link to prezi
http://prezi.com/um8x83v4szln/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
sources consulted:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/02/mangroves/warne-text/6
https://php.radford.edu/~swoodwar/biomes/?page_id=771
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/mangrove_forests.htm
http://www.mangrovewatch.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=59&Itemid=300148
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Roly Poly Lab
Background information:
Behavior is essentially any movement made by an
organism in response to internal or external stimulus. When scientists study
behavior in animals, they distinguish between investigations into proximate
reasons and ultimate reasons for animal behavior. Proximate reasons for a
behavior have to do with the specific organism and the stimuli it is responding
to. An example of a proximate question about bird song is, “What causes this
specific bird to sing?” An ultimate question about bird song is, “ Why would
the behavior of singing be evolutionarily preferred?”
A fixed action pattern, or FAP, is an instinctual
response to a specific stimulus. If an animal receives a stimulus from its
environment that triggers an FAP, it is called a sign stimulus. If the stimulus
is from another animal, it is called a releaser. For humans, yawning is an
example of an FAP. The behavior pattern
is set in motion in the body by the innate releasing mechanism. Anther example
of an FAP is the egg rolling motion of the Greylag goose. The parent will
notice if an egg rolls outside of the nest, and will begin a series of
movements to push it back. It will not stop repeating the pushing motion until
it gets to the nest, even if someone (a human researcher) plucks the egg away
mid push.
Imprinting is, according to encyclopedia
Britannica, a behavior exhibited by young animals who follow the first object
with which they have a “visual, auditory, or tactile experience.” The ability
to imprint is a definite thing in most fowl, but has also been observed in some
mammals, reptiles, and fish.
Kinesis is a speed change in response to
stimulus, which does not involve a movement towards or away from the source of
stimulus. Pillbugs exhibit Kinesis when confronted with a dry environment and a
wet environment and they slow down enough in the wet region to present a slight
preference for the wet region instead of all crowding into the wet region
and/or avoiding it.
Taxis is movement towards or away from a stimulus.
In our lab we used vinegar as a stimulus for smell. Our pillbugs catergorically
avoided the vinegar side of the environment, with the exception of a woodlouse
that may have been ill. He/she ventured over and stayed on the vinegar side at
1.5 minutes, and did not exhibit movement.
Classical conditioning is teaching an organism to
associate a neutral stimulus with a response-causing stimulus, therefore
forming a conditioned response to the formerly neutral stimulus. Association of
stimuli occurs after many trials for less memorable associations, after just
one trial for a scarring association.
Operant conditioning is teaching an organism to
perform (or not perform) a behavior with positive reinforcements (or negative
reinforcements).
Hypothesis of Study on Roly Poly behavior: If a significant proportion of Roly Polys are observed on the stimulus chamber versus the control chamber, then they prefer that environment because they have exhibited taxis towards that stimulus.
Procedure for lab involving roly polys:
1. Place
filter paper in both compartments
2. Place
stimulus in one side
3. Place
pillbugs on side with no stimulus
4. Record
behavior every 3o seconds
5. Do moisture
as one stimulus
6. Do
texture as another stimulus
7. Do
vinegar (smell) as yet another stimulus
double compartment tray
filter paper
water
glass beads
vinegar
two pipettes (one for each liquid)
stick with which to encourage movement of roly ploys out of storage container
data:
moisture ( column #2)
Glass (column 1)
Vinegar (column 1)
From the data we can see that over time the majority of Roly Polys preferred a wet environment to a dry one. After 1.5 minutes the bugs began to make their way to the wet environment and after 2.0 minutes there is no instance in which bugs showed a net tendency to move into a dry environment.
The bugs did not seem to overwhelmingly prefer glass beads to non glass beads. there was movement in both directions, though in the end there were more bugs who stayed on the glass beaded side. Perhaps it took 3 minutes for the bugs to gather enough information about the stimulus to exhibit taxis in response to the stimulus and another 2 minutes to decide to move to the glass beads.
The bugs overwhelmingly preferred the non vinegar environment to the vinegar environment. Except for one woodlouse who apparently enjoyed the scent, all the bugs remained on the side without vinegar. Normally they would move around on both sides of the container, but because of the vinegar none (except the freak woodlouse) moved around outside the non vinegar region.
errors:
in our moisture trial, a bit of water leaked from the "wet" to the "dry side." To adjust our setup, we counted the portion of wet filter paper on the "dry" side as "wet." a
Monday, March 10, 2014
The Question - QUIZ
An important defense against disease in vertebrate animals is the ability to eliminate, inactivate, or destroy foreign substances and organisms. Explain how the immune system achieves all of the following.
- Provides an immediate nonspecific immune response
The human body has three levels of defense. The first two levels are both nonspecific, really. The skin, mucous lysosomes, and pathogen trapping philia are the first "line of defense" (UIC, The Immune System, uic.edu). The second line of defense is what is called the nonspecific response. Upon injury or entry of foreign material, the body releases phagocytes (pathogen/cell eaters), macrophage (which eat "just about anything"), leucocytes( which have digestive juices with which to destroy pathogens), and complement proteins (which upon activation turn into pathogen piercers) (UIC, ibid). The biochemical action is accompanied by inflammation( which encourages phagocytes and allows immune agents to leak out of blood vessels) and chemokines (which attract immune agents to the wound site)
Activates T and B cells in response to an infection
T cells are immue cells that mature in the thymus (OSU, The Immune System). They float around looking for macrophages with antigens. The act of bonding with an antigen carrying macrophage triggers cell replication into effector and memory daughter cells. All the daughter cells become specifically equipped with receptors for the first antigen they found. effector daughter cells produce interleukins that signal T and B cells to reproduce.
B cells produce a single type of antibody from the moment they mature. The antibodies stick out from the cell. When The B cells received inerleukins from a T cell, it begins to rapidly replicate into effector and memory B cells. the effector B cells produce a huge amount of antibodies which stick to pathogens.
Responds to a later exposure to the same infectious agent
The antibodies produced for a specific disease never really go away, there are antibodies drifting around in the body for each disease you've gotten. The B cells in your body also retain information on the pathogens it has fought. When the body learns that a previously encountered pathogen is in the body again, it will launch a secondary response with b cells that act specifically against said pathogen. the response is "so fast and efficient that we are not aware we have been infected" (University of New Mexico, Immune Memory).
- Distinguishes self from non self
All T cells are prevented from being autoimmune by undergoing maturation in the thymus. Most proteins in the body go through the thymus, and are exposed to the t cells. They thus become self tolerant. If any T cells have antibodies that attach to human protein, they are censored and eliminated. B cells only start pouring out antibodies if their receptors catch above a certain threshold of proteins and if T cells give them interleukin signals to do so. If a B cell has broken down a human protein, T cells usually do not give the interleukin signal to reproduce, and the B cell dies. (University of New Mexico, Tolerance).
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~immsec/html-imm/tolerance.html
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~immsec/html-imm/memory.html
http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/healthcare_services/infectious_diseases/immunesystem/Pages/index.aspx
Activates T and B cells in response to an infection
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Norepinephrin
There are three kinds of hormones in the human body:
steroid hormones are lipid soluble, enter into cells themselves, and need to latch onto a water soluble transport to move around in the bloodstream.
amino acid derivatives are water soluble, bind to outside receptors which then trip an interior signal
and
polypeptides, which are water soluble and stay inside the endocrine cell.
Norepinephrine is an amino acid derivative that is produced in the adrenal medulla and postganglionic neurons. It is synthesized from tyrosine, an amino acid which is hydroxylised into L-DOPA. Which is then decarboxylated into Dopamine, then beta oxidized into norepinephrine.
While the compound is still dopamine, it is transported into synaptic vesicles where it can be released or prevented from being released by many different substances including cocaine and steroids. It is transported by the same transporter (VMAT) as epinephrine, isoprenaline.
It binds and activates adrenergic receptors, but since different cells have different adrenergic receptors norepinephrine affects each one differently. Generally it produces the fight or flight response by increasing heart rate, releasing glucose, and increasing blood flow to muscles.
the hormone norepinehrine has a positive feedback loop, which is regulated by cortisol. negative feedback is the maintenance of homeostasis. Positive feedback is the temporary spike of hormones necessary for the body to act, say in childbirth of in the fight or flight response.
link to mp4:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwjRyvqE8KK3bHczUGZCN3Y1VUE/edit?usp=sharing
Sources:
http://www.caam.rice.edu/~cox/wrap/norepinephrine.pdf
http://e.hormone.tulane.edu/learning/types-of-hormones.html
http://www.pennmedicine.org/health_info/body_guide/reftext/html/endo_sys_fin.html
http://chipur.com/2010/05/11/teachin-tuesday-hpa-axis/
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Jello Lab!
Abstract: The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether 5 ml of 0.1M HCl in a 40 gram sample of gelatin with pineapple chunks is enough to denature the enzyme bromelin found in fresh pineapple and prevent it from breaking down the collagen in gelatin.
Introduction:
On Jello boxes, there is often the direction: Do not add uncooked pineapple. The reason behind this seemingly random warning lies in the fact that Jello is mostly gelatin, which is hydrolyzed collagen (http://www.greatlakesgelatin.com/consumer/CollagenFAQ.php), which in turn consists of long strands of protein. Pineapple contains an enzyme, Bromelin, which breaks down many different types of proteins (http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/pineapple-enzyme-tenderize-steak1.htm). Pineapples probably contain Bromelin to speed up the digestive process in its consumers and thus encourage less deterioration of the seeds in the digestive tract.
Usually the digestive system breaks down food, but if Bromelin breaks down the proteins that make up cellular structure, the digestive system* will expel the pineapple containing Bromelin.
Enzymes only work in a certain ph and temperature range. If their environment is unsuitable, enzymes become denatured and their active sites change shape. they can no longer accept substrates and preform their duties as catalysts. By changing the pH of the jello, we hope to denature bromeliad and prevent it from breaking down the collagen in our Jello so that the jello will harden.
*the digestive system works like this:
in the MOUTH, salivary amylase from the salivary glands breaks down polysaccharides into smaller polysacchs like maltose.
the tongue and teeth mash up the food, which goes down the pharynx and esophagus into the stomach.
The STOMACH contains HCl acid and pepsin (which digests proteins into small polypeptides).
In the first part of the small intestine, the LUMEN, there is pancreatic amylase (from the pancreas) which breaks polysaccharides into DIsacchs like maltose, sucrose, lactose. there is also pancreatic trypsin and chymotrypsin which break polypeptides into down further so that pancreatic carboxypeptidase can break these smaller polypeptides into amino acids. Pancreatic nucleases break down DNA into nucleotides. Bile from the liver/gallbladder break fat into smaller droplets so that pancreatic lipase (from the pancreas) can dissolve the droplets into glycerols, glycerides, and fatty acids.
in the EPITHELIUM of the small intestine, disaccharidases break any remaining saccharides into monosacchs like glucose, galactose, and fructose. dipeptidases, carboxypeptidases, and amino peptidases brake down amino acids into really basic amino acids. Nucleotidases turn nucleotides into nucleosides, which then turn into nitrogen bases, sugars, and phosphates after being processed by nucleosidases and phosphatases.
and then everything moves to the duodenum(the large intestine) to process and to the jejunum and ileum for absorption into the bloodstream, then to the large intestine where water is sucked out, and to the cecum where mucus is added, then to the colon and rectum where food ends its journey through the digestive system.
Hypothesis: 5 ml of 0.1M HCl
will denature the enzyme and allow the jello to set in the presence of (technically) uncooked pineapple.
Materials:
1. pack of Green Jell-O powder
2. 3xPetri Dishes
3. 100 ml Boiling water
4. 100ml Cold Water
5. some Fresh Pineapple chunks
6. 0.1 M HCl acid
7. 15 ml or 25ml graduated cylinders
8. ph paper
9. 3x50 ml beakers
Procedure:
1. Measure out 6.67 grams out green jell-o powder into each 50 ml beaker.
2. Add 20 ml of boiling water to each beaker. stir
3. Add 19 ml of cold water to the first TWO beakers. stir.
4. Add 14 ml of cold water and 5ml of 0.1M HCl to the third and last beaker. stir.
5. Use pH paper to take the pH of the contents of each beaker. record.
6. Pour solution of each beaker into its own dedicated petri dish. label each.
7. place 2 grams worth of fresh pineapple chunks into ONE HCl-free jello sample.
8. place 2 grams worth of fresh pineapple chunks into the HCl laced jello sample.
9. wait for the pineapple-free jello to set. record whether the other two samples have set.
Data:
pH no HCl: 4 for both samples
pH yes HCl: 3
no HCl/ no pineapple: Set
no HCl/ yes pineapple: no set
yes HCl/ yes pineapple: no set
Conclusion: No, 5 ml is not sufficient for our purposes. We can verify that our control sample did set, meaning we mixed the jello correctly, and in future experiments more drastic change in pH should have the desired effect of denaturing the enzyme Bromelin.
Errors could include diluting the acid with water in the measuring graduated cylinder, which would have slightly lowered the amount of pH change we could cause in our jello samples. We could have mixed the non-control samples of jello incorrectly: adding too little gelatin mix or too much water.
Introduction:
On Jello boxes, there is often the direction: Do not add uncooked pineapple. The reason behind this seemingly random warning lies in the fact that Jello is mostly gelatin, which is hydrolyzed collagen (http://www.greatlakesgelatin.com/consumer/CollagenFAQ.php), which in turn consists of long strands of protein. Pineapple contains an enzyme, Bromelin, which breaks down many different types of proteins (http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/pineapple-enzyme-tenderize-steak1.htm). Pineapples probably contain Bromelin to speed up the digestive process in its consumers and thus encourage less deterioration of the seeds in the digestive tract.
Usually the digestive system breaks down food, but if Bromelin breaks down the proteins that make up cellular structure, the digestive system* will expel the pineapple containing Bromelin.
Enzymes only work in a certain ph and temperature range. If their environment is unsuitable, enzymes become denatured and their active sites change shape. they can no longer accept substrates and preform their duties as catalysts. By changing the pH of the jello, we hope to denature bromeliad and prevent it from breaking down the collagen in our Jello so that the jello will harden.
*the digestive system works like this:
in the MOUTH, salivary amylase from the salivary glands breaks down polysaccharides into smaller polysacchs like maltose.
the tongue and teeth mash up the food, which goes down the pharynx and esophagus into the stomach.
The STOMACH contains HCl acid and pepsin (which digests proteins into small polypeptides).
In the first part of the small intestine, the LUMEN, there is pancreatic amylase (from the pancreas) which breaks polysaccharides into DIsacchs like maltose, sucrose, lactose. there is also pancreatic trypsin and chymotrypsin which break polypeptides into down further so that pancreatic carboxypeptidase can break these smaller polypeptides into amino acids. Pancreatic nucleases break down DNA into nucleotides. Bile from the liver/gallbladder break fat into smaller droplets so that pancreatic lipase (from the pancreas) can dissolve the droplets into glycerols, glycerides, and fatty acids.
in the EPITHELIUM of the small intestine, disaccharidases break any remaining saccharides into monosacchs like glucose, galactose, and fructose. dipeptidases, carboxypeptidases, and amino peptidases brake down amino acids into really basic amino acids. Nucleotidases turn nucleotides into nucleosides, which then turn into nitrogen bases, sugars, and phosphates after being processed by nucleosidases and phosphatases.
and then everything moves to the duodenum(the large intestine) to process and to the jejunum and ileum for absorption into the bloodstream, then to the large intestine where water is sucked out, and to the cecum where mucus is added, then to the colon and rectum where food ends its journey through the digestive system.
Hypothesis: 5 ml of 0.1M HCl
will denature the enzyme and allow the jello to set in the presence of (technically) uncooked pineapple.
Materials:
1. pack of Green Jell-O powder
2. 3xPetri Dishes
3. 100 ml Boiling water
4. 100ml Cold Water
5. some Fresh Pineapple chunks
6. 0.1 M HCl acid
7. 15 ml or 25ml graduated cylinders
8. ph paper
9. 3x50 ml beakers
Procedure:
1. Measure out 6.67 grams out green jell-o powder into each 50 ml beaker.
2. Add 20 ml of boiling water to each beaker. stir
3. Add 19 ml of cold water to the first TWO beakers. stir.
4. Add 14 ml of cold water and 5ml of 0.1M HCl to the third and last beaker. stir.
5. Use pH paper to take the pH of the contents of each beaker. record.
6. Pour solution of each beaker into its own dedicated petri dish. label each.
7. place 2 grams worth of fresh pineapple chunks into ONE HCl-free jello sample.
8. place 2 grams worth of fresh pineapple chunks into the HCl laced jello sample.
9. wait for the pineapple-free jello to set. record whether the other two samples have set.
Data:
pH no HCl: 4 for both samples
pH yes HCl: 3
no HCl/ no pineapple: Set
no HCl/ yes pineapple: no set
yes HCl/ yes pineapple: no set
Conclusion: No, 5 ml is not sufficient for our purposes. We can verify that our control sample did set, meaning we mixed the jello correctly, and in future experiments more drastic change in pH should have the desired effect of denaturing the enzyme Bromelin.
Errors could include diluting the acid with water in the measuring graduated cylinder, which would have slightly lowered the amount of pH change we could cause in our jello samples. We could have mixed the non-control samples of jello incorrectly: adding too little gelatin mix or too much water.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
forensics quiz
Victim died of a bullet to the left upper chest, which in its 45 degree trajectory pierced the left lung, heart, right lung, intestines, bounced off the 8th rib and punctured the stomach, liver, and part of the gallbladder and exited above the belly button. The causes of death are damage to the heart, but the damage to the lungs leading to asphyxiation and the potential bullet fragments in the spinal cord that could have cut off control of the lungs and other vital organs. Assuming the victim had all possible injuries, he would have lost consciousness from the loss of blood pressure caused by the wounds to his heart. His lungs could have kept him breathing for a little while longer, and damage to the spinal cord is up to chance, so most likely he died when his heart lost the ability to pump blood and his brain lost oxygenated blood.
consulted:
http://www.thescienceforum.com/biology/26188-does-punctured-heart-really-cause-fast-death.html
consulted:
http://www.thescienceforum.com/biology/26188-does-punctured-heart-really-cause-fast-death.html
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
question on cloning ethics in The Island
Does a clone have any obligations towards his/her sponsor?
Sponsor in the sense of "The Island"- the person who pays the 5 million dollar fee and provides the genetic information that is copied.
Sponsor in the sense of "The Island"- the person who pays the 5 million dollar fee and provides the genetic information that is copied.
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