Onion Root Lab

Onion Root Tip lab

Purpose: What proportion of cells is within each phase in mitosis? Make a graph 

Guiding Question: Approximately how much time do cells spend in each phase of the cell cycle?

Hypothesis: We think it will take about the same time for each phase to spend in the cell cycle. 

Materials: Computer, Notebook + Pencils and erasers

Procedure: Perform the onion root tip simulation and tabulate the number of cells in each phase. Construct an appropriate graph using your data to present the relative time a cell spends in each phase of the cell cycle.

Current Events

 

Gene Discovery Suggests Way to Engineer Fast-Growing Plants

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101111121626.htm

 Science Daily, Nov. 11^th, 2010

Scientists have discovered how to make perennial grasses to be ‘more useful, which means that they could last for a long period of time and grow much faster than they normally do. Those scientists studied and learned the genes of many other plants until they found out the UPB1 gene (which makes the cells become less ‘reactive’ when the cell division occurs and also causes the plants to cultivate. After that, the scientists managed to get rid of the gene in order for the plants to grow much faster. But before they did this, the perennial grass took much longer to grow (about 2-3 years) which made farming last much longer and more frustrating. Thanks to this new discovery, farming today is obtaining cultures that can be used much faster, much easier and adaptable!

This extremely awesome discovery is really useful in a lot of ways. While I was reading it, I had learned how getting rid of one gene can change how a plant looks like, or how it can grow. I also learned that plants used for the production of biofuels can grow faster by genetic modifications, which is certainly good for the biofuel production, but also for eliminating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The scientists can investigate and research more on this topic, thus this could help make more foods and fuels, and also remove the toxic, bad pollution such as carbon dioxide. But I also think that if we were to get rid of the UPB1 gene it would have to be really carefully tested to make sure that there is no hazardous reaction or cell mutation. In general, managing the gene UPB1 could be very beneficial for the environment and farming.

Current Events

                                     

                                    LIVING IN FEAR: Tanzania's Albinos 

                               http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7518049.stm

                                  Article Updated: Monday, July, 21st, 2008

 

I found this article (among the ten others) when I did my research on the Genetic Diseases Project. It helped me a lot with my research on the project, and it had a lot of useful information that I could use for understanding this development. However, it also devastated and terrified me in a very, very negative way!!!
This article talks about the two totally opposite things considering albino people.  While in the civilized parts of the world such as America and Canada, people are trying to help albino patients to improve their life conditions, in another, less developed part of the world, the African country Tanzania, the albinos practically have no life because they live in fear everyday! This is because other people (or more often gangs), are threatening to kill and murder them for their appearances- they sell their body parts (such as: legs, arms, hair or head) thinking that the person wearing it will get rich and lucky. Sorcery and the occult is maintaining very strong in this undeveloped  part of the world, so, some witchdoctors are using this to convince the other people that albinos’ peculiar features are 'magical' which is, from my perspective, totally unbelievable. ISN'T THAT HORRIBLE? 

According to the New York Times, Albino people have been murdered and mutilated because of how they look. Some Albinos have snow- white hair, having no or little pigment in their eyes. In Africa, where most people are black, the albino men look very 'different'- and this is the reason why they are tortured or often murdered. According to reports by the BBC News, a seven month old albino baby, a farmer with two children, and a child (who was killed by his own father) were found dead because of their appearance which belongs to this genetic disorder. In addition to this article, sorcery is very strong in Tanzania, so the Albinos are often ostracized by the rest of their family members. This makes them even more vulnerable to gangs who are just wrecking them! In only one year (2008), about 27 people were killed! Police are now trying to help them, but, most often they can’t protect most of the people that are living in the rural, undeveloped part of the country, so the sad story continues…

This article was gruesome and terrifying when I read it!!! I was very surprised when I read how the Albino people are treated so horribly- it's not their fault they have that inherited genetic disease, but in the poor world filled with occultism and bad magic, life is less worth than surviving!

Amino Acids & Interesting Facts!

                                                                           WOW!

Now that I’ve finished with posting the previous blog, I was wondering which the essential amino acids are, so I found some interesting facts which could be helpful for me and for others to read!

So, as we already said, an amino acid is a basic unit of proteins-without them, proteins cannot be synthesized properly. Amino acids regarded as essential are essential because our body cannot create them, which makes them essential to be included in someone's diet in order to obtain them (The body cannot make these amino acids, they must come from food or amino acid supplements.) They are given in the table below. (These are the values that I took from the site http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/food/amino-acids-summary.htm)

I have also found another table that gives different values for a daily intake- which is recommended by World Health Organization (WHO).

If any of these amino acids would be missing, this would be a limiting factor in protein synthesis, so, although we can synthesize some of these amino acids from other substrates, we should intake them either through food or supplements!

Since amino acids are very important for maintaining good health, you should learn as much as you can about them! AND BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU’RE EATING, FOLKS!

This is something I’ve found interesting to read:

Protein from animal sources, such as meat and milk, is called complete, because it contains all nine of the essential amino acids. Most vegetable protein is considered incomplete because it lacks one or more of the essential amino acids. This can be a concern for someone who doesn't eat meat or milk products. But people who eat a vegetarian diet can still get all their essential amino acids by eating a wide variety of protein-rich vegetable foods.For instance, you can't get all the amino acids you need from peanuts alone, but if you have peanut butter on whole-grain bread, you're set. Likewise, red beans won't give you everything you need, but red beans and rice will do the trick.

The good news is that you don't have to eat all the essential amino acids in every meal. As long as you have a variety of protein sources throughout the day, your body will grab what it needs from each meal (source http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/protein.html#)

(This is a helpful site to learn about genetics: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/ )

Cracking the Codes of Life - Movie

                                                     
CRACKING THE CODES OF LIFE.

Have you ever wondered where DNA is located in the world? DNA is everywhere. Well, more specifically, in every living organism. DNA are basic molecules that guides the creation of life. Some believe it comes from space- others, well, they believe it came on earth a long time ago. DNA is said to be in almost every cell in the body. But what is so special about DNA that other molecules on earth don't have? There it is! A lightbulb came right on top of my head! DNA can replicate itself! DNA separates to form two new molecules. The reason it replicates itself because it needs to reproduce- in order to do that, the cell must copy and paste it's genetic information. Our body is constantly replacing old, dead cells with new cells. For the cell division to occur, the DNA replication must also occur. To summarize, without the DNA replication, we wouldn't exist!!

So,  DNA isn't just three letters. There is much much more than that. There are four letters in DNA alphabet: G, C, T and A (Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine, and Adenine). Guanine and Cytosine always go together, and Thymine and Adenine always go together. These are called nucleotides. If even the smallest letter of DNA (from all the 3 billion letters there are) in the baby's body goes wrong, he/she can become sick. This rarely occurs- but mostly because of genetic conditions (Maybe the baby's parents or grandfather/grandmother was sick as well.)

In class, we drew a diagram of what DNA's cycle looks like. It is shown in the picture below.

As you can see, after DNA and GENE comes PROTEIN. Proteins are 3 - Dimensional, which is why we are as well. Think of tangles of ribbon = in any shape. The shape defines what it does and tells others what it does. A protein is our destiny, as Craig Venter says from "Cracking the Codes of Life".

We, as humans, have 20 different amino acids in our body. The human body only makes 12/20. This is why we need to have a lot of protein in our bodies. If we run out of Amino Acids, we wouldn't live. In order to life, at least 8 essential amino acids must be gained in our diet.

That is what I learned from the movie that we watched in class!

Gattaca Movie Reflection

                                                                     

                                           GATTACA

Did you ever feel like you are weaker than someone who is stronger than you? The movie, Gattaca, is based on a young man, Vincent, who had diseases and genetic health problems that could occur in a child due to his parent’s genes.  Vincent, however, had a dream. And he would do anything to accomplish this dream. He dreamt to go to space.
At the beginning of the movie, I thought that this film would be just another normal movie that won't make me have a strong impression on, or won't even help me understand the unit. But I have learned a lot, and it certainly taught me almost everything I needed to know about genetics including DNA samples, hair samples, genes, traits, heredity, etc. The movie, Gattaca, is about a young, genetically inferior person who tries to become a genetically superior and strong person in order to fullfill his dreams to fly to space. In order to succeed this mission, he found a friend who was genetically strong and stable, Jerome Morrow,  and he borrowed his genes throughout the whole movie. At the end, he succeeded without anybody knowing about the secret. Throughout the movie, I have learned that even a tiny piece of hair can tell you who a certain person is. I also didn't know that the genes of a man can be classified into whether or not he is strong or weak. What most interested me though, was how Vincent was able to put Jerome's skin on his own skin. Did he use some kind of glue? Anyway, All in all, this was one of the best movies I watched about science. I certainly hope we get to see Jurassic Park as well.

Current Event 5

DNA Uncovers One of the World’s Rarest Birds

                                                                        Stephen A. Murphy
                                                                            Nov. 23^rd, 2010

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101123102403.htm

Researchers at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy have discovered the difference between Eastern and Western Parrots by testing the Parrot’s DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Scientists from this institution have done a lot of DNA Analysis including both eastern and western ground parrots. By analyzing the samples from the museum collections that were more than 160 years old, they have found out that there are high differences among them, so those western ground parrots could be treated as new species Pezoporus Flaviventris. As a result, scientists figured out that since there are two different types of parrots, one of them is an endangered species- the western ground parrot. This bird is one of the most infrequent parrots in the world, and since there is only little amounts of western parrots left in the world (less than 110 birds is living in the world), they should be protected, since their number has rapidly decreased in the last 20 years (for ex. by extinction by different predators such as cats). This discovery was extremely important, because now we can discover newer species by the new technology we use. I learned that even the smallest change in an animal’s genetic code could make it a totally different species. To me, this article was very interesting specifically because I got to hear the good news about saving these animals. But, I’m wondering what would happen if these differences were observed after losing these rare 110 birds, and how many of the world’s biodiversity is already lost.