Cellular Respiration Animation and Enactment!!!

This week, Megan, Mayze and I worked on a video project about the steps involved in cellular respiration including glycolysis, fermentation, the krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain.  The video below is the final product of our hard work! We had so much fun making it! I hope you enjoy it!!!

The KREBS CYCLE! A Story of What Happens...

Here is a SUPER COOL sketch fu on what happens in the Krebs Cycle... Check it out!!!

Click here to see it large...

GLYCOLYSIS! A Story of What Happens...

In cellular respiration, there are three parts.  The first of these is called Glycolysis. Check out the Sketch-Fu below to see an INTENSE explanation of how it happens!

To see this larger on Sketchfu.com, click here!

Stickiness of Gecko's Feet

Everybody knows that gecko’s have sticky feet. This is one of the coolest facts about them. They are able to stick and attack or cling to a surface no matter how smooth and unstuck as many times as they want to without loosing their stickiness. This is because their feet are coated in setae. These are microscopic hairs in the shape of a spatula. The reason that their stick never runs out is because the setae clean themselves. This is all done without the use of any fluid adhesives, which Kellar Autumn discovered in 2002. Now, new research from Autumn is showing us that geckos’ feet can be even sticker when they are in a humid environment. They are able to stick to surfaces better because of microscopic water droplets in between the setae and the surface they are attaching to. Capillary action causes the water to adhere to the setae, in turn, softening their feet. This is why the humid environment around geckos can cause a stickier surface on their feet. In his research, Autumn and his fellow scientists gathered samples of the setae and imitated their movement with a “robotoe” machine so it was as it would be on a live gecko. As they tested this in different environments, at different speeds and with different surfaces to attach to, they still couldn’t figure out why humidity increases the stickiness of the setae. It was a graduate student, Michael Proswe, who finally thought he saw a cause of this increase. He realized that the substance that makes up setae, keratain, gets softer in humid environments, he thought to measure the softness of the setae in different conditions. Another scientist, Jonathan Puthoff, then proved using a mathematical model that softness is related to the stickiness of the setae. This showed that instead of what Kellar had predicted, the increased attachment to surfaces was caused by an increase in softness in the setae.

The video below talks about how the setae on gecko's feet work.

The Diseased La Loma Tree Frog - Extinction or Not

More and more frogs are becoming extinct around the world every day while other frogs are continuously added to the extensive lists of endangered species. One of these species is a tree frog called the La Loma tree frog or Hyloscirtus Colymba. One of the most prominent causes of this is a new disease known as chytridiomycosis, which is rapidly spreading throughout this species of frog. Thankfully, the La Loma tree frog may not become extinct yet because of some as successful scientists in Panama. The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARCP) recently began breeding this frog despite being tough to care for when raised in captivity. Not a lot of information was known about the care of these frogs so it was difficult to do this but after many attempts, these biologists have succeeded. One biologist that worked with these scientists on the project was Brian Gratwicke from the Smithsonian National Zoo. He used his extensive knowledge of amphibians to work with them to learn about the care of this frog. At the moment there are 28 La Loma frogs residing at the Summit Municipal Park near Panama City along with four tadpoles. These animals are constantly monitored for details of care for future breeding. Breeding is not the only effort being made by the biologists in Panama; they also hope to find a cure to this disease so that they may one day release these frogs into the wild but for now they will keep them protected. These scientists are doing their best to save as many species of frogs as they can and they aim to breed at leas 20 additional frog species in Panama. This will make a small but important dent in the 33% of amphibians in the world that are endangered. The information gained by these scientists will also help to breed and in the end save many other important forest animals from extinction.

You can also check out this cool Prezi about a La Loma tree frog named Phillip.

The La Loma Tree Frog on Prezi

 Here is a video with Brian Gatwicke about his work with amphibian conservation.

Osmoregulation in Marine Iguanas

Marine iguanas like the one to the right often live in the Galapagos Islands spending much of their time in a marine environment.  They therefore are hypertonic to their surroundings so when they consume salt water, they have too high a concentration of salt inside them.  They also gain salt through their main food source, algae in seaweed.   They need isotonic conditions where they have the right concentration of each substance. Unlike some animals they cannot produce a concentrated urine containing salt to let them conserve water and relieve them of all the sodium chloride inside them.  Instead they have adapted to their environment allowing them to regulate the high concentrations of salt.  The primary adaptation that lets them do this involves glads at the top of their heads, above their eyes and noses.  These glands excrete sodium chloride decreasing the concentration of it inside them and releasing salt into the outside environment.  Another gland sorts the salt from the food and water consumed by the iguanas and sends it to the excretion gland.  When they "sneeze" out the salt through their glands, it often lands on the end of their snouts and dries there forming a gross white crust.  This salt sneezing allows marine iguanas to eat and drink what they do without gathering a high sodium chloride concentration inside their bodies.  This regulatory adaptation is what allows them to live in a marine environment because without these excretion glands, a high concentration of salt would build up in the iguanas bodies causing them troubles and maybe even bringing about death.

Below, there are several videos showing marine iguanas using the excretion glands to get rid of salt. 







Research Sites:
- http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3400700323.html
- http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/zoology/animalphysiology/osmoregulation/osmoregulation.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_iguanas
- http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/GalapagosWWW/MarineIguanas.html

The Upper School as a Eukaryotic Cell

To see this glog in a separate window please click here!

Helicobacter Pylori Bacteria

A bacterium of helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori is kind of bacteria that is harmful to humans.  It is most often found in the stomach on the mucus walls specifically in the antrum and when present, it can cause stomach pains and inflammation of the stomach lining which can lead to ulcers and stomach cancer.  It is usually about 3 micrometers long and in the picture to the right and below, you can see that it is a bacillus bacteria because of its rod shape.  You can also see the flagella coming off the end.  These help the bacteria to move through liquids like lumen in the stomach. However, lumen is acidic and helicobacter pylori survives better in a neutral chemical so when it senses lumen, it swims away to a more neutral part of the stomach.  Ulcers develop in one out of every six people that are infected by the bacteria.  There are several tests that can be used to detect if the bacteria have infected someone.  Once someone is infected by helicobacter pylori it is difficult to kill off the bacteria.  This is because when that person is given antibiotics, the bacteria often develops an immunity to the medicine.  To help avoid this, several antibiotics are often taken at once to decrease the probability of the bacteria developing an immunity.  Another way to get rid of this harmful bacteria is by way of another kind of bacteria,lactobacillus casei.  This bacteria is also found in the stomach near where helicobacter pylori is found and can help to fight against it.

A bacterium of helicobacter pylori

 Sources:
 https://health.google.com/health/ref/Helicobacter+pylori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori
http://www.medicinenet.com/helicobacter_pylori/article.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_casei
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13896396

Image Sources:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2005/press.html
http://i.rosaceans.com/archives/497
http://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/Helicobacter_pylori__The_Bacteria_that_Cause_Ulcers_a71.html

Macromolecules Lab Reflection

In a lab that I completed in biology, I tested for four macromolecules, in a onion while other groups tested for these same macromolecules in other substances.  These four macromolecules were proteins, glucose, starch, and lipids.  To test for each one we used different reagent tests to show if the macromolecules were present or not.  For testing for proteins we used a bright blue biuret solution.  Since the solution turned brown when it was combined with the onion, that meant that there was a presence of proteins.  With the benedict solution, there was glucose if the solution turned a green to orange color.  In the linked picture you can see an example of the color change.  We used a lugols iodine solution to detect starch and rubbed the onion on brown paper to detect lipids.  Me and my partner determined that onions do contain protein and glucose, but starch and lipid macromolecules are not present.  I liked this lab because it was fun preforming each test and seeing if the macromolecules are present or not. Although, these results were a little different from the predictions that we made, I think they were accurate for the most part.  Some of the results to other people's substances surprised me.  For instance, I thought that the lemon would probably have at least one of the four but it ended up having none.  Some were obvious like it was apparent that the strawberry would have glucose because it is sugary and a that potato would have starch.

Nucleic Acids (Jing)

This is a Jing presentation I made about Nucleic Acids.

The Properties of Water

Water has several properties that make it different from other compounds.

Polarity - Water molecules are made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms which are bonded together by a polar covalent bond.  What a covalent bond means in this case is that electrons are being shared between one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms.  It is known as a polar bond because the oxygen atom is larger than the hydrogen atoms so it's using a little bit more of the shared electrons.  This makes the oxygen atom slightly negatively charged and the hydrogen atoms slightly positively charged.

Cohesion - Water molecules are attracted to other water molecules and they often form hydrogen bonds between each other.  This attraction is called cohesion.  In a hydrogen bond, the slightly positively charged hydrogen atoms in one water molecule bond with the slightly negatively charged oxygen atoms from different molecules.  They bond together because they are oppositely charged.  This cohesion is why water droplets form.

Adhesion -  Water molecules are not only attracted to each other but also to the molecules of other compounds.  For example when a straw is placed in a glass of water, the water will rise up the straw above the level of the water in the glass.  This is because the water molecules on the inside edge of the straw are attracted to the straw molecules and then other water molecules come along because of cohesion and their hydrogen bonds.

Surface Tension - At the surface of water (and throughout it) the molecules form hydrogen bonds and adhere to each other.  In order to break these bonds, energy is required so unless energy is applied, then the hydrogen bonds will remain intact.  For instance, when a glass is filled to the brim with water and a little bit more is added it wont spill over the edge because there isnt enough energy being applied.  Another example involves a paper clip.  Normally a paper clip would sink in water but if placed evenly on the surface it will remain at the top.  This is because the paper clip is light enough to not have enough pressure or energy to pierce the strong surface tension caused by adhesion.

Specific Heat - This is the amount of energy required to heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance up 1˚C.  Water has a particularly high specific heat so this means that it takes a long time for it to heat up or cool down.  This is why pools, lakes and the ocean are good ways to cool off on hot days because the water doesnt have enough time to get really warm as it sits in the sun.  This also why the time of year when oceans are hottest is the fall because during the summer they slowly heated up and by the fall they haven't cooled down yet and are very slowly loosing heat.

Ionization - This is when water molecules decompose into ions.  The polar covelent bond between two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom splits into a positively charged hydrogen ion and a negatively charged  hydrogen and oxygen ion.  This ionization process is constantly happening to water as is the process of the ions bonding back into molecules.

pH - Based on the ionization of water, there are the same amount of positively charged hydrogen ions as negatively charged  hydrogen and oxygen ions, therefore water has a completely neutral density of seven and is neither acidic or basic.

Universal Solvent - The fact that water is constantly ionizing makes water a very good solvent in which many substances will dissolve because when a compound is placed in water the strong ions (decomposed molecules) are able to decompose the atoms of the molecules of the solute.

States or Phases - Water is one of the few substances that can be found in all three states or phases in the natural world (without man-made technology).

Density - The density of water in its liquid state is one gram per milliliter.  The density of most substances (maybe all) in solid form is more than the density in liquid form.  Unusually, water has a lesser density when it is in its solid than in liquid form because when it changes to a solid the polar covalent bonds stabilize and spread out into lattice bonds.  The formation of the molecules in lattice bonds when water is in solid form is shown to the right in the picture above while on the left, the molecule formation of water in liquid form is shown. This means that with the same mass, a sample of water takes up more space in solid form than in liquid form.  Because water has a lesser density in solid form than in liquid form, solid water (ice) floats on liquid water.

Biology Begins!

When I first heard that I was going to be taking biology, I thought that we were going to be learning about animal’s insides.  Now that school has begun, I know that it’s a bit different but I am still very excited about the things that we are going to learn this year.  It is going to be interesting to learn about what cells, genes, and molecules do and the ways they make our bodies work.  Genes sound especially fascinating and I think it would be cool to know how they work.  I also am excited to learn about how new information that is being discovered about these things is helping to prevent and treat diseases.  I think that web tools are going to be very helpful in learning and discussing this information.  Glogster is a fantastic fun-to-use tool that I think will be very useful because it allows one to create a poster that may include videos and other web content.  It is a great way to show a variety of formats of information of a subject.  This course sounds very interesting and I can’t wait to get started.