Cellular Respiration Song: Better Than Revenge

For chapter 3, instead of having a test, we had to create projects explaining the process of Glycolysis, the Krebs Cycle, and the Electron Transport Chain. For the project my partner, Sara, and I decided to make a song. The lyrics go to the beat of Better Than Revenge by Taylor Swift. We also decided to make a power point and Jing the song over it so the viewers will have a better understanding of what we are singing about. In class we did it live because the quality of the recording isn't top-notch. Even so, I hope you still enjoy it! We had a lot of fun writing the lyrics and singing the song!
(The lyrics are posted below if you want to follow along).



Here are the lyrics so you can follow along.

Line 1-

So, I started as a glucose in glycolysis, two ATP came in and gave me their phosphates. I was broken down into PGALS and re-arranged into Pyruvate,  created 4 ATP and 4 NADH.

I was in cytosol, lost a carbon became an acetate. Co-enzyme A brought me into the mitochondria, he left me to join with 4 carbons and become a citrate, this is the beginning of the Krebs Cycle.

Chorus-

I was a glucose I will be broken down into ATP, woah,

My body will use this ATP for energy, woah,

Energy is great, we use it all the time for our bodies to move,

Our bodies are the best, for doing, cellular respiration.

Line 2-

We enter the Krebs Cycle as an acetyl CoA, we were joined by 4 carbons and became a citrate, we lost a carbon and created NADH, we are now a five carbon ketoglutarate.

We will lose another carbon, create NADH, and ATP, now we are a four carbon fumerate.

During re-arrangement become oxiloacetate, create NADH and FADH2.

REPEAT PER PYRUVATE. 

Chorus-

I was a glucose I will be broken down into ATP, woah,

My body will use this ATP for energy, woah,

Energy is great, we use it all the time for our bodies to move,

Our bodies are the best, for doing, cellular respiration.

Line 3-

Use the electrons from previous energy carriers, they go through the cytochromes and pump H+ ions into the inter membrane the high concentration pushes them back into the matrix through the ATP synthase.

Chorus-

I was a glucose I will be broken down into ATP, woah,

My body will use this ATP for energy, woah,

Energy is great, we use it all the time for our bodies to move,

Our bodies are the best, for doing, cellular respiration.

Line 4-

Now I have created 32 ATP using the electron transport system. The NADH and FADH2 gave me their electrons, and the cytochromes brought them through the system. In the end they bonded with oxygen and created water. While chemiosmosis gave me ATP, cellular respiration is the best for giving me energy. 

Glycolysis

Here is my sketchfu on Glycolysis! Enjoy!



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The Krebs Cycle

Here is my sketchfu on The Krebs Cycle!! Enjoy.
(p.s. please ignore the misspelling of cellular respiration)



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Cybertherapy: "Visual Humans, Real Therapy"

Most everyone has seen a recent movie called Avatar, where people go into a world and become funky blue avatars. However, most people did not know that therapists have been using avatars in therapy for the past ten years. The therapists put people in real life situations, using avatars, to help them get over their fears or phobias. The people can inhabit the avatars as themselves. They can talk to people, which are avatars on a screen; or they can talk to one avatar on a computer whom replaces an actual person as a therapist.

When using the avatars the person knows they are not in a real situation. However, being able to practice and experience a real life situation can be very helpful. The person knows that the worst won't happen, their therapist is there incase he or she freaks out, and the situation feels real. People are drawn to whatever their problem is. If someone is an alcoholic, they will be drawn to a visual bar. If a person is socially awkward then a question by a visual person will scare them. The therapists can help their patients work through whatever triggers their problem. The experiences they have in the visual world, and the things they learn there, carry over into their real lives.

The therapists can control the experience and then work on the response.

A type of cybertherapy is when patients talk to a visual therapist about social issues. The person on the screen is clearly not real. However, he or she has all the qualities a good therapist has. The "therapist" will keep eye contact with whomever they are talking to, and are empathetic to each persons social issues. Talking to this virtual human can be very helpful because studies have shown that people with social anxiety open up more with a visual therapist than they did with real life therapists speaking to them through a computer screen.

There are lots of other methods for lots of other problems. Problems such as social anxiety, returning from war, or children with autism. Scientists are looking for ways to fix these problems using cybertherapy. So far the results have been good. I believe this could be a great way to cure the mental mindset of people with the problems written above, and be a cure for people with dangerous mental mindsets. People with anorexia, bulimia, and others could benefit a lot from cybertherapy. I have great faith that cybertherapy will advance as research continues, and that it will be a great success.

How and Why Do We Cry?

Why Do We Cry? on Prezi

Osmoregulation of Freshwater Fish

Freshwater fish are hypertonic to their water environment, meaning water from the outside diffuses into them through their gills. The gills are permeable to water, but they are also permeable to waste products. Allowing the fish to expel respiratory gasses, ammonia, and ions.

The water flows in through the gills in favor of the osmotic pressure in the blood; while sodium and chloride ions diffuse out of the fishes system into the external environment. These fish have to use energy to regulate the water increase and ion decrease of their bodies.

The fish have special lamellae (dictionary.com: a thin layer, membrane, scale, or platelike tissue or part) in their gills that contain sodium and chloride enzymes. These special enzymes use energy to push sodium and chloride ions up their concentration gradient to keep higher concentration in the fishes body.

The kidneys regulate the large amount of water intake by producing a lot of dilute urine. Even though the kidneys are very helpful in maintaining the high amount of water intake, a lot of salt is lost through the urine and the gills.

It is very important for freshwater fish to have low stress levels and proper nutrition; this keeps them healthy and reduces damage to kidneys. Kidney damage through bacterial infection is detrimental to a fishes life.

Some examples of fish who strive in their native environment are Angelfish and Discus. These two fish have very efficient osmoregulatory systems because of the type of water in the Amazon River Basin. However, when these fish feel stressed their systems are much more likely to fail.

For more in depth detail on all of this click here.

The Organelles That Make Up a Cell in Comparison to My Soccer Team

Our project, this week, was to make a glogster using people, or things in our life as the organelles of a cell to explain each organelles function. I decided to use my soccer team as the different organelles. The organelles that I think are most like the girls on my team is the nucleus, nucleolus, ribosomes, lysosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, vesicles, golgi apparatus, cytoskeleton, and the cell membrane. We were only supposed to chose eight organelles, and I didn't realize until now that I have nine, so I'm sorry about that.

Also, the words in the glog link to other glogs explaining the reason I chose certain people for certain organelles. Just a warning, the links do not go directly over the words, so it can get a little confusing. However, do not give up hope, the link you are looking for is there. It may just take some extra effort to put the mouse in the correct spot.


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Clostridium botulinum

Clostridium botulinum is a bacillus (rod-shaped) bacteria. The C. botulinum spores resist heat which is how they survive in improperly canned foods. The bacteria is usually found in soil and low-oxygenated areas.  




Clostridium botulinum is a bad bacteria that causes muscle paralysis. C. botulinum causes a disease called Botulism. Botulism is a rare but serious disease that leaves few survivors. There are three main types of Botulism: infant botulism, foodborne botulism, and wound botulism.

Infant Botulism is caused by ingesting C. botulinum spores which begin to grow in our intestines while producing toxins. Infant Botulism is mainly found in children three months old or younger. C. botulinum spores are mainly found in the environment and bee honey. The infant mortality rate of Botulism is less than 1%. There are about 154 cases of Botulism, in the US, each year; about 75% of the cases are in infants, or 71 children are infected with it. 


Foodborne Botulism happens when C. botulinum produces toxins in home-made or improperly canned goods. There are about 24 foodborne botulism cases in the USA with a 5-10% mortality rate.

Wound Botulism is when C. botulinum spores enter open wounds. This happens because the bacteria can survive in "soil and marine sediment." Wound botulism is very rare, there are only 3 cases of it in the US per year. However, it has a 15-17% mortality rate.


The reason clostridium botulinum causes muscle paralysis is because the bacteria produces neurotoxins (a toxin that affects nerve cells). In botulism the bacteria starts by first paralyzing the muscles in the face, and will later spread to paralyze the limbs. In severe cases of Botulism the bacteria can paralyze the breathing muscles causing respiratory failure. That is how people die from the infection.


Some of the symptoms of Botulism are:

Source of photo + more information on Botulism
More Information on Botulism

Sources:

http://www.fda.gov/food/foodsafety/foodborneillness/foodborneillnessfoodbornepathogensnaturaltoxins/badbugbook/ucm070000.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_botulinum

http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2008/strandwi_phil/images/wound_botulism.jpg

http://www.roanoke.com/news/images/1115_botulism_400x265.gif

http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/5/6/2/4/2/ar119481994124265.JPG

Macromolecules Lab Reflection

Recently we did a lab in science to determine which compounds (protein, lipids, starch, and glucose) are in the food we eat. Starch is a energizing sugar found in plants, lipids are fats, glucose is a basic sugar, and proteins help make up cell membranes.

Each group received a food to run each compound test on. My partner was Sara, and our food was an apple.

To start with, we cut the apple up into small pieces. Then we ran the four different tests on about 5 mL of our food in different test tubes. To figure out if there was starch in our food we added 5 drops of Lugols iodine solution to one test tube (with 5 ml of apple). To find protein we added five drops of Biuret solution to another test tube (with 5 ml of apple) . To determine if there are lipids in our food we had to rub our apple on a piece of paper, hang the paper up, leave it over night to dry, and observe the paper in the morning. If there was a shiny (greasy) gleam on the paper, then the food has lipids in it. The test we did to determine if there is glucose in our apple was to add 3 mL of Benedict's solution to a test tube (with 5 ml of apple); put the test tube in a boiling water bath and observe the test tube for about five minutes.

Apples have glucose and starch in them, but they don't have lipids or protein. The other foods that were tested are egg yolk, egg white, potato, onion, strawberry, and lemon. Here is a chart of the results of the tests.

I thought this lab was really interesting. The lab taught me what type of substances are in the food I eat. I also thought that apples had protein in them; but after doing the protein test I learned that there isn't protein in apples. I also thought that lemons would have glucose in them because they are so sweet, but according to the chart (which could be wrong), they don't have glucose. I don't know for sure if that is correct, because other groups could have made any type of experimental error. However, until I know that the answer on the chart is wrong, I believe that lemons don't have glucose.

Some other results surprised me, but i'm happy that I wasn't certain about all of the test results. The lab helped me to better understand the four different compounds we tested for, which helped me on my test. Also, the lab helped me understand food and helped my ability to realize what is in certain foods.

Carbohydrates

This is my Jing project on Carbohydrates.

The Extraordinary Properties of Water

Water is an incredible element that most of us take for granted. I know I have never once stopped to think about all the things that make up water, or about all the things that make water unique. From my research I have found that their are eight properties of water.

1) The elements that make up water have a polar covalent bond, meaning each side has a different charge; one side has a more positive charge, the other a more negative. The reason this happens is because the oxygen atoms are bigger and take more of their fare share of electrons from the hydrogen atoms. Since the hydrogen atoms have less electrons they tend to be positive; the oxygen has more electrons and tends to be negative.

2) Water is cohesive and adhesive. Cohesion is when water sticks to itself. Cohesion (and surface tension) is the reason we have raindrops, because the water is cohesive it tries to stick together and forms a curved "drop."

Adhesion is when water sticks to other things. Adhesion is the reason we have Hydrogen Bonds. The positively charged hydrogen atoms, in one molecule of water, are attracted to the negatively charged oxygen atoms in another molecule of water, forming Hydrogen Bonds. 

3) Have you ever wondered why you get hurt when you jump into a pool of water from a great height? The reason is because of surface tension. The hydrogen bonds in water pull on each other, causing a tightness across the surface of the water. When you break through that tightness you are breaking the hydrogen bonds, and taking away the surface tension. Surface tension allows things to, not exactly float, but sit on the surface of the water.

http://www.liv.ac.uk/researchintelligence/images/water_strider.jpg

4) Water has a capillary action. Lets say you have water in a straw, and it sits in the straw above the surface level of the rest of the water. The reason that it does this is because of adhesion, the molecules stick to the sides of the straw allowing the water to "climb up."

5) Water has a specific heat. Specific heat is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 g of a substance     1°C. It is hard to increase the temperature of water because water has a high specific heat. The Hydrogen    Bonds are bound really tightly, so a ton of energy is needed to break them.  

6) Water is a universal solvent; meaning almost anything is soluble in water. The polar molecules in the water attract with polar molecules in the substances being dissolved. The polar molecules with positive charges will bond with the positively charges part of the water molecule; while the polar molecules with negative charges will bond with the negatively charged part of the water molecule. Polar molecules, like the ones in water, rarely, if ever, mix with a non-polar substance such as: oil. 

7) Water has it's own density of 1 g/ml. If a  substance is denser than water it will sink in water; if a substance is less dense than water it will float in water. The density of water is special because the solid form of water (ice) is less dense than liquid water. The reason for this is because the hydrogen bonds in the water keep the molecules close together from the start, once the water freezes the bonds get closer. 

8) Water has a buoyant force. A buoyant force is the opposite of gravity, it actually pushes objects upward, making the objects feel lighter than they actually are. For example, if you are in a pool with someone twice your size and weight, you can easily hold them baby style because the buoyant force is pushing them up; if you were on land, however, you would drop them/they would crush you because gravity is pushing them down.      

Prologue to Biology

For a long time I didn't know what biology meant; but after reading the prologue to this course, I have a much better understanding of what science class will be like this year.

I am excited to learn about, and better understand, many things such as: DNA, AIDS, cancer cells, how people get diseases, and evolution. All of these topics, and many more, interest me greatly; if Biology is what I think it is, then I'm sure I will know much more about each subject by the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to this class because everything I read about in the prologue intrigued me.

I hope this class will not only teach me new things, but also help me develop skills in note taking, being independent in my work, blogging, vocabulary, and much more.

I think technology will benefit my learning experience in many ways. By going online I will be able to learn more about the different topics we cover in Biology; during research my confidence at working independently will grow and I will be able to practice taking notes without someone dictating them to me. Over all, technology will be a very useful tool in my learning experience.