Photosynthesis Lab Write Up

Materials:
     Bromothymol blue
     2 aquarium snails
     2 elodea (aquarium plant)
     pond water
     4 beakers
     light lamp

Procedure:
     1. Take all of the beakers and fill them 3/4 the way with pond water.
     2. Take all of the beakers and mix bromothymol blue with the water until you see a color change. Record your results.
     3. Take a beaker with bromothymol blue and water mixed in and place the snail into the beaker until you see a color change. Record your results.
     4. Take the third beaker with bromothymol blue and water mixed in and place elodea in the beaker. Place the beaker under the lamp for three hours. Record the color change.
     5. Take the last beaker with bromothymol blue and water mixed in, and place a snail and a elodea in the water. Leave in the light for three hours. Record the color change in the light.
     6. Take the beaker from step 5 and place in it in the dark for three hours. Record the color change.
     7. Clean up, return the snails to the wild, and DON'T DRINK THE POND WATER!

Observation/Conclusion:
     1. Water plus bromothymol blue is blue green - because the water is a neutral pH.
     2. Water plus bromothymol blue plus an aquarium snail turns yellow - because the snail produces carbon acid and BTB turns yellow in acid.
     3. Water plus bromothymol blue plus elodea, is blue-green in light. -green plants photosynthesize in the light and respire all the time, but still keeping the pH neutral, allowing the water and BTB to remain blue-green.
     4. Water plus bromothymol blue plus a snail plus elodea is blue-green in light and yellow when left in the dark for three hours. - because the carbon dioxide produced by the snail is soaked up by the elodea due to photosynthesis, allowing the water to remain blue-green in light. But, because in the dark, the elodea can't photosynthesize, the carbon dioxide from the snail turns the water acidic, making the water turn yellow when in the dark.

Poison - Death Camas/Star Lily

Something that really surprised me was that a plant that looks relatively pretty, can be deadly? That's right! The Star Lily is a deadly plant! It is also known as the death camas. (Toxicoscordion fremontii (Torrey) Rydb in latin)The plant grows from a bulb, and can be mistaken for an onion. The Star Lily is most commonly found in the Western United States (us), some parts in the Eastern United States, and the North American, Western sub arctic and Eastern Siberia. All parts of the "death camas" are extremely toxic. All parts of this plant contain the poisonous alkaloid zygadenine Symptoms include: nervousness, frothing at the mouth, loss of muscle control, subnormal temperature, upset stomach, diarrhea, reduced heart rate, decreased blood pressure and respiration rate. A coma is possible. 
The Star Lily is especially dangerous for cats and dogs if ingested, but humans have also been poisoned after eating the plant. Once, a 2 year-old-child became extremely ill after eating the plant. The alkaloids cause local irritation when ingested and affect the cardiovascular system by slowing the heart and decreasing blood pressure. Treatment includes emesis, activated charcoal, atropine and saline cathartic.

http://helenair.com/lifestyles/recreation/article_0c268c4e-b7d8-5210-9a41-3da75cb76d9d.html

I think it's interesting that a plant can be poisonous. I never knew this before. Obviously in the jungle some plants aren't the best to eat, but a plant that can be right outside our door? That can poison our animals and children? That really surprised me. Luckily it's not extremely deadly towards children. 

PKU (Phenylketonuria)

PAH is the enzyme that is most commonly defective in people with PKU.

PKU is hereditary and is carried as follows:

A person can accumulate dangerously high phenylalanine levels in the brain, poisoning the neurons, and causing mental retardation and epilepsy if not treated correctly.

A baby with PKU may have a smaller than normal head, epilepsy(seizures), and mental retardation. A musty odor may occur. Also, the deficiency in tyrosine leads to a lighter skin and hair color on the baby.

The lack of tyrosine and the buildup of phenylalanine levels cause the symptoms of PKU.

The commonality of PKU is as follows:
     1 in 143,000 Japanese babies will be born with PKU.
     1 in 10,000 Caucasian and East Asian babies will be born with PKU.
     1 in 2,600 Turks babies will be born with PKU.
     1 in 4,500 Irish babies will be born with PKU.

PKU can be treated by giving the baby a low protein diet for as long as possible. Even after they get out of the toddler and childhood years, a limited protein diet will help with the symptoms of PKU.

I've never known about this disease until now, and I think it's pretty interesting. I think testing newborn babies for this disease is wise so that the parents can learn quickly how to treat their children and allow them to grow up with a semi-normal life. This is sad, and hopefully some day we can come up with a quick cure for this disease so that less children will have to deal with it throughout their lifetimes.

Diffusion and Osmosis Lab!

Lab day woo! We started out by filling a cup with distilled water, then added about 4mL of IKI(iodine) and tested the brownish solution with an indicator strip, coming up with a green result meaning there is no glucose. Then we took a dialysis tube, tied one end of it, and filled it with about 15mL of 15% glucose/1% starch solution. The glucose/starch solution was clear in color but tested positive for glucose(obviously). We took the tube and tied the other end of it and placed it in the IKI solution.
I wasn't here for the second day, so I didn't get to see the results sadly...
This lab was a lot of fun because we got to feel like scientists(:

Microscopes!

Today!!!! ....and yesterday we played with the microscopes. We looked at pond water, foam, fruit loops, mandarin orange juice, plant leaves, and most exciting..... SOAP!!! Yes, that's right, soap! Hand-pumped, school soap! Here's a picture:

This activity was pretty cool because we got practice learning how to use the microscope like focusing it, playing with the magnification for each different substance, and learning not to put your eye up to the hole and then turning the light on (it can blind you.)

I really liked this activity because we got to use our imaginations on what to look at, but still got useful practice in using the microscopes.

Our Poster!

I was in a group with Gena, Kandace, and Shawn, where we made a poster of a diagram of a fluid mosaic membrane structure. This structure is particularly interesting. The structure has an outer layer of phospholipids, which are hydrophilic. The phospholipids surround the fatty acids, which are hydrophobic. Intertwined with the phospholipids and fatty acids, is a rather large proportionally transmembrane protein.The transmembrane protein is a protein that goes all the way across the structure. There is a glycoprotein. Coming off of the glycoprotein are carbohydrate side chains. And there is an integral protein.  Put together in the right structure, you can form a fluid mosaic membrane structure. (Here is a not-so-great picture of our wonderful creation) ------>

Since I bombed my test...

For all of you who don't know, I hate taking tests, and obviously I didn't do so well on this last quiz that we had. So, I thought in order to prove that I know what I'm talking about, I'd do a blog post about everything I've gotten out of Biology about saccharides, glycogen, carbohydrates,etc. Great use of technology right?

A monosaccharide means one or single. It includes glucose, galactose, and fructose. Food examples of this includes honey, fruit, high-fructose corn syrup(which we get from fructose) and milk(from galactose).

Monosaccharide

A disaccharide means two or double. When a disaccharide is created, one monosaccharide loses Hydrogen(H) and another monosaccharide loses a Hydroxyl group(OH). It includes sucrose, lactose, and maltose. Sucrose(table sugar) is made of up glucose and fructose. Lactose(milk) is made up of glucose and galactose. While, maltose(found in grains) is made up of two parts glucose.

Disaccharide

A polysaccharide means many. This includes starches or glucose polymers.


polysaccharide


Carbohydrates mean part hydrogen2, carbon, and oxygen. (I think this is the one question on the quiz that I actually got right. Go me!)

Starch and cellulose are carbohydrates, macromolecules, polymers, and monomers. What's the difference between a polymer and monomer you may ask? A polymer is built from repeating units while monomers are built from links, like a chain continuously building.

Glycogen!! Most animals unknowingly store excess glucose by polymerizing it forming glycogen. The glycogen then breaks back down when the energy is needed.

Cellulose is common as being plant structural material. It's also common in wood, cotton, and paper. Hydrogen bonds are common in cellulose because there are many -OH groups and oxygen atoms in the "ring".

Now onto the experiment we did:
Benedict's:
We mixed different contents with Benedict's solution to find out if it was a monosaccharide or disaccharide. After mixing the contents with the solution, and letting it sit in heated water for about two minutes, we had our results. If the contents in the test tube turned a bright orange or orange-ish color, then the solution was a monosaccharide. If it turned a brown-ish color then the solution was a disaccharide, but if the solution had no change at all it was either water or a polysaccharide.
[a great online virtual lab is: http://bioweb.wku.edu/courses/Biol114/Online/Carbo/carbo1.asp]
Iodine:
We mixed a few different contents with iodine in a test tube. If the contents turned a bright, noticable blue color then the contents were startches. If they didn't then, well, they weren't starches.
[a great online virtual lab is: http://www.purchon.com/biology/food.htm]

Self Evaluation: I suck at taking tests/quizzes/whatever you want to call them. BUT!! It's a work in progress. I just need to find a way that I learn best, and I think I've found it!