Becoming Treebeard

                                                                                                                         Treebeard-Ent

                        Mandrake

The idea of being able to perform photosynthesis is an AWESOME idea to our entire group. Cassidy’s friends never seem to see her eat so they have concluded that she performs photosynthesis in order to live. Honestly we would all love to actually be able to perform photosynthesis. So the idea of creating a green human is very intriguing. In order to become a green human we would need to change the human anatomy. We would need to add plant like characteristics to our bodies in order to carry out the transfer of light into sugar and other usable nutrients. The exact equation that is used in photosynthesis is 6CO₂+6H₂O (+light energy) --->C6H₁₂O6+6O₂.

      In order to be green we would need the green pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll absorbs light and uses it to turn the tissues of a plant a shade of green.

         Photosynthesis is primarily performed in the leaves of a plant. This thus means we would need leaves. In Cassidy’s mind of jumbled craziness she imagines we would have leaves and vines for our hair...delightful isn’t it? However only having hair of leaves probably wouldn't provide enough energy to sustain our typically energetic lives. Having leaves anywhere else would just be weird so we would need to have some sort of new skin that had similar components to leaves. There’s also the possibility of having extra appendages and go all Avatar with an energy absorbing tail or something.

     Also the Calvin cycle would need to be performed. In the Calvin cycle light is taken in. During a light reaction ATP and NADPH is changed into NADP* and ADP + PI. Basically light, water and Co2 is changed into Sugar and O2.

         Because humans are humans there is a good chance there would be ethical problems. Nobody can put up with anything that is different and green humans would most certainly freak people out seriously. Cassidy keeps seeing this as an Avatar sort of situation where regular humans would power trip and be unaware of the harm they would cause to a new “species." If something is wrong, or regular humans see a problem. they would do anything in their power to “fix” it.

To Cassidy’s despair humans would still need to sleep. The cells in our bodies would still need to restore themselves even with various plant characteristics.  All in all there a various forms we could take in order to become photosynthetic humans, and no one form is right.

PH Maps

 The warm beaker popped, the hot also popped but took longer, and room temperature beaker only increased a bit.

The Ph level on 4 and 7 included more acid than level 10.  The higher the level the acid the higher the pressure.

The more drops the more pressure.

Our group wondered what would happen if you combined various chemicals, temperatures, and other factors to see what happen.  I would love if there were more popping tubes or better yet exploding beakers....yeah.

Spiders spiders they want me to tap dance, I I dont want to tap dance!!

So we are now suppose to do a blog on poison, at first I really didn't know what direction to go. When you first say "poison" I think of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell drinking his poisoned medicine so that it doesn't kill him, "I do believe in fairies!!". Anyway I really couldn't elaborate on that anymore and it really doesn't pertain to science in any way. However, when I saw Tyler, one of my classmates, sitting nearby looking up spider bites I knew what to do! Yes I am being a bit of a copy-cat but I can truly relate this to myself, and my entire family for that matter; The Brown Recluse Spider. Brown Recluse spiders in my opinion are horrible, tricksy, butt-biting little nasties!! But of course I have reasoning behind this. Two years ago my dad was bitten on the thigh by a brown recluse. At first he didn't mind it much it acted like an ingrown hair so he ignored it. However after a few days of waiting the bump had grown and his entire thigh had begun to swell and gotten quite sore. Finally after endless begging from the rest of the family he agreed to go to the ER. The doctors immediately diagnosed it as a spider bite, which is exactly what my mother had tried to convince him it was. This was now the second time my father had been bitten by a Brown Recluse in his life. He then endured several painful shots and various visits from other interested nurses and doctors. One of the nurses was told us of another man who had also been bitten by a brown recluse and waited too long and ended up dying. Then they told us if we had waited too long they may have had to amputate his leg, let mad us feel SO good, dang best feeling in the world! Not! So My dad ended up nursing a nasty sore, it pussed and oozed and bled and was a right mess for a good two weeks. He also used antibiotics for some time. Then came my mom who suffered the same fate. However hers was even worse because the bite lay on her cheek. I was probably the luckiest I received my Brown Recluse bite on my BUTT cheek!! Wooo that was fun! We went in quickly to the ER because the symptoms were all the same. I didn't have to deal with shots though only antibiotics and some uncomfortable sitting. Aaaannnyway lets move onto what exactly the Brown Recluse is. This spider is also known as the violin spider because of the marking on its back. Now if I see the slightest hint of a marking on a spider I squash it!! I do feel rather bad I must say. Brown recluse usually flee from danger which means they don't go out hunting humans to bite; my dad probably rolled over on it in his sleep, and I erm...sat on mine? Recluse typically reside in south eastern states of Northern America. Which is slightly strange that we were bitten in both California and Colorado. However, they do tend to hide in clothing, beds and sheets, shoes, gloves etc. which explains all of our bites. This spider has a powerful venom, or poision, that is obviously bad enough to cause skin lesions. There are two types of poison cycles the recluse can cause; skin loxoscelim and skin visceral. The most common is skin loxoscelim which is what we endured, a bite that grows larger and larger and more and more painful. The second is far less common the symptoms are all over the body, high temperature and blood pressure and most importantly blood in urine which could mean the kidneys are being affected. It is unknown yet what exactly causes skin visceral. It is most likely that every one's immune systems work differently in fighting things off. The best thing to do once bitten is to seek a doctor, the sooner the better.  The wound will not heal itself it will continue eating away flesh and muscle. Depending on the severity of the bite shots may be required as well as some daily first aid treatments. If taken care of quick enough, like mine, only a set of antibiotics will be needed. Now just to warn you that waiting really isn't an option here are some pictures of my dad's leg, it is disgusting so brace yourself. There aren't any pics of mine because that would be...weird...

Photosynthesis Lab

Materials:
       2 Beakers
       Bromothymol Blue Solution
       Water
       Aquarium Snail
       Elodea-Water Plant
    

Procedure:
      1)Begin by adding several drops of Bromothymol blue to a beaker of water. Record the results.
      2)Now add an aquarium snail to the mixture and record the results.
      3)Now create another mixture of Bromothymol blue and water and add a water plant-Elodea. Record.
      4)Finally add a water plant to the first mixture of Bromothymol blue, water and a snail.  Record the            results.  Now move the mixture into a dark room.  Record the results after 3 hours.


Results:
      1)Water plus bromothymol blue is a blue green because carbon dioxide in water produces carbonic    acid.
      2) Water plus bromothymol blue plus an aquarium snail turns yellow.  This is because Bromothylmol blue is a blue green liquid which changes to a yellow color in acid and back to blue-green when returned to a neutral pH.
     3) Water plus bromothymol blue plus elodea, an aquarium plant, is blue-green in light.  Because carbon dioxide plus water yields sugar and oxygen when chlorophyll and sun light are present.
     4) Water plus bromothymol blue plus a snail plus elodea is blue-green in light and yellow when left in the dark for three hours.  Because animals respire, green plants photosynthesize in the light and respire all the time, and sugar plus oxygen yields carbon dioxide plus water and energy.


Questions:
1) Describe exactly what effects sugar has in this lab.
2)Describe why an animal can change the color of the solution.
3)What does this lab tell us about photosynthesis?

Plant and Animal Cells

Animal and Plant cells on Prezi

Metabolism

The basic function of the metabolism is to break down food and thus into energy through a set of chemical reactions.  Organisms that have high metabolisms can break down food easily and quickly.  They also tend to have a low body mass because they are able to burn things down so quickly.  Those with a low metabolism tend to have more body weight because they are unable to break down food as easily and thus store it away as fat.  Metabolic reactions include ATP.  ATP or Adenosine triphosphate, helps cells carry out their functions and is thus the main provider of energy to all organisms.  Occasionally there are disorders with metabolism, one we have researched is PKU or phenylkeonuria.  PKU is an inherited disorder and effects the way the body processes proteins. People with phenylketonuria have a deffective enzyme, PAH, a crucial metabolic enszyme.  Without this enzyme the body can have very high phenylalanine levels which can have severe long term effects such as mental retardation or epilepsy.  Some symptoms of PKU, if undetected,  will often be lighter skin and hair, an odd odor, mental issues, epilepsy, and even an abnormally sized skull.  Newborns are scanned for high levels of PKU in their blood  if there is any detection they must have further blood tests performed to see if it is PKU or BH4, which causes similar symptoms.  PKU appeares in 1 in 10,000 births in causasions and East Asians this ranges in other ethnic groups.  PKU is a treatable condition, PKU is found in proteins of food.  So those with PKU most sustain a low protein diet the diet is supplemented instead with articial protiens without phentlanine.  This diet can allow normal developemnt and growth as a child.  I am terribly thankful that I dont have this disorder or any issues with my metabolism and Im even more thrillled that I have a high metabolism and can eat A LOT... beacuse...I like food 

Fluid Mosaic Model

The Fluid Mosaic Membrane Molecule models we created in class gave me a good idea of how they are made up and what they look like, obviously.  However, as far as what everything does I'm a little vague on and thus I felt like an utter moron taking the quiz.  The top and bottom layers of the molecule are made up of phospholipids.  Phospholipids. Act as building blocks of the biological cell membranes in virtually all organisms, participate in the transduction of biological signals across the membrane. They also act as efficient store of energy as with triglycerides and play an important role in the transport of fat between gut and liver in mammalian digestion. The little tendrils that are attached to the phospholipids  are fatty acids.  Around the "tails" is cholesterol.  The transmembrane protein is a protein molecule that is attached to, or associated with the membrane of a cell or an organelle.  And finally the glycoproteins are proteins that contain oligosaccharide chains  covalently attached to polypeptide side-chains.  All of these are components in the functions of the fluid mosaic membrane model.  

It's All About the Mucus!

We recently began studying on Cystic Fibrosis.  It's a rather disgusting disorder but since I could relate it to real live people I was able to retain the information and my attention span a bit better than I think I have been able to with other subjects in Biology.  Cystic Fibroses is a disease that has to do with a mutant gene.  In order to contract it the gene must be passed down from both parents.  Cystic Fibrosis is basically having too much mucus in your system, ew! The disease is typically diagnosed as a baby, and can be tested through a sweat test.  Parents are taught how to control their child with simple ways on how to loosen the mucus and force the child to cough it up.  Those with the disease must drink plenty of fluids, stay away from smokey areas, exercise, basically anything that will keep the mucus loose and easy to cough up.  Though there is no actual diagnosis for this disease there are treatments that help such as therapy, medications, and sometimes even surgical procedures.

Concept Map

Article Review

The article I chose to cover was from Life Clinic http://www.lifeclinic.com/focus/nutrition/carbohydrate.asp?printpage=trueover which covered carbohydrates and how they effect our bodies, how many to consume, and what they do.  Carbohydrates or carbs as they otherwise known give the body energy to break down.  There are two types of carbohydrates one consists of sugars and starches.  Sugars are easy for the body to break down where as starches are more complex and take longer.  Many foods are rich in Carbohydrates, nutrients, and vitamins like A and C (in fruits and veggies).  Some Carbohydrates however, aren't as rich in nutrients mainly sugary things like honey and molasses.  If these are eaten without proper exercise, the body will retain excess fat.    We discussed this in class as well.  Most athletes are fine with "carb loading" because they will quickly use them as energy.  If someone is to carb load but not exercise afterward the carbs will not be broken down as energy thus the carbs will be turned into fat.  According to the article doctors say that 60% of our calories should be come from carbohydrates.  In order to do this we should try to eat foods that provide our body with more nutrients and less fat and sugar.  Fiber should be a main focus.  Fiber comes from plant based foods and helps with digestion.

Acidity in Your Stomach

I think this lab and write up mainly gave me a good refresher on the Ph scale.  Like many people the Ph scale was rather confusing with its backwards ways.  Meaning the higher the Ph the lower the base and lower the Ph the higher the acidity. Below 7 is an acid and anything above 7 is an alkaline.  An acid is defined as any compound, which forms hydrogen ions in solution. For this reason acids are sometimes referred to as "proton donors".   On the other side of things a base is a compound that combines with hydrogen ions in solution. Therefore, bases can be referred to as "proton acceptors".  Bases also release hydroxide ions.  Hydroxide bases are very strong, sometimes even strong enough to deprotonate acids. Those who suffer from acidity in their stomachs take antacids in order to balance the Ph in the stomach by increasing it.  Normally, the acid level in your stomach is about 2 Those or 3. Trouble may start when your pH drops below those numbers. To make you feel better, an antacid need not bring the pH level all the way up to 7 (neutral), which would be a highly unnatural state for your stomach.    

Water Properties on Prezi

Clinical Trials

  Clinical trials are best defined as a test or series of tests performed in order to gather information to solve a problem, typically a disease of some sort effecting humans.  One of thousands of clinical trials being performed is over the West Nile Virus.  Which is transmitted by mosquitoes.  I chose this trial because I could definately relate to it.  Several years ago I did indeed contract West Nile on a trip to Iowa.  It was a rather horrible experience that I couldn't do much for other than endure its wrath.  I had a fever of about 104degrees which I then suffered Hallucinations from (I don't recall any of them).  I wasn't able to hold down and food or drink and I thus lost about 10lbs of water weight!  The week long sickness was definitely one of the most horrible things that I have ever experienced.  The virus is nowhere near as "popular" as it was several years ago.  However, there have been various trials performed on it.  In the majority of these trials a placebo, or sugar pill which doesn't effect the patient in any way, was used in order to compare the outcomes versus of the actual drug.  When a placebo is being used it is called a "double blind trial"  which means the patient doesn't now whether they are taking a placebo or actual drug. This is done so that the researches can gather accurate information on the effects.