JELLIES!!

Monday, March 14, 2011

In sickness and in Health

http://www.sciencecases.org/sickness_and_health/sickness_and_health.asp

1. Do autosomal dominant disorders skip generations?

-Yes it is possible to skip generations but not likely.

2. Could Greg or his mother be carriers of the gene that causes myotonic dystrophy?

   -No

3. Is there a possibility that Greg’s aunt or uncle is homozygous for the myotonic dystrophy (MD) gene?
   -Yes

  4. Symptoms of myotonic dystrophy sometimes don’t show up until after age fifty. What is the possibility that Greg’s cousin has inherited the MD gene?
   -Pretty good

5. What is the possibility that Greg and Olga’s children could inherit the MD gene? -- Absolutely not

Recessive

What are the hallmarks of an autosomal recessive trait?

-Skips generations

2. What does consanguineous mean? Why is this concept especially important when discussing recessive genetic disorders?

-Consanguineous is being of the same family or blood connection. This is important because it can explain who and where it came from and stop the possible inheritance in further generations.

3. What is it about the inheritance pattern of factor VIII deficiency seen in Greg and Olga’s pedigree that point toward it not being an autosomal recessive trait?

-In Greg and Olga's pedigree it is proven that it cannot be an autosomal recessive trait because two generations back to back are both carriers of the disease.

SexLinked

W1.What are the characteristics of X-linked recessive inheritance?

-Only one set for males and two for females.

2. Why does a son never inherit his father’s defective X chromosome?

-Because he takes it from his mother.

3.What is required for a woman to display a sex-linked recessive trait?

-For both of her parents to have it.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Stem Cells

The research of stem cells is a very broad subject. There are ideas on curing diseases, wound healing, traumatic issues, blindness, deafness, even more feature focused studies like solving baldness! However, at the time being its only under serious study and there really isn't anything that is tested enough to prove itself a definite answer. The main thing I worry about is finding a cure to a disease or defect in the human society and it turning out to be wrong and knocking out portions of the human race. Like in "I Am Legend" there is a cure for cancer that is found, hundreds of thousands of people decide to be "cured" but after a given amount of time their bodies reject it and turn they all turn into zombies!! Anyway it may not be the most accurate movie but its still a great film in my opinion, it does definitely makes you think about the "what if" side of things though. I for one would not volunteer to take a cure for anything, I'll watch and find out. However, this doesn't mean I'm against stem cell research i think it's amazing how far humans have come technology wise. For us now to have the possibility of recorrecting defects in genes, and problems with our bodies is mind boggling.

Mitosis

Mitosis is the process of a cell creating an exact copy of itself. In order do so the cell must go through five phases: Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase. During Interphase the cell begins its seperation by two chromosomes begining to pull away from each other, at this point the nucleus is still visible. In Prophase the chromosomes have pulled even farther away from each other, now the nucleus is beginning to "fade" because the membrane is beginning to degrade. By Metaphase the chromosomes have aligned and the nucleus is no longer visible. In Anaphase the kinetochore microtubules have shortened. Finally in Telophase the membrane of the cell has begun to separate into two cells, an exact copy of the first. In our Onion Root Cell Lab we were able to decide which cells were in each phase. Parts of it we had issues agreeing on one phase but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Eugenics

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Self Reflection

As we go through out our lives our attitudes, goals, looks everything all changes every day. When I was a wee little thing I wanted more than anything to be a veterinarian, however as I grew I realized that I couldn't possibly put animals down on a daily bases I wouldn't have the heart. When I was about 13 I started performing in plays and ballets and the effect were rather addicting. From then on out I knew I wanted to stick to performing in most any shape or form. However, there are things that will get in the way of that goal. For example my age, most companies don't want actors, models, dancers etc until they are 18 mainly so they can make their own decisions. At the time being, I am 17 and unable to audition for most jobs. Though I have a great desire to stay about 12, at the same time I cant wait until I'm 18. But at the moment I have one year of school left. And so I really should focus on that so if any of my performing goals fall through I have a good education to fall back on. For this class in particular I would really like to see myself do a wee bit better. I feel like since it is mainly computer based and I am sitting next to a few of my closest friends I am easily distracted. This is going to be quite a challenge to over come because I can never keep my mouth shut. If I have an opinion I will share it and I can't really stop myself. Overall I would like to keep in the A's and B's.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

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.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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.