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.