Cellular Respiration

            Before we embarked on this journey, called Cellular Respiration, I remember my terrified classmates and myself dreading this unit. Mrs. McCurdy had warned us about the confusing and intrinsic process of cellular respiration. As we would soon find out, she had been right. During the first few days of this material, our classroom was mayhem. Every student in Honors Biology was ferociously jotting down what felt like every word Mrs. McCurdy would say, in fear of missing a key reaction. However, after gaining a firmer grasp on the material, everyone could recite processes of Glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and the Electron Transport Chain backwards!

            Although understanding the process of Cellular Respiration is an extensive and daunting task, it’s certainly possible. I created posters and a catchy song to help understand it better. Ultimately, I unfortunately didn’t record the song myself, in fear of public humiliation (I’m not the best singer…) Luckily, my sister, Sammy, was able to step up to the task. To the tune of Katy Perry’s hit, “I Kissed a Girl,” my song entitled “Cellular Respiration” explains the 3 main steps of Cellular Respiration. After recording the song, I created a “Jing” including digital pictures of my posters and my song. I then uploaded my Jing to my Bio Blog. Underneath are the lyrics, so feel free to sing along!

Approximate Lyrics (note: some words were switched around during the recording):

In order, to get energy,

For things like watching tv,

We use the mitochondria,

We rely on cellular respiration,

It’s so confusing,

Only pros can sing about it,

You should really know all about it,

In order to ace your test!

Glycolysis,

starts with a glucose,

A 6 carbon sugar,

But before we, knew it,

ATP had phosphoralted,

And the whole thing broke apart,

Into two PGALs

It still wasn’t happy,

It had to take some time to think,

Each PGAL lost its phosphate,

Rearranged intoooo a pyruvate!

To do this,

2ADPs turned into ATP!

2NAD+ turned into NADH!

And we are left with a pyruvate,

If we have oxygen,

Then we will go to the Krebs Cycle,

But if we don’t,

I guess we’ll just ferment,

Anaerobic fermentation,

Is kind of a drag cause we only make 2ATPs,

But that’s just life,

So lets just move on,

To the krebs cycle!

Next step in aerobic respiration,

We bring our pyruvates over to the matrix!

We lose NADH  and CO2,

Acetyl CoA helps bring the pyrvuate in,

Oxaloacetate + 2carbon join together!

We lose CO2 and NADH,

So it becomes a 5 carbon sugar,

And then it does again,

It becomes a 4 carbon sugar,

And creates ATP!

We then release NADH and FADH2,

And then we are just oxaloacetate!

The Electron Transport Chain,

NADH turns into NAD+

And FADH2 turns into FADH

Which makes H+ and E-,

The E- fuel the stair case across the cytochromes,

And for each cytochrome pumps one H+ into the matrix,

The H+ pump across the ATP synthase,

Which brings together lonely ADP and P’s!!!

The H+, E- and 02 come together,

To make WATER!

**********

I don't own this song, I used it from this youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJYxAIGriTw

The song in the background is the acoustic version of "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry!

No copyright intended.

Glycolysis Sketchfu

Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

red dots are carbon molecules.
magenta dots are phosphate groups.
Enjoy, the cycle of Glycolysis!

Krebs Cycle Sketchfu

Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

red dots are carbon molecules.
Enjoy, the Krebs Cycle!

Effects of Drugs on Teens

Before hurting your body and your future with the use of drugs,
Watch my Prezi on the effects of drugs on teenagers.

Effect of Drugs on Teen on Prezi

An Unconventional, Unusual Cure to Epilepsy: Fatty Foods (The Ketogenic Diet)

            Imagine having a seizure once every day. The average seizure can last thirty-seconds to two-minutes. They occur almost randomly, and during them you can loose consciousness and your body can shake. I know from spending time with a family friend who suffers from epilepsy, that seizures are extremely scary.

Imagine having about 130 seizures a day. For Sam, a nine year old, who suffers from epilepsy, this is the case. He has tried different drugs and treatments, however none of them seem to help.

            For the last two years, Sam has been on the ketogenic diet. “The diet, which drastically reduces the amount of carbohydrates he takes in, tricks his body into a starvation state in which it burns fat, and not carbs, for fuel.” (S1) Most people disagree with the thought of the ketogenic diet. Using food instead of drugs seems preposterous, however research shows that the ketogenic diet extremely reduces seizures in epileptics that are drug-resistant.

            It’s estimated that in a week, “Sam consumes a quart and a third of heavy cream, nearly a stick and a half of butter, 13 teaspoons of coconut oil, 20 slices of bacon and 9 eggs.”(S1) This monotonous diet is extremely hard to follow. Junk foods such as soda, popcorn, candy, and pizza are strictly forbidden. For a nine-year-old kid, it seems almost impossible.

Picture describes Sam's diet under the ketogenic diet. 

            The positive effects of the ketogenic diet undeniably outweigh the cons. In a study conducted in 2008 by University College London, 38% of the patients reduced seizures by more than 50% by using the ketogenic diet. 7% of the patients reduced their seizures by more than 90% by using the ketogenic diet. For these people, antiepileptic drugs hadn’t worked for them, however the ketogenic diet had. By using the diet, 7/10 patients who had specific drug-resistant seizures reduced amount of seizures by more than 90%. The Ketogenic diet is helping people with epilepsy find a cure, when drugs simply can’t. For Sam, the use of the ketogenic diet has reduced his seizures by 75%. This means that he has almost a 100 less seizures a day because of the Ketogenic diet.

Main Source: (S1)

Article: "Epilepsy's Big, Fat Miracle"- Fred Vogelstein http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21Epilepsy-t.html?scp=1&sq=ketone&st=cse

Picture Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21Epilepsy-t.html?scp=1&sq=ketone&st=cse

Other Sources:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/seizures.html

http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/guide/ketogenic-diet

The Amazing Kangaroo Rats Osmoregulation

Kangaroo Rats are very interesting animals. The adaptions that they take in order to survive in their dry climate are very fascinating. On this site, I learned that Kangaroo Rats are mostly found in California. Their kidneys help them get rid of waste, without using too much water. Kangaroo Rats ability to create water out of the dry seeds they eat also helps them survive in the desert climate.
On this site, I began to understand the importance of retaining water to organisms that live in the desert, in order to keep their ionic and osmotic balance. Monitoring water loss and limiting heat exposure are some of the key factors of Osmoregulation in Kangaroo Rats.

This is a picture of a Tipton Kangaroo Rat from this website.

Throughout the day, Kangaroo Rats stay inside burrows in order to preserve water. If the temperature of the climate is higher than the temperature of the Kangaroo Rat, then the water loss will increase. However, inside burrows, the temperature is lower than the core temperature of the Kangaroo Rat.
The kidneys of the Kangaroo Rats are one of its coolest adaptions. In order to reduce the waste of water, the kidney “excretes highly concentrated urine resulting in a dry fecal pellet due to rectal absorption of water.” (from this site) So basically kangaroo rats urine is dry, in order to conserve water that is created by the dry seeds that they like to eat.

This video demonstrates another adaption the Kangaroo Rat has that saves it time and energy when gathering seeds.

The Kangaroo Rat is not the only animal that lives in a dry climate to have specialized organs to help with Osmoregulation. Many animals in the desert rely on their organs for Osmoregulation, and without them they couldn’t survive.

Summary of Osmoregulation in Kangaroo Rats:
-urine system
-habitat (affects temperature)
-kidneys

In order to conserve water in dry climates.

Sources:

http://www.desertusa.com/aug96/du_krat.html

http://www.suite101.com/content/osmoregularity-adaptations-to-heat-in-mammals-a119528

Picture Source:

http://www.csub.edu/~dgermano/research.htm

Glee: A Eukaryote

Tuberculosis

Sources:

http://www.medicinenet.com/tuberculosis/article.htm
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=26602
http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/tuberculosis.html
http://www.microbiologybytes.com/video/Mtuberculosis.html
http://drugdiscoveryopinion.com/tag/structure/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1817835/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/bacterium/

Picture Sources:

http://www.clinicsrising.com/blog/2008/11/17/xdr-tb-deadly-resistant.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tuberculosis-x-ray-1.jpg
http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/tuberculosis.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/bacterium/

Macromolecule's Lab Reflection: Strawberry

In the Macromolecule Lab, each group used reagent tests to test a specific food to see which macromolecules existed in the substance. Ava and my food was strawberries. Before we began testing for macromolecules, we predicted that strawberries wouldn't have protein, starch, or lipids, but would have glucose. After testing our strawberry with reactant tests, we concluded that strawberries actually have proteins. Furthermore, our prediction that strawberries have glucose, and don't have starch and lipids, was correct.

To find out if strawberries had protein, starch, glucose, or lipids, we perfumed a series of tests. The first test we performed was to see if strawberries had proteins in them. By adding Biuret solution to our strawberry, we found that strawberries do have proteins because we saw brown in the solution. To find out if strawberries were made up of glucose, we added Benedict's solution to find that we had glucose, because we saw orange in solution, after heating up the test tube in boiling water. We found out we didn't have starch in our strawberry, after we added Lugol's iodine solution, and saw that there was no black in the strawberries solution. To find out if strawberries had lipids in them, we rubbed a part of the strawberry on a brown paper. After letting it dry overnight, we concluded that there aren't lipids in strawberries. We found this out, because we observed that after it had dried, there wasn't a silver glow where the strawberry had been rubbed on the paper.

We were able to determine if strawberries contained protein, starch, glucose, or lipids based on what color appears after adding each solution to the strawberry. Proteins produces a brown color; glucose produces an orange color; starch produces a black color; while lipids leave a silver glow.
If in solution, it didn't show that color while using the appropriate reagent test, then the substance doesn't have that macromolecule.

After researching our results on the internet we found that we found the right results, except in lipids. This site, showed us that strawberries do have protein and glucose. On another site, it says that lipids exist in strawberries. We might've misread our brown napkin. Since we thought we didn't see a silver glow, we presumed that there weren't lipids present in strawberries.

Nucleic Acids

Pictures:
1st slide (Nucleic Acids) photo is from:
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/svensson/CellsandGenes/10MolecularBiology.html
2nd slide (DNA) photo is from:
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/a-monks-flourishing-garden-the-basics-of-molecular-biology-explained/
3rd slide (RNA) photo is from: http://www.uic.edu/classes/phys/phys461/phys450/ANJUM04/

Properties of Water

A cool video I found about Properties of Water. Watch it!

A water droplet, something that looks so simple and basic, is actually quite complicated. It's a  combination of millions of molecules made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Water is extremely important and useful. Most organisms and cells are made up of water. Water also has its own unique properties.

This picture is from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Water_droplet_blue_bg03.jpg

One property is surface tension. Surface Tension is the tightness in water, due to polar molecules pulling on each other. Water tries to stay together, but the surface breaks when something penetrates it. 

The picture demonstrates surface tension, this bug can stand on water, because it weighs so little, and doesn't penetrate the water.

This picture is from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/sci_nat_enl_1060172019/html/1.stm

Another property of water is polarity. In water molecules, hydrogen atoms are slightly positive, while oxygen atoms are slightly negative. These two things combine to create polar molecules, which have different electrical charges, that create a powerful charge.

Density is a property of water. The density of water is 1.00g/ml. Anything that has a density less than water floats, and if the density is greater, it sinks. For example, if you dropped a rock and a woodchip in water, the rock would sink and the woodchip would float. The rock has a greater density than water, while the woodchips density is less than water.

Water is a Universal Solvent. Since water molecule’s are polar, it can dissolve almost everything, including gasses, liquids, and solids.

Capillary Action is another property of water. Capillary Action pulls water molecules up. An example of capillary action is how water is absorbed through the roots of trees and pulled up to the top of the tree and branches.

Picture is from http://depts.washington.edu/czone/images/trees_mem_planes.jpg

Another unique property of water is Adhesion and Cohesion. Cohesion is when something sticks to itself, for example water is cohesive because it always sticks to itself. Adhesion is when something sticks to something other than itself, for example oxygen atom is slightly negative while it has a bond with hydrogen, which is slightly positive.

Special heat is another property of water. Special heat is the amount of energy necessary to raise 1 gram of a substance 1 degree Celsius. It’s also a characteristic property. Water has a specific high heat because the molecules in the water are so tightly bound that it takes a lot of energy to break up. In the summer, it takes longer for water in the ocean to heat up than the sand at the beach, because sand has a lower specific heat.

pH level is a property of water.  pH level tells the acidity or how basic a substance is. Water for instance is neutral and has a pH level of 7. The range of pH is 0 to 14. The closer the pH level is to 0 the more acidic it is. The closer the pH level is to 14, the more basic it is. Organisms rely on their pH level, and without it, couldn’t survive. 

Biology Intro

I'm excited for Honors Biology, because I think what we are going to learn throughout the year will be extremely fascinating. I'm looking forward to learning about ancient species, evolution, and DNA. I think Honors Biology is going to be more interesting than IPS last year, because we are going to learn about more interesting topics around the world, from the past and in the future. I think technology will make our course more interesting and creative, because all of our assignments will be unique. For example, using the blog for homework will be more engaging to the whole class. Also, on the blog, you can post videos and links that classmates might find interesting or helpful. In conclusion, I'm really excited for the upcoming year in Honors Biology.