Unit 10 Reflection

     Unit 10, titled Physiology, surrounded the essential question of "How do different systems of the body work together and rely on each others' importance to function?" 

     Homeostasis is the body's way of maintaining equilibrium and the circulatory and respiratory systems ensure every cell can maintain it. Oxygen is provided to blood cells after being inhaled by the respiratory system, through the heart and the circulatory system. Without these systems working together, oxygenated blood wouldn't flow throughout the body. The nervous system helps the brain pick up on stimuli which causes the body to pick up on varied information, from essential organ functions to creativity. The endocrine system releases hormones into the body that trigger different functions that help the body reach homeostasis. The digestive system breaks down food we eat into energy cells can use and undigested food is removed as waste through the excretory system. The immune system use varied defenses to protect the body from pathogens that can do harm to it. Finally the lymphatic system collects waste throughout the body to get rid of any toxins.

Homeostasis when speaking in general terms.
This can apply to many things for example blood glucose levels and body temperature

   

This is a picture of the 6 systems mentioned above, and more to help the body function!

    I want to learn more about the body's reactions to foreign invaders or pathogens. I think its really amazing how we have all these "lines of defenses" in our bodies and wonder how much fighting it would take for these reactions to be worn down over time. My grandmother is fighting a lung disease because her lungs are deteriorating and I want to know what has caused this since something has gotten through all of her immune system defenses. 

     Now that the year is come to an end, I look at all of my messy binders with paper spilling out of them and I'm thankful that I have this blog to organize my year's work in biology. I take pride in our unit reflections, my favorite being Unit 9 reflection, because I spent so much time writing it and even after it accidentally got deleted I rewrote it again at 11 pm, almost matching its original quality. Even though I procrastinated alot on it, I'm proud of my Genetics Infographic and this semester I even fixed my Procrastination problem through my 20 time project(there are many progress posts but here is my 20%time wrap up and reflection)! Also looking back at my New Year's Goals, I have met my goal for biology, because I have truly understood most of the material over the course of this year. 

A wrap up on 20 time!

     Preventing procrastination is what I set out to do in the beginning of 2016, and 5 months later, after a whole lot of doing exactly the opposite as well as some serious work, my 20 time project is done for the school year. I will be continuing my project because I basically tested out strategies for success on myself and I want to continue by sharing my knowledge with others and write about my findings. So far, all I’ve done towards my final product is research and begin to draft a potential guide to help with procrastination. Here is my google slides presentation which I used to aid my TED talk and soon, hopefully I will be publishing an infographic or guide to accompany this. 

     The first step that I took to bring closure to my project was give the TED talk, in which I informed my classmates about the causes to procrastination and some of the initial ways I have learnt to prevent it. My TED talk was something I actually looked forward to because I do enjoy talking about things I am passionate about. This was a different experience than the What on Earth Evolved presentation because this time it was completely up to me when it came to what I talked about, so I felt more comfortable. I think my presentation was well thought out and engaging, and I take pride in the laughs I got from the audience. For this talk, I played up my strengths in speaking which surrounds humor and tried to make my presentation relatable and funny, and I think I succeeded. But, I tend to speed up when I speak, not only in presentations but in general conversations, so my talk which while practicing was close to 5 minutes, was only 4 minutes on the actual day! I was surprised that I sped up so substantially and in the future I want to work on those dramatic pauses to emphasize my points more. Preparing and writing the speech was not very stressful because I didn’t procrastinate (haha) and my goal was to practice and get comfortable with my speech, so on the day my nerves wouldn’t cause me to mess up while presenting. As I watched the video, I would give myself a good grade in terms of the presentation but take off a few points because of my lack of a final product. But, as Mr. Orre says, its about the process not product and you can read all about my 20 time process here. After this project, I have learnt how to manage time, which was my original purpose, and I became more comfortable with speaking in front of others. I found out that finishing tasks is actually very gratifying, so if I don’t let my laziness dictate my work ethic, getting stuff done is actually pretty great. 

Pig Dissection

The pig dissection lab corresponded with our anatomy and physiology unit by asking the essential question, “How can we identify parts of a pig’s anatomy and relate its structures to the human body and processes?”. This dissection put all the systems and parts of the body we have been learning this unit into perspective, by being a hands on model to explore each of them. My favorite part of the dissection was probably when we looked at the digestive system and the intestines because seeing the small intestine actually proved how long and coiled up it is! I think this dissection was a valuable experience not only because of the scientific knowledge we gained but because I’m now less grossed out by these types of labs. Before coming into this lab, I would almost faint at the sight of blood and I’m proud of myself for not only sitting through the lab, but also helping out here and there, which was something I thought I could never do!

You can watch a tutorial on our lab here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_tTXnivR1s

20% Time Reflection

This semester I worked on a project surrounding a universal problem, procrastination.

I challenged myself because not only is this topic so broad and needs to be really broken down to try to understand and help overcome it, but also because I am a huge procrastinator. This project meant that I had to improve myself and hopefully end up in a successful position where I could help others.

I started by analyzing myself and understanding how big of a role procrastinating takes in my life (turns out it was pretty major). Then I researched about the human brain and the science behind motivation, productivity, laziness, and other characteristics that falls into or short of a procrastinator’s behavior. Finally I tested efficient ways to reduce the procrastination and improve productivity and how to integrate these methods into day to day life.

It was pretty successful, I am much less of a procrastinator now, though I still struggle sometimes. But, not all of the methods were useful, for example after coming up with many methods, only a few really made my day more efficient. What I took from this is that each person is different and can benefit from different ways to achieve their goals and workload in life. I learnt more about human behavior and how the mind can affect and deter someone from what they set out to do, and how powerful, and dangerous it can be.

If I had more time, I would test these methods on others but for now, this project was somewhat of an individual journey where I will share my experience with others in my TED talk. I might continue this challenge and share insight with people who feel procrastinating is a real obstacle in the way of reaching their goals. The 20% time project, now wrapped up, was a great way for me to tackle a bothersome problem I have been putting off (haha) for a long time and I learnt that to prevent procrastination, one must promote productivity, which might be the next step in this challenge.

Unit 9 Reflection

This unit, called “What on Earth Evolved” surrounded the essential questions “How is life organized?” and “What are the defining characteristics of different organisms?” Organisms are placed in groups based on similarities and this system of naming and classifying living things is called taxonomy. The taxonomic levels are, Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. I made up a mnemonic device to remember this order, Dumb Kids Playing Cards On Freeways Get Smashed. I know it’s a little violent but it’s funny so it sticks. Whatever works, right? Here is the taxonomic classification of a modern human:

There are 3 domains, called Archaea, Bacteria, which has one kingdom called monera(prokaryotes), and Eukarya, made up of 4 kingdoms, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.  Bacteria are the oldest organisms and are decomposers, nitrogen fixers(using symbiosis), and are a key component in Biotech. Viruses are not cells but small infectious particles that use their capsids and membranous envelopes to capture host cells. Fungi are classified into 3 groups, sac-fungi, club-fungi, and bread molds. Plants are spread into 4 phyla, Bryophyta(mosses), Pterophyta(ferns), Gymnosperms(cone bearing plants), and Angiosperms(flowering plants). Within Angiosperms lie Monocots(single seeded), and Dicots(double seeded).

Next come the invertebrates, in which most have Hox genes that control early development. I was surprised that 97% of all animal species are invertebrates, and I wrote a blog post earlier about one interesting invertebrate. The most primitive invertebrate, sponges, are followed by cnidarians. Cnidarians have two forms, polyps and medusas and 4 major classes, scyphozoans(jellyfish), Anthozoans(coral), Hydrozoans(hydra), and Cubozoans(box jelly). Next, flatworms, mollusks, and annelids are closely related. Arthropods have a touch skeleton and echinoderms have a unique water vascular system.

The final group, chordates, are the vertebrates, which all have a back bone. There are seven classes of vertebrates Agnatha(jawless fish), Condrictheyes(Cartilaginous Fish), Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia. Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals have amniotic eggs to allow them to reproduce on land.

To dive deeper into each of the categories throughout the unit, each student learnt about a species from the book “What on Earth Evolved” and presented about it to the class. My project was on the genus Australopithecus. I did not procrastinate as I usually do because I was trying out methods for my 20 time project (progress 3-28-16 and 4-18-16) and my topic is preventing procrastination. Even though I was prepared with the content, I was so nervous to speak to the class. I spoke really quickly and finished my slideshow barely in the time limit! I think in the future I would benefit if I presented to smaller audiences leading up to the final presentation to the class. I will try this out for my TED talk and focus on speaking slower. Even listening to my classmates was interesting because a new face and voice would teach us every 4 to 8 minutes.

To finish off the unit and tie in the vast amount of information we acquired over a short period of time, we watched a documentary called “Your Inner Fish”, where scientists proved that humans share common ancestry with fish and are related to reptiles. It was cool to see how our ears have evolved from the reptilian structure and how many of our limbs follow the universal “one bone, two bones many bones” pattern. People are still uncovering the mysteries surrounding the evolution of life today and there is so much more yet to uncover about this world.

"My Inner Fish" Relate and Review

In class we watched the two episodes "Your Inner Fish" and "Your Inner Reptile", through which the main themes are that humans, who are closely related to reptiles, have a shared ancestry with fish. In its early stages of development, a human and fish embryo look very similar because of their shared Hox genes, which suggest common ancestry. In other words, the Hox genes that were found in fish embryos are also present in human embryos, leading on theories of ancestry. Other evidence for common ancestry includes similar body structures like bony skeletons, backbones, skulls, and shared basic brain anatomy. Another important key aspect of the relationship between fish and humans is the Sonic Hedgehog gene, which sends out an organizing signal that tells cells to do different things. This gene helps create the array of digits on the hand in many mammals. As we moved from fish to reptiles, we explored our evolutionary relationship to these other organisms. An example of humans' relation to reptiles is their hearing anatomy. Mammals have a wide range of hearing because they have 3 bones in their middle ear while reptiles only have 1 bone in their middle ear. Scientists think that two jaw bones evolved and got smaller and moved upwards towards the ear as reptiles led to mammals over time. 

The reptile ear has only one bone where as the mammal's ear has three distinct parts.

Getting Results

These pasts weeks, I finished up my research and tested many methods that in theory should lead to productivity. If a person does something they like to do, a happy chemical is released in their body making them want to continue. This is what happened when I finished work doing these methods. Your brain actually enjoys the feeling of being productive which is the secret motivator to success. I learnt that people enjoy watching TV so they do it more but actually if you enjoy getting work done, you will feel motivated to get that relief once you have finished the day's work load. The next step in my process is to take all of these tests and research about the human mind and write a guide to prevent procrastination and promote productivity. I hope this guide will help people increase efficiency in their everyday lives.

Interesting Invertebrate

The fuchsia flatworm is a simple bilateral animal with a solid body and an incomplete gut, it is a beautiful creature! This invertebrate is fuchsia with a red and orange border along with white dots all over its body and its length ranges from 18-48 mm. This rare species has bright colors to warn predators about poison. They are found near the waters of Hawaii, Australia, and the Philippines. They live in the external slope or upper coral reef and crawl around to find food. Flatworms are in the kingdom Animalia, Platyhelminthes phyla and in the family Pseudocerotid. Fuchsia flatworms are actually a very rare species of flatworm and has very defining characteristics that others don't really have. Is this species parasitic or just poisonous?





Bibliography:
http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/52325-Pseudoceros-ferrugineus
https://www.sites.google.com/site/infowhenyouneedit/fuchsia-flatworms
https://diverdave.smugmug.com/Invertebrates/Nudibranchs-Univalves-and/i-QGdVVDz/0/M/INFWH%200002-M.jpg

Methods to Motivate

This week I researched all the "tried and true" methods to prevent procrastination. After compiling a list of all of them, I tried to reason behind why this particular method would be helpful. I didn't understand why exercising before doing work would help with efficiency but now I understand that after exercising, a chemical, endorphin, is  released in your body making you feel happy, which could make your task seem less daunting. I also implemented one method in my life which was keeping your work environment clutter free, and it worked. I got my work done much faster when my desk was clean because I only thought about my homework rather than my messy room. My next steps are to integrate more of these methods in my life and once I find which ones work, combining them to come up with the best way to stop procrastination.

Unit 8 Reflection

In unit 8, we covered evolution by looking at the history of our Earth and how we came to be. Evolution is caused by genetic variation in populations, which is caused by reproduction, meiosis, and crossing over. Natural selection favors certain phenotypes and causes individuals with advantages for survival to reproduce. Natural selection can favor one phenotype, which is directional selection. In stabilized selection, nature favors the intermediate phenotype and in disruptive selection, both extremes are favored. Disruptive selection can lead to speciation, which creates a new species. Humans took advantage of this aspect of life to artificially select and breed animals using the same mindset of weeding out the weak from the population. Darwin made a conclusion based on natural selection that as the population evolves, it will start to look more like the organisms with the advantages. This was tested in class when we did the Hunger Games Lab and the Bird Beak Lab. Showcased in the lab and in nature, we can tell if a population evolved based on the allele frequency fluctuations. Allele frequency measures how common an allele is within a population. Evolution is evident in the world and will continue to affect our lives of a span of time. Scientists use evolutionary left-overs and fossils to determine who are ancestors were and to dive into more about Earth's history. As a final wrap-up to our unit, we concluded with a project; a timeline to showcase all of Earth's existence. I wrote a reflection on this project, which you can read here. I really enjoyed this unit because it was a good change from what we have been doing for most of this year. It was interesting to zoom out in perspective and understand the world we live in as a whole. Since I had more interest in the content of this unit, it was easy to be assertive with my learning because I cared more about the topic. In the future I should challenge myself to learn like this for every unit. Here is a picture showcasing the different variations of natural selection: 

Geology Timeline Individual Reflection

In this project, we made a timeline to model the span of earth's history and show when and how some major events occurred on our planet. We used a strip 9.2 meters long to represent the 4.6 billion years of Earth's existence, where every million years was represented by 2 mm. The first event on our timeline, the essential kick starter, is the creation of Earth itself, which lead to the existence of everything we know of today and in life itself. Nothing as we know it would exist if this collision did not happen to form our planet. The increase of oxygen in the atmosphere during the Ordovician Period  is also an important event in Earth's history because  this laid the foundation for processes such as photosynthesis and respiration to occur within organisms. The extinction of the dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era was a very significant event in Earth's history as well as it gave way for mammals to dominate. Humans and other mammals were able to exist because the dinosaurs weren't a looming threat for any longer.

The scale of Earth's history includes a lot of empty time periods, in the sense that there was not much life for long periods of time. Being able to see this visually represented really put so much of history into perspective for me. I was surprised that so much of our history is squished into about 1/2 of a foot on our timelines which in comparison to the existence of Earth, is barely anything! The time period in which humans have dominated the earth is so small but we have influenced and changed the world we live in so much in such an insignificant period of time. This made me think about how long we will exist. Will we be like the dinosaurs and our period of domination abruptly brought to an end?

Here is an infographic that is formatted similar to a timeline with the history of our Earth.

Hunger Games Final Analysis

1. In this lab, we split the class into 3 phenotypes that all needed to eat and reproduce to simulate a real world population of organisms trying to survive. 
2. The pinchers were the best at capturing food because they had the easiest mechanism to grab the food, since human fingers are very strong and well trained from doing everyday activities.
3.  In this lab we asked the question "Do populations evolve?". We found that they do, and not always in favor of the "fittest" organism. The population evolved and the evidence of this is that stumpies went from 8 out out of 23 in the population, which is about 1/3 of the population, to 3 out of 23, to completely extinct. This is evidence of various forms of natural selection since the number of offspring fell into different categories based on who survived. This data supported our claim because this process leads to evolution over time. 
4. In this simulation, the beak assignment was not random because it was given to each person and everyone was using the same grabbing technique in their phenotype. But, factors like pocket storage for food, and running speed and aggressiveness were random because different people have unique characteristics and clothes they wore for the lab. 
5. If the food was larger, then people might have gotten more food each because each person could only carry so much food in their hands and clothes. However if the food was less, the competition would be stiffer and people would be more aggressive to "survive". This applies to nature because sometimes there are enough resources and all organisms can live in harmony but when scarcities come up, competition gets much stiffer. 
6. The results would have been different if there wasn't incomplete dominance because stumpies would have shown up instead of knucklers. Actually, there wouldn't be any knucklers or many stumpies in existence because they wouldn't survive. 
7. Natural selection is the main theory behind evolution. Because of competition between organisms, populations change and evolve over time. 
8. Many people mated with others in their own phenotype to ensure survival, which was a good strategy for double dominant or double recessive genotypes. This would affect the gene frequency because it would go higher in the direction of the organisms that mated with each other. This is exactly what happens in nature because each species mates with one another so they ensure having more offspring like themselves.   
9. In evolution, organisms evolve as their genotypes and phenotypes do so. Natural selection also acts on both parts of an organism because as the genotype changes, it usually shows in the phenotype.

How would results vary if we mimicked an ecosystem more accurately? For example, if we placed food in harder to reach places or gave everyone limitations (like with their pockets), how would results change?

Procrastinating on the Project

This week, I did some work on 20 time but mainly I procrastinated. This was clearly a problem so I did a little more work and have made more progress now.  I have decided to use myself as a test subject before asking others to take part in my project. First, I figured out why I procrastinate. This article, http://success.oregonstate.edu/six-reasons-people-procrastinate, explains some triggers in general towards procrastination, and I used this for my initial research but now I'm trying to see which apply to me. In my life, I tend to procrastinate on practicing dance and singing (two of my extra-curricular activities), cleaning my room, and the given obvious, homework. I like to socialize, watch TV, or do other useless tasks instead of doing the important work. My next steps are trying to find out what I feel while I procrastinate and what situations motivate me to keep working. I also want to talk to people who do get all of their work done and see what they think while doing tasks. Hopefully I'll get more done this week!

Bird Beak Lab

Analysis
Recently we conducted a bird beak lab, which tested Darwin's observations and conclusions. We simulated 5 different types of birds' beaks with a spoon, a binder clip, a pair of tweezers, a pair of chopsticks, and a pair of scissors. The goal was for each bird to pick up as many pieces of "food" (rubber bands, macaroni, toothpicks, and paper clips). We saw evidence that individuals with better traits leave more offspring when the tweezers-beaked bird had a total of 15 chicks, the highest among all other birds. A possible explanation for this could be that their beaks were more adept at picking up food. Another of Darwin's conclusions was shown true in our lab: the fact that populations gradually start to look more like the "winners", or individuals with the better traits. The tweezers chicks made up about 21.4% of the population. An explanation for this is that the tweezers chicks collected more food and had more offspring.

Conclusion:
In this lab, we asked the question: if natural selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of that species?  We also simulated a farming spraying pesticide incident in this lab, where the "birds" were left with 1/4 of their original pile of food. Theoretically, the birds with the most efficient picking up food skills would succeed with this challenge. We found that the tweezers still produced more chicks. This data support our claim because the tweezer bird was the most efficient.
Even though our data followed our hypothesis correctly the expected results there could be errors. The binder clip required the user to apply a decent amount of pressure in order to operate it and pick up the food. When doing the back to back trials, using the binder clip became tiring. This error might cause its  population to decrease, instead of staying the same or increasing. In the lab as a whole, each bird beak was operated by a different student, and each student would have a different skill level in terms of picking up the food. For example, someone who has been eating with chopsticks their whole life would find the chopstick beak very effective. This might have caused certain populations to be too high or too low. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend students switching "bird beaks" in order to make the lab more objective and maybe finding an alternative for the binder clip, because of the finger pressure that is needed to use it.
This lab was done to demonstrate the concept of natural selection, and how every population will have winners and losers. From this lab I learned how natural selection would works in an ecosystem, and I now understand the concept better. Based on my experience from this lab, I can better understand why certain traits are more dominant in certain populations.

Prevent Procrastination

20 time is a concept where students are given 20 percent of their class time to work on a project of their choosing.
My essential question is "Will understanding more about the brain's scientific reactions to circumstances help with problems, like procrastination?"
I was frustrated that I procrastinate so much in order to get work done and I have tried numerous "motivating mechanisms" to help me work more efficiently, all of which have failed miserably. I'm pretty sure I am not the only one with this problem so for my project I will try to use science to stop procrastination.
My goals begin with trying to inform myself about this topic thoroughly and then trying to implement tips I come up with in my life as well as trying these on some others.
I will measure my process and hopefully achievements by having a consistent task(s) that needs to be completed with different ways to go about doing the job.
My plan moving forward is to research for now, and hopefully start coming up with solutions soon.
Not only do I want to figure out how to prevent procrastination, I also want to learn what causes it because ideally everything we set out to do should be something we want to get done instead of putting it off.

Unit 7 Reflection

Unit 7 was about ecology, or the "study of house", whose main ideas in biology are, homeostasis, equilibrium, and interdependence. We elaborated on the known fact that environments are in best condition when they are in balance, or in homeostasis by learning about energy interdependence to ensure survival.  There are 6 levels of organization on the earth: organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere that live in habitats and have niches. Personally I was confused between these two concepts but as we applied them more in our learning, I understood them better. Making up an ecosystem, are both producers (autotrophs) and consumers (heterotrophs). There are 5 trophic levels, including primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, and quaternary consumers. Factors affecting a population's growth are immigration, emigration, births, deaths, disease, predators, limited supply of abiotic factors, and population density and dispersion. All populations reach a carrying capacity (K), which is the maximum population that an environment can support. After a disturbance in an ecosystem a sequence of changes follow, which is called ecological succession. If something remains after the disturbance it is called secondary succession and if nothing remains it is called primary succession. Loss of species has shown to be tightly correlated with human population growth. 4 major threats to species' extinction are: habitat loss, introduced species by humans, overexploitation, and climate change. 
We did many extension activities related to ecology to supplement our learning this unit. First we watched a movie called "Bag It!" which brought light to the issue of plastic's negative impact on the environment. Also we watched a video called "Story of Stuff" which spoke about human waste polluting the planet intensely. Both of these informed us of how careless humans are when it comes to taking care of the earth and set out to motivate people to help the environment. Also, we did a group project on conservation biology, which was really fun and informative. My group made a video which you can watch here. To reflect on our project, we filled out a personal question sheet to see what type of person we are. I got a 13/20 for assertive and passive aggressive, a 14/20 for passive, and a 10/20 for aggressive. This shows that I like to avoid conflict more than anything even though I got pretty close scores for most of the traits. 

Story of Stuff Notes

• extraction, production, distribution, consumption, disposal
• linear system on a finite planet
• missing factors like people (govt.,corp.)
• govt. is more concerned about corps than the people
• we r running out of resources
• if u dont own/ buy stuff u dont have value
• use chemicals to help with resources  emitting toxins into our lives
• human breast milk has the highest dose of toxins!
• people work with this stuff because they have no other choice
• many toxins pollute as byproducts
• even if we move the pollutants to other countries, it comes back! as wind pollution etc
• externalized costs  real cost of making things aren’t captured into price
• we have become a nation of consumers
• 1% of things americans buy are still used after 6 months
• our “ultimate purpose” is to produce more consumer goods
• planned obsolescence: made for the dumps
• perceived obsolescence: throw away things that are perfectly fine! (trends do this)
• Ads make us feel unhappy of what we already have
• Though we have more stuff, our national happiness is decreasing
• we have no leisure time or we just shop in that time!
• incineration: BAD because it mixes and releases toxins
• recycling is good! but not enough
• there are points of intervention!

Conservation Biology Project

Unit 6 Reflection

This unit was about the technologies in biology and their different applications in everyday life. Specifically, biotechnology is the study of how living things are changed to benefit mankind. The four applications of biotechnology are, industrial, environmental, agricultural, medical, and diagnostic research. Even though biotechnology benefits humans, many questions have been raised regarding this new version of biology breaking morals. We also learned about recombinant genes, and how they are used to mass produce and create bacteria with a desired protein extracted. This process involves extracting a gene using a restriction enzymes, inserting it into a plasmid, and mass producing the plasmid in order to create and extract the protein that is created from the gene. The three main technologies used in biotech are Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR), Gel Electrophoresis, and DNA Sequencing. The process of PCR is to denature strands of DNA with heat, add a primer to specific DNA sequences, and to use DNA polymerase to read the DNA and mass produce it, creating multiple copies for analysis. Gel electrophoresis is when DNA is placed into a gel and ran through with a an electrical current, which separates the DNA by size and allows for them to be more easily analyzed. DNA sequencing is used to determine the exact sequence of a gene and uses DNA polymerase and dyes to allow a computer to read it and analyze it. This was a information packed unit and I had a hard time understanding some of the concepts until we did the labs, which gave us hands on experience and allowed us to truly see how the technologies are used and their applications in real life, though in a smaller scale. 

We did many labs this unit that made the information stick in my mind and I have written lengthy lab write ups on them but now I will give a quick recap. The recombinant DNA lab modeled inserting the insulin gene into a plasmid that was resistant to tetracycline, and only the bacteria with the plasmid would survive. In the pGLO lab, we added a plasmid which contained GFP (Glowing Fluorescent Protein) to E.coli. We also did a candy electrophoresis lab in which we used electrophoresis to separate dyes from candy. 

I was really intrigued by GATTACA and the articles we read on biotech and I am interested to see if humans will take science that far and a little scared for it as well! As for my new year's goals, I have tried to keep with my vodcasts and assignments though I did slip up once with a virtual lab because I had to restart 3 times and I was so flustered by the site that I just gave up. But my personal goal is slowly getting there, I can dance for a long time without feeling tired and I am slowly gaining flexibility. 

pGLO Lab

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

1.

Obtain your team plates.  Observe your set of  “+pGLO” plates under room light and with UV light.  Record numbers of colonies and color of colonies. Fill in the table below. Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB 0 carpet carpet - pGLO LB/amp 0 none none + pGLO LB/amp 130 pale yellow/grey grey + pGLO LB/amp/ara 35 light yellow neon green glow

2.	What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have?
	First of all the transformed bacteria grew in colony size by a lot because we only used one colony to begin with. While some grew, other bacteria without the pGLO plasmid were killed and some colonies glowed because of the addition of Ampicillin with the pGLO.
3.	Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic.
	There were 35 bacteria on the +pGLO LB/amp/ara plate because 35 colonies were created, same with 130 bacteria on the +pGLO LB/amp plate because each colony grows from a bacteria.
4.	What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
	Arabinose causes the bacteria to glow.
5.	List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science.
	Detect Cancer: In animals, every cell that contains actin will glow green but the cells with cancer will glow red Transcription Reporter: placing GFP into a promoter will help track that organism’s gene expression Cell marker: GFP is used to see which cells have taken up a plasmid
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering.

Another example of genetic engineering is plants that can fight pollution. Trees developed by scientists and the University of Washington can absorb polluted water through their roots and clean it before water is used and released in other forms.