#CSINDB

Everyone has either heard of or watched a t.v show called CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. This show is about mystery, murder and crime with a series of plot twists. Now, how does this relate to AP Biology?

#CSINDB was a project, immediately after the fetal pig dissection, in which my AP Biology class was split into three different groups. Each group was given a particular body system (digestive, endocrine, respiratory, immune, etc) and each group was told to come up with a story line a scenario where the pig dies, or is killed in relation to the body system. The head group gives the rest of the class hints and tests in order for them to guess the body system under 50 minutes. My group was given the endocrine system, which is a series of glands that excrete hormones into the circulatory system. (Check out the thinglink my group created here). Our scenario went as follows:

Wilbur, the pig, was a public figure with a wife and kids, putting on the facade of a perfect life. Wilbur was also a diabetic and had a variety of other health issues. *The class conducted a blood test and found that he was a sickle cell carrier.*

Wilbur’s political life drew a lot of enemies. His main opponent, Natasha, was a tiger. She admitted to not being fond of Wilbur and was known to do anything to win. *The class began to suspect her to be the main suspect.*

Wilbur’s house was closed off as investigators rummaged for clues. *The class rummaged through his trash can and found a ripped picture of Wilbur and his wife, as well as a wedding ring.* These clues led the class to believe that Wilbur and his wife had marital problems so Wilbur’s wife was questioned.

Wilbur’s wife was questioned and revealed that she was the one administering his insulin injections. *The class went to the back of the classroom to conduct a urinalysis test which determined there was a buildup of sugar in his urine.*

The buildup of sugar was shocking to the coroner, the class and the investigators. What could cause this? When food is ingested, insulin is secreted into the bloodstream. The insulin travels to the liver or muscles, where it attaches to receptors on the surface of the cells like lock and key. In non-diabetic people, this process allows individual glucose molecules to enter the cells of muscles, liver, and other organs. However, the cells of people with insulin resistance are “turned off” so much of the glucose cannot enter the cells. A buildup of sugar occurs in the body and this can be deadly to the person’s body.

Investigators went through Wilbur’s phone to find love messages between Wilbur and his political opponent, Natasha. They were supposedly in love and Wilbur was going to leave his wife for her. *The class wanted to call Wilbur’s wife back to questioning.*

During her interview, Wilbur’s wife sneezed. She admitted to taking Cortisol for her severe allergic reactions. *The class found that there was a buildup of cortisol in the blood stream.* Cortisol inhibits insulin from removing glucose in the blood. Cortisol is also commonly taken for severe allergies. *At this moment the class and investigators convicted Wilbur’s wife to murder and the case was solved.*

As part of the project, the rest of the class was supposed to guess what body system was involved. They immediately guessed the endocrine system when the case was solved. The endocrine system is directly affected by diabetes and the excretion of insulin and the inhibition by Cortisol.

Check out my group’s infographic about Diabetes:

A Day in Halfmoon Bay

Halfmoon Bay is a town in Northern California where people go to the breezy beach, collect shells, and check out cute little cafes. What a lot of people don’t do is go to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve to participate in citizen science. An article about citizen science and it’s benefits can be found here.

At Fitzgerald Marine Reserve we learned about the different species living at the beach and how the cope with the passing tide.

Fortunately, my AP Biology class was able to partake in this experience on April 22, 2014. My class collected data on different species of animals as well as how the tide affects the different zones.

After going to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve for the day, I came home with so much new information. Fitzgerald Marine Reserve taught me about the different zones of habitation, which each contain different animals due to their different adaptations to the environment. I also learned how different animals cope better and survive better with the passing tide while others are completely destroyed by the tide. These differences contribute to the different animals in the zones. Furthermore, I learned how turban snails looks similar to hermit crabs. This may have to do with the advantages of having similar colored shells for blending in and camouflaging.

Tying back to the field trip, in Biology we are learning how different body systems depend on each other. The field trip taught the class something similar but in a different application. The different species’ well being and survival relies heavily on the tide and the environment in which they are living in. They are dependent on each other just like how body systems are interdependent. We also talked about how different animals living in the same place can have relatively different environments. This was learned when looking at the different zones of the beach and how the species that lived away from where the high tide reached were different from the animals that lived where the tide came.

However, the field trip was not all about data collecting. During the trip I made quite a few memories that continue to make me smile. I will never forget laughing about how close we were to the waters edge and how the tide could move closer and potentially wash us away at any given point. I also will not forget the amount of times my classmates and I could’ve slipped on the slippery rocks. Each time this occurred we let out a sigh of relief at having caught our balance. I would not change a thing about this field trip and I would highly recommend others to go on a trip separately to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve or take a trip with the school; either way it is a remarkable experience.

#DoNowVaccinate

The topic of whether parents should vaccinate their children is a very controversial topic. Some parents believe that they have the right to withhold vaccinations from their children and that vaccinations have long-term consequences. Other parents believe that it is their duty to vaccinate their children from diseases that can be prevented.

In regards to the topic of how vaccines can be potentially dangerous to young children, there is scientific evidence to show how there is no link to the development of autism in vaccinated children. A 2013 study conducted on the mercury based organic compound, called thimerosal, which is in most vaccinations. The research on this drug has concluded that there is no link between thimerosal and autism.

Vaccinations should also not be optional because due to vaccinations, the United States is more advanced in it’s protection against diseases and has eradicated many more deadly diseases than other countries. These diseases include smallpox and in the near future the U.S will have eradicated polio. Moreover, vaccines also cost less than taking time off to take care of a sick child; this includes medical care and long term disability care.

On the other hand, some parents believe that the government should not intervene in personal medical choices and do not have the right to tell a parent how to care for his/her child. This is a valid argument. However, the government intervening in medical choices becomes justified when it is for the good of the whole country. It is the government’s job to serve and protect it’s citizens and that is what they are doing by forcing vaccinations.

Some strong religious leaders believe that certain vaccines contradict constitutionally protected religious freedoms. They also believe that everything happens for a reason and we should leave it up to God. In doing so, the body is left to fend for itself and in a lot of cases, the body cannot handle the disease on it’s own. Leaving it up to God can not always be the answer when dealing with biology and mutating diseases and viruses.

Overall, vaccinations should not be a choice and it should be illegal for parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.

So what do you think? Answer the poll!

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Works Cited

“Vaccines ProCon.org.” ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Three Parents….What??

KQED’s “Dow Now” for this week was about DNA modification, allowing women with mitochondrial mutations to carry their own babies through the donation of someone else’s healthy mitochondria. This all sounds good in the long run because this would allow the elimination of fatal diseases and premature deaths and miscarriages. However, DNA modification opens doors to a variety of unethical procedures such as the selection of certain traits.

In Britain, the three-parent IVF procedure became legal. This procedure is for those mothers with mitchondrial diseases. Mitochondrial diseases can be passed down from mother to child. Faulty mitochondria can result in heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy. The babies born through IVF have DNA from the mother, father, and female donor. The picture above shows a simplified demonstration of the three-parent IVF procedure.

IVF is a fantastic option for parents dealing with unhealthy mitochondria. But, DNA modification is controversial and opens doors to the discussion of “designer babies. Becoming pregnant and getting to hold your child for the first time is a moment that is indescribable to many mothers. Every mother believes that their baby is the most beautiful, smartest, most perfect baby they have seen and there is not a thing they would change about him/her. Nowadays, the talks about DNA modification includes the debates about picking certain attributes for your child. This includes, intellectual abilities, hair color, skin color, eye color, and athleticism. This is completely unethical and ruins the whole magic of the unexpectedness of parenthood.“If you want a tall child, marry tall” says Sheldon Krimsky, a philosopher at Tufts University. He is in favor of the ban on whether prenatal engineering should be banned in the United States. His overall point is those trying to conceive and failing, are happy with however their kids turn out because they are grateful for the opportunity to be parents. On the other hand, parents easily able to procreate want the best possible turn out for their children.

The process of DNA modification should only be offered to parents with mitochondrial mutations; anyone else should be refused the opportunity.

Check out the KQED by clicking here!

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Works Cited

“Britain Legalizes Three-parent Babies.” CNBC. N.p., 25 Feb. 2015. Web. 15 May 2015.

<http://www.cnbc.com/id/102453936&gt;.

Parry, By Wynne. “Designing Life: Should Babies Be Genetically Engineered?” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 18 Feb.

2013. Web. 15 May 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/27206-genetic-engineering-babies-debate.html&gt;.

Fiona Macrae for the Daily Mail. “Dawn of the Designer Babies with THREE Parents and No Hereditary Diseases.” MailOnline.

Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.

Just Keep Swimming Swimming Swimming…..

Diana Nyad is an incredible woman who managed to swim from Cuba to Florida without being able to touch the boat that was following her or hold onto anything. Diana attempted this swim in her 20’s but was not able to finish it. Recently, at the age of 64 she set out and her perseverance prevented her from giving up. She said one thing during her Ted Talk that really inspired me and related to me. She said that no matter how many obstacles and things going wrong, you have to block out all the noise and tell yourself that you can do it. This is so relatable to me because with Senior year coming up and college apps to look forward to (or dread), there will be obstacles in the way that will divert your attention from the main goal. These distractions will also trick you into thinking that a certain task in unreachable and a certain college in elusive.

Diana Nyad also said, “To be is to do.” This quote can be interpreted in many ways. The way I think of it is every action of yours is what makes you, you. I really take this saying to heart because your actions really reflect who you are as a person. In order to be a successful human being you must do things that set you up for success. This includes never giving up.

My parents always tell me that my expectations that I set for myself are lower than my potential. I do not set high expectations because I am afraid of rejection and I don’t want to try and do something that I will just fail at. After watching this Ted Talk I was inspired to learn more about Diana’s journey and what exactly motivated her to swim such a long distance and who inspired her to presevere.

To watch the Ted Talk by Diana Nyad click here!!!!

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Works Cited

“2012 — The IPINIONS Journal.” The IPINIONS Journal RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.

“Top 15 Facebook Marketing Obstacles | Firebelly Marketing.” Top 15 Facebook Marketing Obstacles | Firebelly Marketing. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2015.

Mid-Year Reflection!

Half way through the school year, I now know exactly what is looked for in the class. My blog is now better organized and the posts contain more information and I have put more time and effort into them.

Personally, what I find most impressing about my blog is the wide variety of information and content that is included. My blog is not focused around a specific subject but instead covers a lot of different topics. These topics include, Ebola, the California drought, Sickle Cell Disease, the Bay, and extra credit assignments.

The challenges I have overcome include technology issues that come with WordPress. I did not know, at first, how to categorize my posts or embed polls. After a lot of searching through the website and looking on Google, I managed to figure it out and my grades on my blog posts increased drastically just by these few improvements.

Some challenges I still face are how to manage my time most efficiently in order to complete my posts on time. I also face the challenge of making my blog more interesting and more engaging without being redundant.

Reflecting on this past half-year, I feel as if I have drastically improved on the quality of my posts and how to work the website. I cannot wait to see what other improvements I can make by the end of the school year!

Cracking the Code of Life

Over Thanksgiving break, my AP Biology class watched the documentary called, “Cracking the Code of Life.” The documentary discussed the Human Genome Project and the true importance of DNA. DNA is present in every living organism and makes up segments of genes. DNA is very fascinating and it is what makes us us. Genes are little portions of DNA that code for specific proteins. These proteins are what give us specific characteristics and contribute to how our body functions.

The link to the movie is: http://video.pbs.org/video/1841308959/ 

The Human Genome Project was started in 1990 with the goal to map out the sequence of all the base pairs in DNA. The process was very ineffective and susceptible to countless errors. With the invention of the computer, these human errors were reduced and the process became more efficient and less time consuming. This project enabled scientists to find the exact gene sequence for diseases and where in the code there was a mutation. This is important because this makes finding cures for specific diseases easier. 

In the documentary, the disease called Tay Sachs was introduced. Tay Sachs is a disease in which the gene involved in dissolving fat in the brain is not produced due to a mistake in the DNA sequence. This mutation causes fat build up and children with this disease die within seven years. The story of the family with Tay Sachs really saddened me. People with Tay Sachs aren’t able to live long and fulfilling lives and are constantly in and out of hospitals. The Genome Project would give this family and many other victims of Tay Sachs a cure to this disease and a ticket to a better life.

Overall, this documentary was very interesting and taught me a lot about genetics. The documentary taught me that scientists all over the world are trying to help victims of countless diseases live better lives by finding cures and looking at gene sequences. This documentary gave me hope that something is being done to help. Also, Cracking the Code of Life further verified my dreams to work in the field of medicine. Furthermore, I am intrigued to learn all that the future has to offer when it comes to science.

Works Cited:

Scientists Discover How Musicians’ DNA Is Different From Everyone Else’s.” Mic. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.

Tay-Sachs Disease.” HCMS-Genetic-Disorder-Research –. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.

Two Week Biology Sum-Up

Over the past two weeks, AP Biology has been action-packed. We have managed to squeeze in three chapters (give or take), an extra credit assignment. and an educational, outdoor fieldtrip!

The three chapters covered genetics, DNA replication, and protein synthesis. Genetics was more of a review of Mendel’s laws and punnett squares. I feel that genetics is the most interesting portion of biology because genetics and genes is what make our society diverse. DNA replication is interesting because in learning DNA replication my class and I could “connect the dots” about how DNA replication is the precursor for mitosis. In going in depth into DNA replication, I was able to grasp a better understanding of both concepts. Lastly, protein synthesis is where RNA is produced and used in order to code for specific proteins. This is important because through cell signaling, our bodies can produce the necessary proteins to keep the functionality of our bodies.

The extra credit assignment was to extract DNA from a strawberry using hose hold ingredients. I worked in a group of three with Bharathi Chinnakotla and Jennifer Parascandolo. The experiment is shown on all three of our blogs. Their links are: https://bharathisbioblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/strawberry-dna-extraction/ and https://biologybloggerr.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/strawberry-dna-extraction. This experiment really opened my eyes on how easy it is to extract DNA from a strawberry and that aspect really interested me. As Jennifer stated, “Me and my partners screamed of happiness because we thought we were not going to be able to do the project.” The joy we felt lifting the DNA up was that of no other. We felt smart and capable of doing such an intricate experiment. Bharathi states that the experiment could have been improved if we “placed the DNA under a microscope.”

The outdoor field trip encompassed within this two week period, was at the bay front park in Palo Alto. This field trip, although educational, was very fun as well. My class and I collected data on many aspects of the soil found at the bay front that could be used in order to better the environment there and improve the lives of the species.

Works cited

All pictures taken by Jennifer

Parascandolo and myself.

DNA Extraction at Home??

For an extra credit assignment, Jennifer Parascandolo, Bharathi Chinnakotla and I extracted DNA out of strawberries!

Check out our video below:

Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA) is the factor that encodes for genetic information for all living things. Our extra credit assignment required us to extract the DNA out of strawberries using household ingredients. Strawberries, unlike many other berries have eight copies of DNA, making them octoploids. This trait makes strawberries one of the easiest living organisms to extract DNA from.

This experiment included the use of soap, salt and isopropyl alcohol. At first I was not sure what purpose these ingredients stood for. I later found out that soap was used to dissolve the nuclear membrane and the cells. The salt helped break down the protein chains, while the alcohol was used to make the DNA more visible. DNA is more visible in isopropyl alcohol because DNA is not soluble in the alcohol.

This assignment was a lot of fun and was very interesting. I learned that you do not have to be a geneticist to extract DNA and you also do not have to be in a lab to do so. If I was given a “redo” on this project, my group and I would try and use better measuring tools to measure out the ingredients. We did not have the proper cups and spoons that the demo had told us to use. Other than that, I would also want to try this same experiment with other fruits and see if the experiment works!

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Works Cited

Strawberry DNA – Sick Science! #114. Youtube. Youtube, 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

“Squishy Science: Extract DNA from Smashed Strawberries.” Scientific American Global RSS. Science Buddies, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

I Saved the Bay–What Did You Do?

Today, my class and I went to the Palo Alto baylands with Save the Bay. There we collected quantitative data about many things, such as pH values of the soil, soil moisture, biodiversity of the plants in each plot of land, soil conductivity and the longitude and latitude of the land. All together, these values would tell us what plants would be able to grow in each area.

The field trip connected to class because we learned about how plants have to adapt to their surroundings. For example, pickle weed has adapted to living in the marshes both during high tide and low tide. That is why in our biodiversity data collection, we found that pickle weed was the only plant growing closest to the water. Another connection I made was how conductivity and water are interconnected. My group calculated that the closer we got to the water, the soils conductivity drastically increased. This reminded me of chemistry class and learning about how water and moisture directly affect the conductivity of substances.

This outdoor lab demonstrated citizen science. Citizen science is when amateurs or nonprofessional scientists conduct experiments. This type of science is important because it enables people to connect with science and answer questions on their own instead of reading it in a newspaper or in an article. There is a different feeling when learning something more hands on. I felt that I learned more because I was in direct contact with the soil and could collect data on my own. I also felt like I was really making a difference by going out to the bay lands today. I am really glad that I experienced citizen science.

One thing that I will definitely remember is eating the pickle weed and the weather that we experienced. The pickle weed was like eating little pockets of salt. There is no other way to describe it! I found out that red pickle weed is saltier because it contains more salt.

Also, the weather was freezing!!! The only positive part of the weather was the rainbow we saw towards the end. The rainbow was so bright and well defined.

One thing I would change about the experience is I want to learn more about the bay and what we can do to preserve it than only collecting data about the soil. I would also want to learn if the temperature outside affects the soil and the data we collected. Overall, this field trip was a lot of fun and I learned a great deal about soil, the bay, the tides, and the adaptation that plants have to survive their environments.

*All pictures taken by me*
*Pickle weed picture taken by Rebecca Girard*