Writing in Biology

            By using benzoin, ethanol, sodium borohydride, water, 6M HCL, and acetone the goal was to recover as much crystals back which 68.5 % was obtained. Benzoin (0.5g), ethanol (4mL) was used at first into a flask (25mL). Adding sodium borohydride (0.1g) and swirling it for 20 minutes made the benzoin very white. Adding water (7.5mL) and 6M HCl (0.3mL) then vacuum filtrating made the substance to come together as one big chunk. Using acetone, it was recrystallized. Then two TLC plates were used. On the left was starting benzoin for both plates. On the right was recrystallized one for the first one but the second one had the crude one. The middle had both of it contained. Running the TLC plates was the next step and by using the chamber and after it had dried the UV light was used to mark the spots. Desired reaction product will go all the way to the top without separating instead of staying down low when the TLC plate is used. There were total of 4 spots including the starting material. Benzoin had one spot, recrystallized in the first plate had 1 spot as well as for crude. The middle however that contained both the starting benzoin and either recrystallized or crude had 2 different spots. Instead of water, what if acetone was used? Acetone can dry up a substance quicker than water so by using acetone instead of water in the reaction equation, maybe it would have been more accurate and faster. Also, by using less amount of each substance, time could have been saved and it could be a possible modification needed for this lab. There is a double bond on the oxygen in the first equation, but by taking away the double bond, the hydrogen gets added to the oxygen in the final reaction. There were many times in this lab where waiting and swirling for a long time occurred, so by cutting down the amount would do a better faster job.

Experimental Procedure:

            First, add benzoin (0.5g) and ethanol (4mL) to an Erlenmeyer flask (25mL) swirling at room temperature until it is all dissolved. Add sodium borohydride (0.1g) using a micro spatula in small amounts for 5 minutes (swirl for addition 20 minutes at room temperature). Cool the mixture using ice bath, add water (5mL) after and 6M HCl (0.3mL). Wait 15 minutes to add more water (2.5mL). Then collect the product using vacuum filtration (reserve 1-2mg for TLC analysis) after 15 minutes. Recrystallize from acetone, using 25 mL flask. Let it all dry and come back for evening hours. MP, yield %, and mass needs to be determined. Dissolve a small amount of benzoin, using recrystallized product and reserved crude product in ethyl acetate. Spot 2 TLC plates, with starting material, reserved crude product, recrystallized product, and a spot that contains both in the middle. Run the TLC plates in 9:1 CH­­₂Cl₂: ethanol. Add eluent to TLC developing chamber, use tweezers to carefully put the TLC plate in the chamber and screw the cap. Allow the solvent to run from the baseline to about 1cm from the top. Remove the TLC plate when it is ready marking the solvent from it and allow it to dry. Use UV light and mark them once it is all dry. Tape the plates on a sheet of the lab notebook paper or take a picture and draw into the lab notebook. 

Contact

Michael Kim

michaelkim@umass.edu

230 Thicket St.

Weymouth, MA 02190

781-708-1552

Education

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Amherst

May, 2019

Bachelor’s degree

3.3 / 4.0

Experience

AP biology tutoring in Weymouth (2015-now), learned to teach. If I can’t teach the material that means I don’t know the material so it was a good lesson to teach myself by teaching.

Quan’s Kitchen in Weymouth as a manager 08-12-14 until now, learned basically everything through this management job. Not only did I learn to deal with finance but to also please customers and coworkers which is very important skill to have.

Assistant teacher at Quincy YoungSang Korean School in high school, once again great way to learn how to teach. Learned to work with my students.

Praise team leader at Quincy First Presbyterian Church high school until now, learned to lead and being a leader and leading a group of people is a very important skill to have in any given field.

SDT sorority houseboy in Amherst This semester, served food and did dishes mostly but taught me patience and to serve others before me.

Missions Trip with my church at Mexico Junior year in high school, the kids I met here were a blessing. I learned to truly love and gave me passion to continue to serve the people in need.

Father Bill’s homeless shelter in Quincy High school until now, just like the missions trip, I learned to serve food, talk to them, and share the gospel. I think it is a skill that one must acquire in order to be successful, putting others before yourself and not being selfish.

Honors, activities, and outreach

Health award (forgot the name of the award but it was given in health class) Sophomore year in high school

Wild Cat award in Varsity basketball Senior year in high school was given for being the Most Valuable Player

Abigail Adams Scholarship Senior year in high school for doing better than average on MCAS

Zeta Beta Tau Greek fraternity Sophomore year until now

University of Massachusetts Minutemen Marching Band since freshman year until now

FTK (For the kids fundraiser) Junior year in college

Get on the ball (For children’s hospital) Sophomore year in college

Skill

Diligence, able to work at a fast pace, and ability to serve others.

I learned to work with many people and to be able to get along with them. Not only will I get the job done well but I will get it done at a fast pace. I am extremely diligent so I will not lack off. My goal is to be able to please and support others if they are in need because I love to serve others.

If only one pregnant mom and her puppies could be saved, I think that New Guinea singing dog breed should be the breed of dog that should be saved. If you are unsure why this certain breed should be the way to go, this is because they live the longest out of any living dog breeds. And you already know that dog years and human years are not the same meaning that if dogs live 10 years, it is not equivalent to humans living 10 years. New Guinea singing dog breed can live up to 18 years which is really long for dogs. Not only are they one of the rarest dog in the world, but there isn’t too many of them in this world. It is originated from New Guinea and it is well known for its singing howl. 

If we don’t take care of them, they might all die. Just because they are the longest living breed does not mean that they can just be treated without care. There’s no price that can be tagged or placed on them because they are already so rare. Research has shown that they are one of the more friendly and gentle dogs to humans. Not only will this be good to us, but for themselves. I am convinced that saving this breed can be the best solution as scientists can try to figure out a way to breed more of them or come up with a new solution, but at least we know that they are the longest living breeds so it gives us the time to come up with something.

A hydrolysis reaction using 6 M sodium hydroxide and concentrated hydrogen chloride was used to yield a final product of myristic acid at 75%.  In the chemical equation of hydrolysis one molecule of trimyristin should yield 3 molecules of myristic acid.  58 mg of trimyristin was consumed in the reaction.  The theoretical yield would be 55 mg of myristic acid and 41mg of product was collected.  This gave a fairly high yield of myristic acid.  Any of the losses seen in the experiment could be due to transfers or from not adding enough hydrogen chloride.  The melting point of the product was found to be 52-54 °C, which indicates the result of a pure product due to the literature melting point being 54 °C.

18 different members of a multigene family encoding seven transmembrane domain proteins have been identified to be involved in olfactory expression. Studies suggest detection of chemically distinct odorant result from the association of odorous ligands with specific receptors on olfactory neurons. However, the receptors themselves have yet to be identified. Olfactory sensory neurons are bipolar. Its Dendritic processes extend to the mucosal surface and give rise to a number of specialized cilia. Its axons project to the olfactory bulb of the brain towards subcortical and cortical regions for discrimination of odors. Recent experiments have yielded results and data that indicate a family of genes transducing signald via GTP-binding proteins encoding thousands of different receptors likely to only recognize a small number of odorants.

The human eye works by reacting to light and pressure and provide a three-dimensional moving image. Rod and cone cells are responsible for conscious light perception, color differentiation, and perception of depth. The approximate field of view varies by facial anatomy. As soon as the eye finds a target, it re-adjusts its exposure by adjusting the iris, which adjusts the size of the pupil. Dark adaptation takes place in approximately four seconds of profound uninterrupted darkness. Full adaptation is dependent on blood flow and therefore can be affected by many external and internal factors. 

The integrative function of the central nervous system accounts for our ability of understanding reason, being conscious, and having complex behavioral patterns and emotions. These are functions not directly related to sensory or motor inputs. Certain parts of the brain have been identified: the limbic system and the neocortex. The neocortex is a part of the mammalian brain involved in higher-order functions such as perception and spatial reasoning and is the largest part of the cerebral cortex. It is also the most developed in its organization and number of layers of all cerebral tissues. It contains both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. The limbic system is on both sides of the thalamus and supports functions like emotion, motivativation, and long-term memory. 

The physical characteristics of males and females are similar but have one distinct differences. Males and females both have an adult length of 12 inches from the tip of the rostrum to the tip of their tail, their tail only being 2 inches long and their thin, elongated rostrum reaching up to 3 inches. Relative to their length, their width is small, reaching only 2 inches across. They both have a light brown colored short hair which extends throughout their main body and head leaving the tail bare, except for a little patch of white hair which they have at the very tip of their tail that they used when hunting. However, in addition to their hair, females have a single white stripe going from neck to the base of their tail, the one only distinct visible difference. Its ears and eyes are large and contain membranes which they are able to control to prevent the sand from entering their ears and eyes. This mammal is also insectivores with small dagger like teeth and have diphyodont dentition. Being an insectivore, they have a small intestine with no cectum. The American Rhingon also have long legs with didactylous toes which have relatively long claws to be able to burrow during the day time while retaining the ability to efficiently grab prey. For this reason, locomotion is ambulatory with a plantigrade foot positioning as their main source of locomotion.

Abstract

In the spring of 2018 for our Writing in Biology class our group was tasked with preparing a research proposal that would study microclimates. Microclimates are small restricted climates that normally differ from the surrounding area. This projects main goal was to create an experiment that could be carried out by multiple group and answer a set of research questions.

Impact

The results of this experiment will provide important information on the what causes changes in physical attributes of microclimates, specifically bodies of water. It will also provide beneficial practice on how to carry a comparative experiment and produce conclusions based on the similarities and differences.