Writing in Biology

Exergonic and endergonic reactions share similarities and differences. The most known definitions of exergonic and endergonic reactions is exergonic refers to a reaction that gives off energy, while endergonic reactions take in energy. Although, there is more the energy. Both reactions require for an input of activation energy and use enzymes to lower the activation energy need to complete the reaction. Also the exergonic reactions have a negative value for the Gibb’s free energy value due to the reactants having greater free energy than the products. Endergonic reactions, however, are the opposite of exergonic reactions and have a positive Gibb’s free energy value because the products have more free energy than the reactants. Exergonic reactions are more favorable and spontaneous because of the negative value while endergonic reactions are less favorable and nonspontaneous.

In an allosteric enzyme reaction the shape of the graph is sigmoidal versus a hyperbolic like Michaelis-Menten enzyme. The sigmoidal shape is because the allosteric enzyme has two forms. The T form is when the allosteric enzyme is in its inactive form. The R form is when the allosteric enzyme is in its active form. The allosteric enzyme had multiple subunits in order to make the allosteric enzyme active the binding of a substrate to one subunit of the enzyme is required. Once the substrate binds to a subunit this causing for positive cooperativity to help bind more substrates to the other subunits. This cause the conformational change of all subunits from the T form into the active R form.

I personally work in the medical field and I have been personally exposed to the struggles associated with the complexity and  shortcomings of the current system. As the wage gap continues to rise and the middle class erodes the fraction of lower to middle class citizens will only increase. As this class has historically struggled to have proper health care due to the aforementioned regulation of current insurance companies, cessation of private health insurance and the implementation of a single-payer system would likely benefit the masses, especially with emphasized focus on preventative care. Over time, this would eventually reduce the end of life costs that are the primary contributing factor to America’s atypically high expenditure.  

Despite the mounting supportive evidence, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and republican representatives have claimed that transition to universal coverage would lead to increased costs and ultimately a socialist state of health care. (Galea). However, this is a false narrative that I suspect is meant to prey on the fear of generations who existed during the cold war, where the fear of a communist-socialist superpower was ingrained. In actuality, a single-payer system is only a universal health care system, however, medicine can still be performed by private practitioners as seen in Canada. (Rice). Furthermore, physicians as well as government officials at the state level are allowed flexibility in process so long as the main goal of universal care is achieved. (Galea) In addition, Canada’s single payer system has allowed them to spend over 6% less of its GDP on health care than the United States, showing that this system is not inherently more expensive. (Martin).

While revising my knowledge for my human physiology exam, a few important anecdotes stood out to me. First of all, we learned about the relationship between cardiac output and venous return. Then we learned about the Bohr effect, a physiological phenomenon in which oxygen affinity for hemoglobi ngoes down as pH is reduced to 7.4. As a result it unloads oxgen much more easily than it does in the pulmonary system. pH then rises to bout 7.6 then affinity for oxgen increases, which allows hemoglobin to pick up oxygen. Getting rid of carbon dioxide causes a pH change in the lungs and carbon dioxide diffuses much more rapidly than oxygen. When a person is anemic, it is harder for their hemoglobin to pick up oxygen. We discussed carbon monoxide poisoning as well. Carbon monoxide has a very high affinity for hemoglobin, but no oxygen gets to the tissues when carbon monoxide poisoning is occurring. In order ot treat this, the partial pressure of oxgen must be increased because this will increase the ability of oxygen to get to hemoglobin and therefore tissues. An increase in carbon dioxide would be effective as well as it would increase ventilation rate.

Exergonic reactions are similar and different than endergonic reactions. The basic definitions most people remember about exergonic and endergonic reactions is exergonic refers to a reaction that gives off energy, while endergonic reactions take in energy. Although, there is more the energy. Both reactions require for an input of activation energy and use enzymes to lower the activation energy need to complete the reaction. Also the exergonic reactions have a negative value for the Gibb’s free energy value due to the reactants having greater free energy than the products. Endergonic reactions, however, are the opposite of exergonic reactions and have a positive Gibb’s free energy value because the products have more free energy than the reactants. Exergonic reactions are more favorable and spontaneous because of the negative value while endergonic reactions are less favorable and nonspontaneous.

I took an introductory to statistics course in Spring of 2015. I was a freshman at the time therefore I don't remember quite a lot except for the big group project we had to do. Basic statistical concepts that I do remember learning were mean, median and mode. I also learned a lot of survey-taking and then incorporating that raw data into some type of graph. I remember learning about skews and bias that might not be noticed at first glance of the graph. Since this was a team-based learning course, towards the end of the semester the big group project we had to do wrapped up all the concepts we learned in class. There was a scientific work with a large collection of data from which we selected two-three variables (such as smoking, stroke, and exercise). Then, formed a hypothesis, and used all the equations we learned in class to "test" or "prove" our hypothesis without actually doing any type of experiment. We displayed the data in circle graphs, bar graphs and other forms of tables. It was a great learning experience overall considering how bad I was at AP statistics in high school. This type of knowledge became very useful in my science classes because it is easy to spot some bias and skewing of data in some research. For instance, the values on the x-axis may go from 0.1-0.2-0.3, etc and the line on the graph may appear to be at a very steep slope but the x-values are so small that there appears to be no correlation at all.

This article discusses the similarities between the two bacteria that cause Lyme disease and Syphilis. The main similarity between the two bacteria is that they both use a tail in order to move within their respective environments. The peculiar thing about the tails and what makes this similarity so interesting is that the tails of teach bacteria are actually located inside their bodies. The similarities don’t stop there though, both bacteria are spirochetes, meaning they have a corkscrew-like configuration, they are also both exceptionally active in their environments for bacteria. The tails of these bacteria rotate causing torque and movement of the bacteria. Overall this embedded tail design allow the bacteria to penetrate walls and environments that non-spirochetes cannot penetrate. This provides an evolutionary advantage, some specific examples of this advantage is the ability of the Lyme disease bacteria to penetrate the blood brain barrier to infect the CNS and the ability of Syphilis to penetrate the placenta and infect an unborn child.

There is no scientifically accepted research that shows that humans have stopped evolving. Evolution is certainly still occurring and will continue to occur in humans. Humans exhibit differences in reproductive success, which directly leads to evolution. Humans still face challenges to survival as well, and exhibit variation in heritable traits, all characteristics of evolution. Some of the confusion on this topic likely arises because modern humans have not existed for an extensive period of time, evolutionarily speaking. Many of humanities most esteemed innovations have happened in the past decade or century, merely a few generations at most. However, no innovation will change the fact that humans exhibit varying reproductive success and challenges to survival, the components of evolution.

There was also the discussion of using a silibinin which inhibits non-small cell lung cancer metastasis by targeting a pathway known as the EGFR/LOX pathway. When LOX is inhibited it could lead to a collagen cross-linking deficiency, however, when upregulated can promote metastasis of existing tumors.  It permits for cancer cells to move and inhabit a new environment. This means we could draw out attention to LOX and its role in lung adenocarcinoma patients. The drug silibinin and EGFR inhibitor was able to inhibit NSLC cell migration and decrease tumor metastasis through a EGFR/LOX dependent manner. From the journal article, “Silibinin Inhibits NSCLC Metastasis by Targeting the EGFR/LOX Pathway,” LOX is controlled by HIF-1α under a state of deprived oxygen and is prompted by TGF-β in cancer cells