Writing in Biology

Light is made up of photons. Photons, much like electrons, have are both wave and particle at once. However, the difference between them is that a photon does not have any mass, but electrons do. Once a single photon or elecron is released from its source, it instantaneously changes its behavior as a particle and becomes a wave. Waves do interact with themselves, and as it turns out, so do photons and electrons. Waves will combine and change its amplitude in certain locations, but once the wave has an interaction with another material, the wave all at once becomes a particle. An analogy to this duality is observed in viruses, the debate continues between whether a virus is or is not a living organism. It has characteristics of both living and non-living things. For example, it reproduces with genetic material, however, it does not metabolize. Like so, photons and electrons share properties of both waves and particles.

The hydrophobic effect is something that I did not understand until recently. Essentially what the hydrophobic effect states, is that hydrophobic molecules will clump together in an aqueous (water) environment. This is because by nature water prefers to be in a state of high entropy, meaning a highly disordered system. When hydrophobic molecules in water the water can not interact with them and the water molecules start to form ordered cages around the hydrophobic molecules. Water does not want to do this because that means that the system is more ordered. In response to this, water forces the hydrophobic molecules to clump together so that in total there is less surface area created by the hydrophobic molecules. This means that less water molecules will be taking part in making the ordered cage around the clump of hydrophobic molecules and since less water molecules are ordered the overall disorder (entropy) of the system is significantly higher. The hydrophobic molecules themselves are not what cause the clumping, rather it is the nature of the water molecules.

The hydrophobic effect is something that is very interesting and that I didn’t understand until recently. Essentially what the hydrophobic effect states is that hydrophobic molecules will clump together in an aqueous environment. This is because water like high entropy, or high disorder, something that nature favors. When there are hydrophobic molecules in water the water can’t interact with them and start to form ordered cages around the molecules. Water doesn’t want to do this because that means that it is more ordered. In response to this water clumps the hydrophobic molecules so that there is less surface area. This means that less water molecules will be taking part in making the ordered cage around the molecule and since less water molecules are ordered the overall disorder (entropy) of the system is significantly higher. So the hydrophobic molecules themselves aren’t what cause the clumping it is the nature of the water molecules. It is the opposite with hydrophilic molecules. Most hydrophilic molecules have an ionic nature to them. Water can interact with this bond and break it apart. Water then forms a shell around the free atom. This allows water to stay disordered. You can see this in instances when you put salt or sugar into water, the molecules dissolve and appear to become part of the liquid.

The vagus nerve is a long cranial nerve that connects the whole body. The cranial nerve is important for waking and alertness. When it is disrupted there could be consequences to maintaining the stability of sleeping and alertness. The experiment involved a person who was in a vegetative state for 15 years. The vagus nerve was stimulated and it was found that there was an increase in attention and movement in the brain. The subject was also able to follow objects with his eyes. Further stimulation of the brain caused an increase in the amount of brain activity. Using a PET scan to measure the brain, it was found that with each stimulation the brain was “awakened” more and more. The increases were found to be in the parieto-occipital cortex (vision), thalamus (sending information to areas of the brain) and the striatum (voluntary motor control).

    Parenting is without a doubt one of the most difficult and ambiguous phases of life. For a lot of people, parenting does not come easily for them. Not many parents get the privilege to take a couple child psychology courses in high school or college, or even get the chance to be prepared to be parents in some cases. It’s difficult to have the patience to deal with children, or to deal with the idea that you have to compromise on “their level” in certain cases. The entirety of parenting ranges a huge spectrum of different problems and situations that it cannot possibly be entirely encompassed within a crash course of any sort. Because there’s no way to “cheat” when parenting, no one knows how to do it perfectly. It’s almost like as if it’s a craft that does not have a single perfect craftsmen, and everyone has their own ways of doing things.

Apoptosis can be activated through two pathways: intrinsic and extrinsic. When the cell is under stress, intracellular signals are released from the mitochondria, activating the intrinsic pathway. The extrinsic pathway's activation relies on ligands binding to extracellular death receptors. In the intrinsic pathway, second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases (SMACs) proteins are released into the cytosol and bind to proteins that inhibit apoptosis (IAPs), which inhibits them. Caspases can then be activated and apoptosis can proceed. Cytochrome c is also released from the mitochondria and binds to apoptotic protease activating factor 1 (APAF-1) and procaspase 9 to form the apoptosome, which subsequently activates caspase 3. The extrinsic pathway can be activated through TNF as well as Fas signaling, two pathways that activate transcription factors as well as caspases involved in the inflammatory response and apoptosis.

A french fry follows a certain track to be digested. The french fry starts in the mouth when the person eats the fry. The teeth digest the french fry by cutting it into smaller pieces. The saliva is also working to break down the starches in the fry. In the esophagus, peristalsis is used to push the fry down to the stomach. In the stomach, the muscles churn the fry and mix the fry with pepsin and hydrochloric acid and make it into a liquid. The small intestine then mixes the french fry with enzymes and bile. The large intestine is where the leftover water is absorbed. Then finally comes the rectum and anus where the french fry is able to leave the body.

In this study it was found that when one consumes alcohol there is a receptor that is blocked in the brain that is used to form memories. That receptor is blocked for a certain amount of time which is why that person is incapable of making memories when they drink. A somatic intervention was used. Which means that something was changed and a behavior was observed. In this case, a chemical was used that was found in alcohol on animals. That chemical blocked the receptors and the animals were unable to form any memories. The only reason it worked was because alcohol could cross the blood brain barrier. The blood brain barrier is the barrier around the blood vessels in the brain which keep out the toxins in the blood from interfering with the neurons. Ethanol was able to cross the blood brain barrier and with that, affecting the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for making memories. Another important part in making memories is the long term potentiation (LTP). It is when two neurons join together at the synapses and when it joins it become more vulnerable to stimuli. Which is how that memory is formed and maintained.

The difference between something that is cooked, and raw depends on the state of the protein. When something is cooked, proteins inside the cell are denatured from the proteins. Heat is a major component used to denature proteins to change the physical state of a compound. Because heat is usually released into the environment, it is almost impossible to renature a cell because the lost heat cannot be absorbed again. However, UC Irvine found a new approach to renature a protein to reverse the direction of the physical state. Urea, a chemical used for renaturation is a compound found in livers, that are soluble and produce ammonia to deaminate amino acids in the body. It is a waste product, but the characteristics of urea allows the denatured protein to renature.

I walked from the front entrance of Morril 3 down the stair case that was slightly left and across the street. Once on the sidewalk, I turned right. After taking 8 steps, I veered left and walked down the hill towards a tree. I positioned myself facing the side of the tree that was labled "black oak". Then I took a step to my left and squatted down about six inches from the tree. Keeping my back at a 90 degree angle to the ground, I took a picture of the moss holding my camera tilted downward at about a 45 degree angle. Then I stood back up and took half a step to my right. Still about 6 inches away, I took a picture of the tree with the left edge of the "black oak" sign lining up with middle of the camera screen and vertically centered. Then I squatted back down and took a close up picture of the brightest section of moss right in front of me. I took this picture with the camera about 1 inch away from the tree.