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