Drafts

For the straight edge, there was definitely sight of diffraction because there was light in the area in which there was supposed to be a sort of shadow region of the observed object. The intensity was less than in the other areas, but there was still light visible. For the edge/opaque disks the general existence of there being a dot in the center translated, but there was still light everywhere. For the circle, where a dark center is observed, that translated into the projection of a laser. So there was a dot in the center that was darker, but not completely light-less. Diffraction is occuring in these cases because it occurs when light bends around a sharp edge. 

The goal of this experiment is to learn how to accurately linearize nonlinear data. The nonlinear data will be extracted by looking at wavelengths of atomic spectra from hydrogren. Atomic spectra are spectral lines projected by light. The skill of being able to calculate the wavelength of an emitted photon using both initial and final quantized energy levels will also be acquired. Recognizing graphs in terms of equations and shapes, linearizing data and completing data anaylsis will all be benefiical when thinking about ones future in science. 

Enzymes work to speed up the rate of reactions. They do so by lowering the activation energy, or the energy needed to reach the transitition state. Activator and inhibitors can increase or decrease the activity of enzymes. Inhibitors decrease the activity of enzymes. They can be classified as reversible or irreversible. Reversible inhibitors are not permanent changes to the enzyme. They include: competitive, uncompetitive, mixed, and noncompetitive (which are a type of mixed). Competitive inhibitor binds to the same place as the substrate, or the active site. Inhibition can be overcome at high substrate concentrations. Vmax is not effected but Km increases. Uncompetitive inhibitors bind to the enzyme-substrate complex and cannot be overcome at high substrate concentration. Vmax and Km decrease. Mixed and noncompetitive inhibitors can bind to the enzyme or the enzyme-substrate. They decrease the Vmax and do not change the Km. Irreversible inhibitors cannot be removed from the enzyme, instead the whole protein would have to be denatured. 

My name is Ryan DiGregorio and I am a freshman here at UMass Amherst. I am on the pre-med track but my major is undecided. I am from Norton, Massachusetts which is in eastern mass. Things that I do in my spare time are usually based around sports and friends. I play baseball or another sport if my friends want, and when I’m not playing sports I am just hanging out with my friends. My favorite thing about UMass Amherst so far has been how diverse it is. My home town is small and not very diverse so this definitely something new and exciting to me. Some important strengths of my generation are staying informed and being tech savvy. Something that i think our generation needs to improve on is focusing on the future. I feel as though people focus too much on what is happening now and not what the effect on their future will be.  

The goal of this project was to great a methods and a figure from an interspecific relationship so as a classmate could recreate it. The relationship that I chose to use was between feeding time and my cat. The figures were of a photo of the cat with its food bowl, as well as a picture of the bowl itself. Many differences arose in the figures that were both from making the figure and the contents within the figure. These could easily have been qualmed if the methods that I provided were more detailed and formed better.

The actual contents of the figure showed differences to figure 1. The first and most noticeable difference would be that the cats have different markings. The cat in figure 1 had gray and black coloring with dark gray stripes. The cat in figure 2 has gray, black, white and a bit of brown. Also the hair appeared to be different as well. From these differences it's safe to make the assumption that the cats are different. This was expected as she did not come over and take pictures of specifically my cat, but this did not hamper the experiment as it should have worked with any cat. The same thing applies to the background of the photo; these pictures were taken in our apartments respectively so they were bound to be different. The evidence that lead me to this conclusion is that the flooring underneath the bowls are different, one is wood and one is tiled. Also the carpets are different colors and patterns so they rooms were different.

In the Spring of 2019 we were assigned a project in Writing in Biology as part of my undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This class was set up to challenge our writing and to make sure we wrote like true scientists. In every paper done in science the goal is to make a sure that the the experiment can be recreated and the results remain consistent time after time. One of the most important ways experiments have communicated to others is through the methods section. The methods section should explain the exact things that took place in the experiment so that someone else can recreate it.

DNA-DNA hybridization is a method used to estimate the amount of genetic changes that took place in the genome as a whole since the time at which two groups diverged from their most closest ancestor. The 4 nucleotides has 4 unique base A, C, G, and T, these base pairs would allow scientists to analyze how similar each species are to one another. Fred Sheldon was one of the pioneers to perform this experiment and he confirmed that Great Blue Heron is similar to Great Egret than American Bittern.

The Clicker question that I chose asked what characters of an atom determine the magnitude and duration of a charge. The options that were given to choose from were size, weight, density, and electronegativity. The correct answer would be electronegativity. Electronegativity is the measure of how strong the atom is attracted to its outer substituents. The higher the electronegativity the more it is attracted. So, the charge is determined by this because if an atom bonds with something that will allow it to be positive or negative and it has a high electronegativity; the atom will keep the bonds for longer. Also, the more electronegative atom will pull the electrons in the bond closer which will determine the magnitude of the charge. Size does not tell us anything about the bonds of the atom or the makeup of it so that doesn’t work as an answer. It’s the same thing for the weight, it does not tell us anything about how it will interact with other atoms. The density will tell you some about the internal forces of the atom but it has nothing to do with charge and it definitely can’t express the magnitude or duration.