Bryan Stevenson's Ted Talk on Injustice: My Views

        Last thursday in my biology class we watched a Ted Talk on injustice by Bryan Stevenson. This is one of the best Ted Talks I have seen because this one truly opened my eyes to the problems with our legal system. Up until now, as a citizen of the United States, I very naively trusted that our legal system was fair and made sense. But, after listening to Bryan Stevenson and thinking about all the statistics and averages he gave us on the mistreatment of African Americans and and minorities in general, I was disgusted. 

       To think that one out of everyone nine people put on death row is exonerated is horrifying. Bryan also brought up another disturbing point; that the United States is the only country in the world that sentences 13-year olds to die in prison. A thirteen year old is a child. Does it make sense to essentially take the freedom of a person for his/her entire lifetime for a mistake that they made when they were a child? Also, the fact that in some states your right to vote can be taken away from you, due to a specific criminal record, is alarming. 

      These facts brought to my attention by Mr. Stevenson show me that there are some serious issues with our legal system that must not be ignored. This is not something to be ignored nor accepted. This is something that must change. The United States has always been this great figure of power and freedom yet are we so free? The points brought up by Mr. Stevenson should make us all ponder that question. 

Ted Talk by Bryan Stevenson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tOp7OxyQ8 

Blood Pressure/ Heartbeat Rate Lab Experiment

        A few days ago during science class, the class broke up into groups to do an experiment. The experiment involved testing one's heartbeat rate after undergoing different levels of exercise. My group which included myself and two of my buddies tested our heartbeat rates after resting, mild exercise, moderate exercise, and rigorous exercise. Mild exercise was 10 squats, moderate exercise was 20 push-ups, and rigorous exercise was sprinting around our campus. This experiment was not only the most exercise I had received in months (which is pretty sad) but it was also a lot of fun. Anyway, we used a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter) that used an ipad or iphone as the monitor which was pretty awesome. This blood pressure meter also showed our BPM or heartbeats per minute (which essentially shows us our heartbeat rate). The app is called Withings, so definitely check it out. Pretty much what we found was that one’s heart rate increases with more and more rigorous forms of exercise. This could possibly be because your muscles need more oxygen the more they are exerted. Thus, your heart has to pump faster in order to deliver more blood (with oxygen) to your muscles. We also noticed that different people have different heartbeat rates after each exercise and also different recovery times. The different recovery times could be the result of numerous things such as different body types, different diets, different exercise habits....etc. We also recorded our blood pressure during the different exercises and when resting. In general, our blood pressures increased the more we exerted ourselves possibly because of the large amounts of blood that is traveling through the blood vessels during exercise. A table with our results can be seen below along with a graph representing our data.

Strawberry DNA Extraction Lab

Yesterday, my science class took part in a strawberry DNA extraction lab. Upon hearing that we were doing this lab I was struck with awe. How could a bunch of high school students in a biology class remove the DNA from an organism? Where we going to use complicated scientific expensive equipment? The answer was no, well unless you consider a Ziplock bag, some alcohol, a pipette, and a couple test tubes complicated. 

The first step in achieving this feat was to, simply, get a strawberry. Next, we had to make the extraction buffer which consisted of liquid dishwashing soap (for breaking down the phospholipid membranes/ nuclear membrane) , salt (for sticking the DNA together), and water (for a solvent). (I did not use the exact amounts because I was not sure if the procedure we used had to be paid for). Then, we washed and removed the leaves from the strawberry and added our buffer all into a plastic bag. We proceded to smash the strawberries (reliving our child hood wishes to be The Hulk). We used a filter (gauze) to catch the cell material, while we poured our "strawberry DNA juice" into a test tube. Next we used some chilled alcohol to "pull" the DNA from the "strawberry DNA juice". This occurs because DNA, in general, is in soluble to alcohol (meaning it can't dissolve in alcohol) so it rises and can be seen in the clear alcohol as very fine "strings" or "chains" of DNA. And, well, that's how we did it.  We were able to extract the DNA from the alcohol and put it into a portable plastic test tube, so we all got to keep it. 

Over all, I loved this lab and my eyes were opened wide to how simple this experiment was. I was amazed when I thought about how far man has come from knocking a few rocks together to make fire to extracting the DNA from a strawberry in only a few simple steps. But, before I end this blog I would like to leave you with a few questions for you to think about. If we are able to extract the DNA with this minimal effort how far away are humans from being able to manipulate favorable genes? And, if humans were to reach this point in science, would manipulating genes throw off the "balance of the ecosystems" ? Would it cause lesser strawberry species to die off, and the rise of one "master species" of strawberry? 

"strawberry DNA juice" (with strawberry mush)

"strawberry DNA juice" (without strawberry mush)

Excess strawberry pulp

Extracted Strawberry DNA (hard to see)

                                           Extracted Strawberry DNA (hard to see)

DNA and History of Human Migration: Mind Blown.

         Hello all,

Recently, I noticed, while reading over http://www.biologynews.net/, that the National Geographic Society announced that they are launching a research initiative to map human migration using DNA. Part of this project allows for volunteers to give DNA samples. They would receive data and results showing their ancestral migration and even whether they have descent of Neanderthals! Is that not mind blowing?!? I, for one, am very excited about this project and am eager to know if I would qualify to participate. Think, you could know almost exactly where your ancestors traveled thousands and thousands of years ago. Anyway, I absolutely recommend reading this article at http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/12/05/national_geographic_unveils_new_phase_of_genographic_project.html .

Cancer, and Us

  Hello Again,

   As many of you already know cancer is a disease that effects millions of people each year. Cancer is a disease that effects the cells during meiosis, or cell division. It has and continues to make some sort of impact on everyone's lives. Everyone knows someone that has passed away or been effected by cancer. I lost my own father to cancer when I was an infant. The idea that I am trying to get across here is that blatantly, cancer is a problem. It is a problem worldwide, a problem in every community, and a problem in every social class. Cancer doesn't care if you have a family that loves you, or someone that depends on you. In a way, cancer is winning. I am fully aware that there are loads of experiment's and tests, and research occurring to find a cure, but there must be something more we can do. I feel that the cure lies within the young. The young are the world leaders, the doctors, the scientists, and inevitably the victims of the future. I feel that if there was more education about cancer that young student's could, in a way, get a "head start" on the research of tomorrow. Anyway, that is just my thought. I encourage you to at least put some thought into how you feel about this.

Cloning: Right or Wrong?

     Hello all,

I want to talk about something that many have very strong feelings about, so I want to first state that I do not mean to demean anyone else's beliefs or ideas, only to state my own. With that I'd like to get into it. Now, some have very strong feelings about cloning being wrong. Some say that God is the only one who should be able to create life in that fashion. However, being a practicing Catholic myself, I personally believe that God is divine and all powerful, and that if he had any sort of issue with cloning he could,and would do something to stop it. So, in conclusion I think that cloning, within reasonable limits, is a good thing because it can help the progression of medical studies in order to one day save lives in the future. What are your thoughts? Do you think Cloning is right or wrong? Why?

The Power Of a Gummy Bear

                   

                       This is a video of my teacher demonstrating the oxidation of a gummy bear.
   


   In one normal sized gummy bear there is approximately 7 to 10 calories. Now, think, all that light and heat and energy from ten calories! Think, the average human being needs to consume about 2000 calories a day to carry out its functions. Imagine the reaction you just witnessed and all its heat and light and energy multiplied 200 times! Well, that's the amount of energy our body creates every day. The difference is, like my teacher would go on later to explain, that cells go through this decomposition reaction in steps, taking in small amounts of energy at each step and converting it into usable ATP. What you witnessed was all the energy of the gummy bear being released at once. However, if our body did that then there would be deadly consequences as the energy would completely obliterate us. That's why we release the energy in steps, to conserve energy, and to obtain energy in a safe manner.

  There is approximately 4.2 Joules (measure of energy) in a single calorie. In 2000 calories there is about 8,350 joules. A watt (unit of power) is equal to one Joule per second. So, if one had a 100 watt light bulb, one could assume that it would use 100 Joules per second. Because there are 3600 seconds in one hour that would mean that it takes about 360,000 Joules to power a 100 watt light bulb for one our. If we think back about how there are around 4.2 Joules per calorie we can predict that it takes about 85,700 calories to power a 100 watt bulb for one hour. 85,700 calories is little more than a month's worth of calories for the average human being. If we put all this together that would mean that the energy that a human being needs to survive for a little more than a month, would power a 100 watt bulb for no more than an hour. Put that in perspective.