Photosynthesis and respiration

Photosynthesis is when plants take sunlight and go through a chemical reaction that makes sugar for them. the equation for photosynthesis is 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy ® C6H12O6 + 6O2 and respiration is the reverse of photosynthesis. The equation is C6H12O6 + 6O2 ® 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy. It's when sugar is broken down into water, carbon dioxide, and energy. The result of photosynthesis is sugar and oxygen. Humans breathe in the oxygen made by plants through photosynthesis and go through respiration. They Take the oxygen and adds carbon from their body and make carbon Dioxide, which makes the entire cycle start all over again. Photosynthesis is making energy and sugar from carbon dioxide, and respiration is the process of removing carbon dioxide by taking in oxygen.

Pku blog post

A Metabolic disorder is a genetic disease that results from when an enzyme in your body isn't functioning properly. Phenylketonuria is a recessive disease which means that to have it, the person must have inherited 2 copies of the defective gene. Phenylketonuria is a genetic disease that results from having a defective PAH Gene. If your PAH gene doesn't work right, you build up to much phenylalanine, which poisons the neurons in your brain. The symptoms are a smaller than normal head, lighter than normal skin, or lighter than normal hair. Most people realize they have it right after birth. If not treated, it can cause mental retardation, and can be tracked back to one single gene that is not sufficiently working on chromosome 12. Only 1 in about every 10,000 people have this genetic disorder.

Poison article

A danger kind of poison is the kind that effects you once you've been bitten by the black widow spider. When you're first bitten by the black widow spider, you feel something that's like a pin prick. Sometime within the next hour, the poison starts to spread from the bite area through out the rest of the body, and you start to feel a dull kind of pain. You start to suffer from many different side effects such as:

-Anxiety
-Difficulty breathing
-Headache
-High blood pressure
-Muscle weakness
-Nausea
-seizures

The venom works by immobilizing the muscles in your body. They use it so that their prey can't get away. The venom paralyzes the nervous system and and that's how it hurts people so badly. When the poison enters the body it targets the acetylcholine receptors, potassium channels and calcium channels.


http://www.calpoison.org/public/spiders.html

Photosynthesis Lab

Materials:
Bromoythmol Blue
aquarium snail
Water
Elodea
Aquarium Plant
container

Procedure:
1. Fill a container with 500 milliliters of bromothymol blue (BTB)

2. Mix 500 milliliters of water into the BTB

3. Now put an aquarium snail into the BTB

4. Add elodea to the water, let sit for 1 hour in a well lit room, and then notice the color of the BTB.

5. Remove the snail and replace it with an aquarium plant.

6. Let sit for 1 hour in a well lit room, then place it in a dark room with no light for 3 hours. Notice the color of the BTB.

Observations:
-Adding water to bromothymol blue is a blue-green.
Because CO2 mixed with water makes carbonic acid, and mixed with bromothymol blue, it changes to a blue-green color, because the acid mixes with the neutral Bromothymol blue, to change the pH to a lower number.

-If you add an aquarium snail to the blue-green water, the water turns yellow.
The acid from the snail changes the Ph to a lower number, and the blue-green liquid changes yellow when reacting with an acid.

-If you add water and elodea and an aquarium plant to bromothymol blue, it looks blue green in light
Green plants photosynthesis in light and always respire, therefore the aquarium plant takes in the carbon dioxide keeping closer to a neutral pH level.

-If you add water, elodea, and an aquarium snail to bromothymol blue, it looks blue green in light, but yellow in the dark.
Carbon dioxide and water produces sugar and oxygen when chlorophyll and sunlight are present, and when Bromothymol blue reacts with an acid it turns yellow, and changes back to blue green when it gets back to a normal pH Level.

Conclusion:
So after we experimented, we discovered that acidic substances change bromothymol blue yellow by changing the pH level and if the pH level is returned to a neutral number, then the color changes back to a blue green shade. We have discovered that plants photosynthesis in light, and constantly respire. Also, that carbon dioxide mixed with water, produces a carbonic acid.

Biochemistry

Cell structure

In a cell there are many different parts and each of them has a different function. The cell wall(found only in plant cells) are there to support plant cells. The cell wall's main purpose is support. It gives the cell the basic shape and helps to hold it together, however it has other functions such as protecting the cell, and maintaining the pressure in the cell. Next is the cell membrane which is found in both animal and plant cells. One thing I've learned from this past is the term "Selectively Permeable". This means that the cell membrane decides what is let into the cell, and what is let out. In the center of the cell, you find the Nucleus. The nucleus is like the brain of the cell. It sends information all throughout the cell, and regulates the cells activity. Inside the nucleus, you find the Nucleolus. The nucleolus is where the ribosomes are located, which produce protein and amino acids. Coming out of the nucleus, is the Endoplasmic reticulum. It transports stuff like protein and sends signals throughout the cell. The rough ER is full of ribosomes and protein and is part of the endoplasmic reticulum. The smooth ER is the other part of the Endoplasmic Reticulum. The mitochondria are outside of the nucleus of a cell, in the cytoplasm. Cytoplasm is basically food for the cell. The mitochondria break things down for energy. The vacuole is a spot in the cytoplasm that holds waste and water. The Chloroplast is something that is found only in plant cells, and holds chloroplast which is what makes plants green, and also makes them able to go through photosynthesis. The centrisomes are by the nucleus. They contain the centrioles, which are microtubes that are used during mitosis. Golgi Bodies are the part of the cells that recieve the protein from the other parts. The last part of a cell is the amyloplast, which stores starch and turns it to sugar for when the cell needs it. Those are most of the basic parts of a cell. There are still many other things i'd like to learn about cells though. I understand most of a cells functions but I can never remember the phases of mitosis of cells. That's one of the things I'd like to learn a little bit more about.

http://www.celldiagram.net/

pH lab

From this lab i learned quit a bit that i didn't know before. I learned that acids release hydrogen ions, and bases release hydroxide ions, and when they mix they make water. which is why when acids and bases mix, they get a pH level of somewhere around 7. 7 is the pH level of distilled water. The further down on the pH scale something gets, the more acidic it is. And the higher up means that it's a base. The lower the pH number means the more Hydrogen Ions are in it. And the higher means the more Hydroxide Ions. Even though i learned quite a bit from this lab there's still some i wish i know more about. For example i know that soda is acidic but i'm not sure how acidic. And I need to learn more about what it's okay for people to have and what exactly is too much of an acid or base for a human.

Article Review: Calories and Alzheimers

This article is all about how lower calorie consumption can not only slow down the effects of aging on your body, and how it may be able to prevent Alzheimer's Disease if you consume at least thirty percent less calories than normal. Many people who are trying this method of preventing the disease say that even though there is some weight loss involved, it's worth it to have a less chance of getting Alzheimer's. Eventually they want to invent a pill that levels out the calories in your body to prevent the disease. It was a pretty interesting article. I think it's surprising that Calories can have an effect on the likeliness of getting a disease. I learned quite a bit from it.

Boom!

Water properties

Double Blind, Placebo

A Clinical trial is when they run trials to see the result of certain medicine on certain diseases. Oh and I might want to mention that there are specific requirements to be a part of a clinical trial. In that last week i learned that the term "Double-blind" means that the neither the patient, or the person giving the medicine, knows what is being given to who. The ones who know are the people who actually prescribe and prepare it. And the drug is given at the same time each day, everyday, for however long the clinical trial will last. In clinical trials, they use things called Placebos. For example, if someone was sick and went to the hospital, if it was a disease that needed to be studied, then that person could sign up for a clinical trial, where they give that person a type of medicine and other people placebos to see the different effects the medicine has than the placebo. The placebo doesn't actually effect the patient. They are used as the control in the experiment. Over all it was something i found interesting, and something that i'm glad that i learned.