Joe's Interview Response

1. Describe your feelings about or response to the interview.

 The interview was very interesting. Dr. Fisher is obviously a very intelligent person and I was very impressed with his vast knowledge on a variety of subjects. Although his knowledge of biology is superior to ours he did a good job of being able to explain things in a way we could better understand, and for the most part there was nothing that was completely above my head. I was also very interested to hear his background story and thought it was neat that he is originally from Kansas. Also I thought it was cool that his lab was the first to have images of the needle proteins.

2. What changes occurred for you as a result of your interview.

 One change that occurred for me is that I realized how complex the biological systems are that anthrax uses, and it also made me realize that in general that nearly all biological systems aren’t nearly as simple as they are sometimes made out to be in our textbooks.

3. Did anything about the interview disturb you?

 Somewhat related to my response to questions two is that it is kind of disturbing how complex these systems are. One thing that especially stood out as well was the fact that even if Dr. Fischer’s lab or other scientists figure out a way to stop anthrax (or any disease really) that it is possible (even likely) that anthrax would evolve and scientists would be forced to start their research all over again.

4. Describe the connections you found between the interview and your research & classwork.

 The connections Dr. Fischer made between genetics and evolution were very applicable to what we are talking about in class. It was cool to here him talk about some evolutionary concepts and think to myself “hey were studying that right now and I know exactly what he’s talking about”. It was especially relatable to class when Dr. Fischer talked about the genes evolving that code for the proteins and how its not the proteins that evolve but the genes that encode for them.