benjaminburk's blog

In this experiment the goal was to see the effect of certain factors, in this case acids and bases, of the light absorbance of spinach chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are essential to life for both plants and animals alike, they are crucial in the photosynthetic reaction that produces oxygen and glucose from carbon dioxide, light and water. In the spinach chloroplasts there are two separate photosystems that convert light energy and water to oxygen and glucose. In this experiment the chloroplasts were extracted from approximately six spinach leaves and suspended in grinding buffer. 50 microliters of the chloroplast were then placed into four differently treated test tubes (dark, light, light and vinegar and light with bleach), leaving one test tube without chloroplast as the control group. The light absorbance of each test tube was tested every 10 minutes for 30 minutes. If bleach and vinegar are added to the chloroplast then we can expect the function of chloroplasts to be hindered because the acid and base produce an environment that is outside the optimal ph for functioning chloroplasts. More specifically we can expect the bleach to completely neutralize the chloroplast and for the vinegar to almost completely neutralize the chloroplast, but we can expect limited function. For these predictions to supported we should expect to see the tube with bleach to have 0 light absorbance and for the vinegar treated tube to have a very low light absorbance.

Tetrahymena cells are unicellular predatory ciliates that produce both sexually and asexually. To begin the experiment we made a master tube of 5ml of Tetrahymena and 5ml of India ink. Immediately after and then every ten minutes for forty minutes a random sample of 100ul of Tetrahymena cells were taken and added to 50ul of glutaraldehyde, killing the cells without damaging the tissues. Once mixed, 35ul of the dead Tetrahymena were put under a microscope and then ten randomly chosen cells were observed at 10X and had their black food vacuoles counted. The counts were averaged and the standard deviation calculated. Tetrahymena not randomly chosen were excluded from the experiment. This experiment showed a tendency of the Tetrahymena cells to increase their consumption rate over time, as seen by the upward slope of the graph.

Paternalism is a very controversial topic that has such persuasive pros and cons that most arguments about the topic tend to end without a definitive winner. Paternalism by definition is the overriding of ones autonomy for their own good. For a person to be completely autonomous they must be able to make decisions on their own without pressure from others and without any violation of their free will. This idea of paternalism comes up very often in the medical field, which has led to many controversial cases where doctors exercised or did not exercise medical paternalism. In my opinion I side with Goldman who believes that medical paternalism is more often than not unjustified, unless faced with an exceptional situation. One of Goldman’s strongest arguments in my opinion is that most people tend to not value mere existence in this world, many people on earth cherish purpose and a quality life over simple existence. In plainest terms this simply means many people if put in a position to live on life support in a coma or to die, would choose to die because a life on life support in a coma is not one filled with purpose or enjoyment. With this in mind I do not believe it is within a doctors rights to override a patients decisions because the doctor believes it is what is best because the doctor is most likely unaware of what the patient values most in their life and it very well may not be their existence, it may be their religion or their enjoyment of their life. Also I believe that as humans one of our greatest privileges is free will and the ability to make conscious decisions for ourselves, and medical paternalism in many cases violates that ability and in my opinion that is wrong, even if it is for the patient’s own good. I believe that as long as a patient is fully aware of the consequences and they are of sound and independent mind, they should have full control over their life. All in all I believe that medical paternalism as a whole is morally impermissible, I do believe there are exceptions but those rare circumstances are few and far between and as a whole the idea of medical paternalism is morally impermissible because it violates the basic human right of autonomy.

Both factors, osmolarity and volume, of blood have lasting effects on the body and the functions that occur throughout. Both factors change independent from each other, but work together to maintain an overall homeostasis within the body. For example if an individual were to work out and drank only water then the overall osmolarity of the blood would decrease due to the increase of water. However the volume will not change because the water lost in sweat would be replaced by the water consumed. The change in the osmolarity would lead to a reduction of vasopressin release and an increase in renin production. The renin production increase would promote the reabsorption of sodium, bringing the osmolarity back to an equilibrium state. This is a prime example of independent pathways that work together within the body in order to maintain homeostasis. 

Cyclohexanol was dehydrated in an effort to synthesize cyclohexene, in this experiment cyclohexene was obtained with a 23.1 % yield. The distillation process and washing procedures as described in the procedure were followed successfully. The gas chromatography and IR results suggest that the product was cyclohexene and extremely pure. This is supported by the fact that the gas chromatography result has only one peak that takes up the entire area on the graph, this means that the substance that the test was performed on was homogenous and pure. The IR graph also proves that the substance is cyclohexene because it contains the respective peaks for the substances that make up cyclohexene and in the correct ratio as well. The potassium permanganate and bromine dichloromethane tests also produced the expected results for both cyclohexane and cyclohexene further supporting the conclusion that the end product was pure cyclohexene.

Caspase-3 is a protein invloved in apotosis or programmed cell death. The protein also has a key role in overall cell development when expressed in low levels. A new research study has helped show the balance of the two pathways through biophysical, structural and computational approaches in order to demonstrate the phosphorylation of conserved sites. These results helped provide new insights into allosteric regulaton mechanisms and new opportunities for modulator developement. These new developements will help give more precise information on the cells developement and death cycle. 

The results of this experiment will provide important information on the what causes changes in physical attributes of microclimates, specifically bodies of water, in the Amherst area. It will allow the town of Amherst and the University of Massachusetts to identify possible problems with the current environmental protection strategies and produce more proactive policies. It will also provide beneficial practice on how to carry a comparative experiment and produce conclusions based on the similarities and differences that could support or contrast the hypotheses made.

Cyclohexanol was dehydrated in an effort to synthesize cyclohexene, in this experiment cyclohexene was obtained with a 23.1 % yield. The distillation process and washing procedures as described in the procedure were followed successfully. The gas chromatography and IR results suggest that the product was cyclohexene and extremely pure. This is supported by the fact that the gas chromatography result has only one peak that takes up the entire area on the graph, this means that the substance that the test was performed on was homogenous and pure. The IR graph also proves that the substance is cyclohexene because it contains the respective peaks for the substances that make up cyclohexene and in the correct ratio as well. The potassium permanganate and bromine dichloromethane tests also produced the expected results for both cyclohexane and cyclohexene further supporting the conclusion that the end product was pure cyclohexene.

In this experiment we hope to find specific differences between physical attributes of the Campus Pond and nearby Puffers Pond. Campus Pond is a manmade pond, created in 1892, and is located in the center of the University of Massachusetts (UMass Amherst 1892). Meanwhile, Puffers Pond is the largest open body of water in Amherst, located about 3 miles from the center of town on conservation land (Amherst MA 2007). Because of the drastic differences in location and human interaction we believe that the results of this experiment will expose significant differences between the two bodies of water. The collected data will also lead to a better understanding as to why the the differences occur and how to handle potential problems that may be exposed as a result of these differences.

The techniques and procedure proposed in Rodrigo’s, Rojo’s and Armengol research article (2003), were used as a template for constructing the techniques used for physical characteristic testing in our procedure.

3-methyl- 1-butanol and propionic acid were reacted with each other in an esterification process in hopes of synthesizing isopentylpropionate. The procedure described above was followed without error and the isopentylpropionate was synthesized with a 62.04% yield. The final liquid had a fruity scent similar to that of bananas. The IR graph supports the purity of the compound considering the peaks that correspond with an ester at 1739.79 and a carboxylic acid 2958.8. However there is no peak corresponding with an alcohol group, which is expected because isopentylpropionate does not have an alcohol group.