Blogs

I started by thinking about different locations spider webs mights be found on campus that would be easily accessible for any person. I decided to explore morrill to find spider webs as it is a easy building to access, yet has enough low foot traffic area for spider webs to be easily found. I walked up towards the garden/court yard from North Pleasant to get into Morrill.I entered Morrill 4 North through the door directly under the walkway that connects the two sides of Morrill. As I walked in I immediately looked to my right to see the map of Morrill, noting my location for future reference. I walked down the hallway going past the two double doors at the end of the hallway. I walked down the first set of stairs to the first landing that has two doors on its left and right that allow a person to leave Morrill. I inspected the stairs I had just walked down and I noticed that on the lowest stair there was a spider web on the left side of the stairs when facing up the stairs. I used a ten dollar bill as an object for scale, placing it on the floor of the landing next to the spider web with its width very close to the wall. The bill was angled so that Hamilton’s face was able to be seen, yet the bill appeared upside down in pictures due to it’s placement. I took several photos to ensure that I would have one that satisfied me, electing to use a picture that I used flashed in. After taking these pictures I walked up the stairs and took a picture of the stairwell  from the top landing closest to the door which I had entered initially. The picture included the stairs and the door closest to the stairs. After gathering the pictures I went to Livemaps and selected the location I was at on open street maps and took a screenshot of the map with the pinpointed location. After this I gathered the pictures and the screenshot into Inkscape. I organized the pictures into a square figures with the right half dedicated to the picture of the web, and the left side organized with the picture of the stairwell on top of the Livemaps screenshot.

I started by thinking about different locations spider webs mights be found on campus that would be easily accessible for any person. I decided to explore morrill to find spider webs as it is a easy building to access, yet has enough low foot traffic area for spider webs to be easily found. I walked up towards the garden/court yard from North Pleasant to get into Morrill.I entered Morrill 4 North through the door directly under the walkway that connects the two sides of Morrill. As I walked in I immediately looked to my right to see the map of Morrill, noting my location for future reference. I walked down the hallway going past the two double doors at the end of the hallway. I walked down the first set of stairs to the first landing that has two doors on its left and right that allow a person to leave Morrill. I inspected the stairs I had just walked down and I noticed that on the lowest stair there was a spider web on the left side of the stairs when facing up the stairs. I used a ten dollar bill as an object for scale, placing it on the floor of the landing next to the spider web with its width very close to the wall. The bill was angled so that Hamilton’s face was able to be seen, yet the bill appeared upside down in pictures due to it’s placement. I took several photos to ensure that I would have one that satisfied me, electing to use a picture that I used flashed in.

I started by thinking about different locations spider webs mights be found on campus that would be easily accessible for any person. I decided to explore morrill to find spider webs as it is a easy building to access, yet has enough low foot traffic area for spider webs to be easily found. I walked up towards the garden/court yard from North Pleasant to get into Morrill.I entered Morrill 4 North through the door directly under the walkway that connects the two sides of Morrill. As I walked in I immediately looked to my right to see the map of Morrill, noting my location for future reference. I walked down the hallway going past the two double doors at the end of the hallway. I walked down the first set of stairs to the first landing that has two doors on its left and right that allow a person to leave Morrill. I inspected the stairs I had just walked down and I noticed that on the lowest stair there was a spider web on the left side of the stairs when facing up the stairs.

An inference is a conclusion one comes to based on evidence and information.  This evidence and information being seen is an observation. One example is This last week I observed that I had been congested, blowing my nose and coughing.  I also observed that my nasal discharge was discolored which therefore led me to infer that I was sick and needed to call my mother and ask her what to do next.  The conclusion that I came to of being sick was the inference and the evidence for my sickness was my observation.

Sonic hunting is the way shrimp use sound to hunt prey. The water is squeezed between the shrimp's claw and it shoots out with a little void behind it. The water expands outward and it becomes a little gas bubble pocket. The gas expands until the surrounding water puts pressure on it and the temperature increases and the bubble pops and kills surrounding organisms. They also use snapping to communicate with other shrimp. During WWII, the navy would hide their submarines in the beds of these shrimp so submarines of enemy ships could not find them. They also used the sounds to distract enemy ships and make them confused. Researchers are now trying to find a way to use bubbles to save lives. They used bubbles to get through the blood-brain barrier, a wall to protect unwanted cells/molecules from entering the brain. The bubbles help doctors fight cancerous tumors. Bubble power can possibly help us fight diseases.

The entirety of the genome is very large, and it is hard to imagine the possibility that it even fits inside of a cell, let alone the nucleus of eukaryotes. This ability to condense itself is the result of multiple folding techniques along the strand of DNA and an eventual folding around histone proteins. One such technique is supercoiling, which is the over or under winding of the DNA in a particular area. Supercoiling allows access and therefore expression to those areas on a strand. The over-winding leaves the area of genetic information untouchable by proteins, so it is unable to serve as any active template. Under-winding allows for access and is what allows for expression when it is needed. When it is over-wound the DNA is condensed and therefore takes up less space and is the preferred state when inactive. Enzymes known as topoisomerases are able to change DNA spooling and aid in DNA processes such as transcription and replication. Although useful in compacting DNA, supercoils put strain on the DNA that either must be relieved or accounted for elsewhere in the strand.

    Materials: The materials used in this experiment are as follows: 4x4 in. Brown paper, Drop of Oil, Drop of water, drop of five unknowns (for the Lipid Test); 500ml of the following (glucose solution, distilled water, unknowns 1-5), test tubes, 1 ml of Benedict’s reagent (for the Simple Sugar Test). Seven Test tubes, 1 mL of starch, 1 mL of distilled water, 1 mL of each unknown 1-4, two drops of Lugol’s iodine reagent (for each tube) (for the Starch Test). 2 mL of each unknown (1-5), 2 mL of 2.5% NaOH, 3 drops of Biuret reagent (for each tube) (Protein Test)

    Methods: The method for the experiments in this lab are as follows:

Part 1 Identifying Lipids. To identify which unknowns are lipids, obtain a small square of brown paper, divide into seven sections. Label them, Water, Oil, Unknown #1, Unknown #2, Unknown #3,Unknown #4,Unknown #5. Put a small drop of each substance on each section of the brown paper and rub it in gently with your fingertip. Allow the substances to dry (approximately one hour), then record your results.

    Part 2 Identifying Carbohydrates. To identify carbohydrates in the unknown, two tests are done. The simple sugar test, in which you start by making a boiling bath of water. Obtain seven test tubes and label them #1-7. Put 500 mL of 0.01 M glucose in tube #1. Put 500 mL of distilled water in tube #2. In tubes #3-7, put 500 mL of the unknown substances in the tubes, each tube with only one substance. Add 1 mL of Benedict’s reagent to each tube. Place the tubes in the boiling bath for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove the tubes from the water bath using tongs. Place in tube rack to cool for a 2 minutes. Record observations. The second test, Testing for Starch, goes as follows. Obtain seven tubes and label them #1-7. Put 1 mL of 1% starch solution in tube 1. Put 1 mL of distilled water in tube 2. Put 1 mL of unknowns in each of the remaining tubes. Add 2 drops of Lugol’s iodine reagent to each tube. Record your observations.

    Part 3 Identifying Proteins. To identify protein in solution, Biuret Reagent. Obtain 7 test tubes and label them #1-7. Add 2 mL of each material to the appropriate tube. Add 2 mL of 2.5 NaOH to each tube. Add 3 drops of Biuret reagent to each tube, mix thoroughly. Hold the tubes against white piece of paper for better contrast. Record Changes.

When light enters the human eye it is refracted by the cornea, lens and both the aqueous and vitrious humor and is focused onto the eye's retina. This refraction is not entirely perfect however, and so the eye can use cillary muscles to contract the lense for further adjustments. When the image from reflected light is not focused properly, this can lead to either hyperopic or myopic conditions. These are what is more commonly known as far sightedness and near sightedness respecively. When an indavidual is far sighted the image is focused behind the eye. When they are near sighted the image is focused in front of the eye.

The retina of the eye is covered in photoreceptors. These come in two forms, rods and cones. Rods are very plentiful, outnumbering cones nearly 20:1. These are used mainly during situations of dim light. Cones will however detect color and are used in bright light. When light enters the photoreceptor cells a protein called rhodopsin is bleached, causing a conformational change. Rhodopsin will then activate a G-Protein called tansducin, and the signal continues to propogate until sodium channels in the photoreceptors are closed, which in turn halts the release of glutamate. Post synaptic biopolar cells will respond to this lack of glutamate by either turning on or off, depending on the type. These bipolar cells then signal (or don't) ganglion cells, which continues to propogate th single to the brain where it is processed.

I found my spider web in the fork of a tree right outside of the mahar lecture hall.  I saw a few and chose the best one for the photo and that was easy to reference for size.  The green grass was too light of a background for the camera to pick up the web so I had a friend hold up a dark purple folder directly behind the web.  I then used a measuring tape for reference and held the tape below the web extended about 10 inches and parallel with the angle of the camera. I took a few pictures with flash and a few without just to capture everything.  I then backed up onto the concrete by mahar and took another picture of the tree where the spider web was

Macromolecules are large molecules that make up everything around us. These macromolecules are composed of smaller subunits known as monomers. Monomers come together to form macromolecules which are polymers of their monomer subunits. These polymers are built from monomers through a process known as dehydration synthesis (1). This happens when one monomer forms a covalent bond with another, forming a chain and releasing water as a by product. There are four different classes of macromolecules. They are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

The first class, carbohydrates, is made up of monosaccharides, which form into long chains known as polysaccharides. Carbohydrates are important to the human body system because it is where the majority of the body's energy comes from (2). The body uses these foods to make glucose, an important energy source.

The second class, lipids, are molecules that contain hydrocarbons, which make up the building blocks of living cells. Lipids are important because they store the energy that our cells need to perform daily functions.

The next essential macromolecule, called proteins, basically dictate the function of the cell. Proteins can serve as a catalyst, transport and/or store other molecules, control growth and differentiation (3).

To identify the presence of different molecules, you can use a variety of tests. For this experiment, we used the Lipid Test which consists of determining if a certain liquid will leave a grease stain (indicating it is in fact a lipid), to test for lipids, The Simple Sugar Test to test for glucose using Benedict’s solution , and lastly, the Protein test using Biuret Reagent, to identify proteins. Unknown samples in this experiment were tested with different methods describe above to identify their contents.