Semester Ending

My favorite activity this semester was the kimchi lab, i liked this lab because it was really interesting and kind of like cooking. Even though it really smelled i was pretty interested because i have been dying to try some Korean food. Another thing is that i have always been curious about fermentation. It was really fun mixing all the ingredients and it seemed like home ed class.  My least favorite activity was the karaoke project, i really don't like standing in front of the class and singing because i know my voice is horrible. Moreover my lyrics sounded really weird and confusing.Not only that my group practiced a lot but we hadn't thought of practicing together so we weren't singing in sync. The thing that i would change about this semester if i could re-do it would be reading the textbook. Throughout most of the semester i hadn't really had a chance to sit down and actually read the book and try to understand it. Another thing is i would want to change is the quizzes, if i had taken the time to really read the book then maybe most of my quiz scores would be better. In addition,(i know its more than one, so many regrets) i would like to re-do the karaoke project, improving the text and maybe singing louder (>////<) .

http://www.eagleswings1959.blogspot.com/

Blog 13 Crimes vs DNA (:O)

 
 DNA has changed the way we investigate crimes, it has made it easier to find the culprit and solve hard cases about the cause of death or murder. Now detectives can take DNA from a suspect killer and DNA from the victim or from the person murdered. From there the detectives can test the DNA on the suspect and the DNA on the victim to see if they match. If the DNA matches then the case moves up another notch and the police is one step closer to catching the person who committed the crime. For example, if a person was murdered the detectives would try to collect as much DNA samples that could be found on the person. A piece of hair or even a piece of skin could lead to the killer, if the victim had put up a fight and scratched the murder before dying then the detectives would be able to take the skin samples from under the nails and extract the DNA from the skin sample and use it to match it with a possible suspect. DNA can be left anywhere like fingerprints, in another case a handgun was left so the police and detectives were able to collect the DNA left on the handgun and matched it to the one in the database and soon they found a match and led to the arrest. If it was an angry killer, detectives might even be able to find DNA in the victims eyes, because there might be saliva inside or on the face where some of the spit may have landed. They could easily find if the spit is of the victim or of another person by comparing it to the saliva from the victims mouth. The two main DNA test are called RFLP and PCR. Before DNA was discovered it was hard for detectives to catch a criminal because the only way was to find evidence from a set up or catching the curpit repeating the crime. Now thanks to DNA detectives have a slightly  easier job. RFLP is a sequence of DNA that ends with a target and a sequence between, PCR is a DNA amplifier.

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/courses/genomics/method/RFLP.html

http://www.maxanim.com/genetics/PCR/PCR.htm

Blog 12 Mendel's Pea Plant Experiment

In one experiment about Pea plants were Mendel cross-pollinated smooth yellow pea plants with the wrinkly green pea plant. The first generation pea crop or f1 was yellow and round as its yellow and round parent. During the cross-pollination the yellow pea parent somehow dominated the green pea plant thus the yellow pea children. This experiment resulted to Mendel discovering the two types of traits-dominant and recessive. For this experiment the dominant trait was yellow and round because they had been the result in the children pea plant. The inheritance of each trait is determined by units or factors now later called as genes. When Mendel tried the experiment again, this time using the result of the parent generation- all yellow and all round and pollinating it with a self pollinated grown up plant(f2). However this time the result was of yellow and green pea crops. Biological inheritance is determined by factors that are passed from one generation to the next.The principle of dominance states that some alleles are dominant and others are recessive. Organisms with dominant allele for a particular form of a trait will always exhibit that form of the trait.

http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/mendelexperiments.html

http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

Blog 11 A Child's Traits

My opinion on whether or not parents should be able to pick the traits of their babies or not is no. It may be because i havent had to face the fears of having a disable child or faceing the fact that the child wouldnt be able to persue their dreams because of their traits. However, my opinion is still no the parents shouldnt be able to choose the traits of their child no matter how much they want their child to be the best. I think is should like in the movie for vincent, be left to fate. If parent were able to choose their childs trait it would change the view of the world by a lot. First of all it just doesnt seem natural to have a child with traits that were chosen no by chance or luck. The child may be young and not yet able to make desions for themselves but it is still a human and being able to pick how to make a child just doesnt seem humane. Everyone will end up the same and with no diversity since not many parents will choose a bad triat for their child. With that everything like the job types will change. With all the good traits all children will be able to get the job they want but the competition will increase since all of them have good traits. There wont be a middle class or higher class anymore with everyone the same. We would be increasing the problems in the daily like too, if parents were able to arrange the traits there would be a new super race of humans, and likely a higher risk that some people with bad ideas would try to take advantage of it to hurt or threat innocents. The human race is already powerful as it is, enough power to wreck the animal kingdom. Adding the super race would wreck even more of the world, we humans are already killing the world by our inventions.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5386957_inherited-traits-parents.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/277/5325/494.abstract
http://www.futurefoundation.org/documents/The_Human_Impact_on_Planet_Earth.pdf

How to Make Yogurt

While not required, this step will save you time, and ensure consistent results every time out. Further, it prevents you from scalding the milk, which will ruin your yogurt.

• Place larger pot in sink
• Place smaller pot inside it
• Fill larger pot until water line goes about half way up the side of smaller pot

You could probably skip this step, but since you need to bring your water to a boil anyway, it removes any possibility of contamination.

• Place your thermometer and spoon in the large pot of water
• Place smaller pot upside down over larger pot
• Heat water until boiling

If you do not have a set of pots that fit inside each other, you could heat the milk directly, but you will need to watch it and stir constantly. With the water jacket approach, you simply:

• Place the smaller pot into the larger pot of boiling water
• Carefully pour your milk into the smaller pot
• Clip your thermometer to the rim of the smaller pot

You want the milk to reach 185°F to prepare the milk proteins for yogurt culture production. If you do not have a thermometer, this is also the temperature at which milk begins to froth, like in a latte.

• Keep water boiling
• Stir frequently

110°F is the temperature at which yogurt cultures reproduce themselves. You could wait for the milk to cool on its own, but this is much faster and more efficient.

• Carefully place pot of milk in cold water bath
• Stir occasionally

Pitch simply means to add, and comes from the world of brewing. Brewers pitch yeast to make alcohol, you'll pitch yogurt to make more yogurt!

• Pour your 2-3 Tbs of yogurt into your 110°F milk

This step requires that the yogurt remain warm, and undisturbed. A heating pad in a quiet corner works best.

• Stir milk well to distribute yogurt you just pitched
• Cover with lid
• Set heating pad to medium and place on a cutting board
• Place pot of pitched milk on top
• Cover with a dish towel

Now that you have patiently waited seven hours, it is time to see what you have made.

• Remove from heating pad and uncover yogurt
• Use a spatula to see that milk has curdled (see picture)
• Stir vigorously to mix curds in with liquid
• Carefully pour yogurt into container(s)
• Cover with tight fitting lid(s)
• Place yogurt in the coldest part of your refrigerator
• Wait overnight

Yogurt contains lactic cultures that digest mile sugar lactose and convert it to lactic acid. The presence if lactic acid, produced during the lactic acid fermentation is responsible for the sour taste in original yogurt. However it improves the stability and safety of foods. The lactic acid caused the characteristic curd to form. It restricts the growth of food poisoning bacteria. It converts carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or orgainic acid using yeasts, bacteria or a combination of under anaerobic conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentation_%28food%29
http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/make-yogurt/what-you-need

Goverment involvement with disease control

I dont think the Government shouldn't be that involved with the isolation of people with dangerous infectious diseases. My opinion is based on the movie the Outbreak where I saw how the government treated the people who might of had the deadly disease. For example, when some of the people from the small town tried to escape because they couldnt take the confusion anymore the army shot them down. Not only that they shot it right in front of a family of children. I think that was a little over the top. Another thing is when the the Government decided to make a black out or kill everyone in that small town. This decision was made without the towns peoples knowledge and also when there was a chance that there could be a cure that could help the people. Sometimes the government only cares about the security of the nation and not about the feelings of the people living in the nation. It isn't because the government is coldhearted its because sometimes when the whole world is at stake people panic and don't try to find another solution. They just take the first route out of the mess before they  think about the consequenses. However more times than not people react for their own needs. In the Outbreak the goverment were not thinking about the towns people they where thinking about protecting their secret of a weapon. So my opinion is that no the goverment shouldnt be involved in the process of isolating people they should hand that over to the people who know the facts and dangers of what is at stake. Those people would be the doctors and scientist who know about viruses and other biohazards through and through. I dont think the army had to be involved with isolation, i think the police officers might of been enough but if things get unbearble for the polices then the army can step in but if not then the army should stay out of the isolation process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outbreak_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone

Blog #8 Protection and Prevention Against the Hot Zone

There are a lot of protection for the hot zone biocontainment facility starting from before you even enter the building. When you reach the site of the hot zone biocontainment facility the first protection you encounter is a guard at the front gate. Then when you go through the gate you can see the building is a protection itself. The building is yellow and made of concret and almost windowless. At the top of the building you would see a filtered vent pipes for the bacteria fumes. When you enter the building you are blocked again by a guard and is only allowed to enter if you have a badge. The next sign of protection is as you go further into the building you have to show your ID badge. As you go in even further you can see that the rooms are air pressured which means that the air would not flow out only flow in. There are also heavy windows. In addition, there are also the protection against the viruses inside the biocontainment chamber. Once you get in you have to go through the locker room where you put on the space suit and three layers of gloves. To protect your feet you put on socks, once you get into another room the room prevents viruses from escaping at all. On the wall is sticky gooey stuff or epoxy glue in case there are holes or cracks on the wall and over the electrical outlets so nothing can escape through the electrical lines. Also over your socks there are sealed boots. On the freezer that holds the deadly est virus there are first padlocks then alarms. On top of the alarms there are biohazard flowers and sticky tape to prevent the virus from escaping. Futhermore, the freezers themperature is -100 something degrees to keep the virus inactive. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus
Also info from the book Hot Zone. :D

Viruses

                                            THE PROTECTION