were in. One thing that could be interesting to find out is if crickets know that their habit affects their offspring. I found the experiment conducted in the article very interesting. I wonder if scientists are continuing research on this topic. Overall Minah did a great job in reviewing the article.
In this review, Minah did an excellent job describing every important detail of the experiment, and clearly distinguished between the independent and dependent variables. This allows us as readers to immediately understand the effect the wolf spider had on the cricket and unborn baby. Minah also put forward sufficient background information for us to understand the process of a cricket’s life, describing such facts as the immediate abandonment of newborn offspring by their parents. Lastly, I believe that Minah’s review was appropriate in length, as it summarized thoroughly but did overly do so.
ReplyDeleteI think that a place to improve is the section describing the significance of this discovery to society. It should be related not so much to what it means for that very specific sub-category of science and the result of this particular experiment involving crickets, but more to the outside world and perhaps the broader vision of science. Also, I believe the article would be improved if the statements about the theory could be elaborated on, though this was not her fault, as the article did not analyze this section very much. The problem involving the theory in the review is that it is just a statement, without any further detail, viewpoints, explanations, etc.
One thing that impressed me was how this experiment proves there is truly a relationship between mother and her unborn child. Scientists have known for a while that certain things, like smoking and drinking, can negatively affect an unborn child, but it is relieving to see that positive ideas, information, et al., can also be transmitted.
In Minah’s review of “Crickets Warn Young before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders”, Minah did a good job of explaining the reasoning behind the experiment. She also explained in detail how the experiment was set up. It was good how Minah made a clear connection between the threat of the spider before birth and the better chances of survival when the crickets were born. She explained well that the crickets that were born without their mother being followed by a wolf spider did not survive living in an environment with a wolf spider as well. Minah explained nicely the reason why the crickets threatened before birth had better chances of survival from the wolf spider, and she explained it in a way that was easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteThis article could have been improved by showing more why this article is important. Being interesting does not make it that important to science. Also the other reason it was important, finding out about other animals that can forewarn offspring, would only be helpful to a small field of science. The article also could have elaborated more on how the environment directly affects the offspring when born.
From this article, I learned that crickets could warn their offspring of danger before they are born, then the babies would adapt to better protect themselves from that certain threat. I was impressed by the fact that even though the crickets were abandoned at birth, they did not need to learn from experience how to sense the presence of a wolf spider, they were taught how to before they were born.
I thought Minah did an excellent job with the article “Crickets Warn Young before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders." I thought that Minah did a great job explaining the article. I was able to follow it easily and understood all of the aspects. She included enough details to give the reader sufficient explanations, but did not include so many that her write became confusing and uninteresting. I also agreed with Minah’s critique of the article, since I too would like to know more about what kinds of tests can be done in order to learn more about how these on the importance of this discovery. I think it was important that she gave a reason why we should care about this article, and why it was worth being read.
ReplyDeleteI think the review could have been made even better by further describing the experiment. It would be interesting to know how the scientists collected these results. I also would have liked to have learned more about the scientists’ theories, since coming up with a hypothesis to test is a huge part of science, and must have been a vital piece of the article.
Before reading Minah’s review of this article, I was completely unaware that crickets can teach their young before birth. In fact, as Minah started explaining the article and the experiment, I thought the results were going to turn out the opposite way. From this article, I learned a lot about a new experiment that may have a huge impact on science.
Minah’s review of “Crickets Warn Young Before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders” was excellent. She did a great job summarizing the article in a way that was understandable to everyone. Also, the dependant and independent variables where clearly shown with good data backing them up. This review was well written, descriptive, and overall easy to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteAlthough she clearly stated the facts and observations made from this article, she did not explain the significance of this article as well as the facts. The importance of this article is almost as big a component as the facts backing it up. Also she might have elaborated more on the details of how these scientists went about collecting this information.
Overall, Minah did an excellent job, and before reading this I had never known that crickets teach their offspring before even giving birth to them. This was a fascinating review, and I enjoyed reading it.
Minah’s review of “Crickets Warn Young Before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders” was quite intriguing. She explained the article in great detail and explained the purpose as well. I have never heard of this area of investigation before and it seems like it would be interesting to learn about. She presented the information quite concisely. This made it all the more interesting to learn about.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know where exactly this idea came from. The review may be stronger if it explained the theory behind the experiment. She may have been able to explain why this is such a break through in this arena.
I have never heard or such science and so the entire article interested me. It made me wonder if humans do similar things with our offspring. It may actually be beneficial for pregnant animals to be in potentially harmful territory so that the immunity of their offspring is not hindered.
I enjoyed reading Mina's review of the New York Times Article "Crickets Warn Young Before Birth of Dangers of Wolf Spiders." She did an excellent job of explaining how scientists performed this experiment concisely and in an easy-to understand way. I liked that she gave details of how the experiment was performed (that wax was put on the spider's fang, for example). Minah's thoughts about how the article is important to society were interesting to read, and I too look forward to seeing how this topic continues to be researched more extensively and scientists discovering how exactly this process occurs.
ReplyDeleteI think Minah's critique of the article was a little short, and could be expanded to talk more about what information the original article leaves out. The original article said nothing about how the topic would continue to be researched, or how the scientists came up with the experiment in the first place. Consequently, Minah's summary was not very detailed as well. A more detailed article can be found in the Chicago Journal page linked to from the original article after a couple of clicks (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/action/showStoryContent?doi=10.1086//pr.2010.02.16.2658), which further explains some of the background behind the experiment, and how the effect presents itself in the wild.
This article was very thought-provoking, and I am excited to see the continuation of this research. It would be particularly fascinating to see if this effect is present at all in human babies, and in what way. Possibly in the future, scientists might even be able to engineer this effect to pass on specific information to animal and human babies. Perhaps these crickets are the future of education.