Evolution!! =)

         Many believe in the theory of evolution and many do not. The theory of evolution is the idea that with in a species they have gradually developed to their surroundings.

         This theory first came about with Lamarck. He said that species adapt to nature. He never really published anything for he was strongly criticized by others. During his time it was profound that this even cross through anyone's mind because religion was the center of it all. The first to actually publish anything was Charles Darwin. However he was afraid of the criticism and told his wife to only publish his work once he was dead. Darwin said that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestry. And that there has been genetic mutation due to the genetic code. Darwin's grandfather was the one to get Darwin interested in this theory. People started to believe this crazy theory once they've seen evidence.

          In Darwin's time not many evidence had been provided. However, through the years may has come about. Such as fossil record. Fossil records are remains left from past generations of species. The fossil records show many similarities with in a species. For example the claws, jaws and teeth of a dinosaur relate to those of a bird now a days. Anther source of evidence is embryology. In embryology it is said that embryos of different vertebrates look a like in the early stages of development. Ernest Hackel was the first to make this observation. And anther piece of evidence is comparative morphology. Comparative morphology is common ancestry for the classification of groups. Like film, kingdom and so on. There is more concepts of evidence such as the fields of biochemistry/ DNA. That is comparing DNA to the DNA of past species and finding similarities. All this is proven evidence leading to the theory of evolution.

     Micro evolution is changes in species in a small amount of time. There is four micro evolutionary mechanisms. They are mutation, genetic drift, migration and natural selection. Mutation is the changes in DNA sequencing. Such as birds not being able to fly and then one single letter in DNA changes and all of a sudden they could fly. Gentic drift is the frequency in which a gene varries in a population. For example a pink and green bettles living in a rain forest. Then a preditor only eats the pink ones since they stick out so much. While the green ones survive thanks to their blending with their surrondings. The third one is  migration. When a certain species migrates to an area they are not used to they adapt. For example dogs living in Africa and then  they migrate to the Artic, then they develop a lot hair so that they don't go extinct. The fourth microevolutionary mechanisms is natural selection. Which is "Survival of the fitest." Micro evolution is a process which allows for a specis to change in a small amount of time.

     In my opinion evolution does exist. The process by which species develop is by nature and adapting to it. The evidence by which I conclude is the fossil records and comparative morphology. Charles Darwin may have been a crazy man but he was on the right track for the survival of species.

    Many people believe in evolution and many do not. The theory of evolution is the idea that with in a species, they have a gradual development to their surroundings. It's all about survival.


Works Cited


"Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)." Ucmp.berkeley.edu/. Web. 11 May 2011.

"Evolution 101: How It Works." Evolution.berkeley.edu. Web. 14 May 2011.

"Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)." .ucmp.berkeley.edu/. Web. 11 May 2011.
 

      

Transformation Lab

In this lab we were creating bacteria and looking at what and where the bacteria grew better.


 Observations:

The LB/Amp positive was fluorescent green and did not glow but however it did contain many specks. Bacteria did grow a lot. It also contained antibiotics. Therefore this shows that bacteria even glows in the presence of antibiotics.



The Lb/Amp/ara positive contained arabinose. Arabinose activates sugar in some gene. Bacteria has grown in it but not as much as in the Lb/amp. This shows that bacteria grows better without the presence of antibiotics. And it glowed and was very florescent green.



The Lb negative did not grow any bacteria and only turned green.



The Lb/amp negative only had some condensation going on.


And this is what they look like all together.




 Results-
      The traits form colonies and their shape and color changed too.

Reviewing-

•       The plate that I would expect to see bacteria like the original non-transformed E. coli colonies would be the LB because in this plate, hopefully the bacteria would grow more because it is more like the original. 
•        If there was any genetically transformed bacterial cells they would be most likely in the LB/Amp/Ara because it would take DNA from the amp in order to live.
•       The plates that should be compared to determine if there is any genetic transformation occurring would be the PGLO and the positive PGLO in order to tell if the plasmid is transformed.
•       The meaning of a control plate is that you could control it. Like for example the ones in this experiment are the negative plates and the LB plates. 

This lab was very interesting and I learned many stuff from it.

GATTACA

     This movie was interesting.  It was about two brothers that were always competing. And since Vincent was not engineered (Anton, the second born was engineered), he wanted to prove that being engineered did not mean perfection.
          It provided more evidence proving that their will never be a "perfect society" if it is man made. For example in the movie there was a part where it showed that Vincent (The first born that was not engineered)  bet Anton( The younger brother that was engineered) in a swimming race. If Anton were "perfect" and Vincent is not then Anton should or would be winning EVERYTHING. So this proved that no matter how much you mess with genes they will never be quit perfect.
       I believe that we should not mess with genes and just leave it to nature. If we continue then our society will end up like this movie of Gattaca. I'm not to sure on everyones opinion but I'm pretty sure I don't want to be robotic.

DNA Analysis

Abby- She has a point mutation. In her case the protein Glu got changed to Val because in the seventh column instead of being GAG it is GTG. This leaves her at ninety seventh percent. She may or may not have a diesease to be sure more tests will need to be conducted.

Bob- He also has a point mutation. In his ninth column it is supposed to be AAG. While in his case it is TAG. The protein produced should be lys but instead its stop. (Which means he's protein will be not producing as much as it should.) This probably is a major problem.

Carol- She has something different. In her case she has a frame shift. Which means a letter has been added or removed and the patterns continues however not in the correct order. This happened in the fourth column and left her with only fifty eight percent normal. Carol needs a lot of help since she is creating different amino acids where there should not be created. 

58% Frame shift mutation she only lost a T but it shifted everything out of frame different amino acides

The moral of this activity is that DNA is very complicated and any little mistake can affect its function.

Olga and Greg

One day Olga and Greg decided to vist the genetic counselor. They feared that there was a possibility that they're off springs may experience some disease that are shown in their families. 

The First step was to draw a pedigree. (A pedigree is like a family tree but it shows more stuff like diseases)

This pedigree shows that factor Vll is a sex linked disease. This means that it mostly shows up in boys. So therefore Olga and Greg only have to worry about factor Vll if they have a boy. Mytonic has showed up twice and not in the same generation so this means that it is a Recessive disease. Olga and Greg's off spring may have this disease because it is recessive. (meaning it is in the genes) Hemophillia has only shown up once before so that means the their off spring most likely won't have hemophillia.
As you can see with the pedigree drawn Olga and Greg do not have much to worry about.

Eugenics

A deeper look into eugenics from my point of view.


This is where I found all this information.

Heredity

 

Lets say that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Antony are expecting a baby in the near future. The big question would be what will the baby look like? However they only want to know one thing for sure since they want the rest of the traits to be a surprise.

The thing that they want to know is will the baby have Jennifer's long eyelashes(LL) or Marc's short eyelashes(ll). 

They are both heterozygous. The punnet square would show Ll, Ll,Ll,Ll. This shows that Jennifer's long eyelashes are dominant and therefore there is a hundred percent chance that the baby's phenotype will be long eyelashes.

 

To their surprise they had twins. And both the babies have long eyelashes like Jennifers' just like the magical punnet square predicted. They are very happy.

Review on Quiz taking= More learning

Is it true? 
Great advice from NYT: to really learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test

     This article is about learning. It suggest that quiz taking is more affective in learning material than two other methods. (1.reading notes or book, 2. making concept map) It shows that by studying the material and quizzing on it you maintain it better. In the article it compares it to a man trying to  get stronger he will only get the results he's looking for if he applies him self by working out it would do no good if the instructor just teaches him how and tells him to do it but he don't apply yourself.
    I think this is true in a way meanwhile I do not agree on this method of teaching. You may be studying so that you don't fail the quiz or test. And You may be retaining more information that way however, I think this would be to stressful on a student. They would study and study and never get a break. Eventually the students will get tired and to stressed out to even worry bout the quiz/test. Therefore, them not studying or doing any work at all. The end result would be no learning because the student feels over worked. But this is only my opinion on if test taking is more effective than two other teaching methods.

Meiosis

The process of meiosis.

The Cell Cycle

A little bit on the cell cycle.

The Green Human Project

Our purposol for the green human project.

Enzyme lab

Works of Enzymes

Introduction/Purpose-
      The purpose of this lab is to see the rate of enzymes and how they react with different temperatures and pH. balances in the tummy.

Materials-
         Peroxide
         pH. balance solution
        controlled temperature locations(ice, warm water, and room temperature)
        Yeast
        testing tubes
        the measuring thing that connects to the mac

Data-
There are graphs

45 drops had the greatest reaction. This is because the more drops you put in (which the drops are  representing enzymes)  lowers the amount of energy that is required for the reactants to react. 

This graph shows that when being at a warm temperature it had more of an effect. This graph is showing that as temperature rises activity of enzymes increase. This is because in warm temperatures enzymes have more an effective collision with substrate. 

This graph shows that a lower pH. balance has a greater effect. This is happened because we were experimenting on the effects that would happen in the tummy and in the tummy a lower pH. balance reacts better.

Analyzing Data/Conclusion-
      I learned that rate of reaction is higher with more enzymes  present because the energy is being reduced for the reactants to react therefore making it more effective with more enzymes. I also learned that as temperature rises the activity of an enzyme increases.The lower pH. balance has a grater effect in the tummy because it binds better with its substrate than a higher pH. balance.
  

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis Lab

Purpose-
     To see the effects of photosynthesis and how photosynthesis works.


Materials-

• A lot of water
• aquarium snail or snails
• bromothymol
• elodea
• aquarium plant or plants
• beaker

Method-
    During this lab you will fill up half the beaker with water. After doing so put some bromothymol blue as much as to get the water to one solid color. You will repeat this but one time you will add a snail, anther time a plant and after that elodea with a snail and elodea with a plant.Wait about 15 min. for each result. Record your observations. After doing that find a dark corner to put the beaker with the bromotymol blue, snail, elodea and leave there for 3 hours. Then record your results. And clean everything up dispose of materials properly if needed.

Results/Data-

• Water + bromothymol blue = blue green  This happened because carbon dioxide in water produces carbonic acid.
• Water +  bromothymol blue+ snail = yellow  This happened because BTB is a blue-green liquid which changes to yellow color in acid and back to blue-green when returned to a neutral pH. So its pH. is abnormal. 
• Water + bromothymol blue+ plant = blue green in light This happened because BTB is a blue-green liquid when it is at its neutral pH and it is.

Water + bromothymol blue + snail + elodea = blue green in light and yellow when left in dark for 3 hours. This happened because carbon dioxide plus water yields sugar and oxygen when chlorophyll and sunlight are present and so there wasn't no sunlight which made it due this effect.

Conclusion-

    We see the way the effects of photosynthesis and how photosynthesis works in this lab by seeing how it absorbs sunlight with the light from the room and the plant or snail moving around is air and the water with BTB is the inside of the plant. When you set the beaker in the dark acid is created (turns yellow) because the plant need sunlight for photosynthesis and without it the plant is dead. 

Black Widow vs. Brown Recluse Spider

Black widow vs. Brown recluse spider

The black widow and the brown recluse are the two most common venomous spiders in the U.S. They are usually found in warm climites like the southern states in dark places like an attic or a garage

Black Widow 

• Venom affects the nerve system

• Some people highly affected others not it depends
• Symptoms usually start with 20-60 minutes after the bite. 
• Symptoms are muscle cramps, abdominal pain, weakness, and tremor may occur. If you are highly affected are nausea, vomiting, faintness, dizziness, chest pain, and trouble breathing. 
• five different specious know in the U.S
• half an inch long body 
• Southern- has a shiny belly with an hourglass on it 
• Northern-line of red dots on its back (it can have red legs)(kinda creepy)
• nocturnal like vampires which their bites do look like little tiny vampire bites
• only female attack human when being bothered
• minor bites recommend a hot bath because all you may have is muscle spasm
• severe bites need medical care which may be treated with narcotics and antivenin

Brown Recluse 

• venom more toxic than rattle snake
• poison affects the cells and tissue
• symptoms start to appear 2-8 hours after venom has been injected, severe itching, nausea, vomiting, fever, and muscle pain (myalgias).
• legs one inch long
• violin pattern on part where legs are attached
• all bites are recommended to be seen by a doctor 
• attack when they feel threatened (so would I)
• six eyes which we can't see with our eyes

Both bites can be very serious meanwhile the Brown Recluse is more affective and more severe.

The black widows protein toxic affect the nerve system. Some people reactions are more server than others. Most of the time it is treated with narcotics and antivenin.

The brown recluse spider contains a venom with many enzymes which makes it really poisonous. It destroys the cell membrane uncovering the tissue and makes nasty looking wounds and can cause a hole in the flesh known as volcano lesion. The best thing to do if bitten by this spider go seek medical care.

(P.S I got chills through out all this research especially seeing some of the pictures)




        

Cell Structure

The cell structure with its parts and functions.

Quiz!!

Cystic Fibrosis

Once upon a time there was a little boy and his mother; he was always having health problems. So his mommy being the good mommy she is took him to a doctor....
    Doctor: What are you feeling?
    Kid: I dont know really icky and stuff.
    Mommy: Well he has had a lot of wheezing and shortness of breath.
    Doctor: Ok I will examine and I will find out what is making you feel so icky.
A few minutes pass and the doctor has done some test. One of the test that he did was the sweat test. (The sweat test measures concentration of salt in sweat.) A few mintues later he returns.
     Doctor: I have come back with the results. (which is very unusual because it usually takes the results   some time.)
     Mommy:What is it doctor? What does my son have?
     Doctor:Your son has mucus lining the airways of his lungs. The ions aren't doing there job of bringing water to that part so this is making your son sick. Its called cystic fibrosis.
     Mommy: Is that bad or good? Is my son going to die? Is it curable?
     Doctor: Unfortuallty there is no cure for it but there is treatments you can performe to help him out.
     Mommy: Tell me what I can do!
     Doctor: Well there is antibiotics which prevent lung infections, Mucus thining drugs they reduce stickyness of mucus and make it easier to cough up. These are only two ways to treat it.
     Mommy: Ok doctor.
     Doctor: Im going to prescribe the antibiotics.
     Mommy: Ok doctor.
The doctor prescribed the antibiotics and the mommy was happy because her son is feeling better.

Functions of Protiens!

Proteins and their functions.=)

Fluid Mosic Model.

A little of what I learned from the poster we did in class of the fluid mosiac model.

Concept Map #2

Anther concept map.

Concept map

Concept map on carbohydrates.