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Chemical Defenses

I. Scenario: A Sick Child in Nigeria

A. The child
B. How can the poisonous antidote save the child’s life?
C. What is calabar bean and what is its history?
D. How does physostigmine work?
II. How does a normal neuromuscular junction work?
A. The players and an overview
B. What is the nature of the electrical signal?
C. How does a cell secrete signals?
D. So what about the child who has eaten the calabar bean? How could something change normal signaling and muscle contraction?
III. Antidote
A. How might the antidote work to counteract what goes on in the synapse after exposure?
B. Why and how does atropine, the antidote, work?
IV. How do plants and animals use chemical defenses?
A. Calabar bean
B. Chondrodendron tomentosum
C. Poison arrow frogs
D. Puffer fish
E. How do arrow poisons work?
F. Why are chemical agents like these an advantage for plants and animals?
G. What uses do we have for chemical agents such as these?