Drafts

Between the moving from the crude product to the recrystallized product, there is a 50% loss product. This could potentially be improved because it shows that product was lost during the recrystallization process. Acetone as a solvent could be used to increase the percent yield. A solvent that has a higher boiling point would allow the product more time to cool and more time to recrystalize. Ethanol has an even higher boiling point than acetone and could also be used as a better solvent for recrystallization.

This science may not be grounded in reality but I just saw something about the walking dead pop up on snapchat and it got me thinking. I mean the walking dead is supposed to take place over years. There is no way that zombies would still be around, they are dead so there is no cell division and no bodily up keep. Just the weather alone would cause the zombies to just dissolve. If not environmental factors the zombies walking and bumping into things that cause cuts would add up. That one cut would grow and grow until it completely separates the zombie. Then we can think about the bacterial cells that would be invading the zombies. These cells would degrade the rotting flesh and cause the zombies to diminish at an even faster rate. Another zombie scenario is in world war z. Zombies travel into the sea and live at the bottom of the ocean. There is just absolutely no way that these could even be remotely possible. The pressure alone would cause the zombies to pancake and I would imagine that the salt water would degrade their flesh. Also all the animals in the ocean that would pick away at them because they couldn’t react quick enough.

Located in the drainage basin of the Amazon River,  the Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest (“The Amazon Basin Forest”, n.d.). It is mostly a lowlands forest with some mountainous areas, and it has more biodiversity than any other single area on the planet. It is hot, humid, and very damp (Butler, 2017), and although some areas have a “rainy” season and a “dry” season, there is rainfall year round, often created by the rainforest itself from the large amounts of transpiration and moisture from the rainfall which add to the local humidity and form cloud cover (Butler, 2017). The Amazon rainforest is stratified and is primarily evergreen, with huge trees that have smooth trunks and widespread roots (“Amazon Forest Ecology”, n.d.). Most rainforest life is congregated in the canopy, a dense ceiling of closely spaced branches and trees 25-30 m off the ground that is constantly abuzz with activity. Above the canopy are the few emergent trees that can reach up to 60 m, while below in the sub-canopy are the trees that grow towards the light openings in the canopy, and in the understory below that are the small trees and shrubs that are adapted to low-light conditions (“Amazon Forest Ecology”, n.d.). The bottom layer is the forest floor,  full of tree trunks, fungi, and low-growing vegetation (Butler, 2012), and it is here, deep in the rainforest, that Mycospondylus mesanyctus spends its days. Named for the mushroom-like growths on its back, the “moon” on its forehead, its blue-black coloration, and its nocturnal lifestyle, Mycospondylus mesanyctus—the Mushroom-Spined Midnight cat—is commonly known as the “Midnight Cat”.

Sanguivory is a challenging food source: it is mostly liquid which can overwhelm the kidneys and bladder, it contains a lot of protein, there is a risk of it carrying blood-borne pathogens, etc. To cope with these challenges, vampire bats have evolved microbiomes that are highly specialized to face these challenges. Although the common vampire bat has a gut microbiome that is taxonomically more similar to insectivorous and carnivorous bats than to frugivorous (fruit-eating) bats, and although insectivorous, carnivorous, and frugivorous bats all have similarly functioning gut microbiomes, vampire bats have gut microbiomes that are unique. A study on “Hologenomic adaptations underlying the evolution of sanguivory in the common vampire bat” (Mendoza et al. 2018) suggests that the function of the microbiome may be influenced more by phylogeny than taxonomy, and that the vampire bat’s gut microbiome is specialized for its highly specific diet.

Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) was not used as a reducing agent because it reacts too violently with the benzoin. For this experiment, changing the reducing agent from NaBH4 to LiAlH4 would not have caused an increase in the amount of conserved product. The use of NaBH4 showed that benzoin was completely reduced. Spot (C) on the TLC plates shows that there is a separation between the starting material and the product, therefore the starting material is not the same as the product. A more polar product is shown due to the differences in the Rf values, which confirms that the product is 1,2-diphenylethane-1,2 diol because the mechanism shows that the starting material is less polar than the product. After the benzoin is reduced, the hydrochloric acid protonated the oxygen ion. Adding more hydrochloric acid to the solution could make it so that the oxygen ion is more efficiently pronated, which would yield a higher product yield.

Losses from invasive species arise when there is a decrease in agricultural yield, loss of biodiversity, and an increased spending on herbicides and pesticides used to control the invasive species. Identifying the extent to which agricultural yield, loss of biodiversity, and the amount of labour or money used to control the plants identifies where the threat is coming from. With knowledge on the invader's impact, we will potentially pinpoint the source of greatest loss and manage the problem accordingly. This would potentially protect our food sources, our local environment, as well as reduce our spending on maintaining the environment.

Gram stains are a very basic technique that can be used in the lab to help identify a type of bacterial cell. The process is very easy. First you want to streak a little bit of your sample on to a microscope slide. If the sample is liquid this is fine but if the sample is solid you must first add a drop of water to the slide to make sure that you can spread your sample out on the slide. Once this smear dries you can then heat fix it by passing the slide through a flame very briefly two times. You then apply a few drops of crystal violet to the slide and let them sit there for one minute. After the minute is up wash off the crystal violet with water. Next you repeat this process with Iodine. Next you place a few drops of ethanol on the slide and let them sit for 10 seconds. This washes away any previous stain done. Next you add safranin which is a differential part of the stain. Any gram negative cells will appear as pink, the color of safranin and any gram positive cells will appear as purple because they retained the purple color from the first round of stains.  

Aneuploidy usually alters the phenotype drastically. In most animals and many plants, aneuploidies are lethal. Because aneuploidy affects the number of gene copies, but not their nucleotide sequences, the effects of aneuploidy are most likely due to abnormal gene dosage. Aneuploidy alters the dosage for some, but not all, genes, disrupting the relative concentrations of gene products and often interfering with normal development.  A major exception to the relation between gene number and gene dosage pertains to genes on the mammalian X chromosome. In mammals, X-chromosome inactivation ensures that males (who have a single X chromosome) and females (who have two X chromosomes) receive the same functional dosage for X-linked genes for further discussion of X-chromosome inactivation).