GENETICS by Sophia

Genetics is the study of heredity. In living organisms, there are genes, genetic variation, and heredity. The main idea of genetics being the study of heredity is that we observe that just about all living things inherit traits from both parents. The work of Gregor Mendel is what sparked the understanding of this process. This started in the mid-19th century and is still a huge subject of discussion.

Gregor Mendel was a scientist who studied the nature of inheritance in plants. For his work, Mendel traced inheritance patterns of traits in peas. After tracing this, he would describe them mathematically. Mendel concluded through this study that inheritance of many traits could be explained through rules and simple ratios. Very few people understood the concept of heredity until after Mendel’s death, when other scientists took on studies similar to his.

With genetics comes gene mutations. Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA sequence that is permanent. DNA sequences are what makes up a gene. Mutations range is size and can affect anything from a base pair to a large chromosome segment that includes multiple genes. Many children are born with gene mutations, like Sickle-Cell Anemia and Tay-Sachs disease. That’s just part of life.

Idaho’s State Flower, the Syringa by Joe

INTRODUCTION

The syringa (philadelphus lewisii) has been the state flower of Idaho since 1931, and was an obvious choice for the position due to its beauty and importance to the Native American as a means of creating tools. It grows on a shrub that can reach almost ten feet in height, with flowers growing in clusters on the ends of long stems. The wooded part of the shrub provided wood that the Native Americans used to create harpoons, bows, arrows, and numerous other tools requiring a wooden shaft. It is fascinating that an aromatic and aesthetically pleasing object would also be necessary for some cultures to hunt and forage for food.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SYRINGAS

1.       The flower is named after Meriwether Lewis, as he was the first to collect and publish about it.

2.       The bark and leaves can be used to make a soap.

3.       Quail, deer, and elk are known to forage syringa.

 

QUESTION

How was syringa an integral part of the pioneering Native American tribes?

REFERENCES

Boise National Forest - Nature & Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

"Syringa." State Symbols USA. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

Light bulbs by Triston

Light bulbs can be put into anything that produces an electric charge, like a lantern or a flashlight if your are going camping, or if you need to go somewhere that doesn't have a light in the room. They go on the front of your car, and the back of it. They can go on any motor vehicle that you want you just need the extra parts. There are are different types of light bulbs like LED lights and there are incandescent, and CFL bulbs

Does temperature impact performance of a light bulb?

            I find this topic interesting because i might just buy LED lights because they last for 20 years with just one bulb.

Three neat facts about light bulbs are that the first light bulb that was ever invented was made in 1802 by Humphrey Devy. Halogen light bulbs were first produced in the 1950s. Another neat fact is that it takes 6 billion electrons to light up one 100-watt bulb for only one second.

Main Plant Parts By Brooklyn

          Plants play huge roles in our lives and on our planet. Without them, there is no us. They provide us with the oxygen we need to survive. With plants being very important pieces in our society, how do we not know more about them? Very few people have knowledge about plants and their anatomy.

            There are four main parts of plants. There are roots, leaves, flowers, and stems. All are extremely important to the plant and help it survive.

Roots are the thin branches on the bottom of the plant that help anchor it. They also store food and absorb water. There are two different types of roots, tap and fibrous. A tap root is one main root, it is usually very hard to pull (for example a carrot). Fibrous roots are many little roots that branch out and all play an equal role. They do not go very deep.

Stems help determine the plant’s size and position.  They move the leaves in order to get sunlight so the plant can photosynthesize. The xylem is the center of the stem, it moves the water from the roots to the leaves. The phloem is outside of the xylem and moves sugars down from the leaves to the roots so it can be stored.

            Leaves make food for the plants through photosynthesis. They collect the sun’s light and use it to make energy that the plant uses as food. Monocots are plants with straight-veined leaves. For example, palm trees are monocots. Dicots are plants with puzzle-veined leaves. The leaves branch out all over the place and have no particular pattern. For example, a maple is a dicot.

            Last, but not least, are the flowers. These help the plant reproduce. The stamen of the flower has pollen on it which is transferred  to other flower’s stigma by insects.

The more you know, the better off you are! Plants help us in so many ways and we should really take the time to learn more about them. Here’s my question for you: Which part of the plant is the most important, and why?

DNA by Jacob

DNA controls the cell when the DNA in a gene is changed. The change can cause the cell to behave differently.

Some mutations happen as a mistake spontaneously by a factor of the environment called a mutagen that has radiation, chemicals, and high temperatures. Asbestos was a used chemical by humans and many died because of it.They interact with the DNA molecule and cause changes.

Some mutations are bad but some can be good a lot of times such as the American Wirehair cat which the mutation had no harmful effect.

            Are mutations sometimes good for people and animals?

            What I find most interesting is that the Wirehair cat mutation happened and that it had no harmful effect on it.

1.)   Mutations can be sometimes caused by errors, transcription, cell division, or external agents.

2.)   The cells grow and divide very quickly to make cancer.

3.)   Chromosomal mutations are common in plants. 

Substances and mixtures by Asher

Substances and Mixtures

Matter consists of two broken down categories, mixtures and substances. A mixture is created by mixing two or more substances together. A substance has one atom type or a molecule. There are two types of mixtures, heterogeneous and homogenous. Heterogeneous mixtures have two or more distinguished mixed substances and do not have a fixed ratio, and homogeneous mixtures have the same amount mixed every time and are mixed thoroughly throughout the mixture.

When you measure a substance the boiling point and melting point are constant because a substance has a fixed ratio. Substances contain both compounds and elements. Elements are the building blocks of matter and compounds contain two or more elements within them.

The most interesting thing to me is that I can look at the world and identify if a certain object has different properties than another just by looking at them.

Fun Facts:

A substance has a fixed composition.

A mixture can be separated into its components.

No matter can be created or destroyed, only transformed.

Next time you eat a meal ask yourself, what kind of matter am I eating?

Beavers by Abi

Beavers are the second biggest rodents in the world. When you see the dams in rivers or ponds, that is because of the beavers. Beavers help our landscape. They have been around for a long time. They are family oriented and normally mate for life, which consists of about fifteen years.

             What I find most interesting about this topic is that the beavers have coarse hair on their back and soft hair on the stomach. The coarse hair acts a waterproof coat.

Beavers are very interesting. They have scent glands that extract a vanilla scent. You should respect a beaver’s boundaries, because they are protective. Also beaver’s teeth never stop growing.

Ask yourself this…. Are you cleaning the environment to help your beavers continue to fix the landscape?

Avocado or Avogadro? By: Sydney

            This week in Chemistry, we have been learning about the differences and similarities between formula and molecular weight as well as how to calculate molar mass. To fully understand the work we have been doing, it is first important to know the terms we are working with.

            Formula Weight is the sum of the atomic weights of the atoms in the chemical formula of the substance.

            Molecular Weight is the same as the formula weight when the chemical formulas between the two are the same.

In order to calculate the formula weight, it is necessary to find the atomic weight of each element. This is found above the element symbol on the periodic table.

With that in mind, we need to determine how many atoms of each element there are in the formula. For example, if we have the formula C₁₇H₁₉NO₃ , we can see that the subscript tells us there are 17 atoms of Carbon, 19 atoms of Hydrogen, 1 atom of Nitrogen, and 3 atoms of Oxygen. Now we can combine the information we have. Basically, we are going to multiply the number of atoms and the atomic weight of each element, then we will add all the atomic masses together to get one number as the total average atomic mass of the formula.

C₁₇H₁₉NO₃

27(12)+19(1)+14+3(16) = 285 amu

And voila! That is how we find the formula or molecular weight of a chemical formula.

Next, we will go over molar mass. Molar mass is the mass in grams of one mole of a substance. When working with molar mass, we use Avogadro’s number. Amedeo Avogadro was a physicist who was best known for his contribution to molecular theory. Personally, I think he looks kind of like a bird!

To find it, we use Avogadro’s number.

6.022 x 10²³

When you have grams that you want to translate to moles, they are the same numbers but they are labeled with different units of measurement.

16 grams = 16 moles

Regarding the information we have been studying this week, I think it is interesting that after using Avogadro’s number, the numbers are the same, yet the units of measurement are different. This must make it fairly easy when working with molar mass!

Here are some interesting facts:

            Avogadro’s full name is Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Quaregna e di Cerreto… that’s a really long name!

            Avogadro’s number is abbreviated as N_A.    

            There are only a little over 100 types of atoms!

Lastly, my question for the audience is, do you think Avogadro looks like a bird? 

Digestion by Luke

            In the Advanced Biology class, our class is learning about the digestion system. There are three different types of digestive systems. Herbivores it plants and carnivores eat meat. Also, omnivores eat both such as humans. All vertebrates have one-way digestive tracts, they typically begin in the mouth and end in the anus.

The mouth is the first step of the process. The mouth breaks down food using teeth and saliva. The saliva serves as a lubricant for food so it can pass through the esophagus easily, and the esophagus connects the mouth to the stomach. The stomach is a sac-like structure that stores food that is waiting to be digested and it churns food with the help of HCl. The processed food, called chyme, leaves the stomach through the pyloric sphincter into the small intestine. While in the small intestine enzymes created by the pancreas continues to break down food into useful nutrients like carbohydrates and protein. After it passes through the small intestine, the large intestine compacts the waste products into feces so it can pass through the anus. Overall the digestion system is used to break down food into useful nutrients that our bodies need, but how long does it take humans to completely digest a piece of food?

Interesting Facts

1.      The small intestine in humans is about 23 feet (7 meters) long.

2.      Herbivores have large divided stomachs called ruminants.

3.       Hydra worms have two way digestive tracts.

Cells by Santi

This week is biology we are learning about cells and the cell cycle. The main difference between animal and plant cells is that plant cells contain vacuoles, a cell wall, and chloroplasts.

Plant cells get their energy from sunlight, this process is called photosynthesis. The chloroplasts are what controls photosynthesis. These chloroplasts contain chlorophyll, which is what captures and absorbs the sunlight.

The cell wall in plant cells is made out of cellulose and adds more protection and stabilization to the cell.

The vacuoles main function is to control what comes in and out of a cell. They are also used for storing nutrients.

3 fun facts: All living things are made up of cells. Groups of cells can make tissues and organelle systems. Even the largest cell, is still too small to be seen with the human eye..

My question for y’all is what do you know or like about cells?

Cellular Respiration explanation made easy>>>>>