The History of a Carbon Atom

    There are so many things that I don't know about myself.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to dance, I don't know if I'll ever be able to get through a screening of The Titanic without crying, and until a fe weeks ago I had no idea of how much a carbon atom does.
    After learning about carbon atoms in my Honors Biology class I became curious.  So that night I decided to try to talk to a carbon atom.  After saying hello a few times one currently residing in my hand finally spoke up.  I had no idea of what I was about to learn.
   Little Carbon Junior had been in my hand for a few days now, and compared to his other adventures my hand was probably pretty boring.   C.J. told me of his experience in working with ATP and NADPH during the process of photosynthesis.  ATP and NADPH are notoriously rude molecules, so when C.J. found himself in a sunflower in August of 1939 he was pleasantly surprised at NADPH and ATP's welcoming and positive attitudes.  Together, the three of them produced glucose for the sunflower.
   C.J. then told me about how neglected he often felt.  After being used in photosynthesis poor little Carbon Junior was simply tossed aside as a waste product.  After this happens he often just floats around the world.  Once when he was in London he found himself inside the body of the queen of England!  Queenie never even thanked him for participating in her cellular respiration.  She obviously didn't know how important carbon atoms become when produced in the Krebs Cycle.
     After hearing about all of the mitochondria and stromas little C.J. had lived in I became curious.  So of course I asked him how he wound up inside of me?  C.J. just laughed and said that I should really be more careful about what I eat.  Apparently I picked up my new friend while eating grass outside of Kehaya.  I made C.J. promise not to tell anyone else about that story.
    I had assumed that C.J. would keep his promise, but then a signed copy of his biography appeared on my front porch.  I wouldn't want to spoil such a good read for you, so I'll just tell you one thing.  Queen Elizabeth is probably much more angry than I am...

      The BioBunnies had our second plot visit on November 8, 2012.  It was a rainy and frigid day.  Despite the rain, there were no mushrooms.  We did however, discover two new types of moss!  The Arborist, Ana and I took measurements of all of the trees.  Two trees have become dead since our last visit, but most of them have had some growth.  Mrs. Lawrence, our teacher, showed us where many acorns were open and all around our plot.  I wonder if maybe there is a squirrel living on our plot.  I hope that next visit we will discover more information about life on our plot.

Cell's R Us Blog Post

    In our Honors Biology class we were each assigned an organelle of a cell to create a blown up replica of it for a giant cell created by our teacher, Mrs. Lawrence.  Sitting inside the giant cell that used to be our classroom we provided descriptions of the organelles we all recreated.  I created a 180 by 260 centimeter Central Vacuole.  It stores water and other materials the cell needs.
   Since the Central Vacuole is only found in plant cells I am assuming that the cell Mrs. Lawrence made was a plant cell.
   My organelle, the Central Vacuole was by far the largest, while the ribosomes were the smallest.
   If you were to look at a cell under a microscope you probably wouldn't have any trouble seeing the Central Vacuole!
I was very surprised by how small the other vacuoles were compared to the Central Vacuole!  Being relatively similar to each other, I had assumed that the other vacuoles would be almost as big as the Central Vacuole.




Here is a picture of a Central Vacuole:

Enzyme Lab Reflection

In our Honors Biology class we were divided into groups of three and given a question we had to use an experiment created by our group to answer. My group consisted of me, Thomas, and Simi. Our question was, "Can enzymes be reused?" Knowing that pouring hydrogen peroxide on a potato would cause a chemical reaction we devised a plan. We put three of the same size cubed potato in two different test tubes. We then proceeded to pour a constant amount of 10 ml's into each tube. After sixty seconds had gone by we recorded our results by measuring the amount of foam in each tube. After doing this we emptied the tubes of all hydrogen peroxide, leaving the potato in the tubes. We then repeated the experiment three times and recorded the amount of foam for each test tube. The first time through the amount of foam in both tubes was around two centimeters. The second time the amount of foam greatly decreased to about 0.5 centimeters. The third and final time through the amount of foam was around 0.2 centimeters. Judging by our results, our group made the conclusion that while enzymes can be reused, they do not work as efficiently in producing a chemical reaction.

Plot Reflection

Our Biology class was recently given the task of recording data of a plot of land in the woods over the next school year. There are three other members in my group, the Biobunnies. Ana De las Cruz is our Arborist, she records the length and circumference of all trees on our plot. Our naturalist, Thomas Watts records all non tree related objects in our plot, such as mushrooms, flowers, acorns, etc. Our leader, Ali Fazal does a great job of delegating duties and making sure that everyone is getting their job done! I am the photographer, I help give our readers, classmates, and professor an idea of the growth happening in our plot through pictures I take each month. Our plot is located off the trail right infront of a small pond. So far, we've only had one plot visit day. On this day I spent most of my time taking pictures in different angles and helping Ana record the data of our trees. Most of our trees were under five feet. I saw many similarities regarding height, circumference, and leaf type. We have a lot of brown, dry, dead leaves covering the ground of our plot. I can't wait to see how our plot will develop and change over the course of the next few months! If you would like to watch our plot through pictures and other member's blogs click on this link to our wikispaces page!

Mushroom Blog Posts

A couple of days ago I went on a mushroom foray. I was able to collect two polypore mushrooms. I consider fungi to be one of the most interesting organisms because not only are they some of the world's best decomposers, but they're also extremely diverse in where they live. The three most known types of fungi are molds, mushrooms, and yeast. An interesting fact that holds true for all fungi is how they obtain their food, they absorb it form their surroundings. Because mushrooms are fruiting bodies when picked they do not die. Mushrooms are commonly found after it rains on the ground, in trees, and on trails. When going on a mushroom foray make sure to be aware of your surroundings. When collecting mushrooms it's important to look for spores and the shape of the cap. Also be sure to record where the mushroom was growing, it's location can give a lot of information. It's also good to make comparisons. For example, one of my mushrooms resembled a potato and we determined that it was an Inonotus rheades. Spore prints show the color of the mushroom's spores. Collecting a spore print is a fairly easy process and I've posted a link to a youtube video explaining this. The biggest problem our group had when identifying mushrooms were their similarities. For example, we picked up a small brown mushroom and could not identify it because it didn't have any distinguishing characteristics. When identifying a mushroom it's important to note the location, the color, size, cap and stem type, and it;s spore color. All of these characteristics play important roles in the identification process. This experience has taught me that when collecting organisms to identify the bigger the better. I found that it is much easier to identify a giant orange mushroom than a tiny brown one. Something I found interesting is that when searching for mushrooms you must venture off of the beaten path. You're much more likely to find an interesting mushroom in the woods than you are on a well worn trail. Spore Print Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fNHTmNy5to

Did Birds Really Derive From Dinosaurs?

The possibility that birds derived from dinosaurs has been under argument for years now. I personally believe that the two reptiles have too many similarities for them to not be related. Aside from their physical descriptions, dinosaurs and birds also use their clawed hands to obtain food. But these are only two vague examples, and not enough to support my theory. I plan on filling the next three paragraphs with information that will help you come to the same conclusion I’ve come to. Starting with their teeth and expanding to their forelimbs, the common day bird resembles the now extinct dinosaur. They have flexible wrists, clawed hands, hollow bones, holes in their skulls, strap like shoulder blades, and many more features that the dinosaur once had. I know what you’re thinking. How can an extinct animal be ancestor to a living creature? Well, I’m not saying that the two animals are closely related. In fact, this is where Darwin’s theory of evolution comes into play. Basically, animals evolve over time. Sometimes to better fit in with their environment, but most of the time there is no explanation. Think about how different we are from our ancestors, known as cavemen. Isn’t it essentially the same thing? Over billions of years things have changed, this includes animals. As you can probably see, it’ll be a long time before anyone can really know for sure whether or not birds derived from dinosaurs. Although nothing is set in stone, I believe that birds, while probably not closely related, have derived from dinosaurs. And while I have no way of really being sure of anyone else’s opinion, I can only hope that after reading my article you can at least see my point and understand my reasoning.

Is it Alive? Reflection Blog Post

1.  What pieces of technology used by biologists did you use? How did they help your investigation?
Answer: In the process of discovering whether or not my organism was living we used a microscope, a wet mount slide, and bromothymol blue.  The microscope was used to look for cells, we had to use a wet mount slide in order to do this.  And the bromothymol was used to see whether or not our organism could produce Co2

2.  What problems did you encounter during your investigation?  What solutions did you come up with?
Answer: When we first began our project we wanted to see whether or not our organism could reproduce.  However, we found that it would take too much time and were not able to go through with the experiment.  We changed our questions.

3.  If you could change how you collected data, how would you change it?
Answer:  I would probably keep a neater chart.  I've discovered that when it comes to recording data charts usually work best.

4.  What were the independent variables in your investigation?
Answer: Our independent variables were the bromothymol blue, water, and soil. (different experiments)

5.  What were the dependent variables of your investigation?
Answer: Our organism.

6.  Did you use controls in your investigation?  What were they?
Answer: We only had one control, it was a dry cup with our organism in it.  We also kept it out of direct sunlight.

7.  Did you use a stimulus to elicit a response?  If yes, describe how.
Answer: We used saltwater, freshwater, and soil.  We used them to see how our organism responded to different environments.

8.  Would you consider your conclusion to be a hypothesis, theory, or fact? Why?
Answer:  Considering that our organism did not produce Co2, didn't react to environments, or have cells I believe that our conclusion of it being non living is a fact.

9.  What did you learn from this lab that you will apply to future labs?
Answer:  You should always keep your data neat and accurate.  Also, finish ahead of time so that your group has time to prepare to present.


To look at our presentation simply click on the link below
http://www.slideshare.net/vesselym16/is-it-alive-14179689?from=share_email