Protein Synthesis Lab

A protein is made through a very complicated process where the DNA gets copied, and that copy is called an RNA. Next, the mRNA leaves the nucleus, and heads over to the cytoplasm. The mRNA specifically goes to the ribosomes, the ribosomes read groups of three bases. These groups of three bases are called sequences. Then DNA Polymerase goes around determining the proper amino acid for the codon. Once the process is finished, it all folds up to become a protein!

When you think about buying things, you always have that chance of getting a factory defect. That is why many companies have warranties, so they fix a defective product! This happens with making proteins too, but it is actually called a mutation. The three different types of mutations are insertion, deletion, and substitution. It seems as though substitution is the least effective mutation because it only affects one sequence. Remember that a sequence is a combination of three base letters. Deletion and insertion can be huge problems to the protein, especially if they are at the start of the RNA/DNA strand.

For the mutation of our group chose, we chose substitution. We chose substitution because it wouldn't greatly affect the DNA strand. It only changed one sequence, and it wouldn't make a difference where the mutation was located.

Proteins are essential to life, so it isn't optimal to have a mutation. A mutation could go from making oxygen travel in much less quantities in your blood to stopping the blood from clotting very easily. Some mutations can cause little to no clotting in your blood, which can cause serious damage to your body. There is also a mutation that was the complete opposite of this, called Thrombophilia. This is when the blood has an increased tendency to clot. Blood clots in your veins are very dangerous. A blood clot in your veins can travel around your body. It can go to your lungs, brain, or heart. There is an extremely high risk of a person dying if a blood clot gets lodged in any of these places.

Unit 5 Reflection

This unit talked A LOT about DNA, and how it is formed, copied, and wrapped several times, to make chromosomes. In the past couple of weeks, I have learned really how great our DNA is. Did you know that our DNA can copy 100 trillion times in a second? Just yesterday we learned about Protein Synthesis. Protein synthesis is a series of chemical reactions in which molecules are brought into contact with one another and chemical bonds are formed and broken. Even before that. We also learned a lot about mutations. In biology, a mutation is a permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or other genetic elements. We learned that in a DNA sequence, one slip up, and you end up with a mutation for life. Over the course of the past few weeks, I really learned how precise biology is and how detailed it is.  

Egg Diffusion Lab

The Egg Diffusion Lab

In this lab, we put an egg into vinegar, which dissolved the shell. We took two other eggs (both of them with no shell, just membrane) and placed one into deionized water and the other one into sugar water. We left the eggs for a couple minutes, and then looked at them. The egg in deionized water got slightly bigger, while the one in sugar got smaller. 

While looking at class data, it was common that the egg shrank when put into sugar water. This is because of a process called diffusion. Since the inside of the egg had a higher water content than the outside of the egg, the water moved out of the egg. This lead to an extreme decrease of the size of the egg. On the other hand, the egg size/mass increased when the egg was put in deionized water because the water passed inside the cell.

In this experiment, the cell membrane was pretty much the main reason anything changed in the cell. Diffusion was the main process that we tested in this experiment. This is why eggs are surrounded by a protective shell. The shell protects the egg against diffusion, and also things popping the egg. It also demonstrates how sensitive cells are to their surrounding conditions.

Vegetables are sprinkled with water because the skin of the vegetable can absorb that water. Salt is used to melt ice, but it destroys the plants on the side of the road. Usually there are not too many plants on the edge of a road where they salt the area all the time. 

After doing this experiment, I would like to test what different liquids do to an egg. How would lemon juice vs soap affect an egg? I would also like to test putting salt water on cells, and observing their changes in a microscope. This would be a very interesting way to observe the changes.

Human DNA lab

The lab we did today tested for DNA in our cheeks, with the question being "How can DNA be separated from cheek cells in order to study it?". The answer was very simple. Through a simple process, we separated out DNA using gatorade, detergent, rubbing oil, and pineapple juice. In the experiment, we started off by washing out our mouths with gatorade, so that it would pick up the DNA in our cheek. Then we each put a pinch of salt into it, which would separate the DNA from the excess particles from our mouths. But the separation of the particles and DNA was because the solution was polar, and the excess particles were nonpolar. Next, we dumped it into a test tube and put detergent into it. This broke down the nuclear membrane. Next, we added pineapple juice to it, causing it to be even more stringy than before, making it very visible. Finally, we put rubbing oil in it, causing precipitation, which means that the DNA floated up into the rubbing oil. And finally, you could see the DNA clearly. This is evidence that supports our claim. One error I had was I didn't wash my cheeks enough with the gatorade, which caused me to extract NO DNA AT ALL. I fixed the situation of course by redoing it and actually washing the gatorade good the second time. A second error was that we were a little of on our procedure, and that affected us the first time around, but we fixed it the second time. So two helpful reminders would be to really wash your cheeks and to look at the procedure VERY CAREFULLY. The purpose of this lab was to try and extract our own DNA using different liquids, and we accomplished that. I learned though that there is DNA all over our cheeks, and it is super easy to get out. I feel like scientists really need to know where DNA is easy to find in the body, so they can get samples if they need. That's how it can be used in everyday life. The lab was awesome and I know I will be able to do it again.

Egg Cell Macromolecules Lab

In this lab, we tried finding out if macromolecules could be identified in an egg cell. For the negative control, which was water, the egg cell was identified in the monosacharide and lipid, and was not identified in Polysacharide and Protein. For the egg membrane, it was tested positive in Monosacharide, lipids, and Polysacharide, and tested negative in the Protein. With the egg yolk, the egg cell was present in all four macromolecules. And finally for the egg white, the egg cell was in the Proteins and lipids.

During the lab, when the egg white turned black from the Protein and Lipids and monosacharides, this is because of the fact that both macromolecules are used in the egg white for development of enzymes in the egg white and because the lipids give off energy to the egg white. The egg membrane contained Polysacharides and lipids, since they turned black or orange when tested. This is because of the fact that lipids make up the membrane, and it stores energy for the membrane. When we tested the egg yolk, all four macromolecules were all present. This is because lipids are in the membrane, proteins are the building blocks for the baby in the yolk, and the mono polysacharides give off energy.

An error we had was at the end of the experiment we gave each other the wrong data because we thought someone else was doing monosacharides when he was actually doing polysacharides, and it was messed up. Something we could do to fix that is just to be careful about the information we share and make sure that if we had been writing down the information, that we wrote it in the corresponding box.

Other than that, we didn't have any big mistakes, but a hypothetical mistake that we saw a lot of other groups do was when they sifted out the yolk from the white , the yolk didn't cooperate and wouldn't sift out. To prevent that, our group was very careful about that and I should that other groups should have just been more careful. TWO big helpful pieces of advice would be to be careful and know your own strengths, especially in a lab like the egg lab, were you are dealing with fragile things. Just be careful and make sure you don't break anything.

The purpose of this lab was to test the four big macromolecules to see if they were in any parts of an egg. We did just that and found that there are some macromolecules in the egg. This relates to the macromolecules vodcast that we did a few days ago, and it talked just about this and how the four macromolecules worked. I think the purpose of that vodcast was to get us ready for the lab. This can be applied to situations that I can't think of right now, and I probably won't know because I don't really care about the egg industry. But I learned a lot about eggs, like they are very fragile. I'm just running out of things to say, so that's all.  

Twenty Questions: Only One Answer

In the article 20 Big Questions In Science, it talked about 20 big questions that scientists don't know the answer to or understand. Out of the twenty questions, the big one I really like to think about is "Are We Alone In The Universe?" This question is something that we've wondered for a long time, and I find it very fascinating. If I were to come up with a hypothesis, it would be, "If scientists have found planets whose environments and atmosphere are like Earths, then they may be suitable for other living organisms to populate those planets".

If I had my own personal 20 questions, they would be:

1. Are we alone in the universe?
2. Who's a better basketball player; Michael Jordan or Lebron James?
3. Does Big Foot exist?
4. What is my full potential?
5. What does my future contain?
6. How many hours of my life will I have wasted watching screens?
7. How much food will I have consumed in my entire life?
8. Are the Illuminati a real and functioning group?
9. What does the bible originally say (before the different translations came out)?
10. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
11. Is space endless? If not, what does the end look like?
12. How much time have I spent playing sports?
13. Is time travel possible?
14. Is there a maximum capacity for how much a species can evolve? And if so, when will humans ever stop evolving?
15. What is/will be my net worth in life?
16. What exactly is it like in heaven?
17. What would have happened to us all if Eden had never eaten the fruit?
18. What was it like living through the beginning of time?
19. Is there any way to change society as it is now?
20. Can there ever be peace?

Analysis of the Sweetness Lab

Today in Biology class, we did the sweetness lab. It consisted of several different sugars, and we judged which ones were sweet and which ones weren't. We were trying to answer the question " How does the structure of a Carbohydrate affect its taste (sweetness)?". And the answer was simple: Monosaccharides were the sweetest sugar because they only have one sugar ring. Disaccharides, which have two sugar rings, were less sweet than Monosaccharides but are still pretty sweet. And then Polysaccharides were the most bitter sugars, because they consisted of three or more rings.

I was working with one other person, and we both had close to the same rating for the sweetness of all the sugars. Even though we might have been close when it came to rating, there were still other reasons for us being a little off. One of the reasons could have been that we had a different amount of sugar, which could have caused different results. Also, our opinions all vary. I could give frutose a ninety, but my partner only give it a seventy-five. It just depends on our opinions. The last reason would be our taste-buds, our taste buds are all different and that could be the big reason for different answers.

NPR interviewed Dr. Robert Margolskee, a molecular neurobiologist, and talked all about the taste buds. He said that "Taste buds aren't the ones that tell your brain that something is sweet, it is the taste cells that are inside the taste bud that do all the tasting". This means that it isn't our taste buds, but the smaller taste cells (which we probably have a lot more of) that taste stuff for us and tell us what we like or not.

So overall, the experiment went good in my opinion, with some ups and downs. But it was good and I learned a lot about sugars and how they work.

Unit 2 Reflection

            Throughout the last couple weeks, we have learned a lot about the micro organisms that are in our body, our food, and that make certain chemical reactions everywhere. Speaking of which, did you know that the human body makes several thousands of chemical reactions a day, but we don't feel a thing, so how come? That is because those reactions are REALLY small. Like when we eat food with Fructose in it, it goes into our body and reacts with the amino acids in our stomach, and it does taste really good. I also got to learn about the "BIG 4 Macromolecules": Carbohydrates, lipids, Nucleic acids, and lipids. This is what all cells are made of.
           

            










 But on the side of actually having to take the notes and remember what Mr.Orre said in the Vodcast, I thought it was very hard. I had never been very good at understanding how science works, and I still don't. Science is a really hard subject for me because I can't understand all the details, but I can remember things like "All 'isms' are sugars" or "The less bonds a sugar has, the more bitter it becomes". Those key ideas stick to me, and I'm starting to find that out in Biology. But for the most part, I think I am a better student than I was when I started off in the beginning of August, because of the fact that I have to actually take notes while watching a twenty minute Vodcast on Chemical Reactions in my body; and this all helps me become a better student and understand the curriculum more.

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

The Marshmallow experiment.


Renowned psychologist Walter Mischel is the designer of the famous Marshmallow Test, explained what self-control was and how to master it, through a simple test involving 16 little kids. The experiment was held at Stanford College in 1970. I these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards if they waited for a short period, approximately 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room and then returned. The question posed by Doctor Mischel was probably something like "How does self-control work, and how does it carry with you throughout your years?" The question was backed up by the hypothesis, "If a child has better self-control than the other children by not eating the marshmallow for 15 minutes, then that child will be more successful in the life than the other ones". 

Prior to writing this, I had already known about the experiment for a couple of years. I heard it during a conference, and the speaker mentioned the experiment. I have also had a great interest in the subject of self-control and experiments like these, because I want to know how the people end up in the end. 

What is biology?

The Jeans Lab Experiment

Jeans Lab Conclusion

During the experiment, we tested the concentration of bleach on jeans to answer the question “What concentration of bleach is best to fade the color out of new denim jeans in 10 minutes without visible damage to the fabric?” We found that the 50% concentration worked the best on the jeans. During the experiment, we compared all the jeans with concentrations of bleach together, and found that the jeans with 50% concentration looked and came out the best out of all of them. During our experiment, the 100% bleach concentration had an average of 9 for color removal and fabric damage, while the 50% concentration only had an average of 6 for color removal, and a 3  for fabric damage. After seeing these numbers, I have concluded that the best option for the jeans would be 50% concentration.

We made a couple of mistakes , but the big mistake was that we did not take pictures of the before look of the jeans. It affected us because when we had to compare the jeans from before and after, we couldn’t do it very well, because there were photos to compare it to. I think to improve on this error, we should have probably taken photos of the jeans before the experiment. Also, I think that Mr.Orre could have reminded us to take lots of photos of everything. But other than that, I think overall it was a good project.

I think that the reason for this experiment was to show us about how jeans and bleach work. For example, if a clothing store were to sell jeans, they could bleach them; that would take away color and attract people who want lighter colored jeans. From this lab, I learned the importance of bleach, and how not to use it with colored clothing, because most likely, the clothes will be ruined. And based on the fact that this was my first lab in Bio so far, I think I know now how to execute a lab pretty well, and am ready for the rest of the labs that come throughout the amazing school year.

Here is a selfie taken by Raquel during the experiment. 

Here is the data from the lab:

Concentration %bleach	Average Color Removal
0%	0
12.5%	2.6
25%	5
50%	6
100%	9.3

Concentration %bleach	Average Fabric Damage
0%	0
12.5%	2.3
25%	2.6
50%	7.3
100%	9.6