Drafts

The data compares the absorbance levels of the experimental group exposed to purple light and the control group exposed to natural light over the course of 30 minutes, samples taken at 10 minutes intervals. Looking at the data collected, usually the samples exposed to purple light have higher absorbance levels. In Table 1, which displays all control group data, the control group contains lower averages of absorbance levels at 0 minutes as compared to Table 2, which displays experimental data under purple light, containing higher averages of absorbance levels at 0 minutes. For example, in the sample containing chloroplasts plus light for both groups, the experimental group average at 0 minutes was 0.827 AU, which is higher than the control group average at 0 minutes which was 0.67 AU. However as time reaches 30 minutes, these results seem to flip, where at 30 minutes, the control group absorbance levels are higher on average among all samples than the experimental group. This is displayed in Tables 1 and 2, where for instance in the sample containing chloroplasts plus light for both groups, the absorbance level of the control group at 30 minutes was 0.67 AU, which is significantly higher than the experimental group at 30 minutes which yielded an absorbance of 0.055 AU. These results coincide with the graphs, as in Figures 1, 2, and 4, the experimental group starts off with a higher absorbance level at 0 minutes than the control group, then is shown to decrease over the course of 30 minutes, while the control group increases in absorbance levels over time.

    Walking through the COOP, there is an abundance of different books and novels that a person can choose to read. Yet even though there is debatably thousands, if not tens of thousands of books in the store, how does a passerby choose what to read? Which book to pick up? In the end, it all comes down to what grabs the attention of the shopper. Is it the interesting choice of font on the cover? Or the size of the book? What about where the book is located in the shop, and who is the one who decides which books to promote and which ones should get less “seen time”? It’s unfortunate because there is a lot of incredibly deep and interesting literature that is available, but because as humans who care about their time, we rely on heuristics and shortcuts in order to shorten the time that’s required to reach a reward (in this case, a good book) that provides a beneficial use of our time. Is that really the best way for us to figure out what to read?

The universe is diverse and vast including planets, galaxies, stars, moons, and most evidently, the sun. The gravitational center of the universe resides in the sun, which is the center of the solar system. The gravitational forces from the sun execute the positions of planets in their orbits that orbit the sun. In addition, the sun constantly emits heat as the surface of plasma is 5,800 degrees kelvin. The heat comes from the sun’s core made up of mostly hydrogen that contains about a third of the sun’s mass. Hence, the temperature is even higher of about 15,000,000 degrees kelvin. Within the core, the hydrogen turns into helium, which then causes a fusion that results in heat escaping the surface of the sun. This heat escapes the sun as electromagnetic radiation that heats the earth’s surface when the waves hit. The radiation includes waves from infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light. The ultraviolet component can be correlated to the causes of sun damage and skin cancer.

The experiment of unboiling an egg was performed to reconstruct the UC Irvine’s egg experiment. The fascinating idea of unboiling an egg mesmerized my research group to repeat the procedure provided by UC Irvine with some modifications to visually understand the denaturation and renaturation of proteins through an egg. The experiment was carried out for about a month renaturing the protein by using a chemical called Urea. The boiled egg did dissolve into solution, and had reversed its state into a raw egg. Then the egg was placed into the gel electrophoresis to separate the protein and the molecular weight to compare it with the raw egg that has never been cooked yet.

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 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.