What Matt Knows About the Human Body (based on prior knowledge and way too much time spent watching scrubs)

As of right now, my knowledge on the human body is limited, and most of it is derived from random bits and pieces of info that have accumulated in my mind over the course of my life as well as a bits and pieces from watching the TV show, "Scrubs." First off, the human body is a system. It is an intricate piece of machinery that is made up of many smaller systems that must all work in tandem in order to run smoothly. When one metaphorical cog in the machine malfunctions, it can cause negative affects across the board. Some of these systems within the human body include the nervous (cue the puns), circulatory, digestive and respiratory systems, among others. The circulatory system is one's blood. Blood is critical in delivering oxygen and other nutrients to different areas of the body. Muscles, for instance, need oxygen to operate. Now where does the blood get this oxygen, the curious child asks, well let me tell you. The oxygen must come from outside of the body, and it gets inside via the respiratory system. The respiratory system revolves around the lungs. When one inhales, they breathe in oxygen, among other things, and this oxygen is then carried through the blood stream. This illustrates the intricate interconnectedness of the human body. Systems rely on systems, and if system doesn't fulfill its duty, the others suffer as a result. The human body is like a well oiled machine, and it needs to prevent malfunctioning. This is done by the immune system which strives to prevent disease or sickness from falling upon the body. Although I am aware that the human body is a metaphorical interdependent machine, I am not at all educated on the specifics of how exactly the systems work perfectly in tandem. In this next segment, I will simply list random facts about the body that I know, and I hope that charging headfirst at this unit, metaphorically of course, will help me understand how all of the different facets of the human body are able to perform together as one.

Random Facts:

1. There are four compartments of the heart
2. The thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland surrounding the larynx
3. A possibly malignant skin tumor can be differentiated from a benign mole by its appearance. Often, malignant moles will be darker in color and have indistinct borders.
4. The appendix is a non-essential organ and can be removed. This also applies to the gal bladder
5. Only one healthy kidney is needed to live
6. The liver has a lot of smooth endoplasmic reticulum
7. The small intestine is longer than the large intestine
8. Renal is a word that indicates association with the kidneys
9. The pituitary gland controls the thyroid gland
10. Blood travels through capillaries, arteries, and veins
11. Due to a process called peristalsis, the esophagus can move food towards the stomach even if the person is upside down
12. Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart
13. An air bubble to the jugular is lethal
14. When talking about blood, shock is an actual medical term that does not refer to a person being stunned mentally or emotionally
15. Most of the body is made up of water
16. One's wingspan is roughly equal in length to how tall the person is
17. I am nervous to learn about the nervous system. Zing!

I hope this post was satisfactory and if anybody feels the urge to comment, let me know who you think would win in a fight, Brock Lesnar or DinoCroc.

Taking a Minute to Reflect...............................

DISCLAIMER: A good chunk of the following information is based on the assumption that neither my siblings nor I am adopted.

This week, we have delved into the subject of Mendelian genetics. As part of this, we embarked on an experimental journey where we analyzed some of our own genetic traits as well as those of our parents and siblings. The traits that we evaluated included the ability to roll one's tongue, the presence or absence of a widow's peak, hitchhiker's thumb, and attached or unattached earlobes. In my family, everybody I tested had very similar results. The only difference was my brother Kevin has no widow's peak whereas everybody else does. This surprised me a little because I don't look similar to my sister or my brother but it turns out we share several traits. The only genotype I was able to confirm 100% was my genotype for hitchhiker's thumb which is homozygous recessive. Since hitchhiker's thumb is a recessive trait, in order for my phenotype to be a hitchhiker's thumb my genotype must be homozygous recessive. I was able to determine that both of my parents' genotype for the widow's peak is heterozygous since there is a mix of widow's peaks and no widow's peaks amongst my siblings and me. Since I was unable to analyze my grandparents and therefore unsure of my parents' other genotypes, I was unable to conclude my genotype for all of the other traits because the other traits I have that we looked at are all dominant so they could be homozygous dominant or heterozygous. While I was researching which traits were dominant, I learned that many of the more obscure genetic traits are actually dominant. One example of this is dwarfism. The word recessive sounds like it should be associated with less common traits, but this often is not true. Now please sit back, relax, and watch me take a whirl at making a (championship) pedigree for my family.



Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

Jean-etics and the Lavv (Genetics and the Law)

In recent years, due to a dramatic advances in genetics research, many legal and bioethical issues have arisen about how gene research can and cannot be used. Although many of these issues have arisen, I am going to turn my microscope on to the 40x lens and focus in on legislation related to stem cell research and legislation related to discrimination based upon genetic make up, just two bioethical issues on the slide of genetics and the law. First I will delve in to the mysterious concept of discrimination based upon the genes that one is born with.

This concept, as implausible as it may seem, is actually fairly possible. This is well illustrated in a movie called GATTACA (For some unknown reason when you turn on captions that transcribe the audio the name changes to CUAAUGU), where job interviews consist of having one’s DNA read. Legislation been around this has been discussed for around 15 years, but a bill was only recently passed by former President George W. Bush in 2008. Legislation regarding this scenario is pretty straightforward; discrimination against any person because of their genetic makeup is not permitted in the United States. This pertains particularly to hiring companies and insurance companies. Companies are forbidden from using genetic tendencies towards disease as factors when hiring or promoting. Also, insurance companies cannot mandate genetic tests or use similar data in deciding whether to insure a certain person This is instrumental because many people refused to get genetically tested even when it opens up many treatment options due to fear of unemployment or lack of insurance. It seems like a stretched comparison, but if discrimination was allowed to reach the point of genetics, it would share qualities with racial discrimination of the 1960s. In the 1960s, black people did not register to vote for fear of the registrar contacting the attempted registrants employer and having the attempted registrant fired. In that scenario, the discriminated had to abstain from voting and if a situation analogous to life in GATTACA arose, people would steer clear of getting genetically tested. Refusing to get genetically tested could lead to people not learning about hereditary or other diseases as early as they should, which in turn severely limits treatment options. This so called Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act is instrumental in preventing our world from becoming a utopian world full of unfairness such as the worlds in sci-fi movies like GATTACA and Minority Report.

 Here is a sketchfu I put together that would be very useful for a PSA if this bill hadn't already been passed or it could be useful if our world goes all GATTACA on us.

Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

Now let’s have a rhetorical discussion (you can comment if you must) about stem cell research and legislation related to it, particularly Executive Order 13505 that was issued by President Barack Obama in March of 2009. Stem cell research, ever since its discovery, has led to many advances in science. If you would like to learn more about stem cells as a whole, you can check out my fellow classmates blog post about it here: http://sarasbioblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/stem-cell-research.html. Essentially, this order allows stem cell research, as long as it is carried out responsibly and used only for advances in medical research that are legal. This order also provides guidelines and budget for the NIH to research stem cells. In addition, this order revokes a previous presidential order that put restrictions on stem cell research. This EO was issued because stem cell research is quickly advancing and has the potential to help many medical treatment processes and open many doors.

Sources: 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/05/21/us-genetics-bush-idUSN2143439320080521

http://stemcells.nih.gov/policy/2009guidelines.htm

 I DARE YOU CLICK THIS AND THIS

Laron Syndrome - emordnyS noraL - Reflection - noitcelfeR

The article about the Ecuadorians who have have Laron syndrome is extremely interesting. What is particularly intriguing is the potential that this knowledge has to extend life and put off cancer and diabetes. Studies done in these people with Laron syndrome revealed that they have low levels of IGF1 and experiments done on worms and mice showed that the low levels of this growth factor inhibit cancer and diabetes. This notion is very interesting. If scientists learned how to manipulate this gene in a certain way, they theoretically might be able to make it less abundant in people with high cancer risks and prevent cancer. However, if manipulation of IGF1 was doable, some people could choose to use it to gain increased growth by increasing the levels. However, using the manipulation of IGF1 as an artificial growth hormone would be very risky, similar to how HGH and steroids are dangerous to the body in some ways. People who have an over abundance of IGF1 have been shown to be very tall, they also are at a high risk for diseases such as cancer. According to http://www.buzzle.com/articles/human-growth-hormone-hgh-side-effects.html, a side effect of HGH is acromegaly, the converse of Ladron syndorme which was talked about in the original article. This study could also further prove the dangers of steroids. Also, it will be interesting to see if it can be found out if it would be beneficial if IGF1 was reduced in all humans. IT obviously stunts growth, but would it be worth it if it lowers cancer risk significantly. Also, I wonder what a decrease in IGF1 would do to a person who is already finished growing. For somebody like this, would it be win/win situation? All in all, this find is really interesting and could lead to breakthrough discoveries in the science of cancer.

Thahy-roid Kan-ser [ Thyroid Cancer ]

Please enjoy my beautifully composed analysis of thyroid cancer. If I were a teacher, I would make a new grade just for this paper and give it an A++, but that's just me. In lieu of pictures throughout the paper, you can view my also A++ worthy powerpoint that is fairly incoherent when I am not there talking and filling in the blanks, but knock yourself out.

Matt Pendo
2-13-11

Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid Cancer is cancer that occurs in the thyroid gland. Cancer of the thyroid was discovered slightly before the end of 19th century by Dr. William Stewart Halsted, an American surgeon who was also a cocaine and morphine addict. Thyroid cancers take up about 1% of all diagnosed cancers and the survival rates are generally very high, particularly if the cancer has not metastasized. (University of Texas Medical Branch) Thyroid cancer is fairly rare, and one out of every 111 people will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer over the course of their life. (National Cancer Institute) This is .9%, an extremely low number that shows just how uncommon thyroid cancer is. Although it is uncommon, every year around 25,000 women and 8,000 men learn that they have thyroid cancer. (NCI)

The thyroid gland is a butterfly shaped hormonal gland located just below the Adam’s apple that is wrapped around the windpipe and makes and stores hormones. These hormones regulate heart rate, metabolism, blood pressure, and growth. The thyroid uses iodine to make hormones that every cell in the body relies on. In particular, the hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodinetyronine (T3), play a large role in the regulation of metabolism and are extremely important. Hormonal production of the thyroid is controlled by thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in feedback mechanism similar to the renal feedback mechanism. When levels of T3 and T4 become too low, the pituitary gland in the brain signals for TSH to be secreted and regulate the hormone levels. Conversely, if hormone levels are too high the pituitary gland secretes less TSH until the hormonal level is normal. Another hormone made by the thyroid is calcitonin. Calcitonin is made by the C cells of the thyroid rather than the follicular cells that make T3 and T4 and helps bone cells add calcium to the bone. Thyroid cancer affects the normal production of these hormones and can cause many problems if not treated.

There are four main types of thyroid cancer, and they are all carcinomas, meaning they all occur in tissue cells. The most common type of thyroid cancer is papillary carcinoma, which makes up around 80% of all thyroid cancer cases. This cancer occurs in the follicular cells and is usually very treatable if found before metastasis. The second most common form of thyroid cancer is follicular carcinoma, which also occurs in the follicular cells. This type of thyroid cancer accounts for about 15% of thyroid cancer cases and is also treatable if found early. The third most common variety of thyroid cancer is Medullary carcinoma, which occurs in the C cells of the thyroid and affects the levels of calcitonin. This variety makes up about 3% of all thyroid cancer diagnoses and is also treatable when found before it has metastasized. The final form of thyroid cancer and the most uncommon is anaplastic carcinoma. This form of thyroid cancer occurs in the follicular cells of the thyroid and only accounts for about 2% of all thyroid cancer cases. Although this is the most rare, it is the most deadly. Anaplastic carcinoma grows rapidly and is extremely difficult to control. All of these cancers form growths on the thyroid gland that are called nodules. These nodules are basically tumors on the thyroid, but only 10% of thyroid nodules are malignant.

Although thyroid cancer is a fairly uncommon form of cancer, there are several risk factors that can increase one’s chances of obtaining thyroid cancer. One of these risk factors is radiation, either from high dose x-rays or radioactive fallout. Dental x-rays from the first half of the 20th century along with association with nuclear weapons or energy puts one at an increased risk of getting thyroid cancer. Family history also plays a role in thyroid cancer. Growths on the colon or goiters can increase somebody’s chances of getting papillary carcinoma. Also, Medullary carcinoma can be passed down genetically. Specifically, a mutation in the RET gene can be passed down. Almost everyone who was born with this mutation gets Medullary carcinoma. In addition, females are three times more likely to get thyroid cancer than males. Studies are also being done to see if iodine levels are associated with thyroid cancer. Preliminary research hints that low iodine levels can cause follicular carcinoma and that high levels of iodine can cause papillary carcinoma. Finally, there is some research that suggests increased consumption of shellfish or seafood could be associated with thyroid cancer risk.

Cancers are caused by mutations in the cell cycle, and scientists have been able to pinpoint some of the exact mutations that cause thyroid cancer. As I mentioned before, Medullary carcinoma can be caused by the heredity of a mutated RET gene. Papillary carcinoma is usually caused by one of three genetic mutations. The mutation usually occurs in the RET gene, the BRAF gene, or the RAS gene. When radiation is not an associated factor, the mutation usually happens to the BRAF gene. The BRAF gene fuses with part of the AKAP9 gene and the combined gene stimulates normal cells to turn in to cancerous cells. In anaplastic carcinoma, the RhoB tumor suppressor gene stops functioning and a cancerous growth is the result. When radiation is associated, the mutation usually occurs in the RET gene. Although these cancers happen when the cell cycle functions improperly, there are several ways to treat thyroid cancers.

There are several treatment options for one who has thyroid cancer. One of the major treatment options is surgery. Two of the most common surgical procedures are a thyroidectomy or a lobectomy. In a thyroidectomy, the whole thyroid gland is removed. This removes the nodule, but without a thyroid pills will have to be taken for the rest of one’s life in order to regulate hormone levels. A lobectomy is a procedure sometimes used on patients with follicular or papillary thyroid cancer and only part of the thyroid is removed. Another treatment option is thyroid hormone treatment. These are usually pills that regulate blood pressure, heart rate, weight, and body temperature and are often prescribed after thyroid surgery. Another option is treatment with radioactive iodine. This is used on some patients with papillary or follicular thyroid cancer and consists of the patient consuming radioactive iodine which kills the thyroid cells, both cancerous and non cancerous. Yet another option is external radiation therapy. This is when radiation from outside of the body is concentrated at the affected area and is only used when surgery and radioactive iodine treatment cannot be used. For anaplastic thyroid cancer, the deadliest, chemotherapy is often used. In chemotherapy, the patient consumes radioactive medicine that kills cancerous cells. Another treatment for anaplastic thyroid cancer is a drug called RS5444. This drug activates the RhoB tumor suppressor that is dysfunctional in anaplastic thyroid cancer cells. Drugs that activate deactivated genes are rare, but this drug does exactly that. Although thyroid cancer is rare, there are many treatment options and survival rates are high.

When the cell cycle does not function correctly in the thyroid, cancerous nodules are sometimes the result. However, these cancerous nodules are often treatable. From treatments such as radioactive iodine therapy to RS5444, thyroid cancer has one of the highest survival rates. Even though it has a high survival rate, it is already an uncommon cancer. Ever since its discovery in the late 19th century, research has allowed most people with thyroid cancer to live normal lives after diagnosis.

Sources:
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5778
http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/thyroid/how-your-thyroid-works
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/thyroid
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/thyroid/page9
http://www.medindia.net/news/view_news_main.asp?x=3200
http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/thyroid-cancer-symptoms-risk.htm
http://www.medindia.net/news/New-Drug-To-Turn-On-Tumor-Supressor-Gene-In-Thyroid-Cancer-Cells-46631-1.htm
http://www.utmb.edu/otoref/grnds/thyroid-ca-021204/thyroid-ca-021204.htm
http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/thyro.html




Check out my powerpoint that won't make sense unless you read the paper.

Thyroid cancer ppt

View more presentations from pendom11.

Foh-tuh-sin-thuh-sis [Photosynthesis]

This past week, we have begun to explore Photosynthesis, the process that plants use to make energy so that they can live long and prosper. Photosynthesis is well known to be the energy generator that it is, but we have been learning the specifics of how it makes energy. First off, photosynthesis is comprised of two main sections. There are the light reactions, or the light dependent reactions, and there are the dark reactions, or the light independent reactions. We also must recognize where photosynthesis is taking place. If you recall the anatomy of a plant cell, you will remember that plants have these things called chloroplasts which are located inside the cell. Now if we zoom in to the chloroplast, we will find some stacks of objects that look like pancakes. These are thylakoids, and when several are stacked together they form a granum. These grana are located inside the stroma, which is effectively the cytosol of the chloroplast. The first part of photosynthesis, or the light dependent reactions, occur inside the membrane of a thylakoid. Inside that membrane, there are sets of two photosystems, PSI and PSII as well as many ATP synthase. In the photosystems, there are pigments that are waiting to be excited by some force of energy. This energy is supplied by photons from some light source. As the photon first hits PSII, it excites a pigment that then releases an electron. This electron moves to the top of PSII and then begins its descent whil it moves across the membrane. As it is moving down, it releases energy that is used in active transport to pump protons across the membrane into the thylakoid lumen, which is the area inside of the thylakoid. At the end of this electrons journey, it will reach PSI, but first we need to know why. While this electron was making its journey through the fire and flames and voer the mountains and through the hills, photons hit PSI and excited an electron from a pigment there. This electron went up, as the first one did, but instead of going down it is metaphorically adopted by an NADP+ molecule, form NADPH and will be used later in photosynthesis. Now we are left with a gaping void where an electron should be in PSI, and this is where the first electron we talked about comes in to play. This electron replaces the empty seat that the PSI electron left and will soon be adopted by an NADP+ molecule after some photons energize it. Now, you may recall the protons that I mentioned getting pumped across the membrane into the thylakoid lumen, and  now we see them come in to play. If you happened to listen to my cellular respiration rendition of "Baby" by Justin Bieber, then this part of photosyntehsis should slap you in the face with dejá vu. As you may recall, I sang the words, "Just take some protons, pump them across, make it acidic, for chemiosmosis, H+ ions through the ATP synthase." Well this essentially happens in this stage of photosynthesis. The H+ ions, or protons, that were pumped across are sent through the ATP synthase via chemiosmosis and generate a phosphate that can be metaphorically adopted by an ADP molecule and make ATP, which will be used to power later reactions in photosynthesis. Now only one part of this stage of photosynthesis is left, and we must answer the question, "Where did the electron that was used in PSII come from?" Well, you and your seven year old brother might know that plants must be watered, but now you will learn why. This electron is supplied through the oxidation of water. First I will explain this metaphorically, and then I will explain it scientifically. So let's say that the water molecule family is walking down the street. Mrs. Hydrogen, Mr. Hydrogen, and their child Oxygen. While they are taking a stroll in the park, big bad Thug Doctor PSII steps out of the bushes and kidnaps the baby Oxygen. Then Thug Doctor removes baby Oxygen's heart and has it placed in him surgically to stop suffering from heart failure. Check out my Sketch Fu about this metaphor.



Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!




Now, done with the forced metaphor, we will look at it scientifically. A water molecule approaches the ATP synthase and oxidized. An electron is taken from the water molecule and replaces the lack of one in PSII. The H+ ions from the water molecule are involved in chemiosmosis and oxygen is released into the world as waste. Now my metaphor makes perfect sense, right? So that sums up the light dependent reactions of photsynthesis, but let's take some time to review the inputs and outputs of these reactions. The inputs needed are water and photons, and the outputs are oxygen, NADPH, and ATP. The oxygen is released as waste, and the NADPH and the ATP will be used in the light independent reactions.

So now you are probably asking, "When are you going to tell me about the light independent reactions?" So let's begin. The light independent reactions occur in the stroma as opposed to the lumen, and these reactions do not directly require light. The name of this stage is the Calvin Cycle, and it requires the inputs ATP, NADPH, and CO2. Let's say that 3CO2 enter the cycle (I will explain the numbering later) and immediately the carbons are separated from the oxygens and the oxygens are released. The three carbons, thanks to an enzyme called RuBiSco, these 3 carbons bond with three preexisting 5 carbon molecules and form three 6 carbon molecules. However, these 6 carbon molecules are extremely unstable and almost as sooon as they are formed they are split into two 3 carbon molecules each. So now we have six 3 carbon molecules. These molecules are then rearranged as ATP and NADPH phosphorylize them until they become PGAL or G3P, a three carbon molecule that can be used to make glucose. However, out of the six PGAL that we have five must continue moving along the cycle. These five are phosphorylized by ATP once more and rearranged until they form the original 5 carbon compound that we joined with in the first place. But what happened to the one PGAL we kept? Well, that PGAL can be used to make glucose or other sugars and, if it becomes glucose, it could be used in cellular respiration. Now here is the catch. While I said that 3 go through in one cycle, only one carbon can enter at a time. However, the carbons kind of go separately almost simultaneously, and this allows them to bond and make one whole PGAL. After the Calvin Cycle, (for 3 carbons) your outputs are 9ADP, 6NADP+, and 1PGAL.

 Image from: http://biomassauthority.com/archives/why-is-biomass-better-than-fossil-fuels.html

Cellular Respiration Song

 


 For our project, Austin and I composed a mashup of three songs with cellular respiration lyrics in place of the regular lyrics. Songs featured include, "Hoedown Throwdown" by Miley Cyrus, "That's How I Beat Shaq" by Aaron Carter, and "Baby" by Justin Bieber. We also made a video completed unrelated to cellular respiration that consists mainly of Austin falling off of a chair, kicking a tetherball, and making half of a snow angel in a basketball pinny and basketball shoes. This project really helped me expand my knowledge of cellular respiration and is a great way for me to remember cellular respiration. One new thing that I learned was the name of the 5-carbon compound in the Krebs Cycle, Ketoglutarate. Overall, the whole process was a really fun experience and expanded my knowledge of cellular respiration.

Glycolysis and the Kreb's Cycle

Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!






Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

Gout of Town

Recent findings have just proven that the increased consumption of fructose in post-menopausal women heightens the chances of gout. Now what is gout, you ask? According to its Mayo Clinic page, "Gout is a complex form of arthritis characterized by sudden, severe attacks of pain, redness and tenderness in joints, often the joint at the base of the big toe." Gout occurs when uric acid, a waste product, crystallizes in the joints instead of passing through the kidney and exiting via urine. This is similar to how kidney stones occur, which is when uric acid crystallizes in the kidneys. An early indicator of gout is high levels or uric acid in the blood, known as hyperuricemia. Hyon Choi of Boston University School of Medicine and his research team, having researched and made findings of gout for the past decade, set about looking to see if fructose levels heighten the risk of gout in women. A previous study done by Choi and his team proved that fructose does indeed increase the risk of gout in men, so now they ran trials to see if that transferred over to women. The correlation between gout risk increasing factors in women and men may seem like pointless work, but gout itself is much more prevalent in men, and women are already at much less of a risk. 

The study was based on data taken from 79,000 pot menopausal women. Women who are not post menopausal are at an extremely low risk of contracting gout because they still produce a hormone that regulates uric acid levels. The study found, out of these 79,000 women, that consuming one sugar sweetened soft drink a day as opposed to one a month drastically increases one's chances of getting gout, a disease which is extremely painful.There are some pretty nasty looking pictures of gout, so considered yourself warned and think twice before watching my Animoto video below.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

In addition to proving that fructose consumption affects the possibility of getting gout, the article discusses the soft drink industry and the corn syrup industry. High fructose corn syrup is the chief sweetener in almost all non-diet soft drinks. Every time one woman drinks a Coke, she is increasing her chances of getting gout.  For a long time, health advocates have been protesting the use of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. Unlike table sugar, which has the same amount of glucose as fructose, high fructose corn syrup usually contains about 58% fructose. In addition to raising the possibility of gout, fructose, which is broken down in the liver, can cause extra fat synthesis to occur.  Consumption of soft drinks has also been linked to an increased chance of pancreatic cancer.

Overall, even though non-diet soft drinks (especially Mtn Dew) are extremely tasty, they stealthily carry many health risks.

Even though I now know that these health risks are valid, I will just forget that I ever wrote this article and continue consuming Mtn Dew in excess. 



Sources:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003476.htm 

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gout/DS00090 

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65355/title/Fructose_poses_gout_risks_even_in_women 

Sally: Grandma's Hairless Cat

You may or may not have a cat as a pet, but you have most likely seen one. While you were at your grandma's house observing her hairless cat, did you take the time to look at the magic of how he or she drinks? A recent paper has gone into detail of the wonderful complexity of just exactly how cats go about drinking. After reading those first sentences, you may be wondering what I could possibly be talking about. In your mind, you've most likely thought that cats drink in a simple manner. They form a ladle with their tongue and scoop the liquid into their mouth. Wrong. The method I just described is used by dogs, but cats employ a completely different method. Cats, being the intelligent creatures they are, take advantage of the liquid's inertia. Inertia is the laziness of an object, in simple terms. Inertia is the unwillingness of an object to change unless it is manipulated by another force. In this case, we will make the liquid milk and the manipulator gravity. As your grandma's hairless cat stealthily approaches the milk filled bowl (while wearing kitten mittens), he prepares to take full advantage of the inertia of the milk. Your grandma's cat, henceforth known as Sally, dips her tongue, which is the same color as her fur (or lack thereof), into the milk. Almost as quickly as the tongue enters the milk, she pulls it, yanking the milk up into the air. For a split second, the inertia of the milk suspends it in the air, and in this moment, Sally surrounds the milk with her mouth and swallows it. After that split second of suspension, gravity, the manipulator, kicks in, snapping the milk back down into the bowl. Still thirsty, Sally repeats the complex and intricate process again until her thirst is quenched.

The intricacy of this seemingly simple process was discovered by a team of scientists led by Pedro Reis. The team went about observing this by using high speed cameras, as cats dip their tongues down into the liquid an astounding three and a half times per second. Even more astoundingly, when the tongue shoots back into the mouth, it moves at a speed of seventy-eight centimeters per second. When Reis first began the experiment, he and his team figured that the roughness of the cat's tongue would play a role; a prediction that was drastically wrong. In actuality, the tip of the tongue that penetrates the surface of the liquid is smooth, and the smoothness is actually very good for lapping up the milk or water. Throughout the research, Reis and his team found that the viscosity of the liquid, and least between the bounds of what a cat would logically drink, did not affect the process. Rather, the determining factors were the inertia and gravitational pull. One may think that this is an odd thing to research or that somebody must have done it before, but as Rebecca Z. German of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine says, "What we know about mammalian feeding is woefully incomplete."

Here are some videos, one of a cat lapping up milk in slo-mo, and the other of a simulator demonstrating the inertia of water.


FAST LAPS from Science News on Vimeo.


TONGUE SUBSTITUTE from Science News on Vimeo.


So now you know, and next time you see your grandma's hairless feline lapping up some milk, you can explain to all your friends what Sally is really doing.

Source:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65379/title/Cats_drink_using_lap-and-gulp_trick
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-481062/Puss-Hood-Hairless-Sphynx-cat-keeps-warm.html

Osmoregulation in Bull Sharks

All sharks that live in marine environments have adapted their osmoregulatory systems in order to survive. If they didn't, then they would die. Most sharks survive in saltwater due to a high concentration of urea and TMAO in the bloodstream as well as urine that contains excess salt. In marine environments, the external environment has a very high concentration of salt. In order to stay in balance with this outside environment, normal organisms would let water out to try and balance the concentrations. However, if a shark did this then it would soon have too high of a concentration of salt inside its body. To deal with this, sharks bodies contain urea and TMAO. Urea and TMAO make the inside environment saltier, and then balance out the concentrations that way. Water is constantly passively entering the shark through the gills and once inside the body, passes along to the kidneys for desalinization. In sharks, the kidneys make do a very efficient job, and send a very high concentration of salt out via urine and retain a lot of freshwater, preventing the inside of the shark from having a concentration of salt that is too high. Bull sharks are unique because they can survive in marine environments as well as freshwater environments. This is possible because Bull Sharks adapt their osmoregulation systems depending on what environment they are in. When they are in marine environments, they osmoregulate like other sharks, using urea, TMAO, and efficient kidneys to keep an isotonic relationship with the external environment. When Bull Sharks are in freshwater, they basically tone down their kidneys and remove not as much salt but more urea and TMAO. It should be said that this process must be gradual and that a Bull Shark just dropped from saltwater into freshwater it will die. Since Bull Sharks have this unique ability to adapt their osmoregulation system from the normal process of getting rid of salt to the process of retaining salt, they are capable of living in freshwater.       

Sources:

http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/shark-biology-behavior/385-how-bull-sharks-can-live-in-fresh-water-through-clever-osmoregulation.html

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/white_shark/tmao.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark#Osmoregulation

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/bull-shark.htm

http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~etaylor/426www/lectures/sharks3.html

Cell Community of the TuneSquad

See here  for better viewing.

Cholera

Cholera, or Vibrio Cholerae, is a rod shaped bacteria that is transmitted through water and food. V. Cholerae produces cholera toxin, which causes the severe diarrhea that is a symptom of Cholera. If Cholera is not treated promptly, than death by dehydration can quickly occur.

 Characteristics of Bacteria:
Vibrio Cholerae  is a rod shaped bacteria with flagella that, when it reaches the small intestine, causes severe disease. Most of the bacteria does not survive for long inside the human body, but the cells that do survive long enough to travel through the small intestine to the intestinal wall do so by shutting down protein production while they travel through the highly acidic stomach fluids. The bacteria create flagella to help them swim through the thick mucus of the small intestine. Once the bacteria reaches the intestinal wall, it begins to produce the the toxic proteins that make up the cholera toxin.

Cholera:

When the bacteria reaches the intestinal wall, it begins to create cholera toxin, which leads to the main symptom of extreme diarrhea. This happens because the cholera toxin activates a certain enzyme in the intestinal cells, and changes there function so that they extract water as well as electrolytes from the tissues and the blood and force it in to the open space inside the small intestine. All of this fluid proceeds to come out of the body as diarrhea. Paired with this extreme loss of fluids is dehydration, urine failure (anuria), an increased acidity in the blood (acidosis), and circulatory shock, which occurs when blood is not able to provide nutrients to tissues quickly enough. Circulatory shock can lead to cardiac arrest or hypoxemia. Teh diarrhea also carries many ions, and the loss of ions, particularly potassium ions, can lead to heart failure as well as circulatory failure. Due to all of these critical symptoms, untreated Cholera has a 50-60% mortality rate.

Treatment:
If Cholera is diagnosed quickly, it can easily be cured by quickly administering fluid either intravenously, or orally if glucose is added. Due to Cholera's simple treatment, the mortality rate stays fairly low for such a quick killing disease. Cholera is really dangerous in less developed countries where sewage is not adequately treated and Cholera can travel extremely quickly. Many of these countries also lack the resources to perform the simple treatment.

Sources:
Image 1: http://www.topnews.in/health/general/health-news?page=10
Image 2: http://www.dr-evans.com/advancedbiology/cholera.html
http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/cholera.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/cholera/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera

Macromolecule Lab: Lemons

This past Tuesday, I worked without a lab partner to determine the presence of different macromolecules inside lemons. We as a class used four different indicator tests to see if glucose, proteins, starch, or lipids were present in each designated food. The first test performed was for protein, and was performed by adding en drops of Biuret's solution to five mL of the food. If the result was a brown color, then the food had protein; however, my lemon juice did not change color and it was clear that no protein was present. The second test, which was for glucose, required three mL of Benedict's solution to be added to five mL of the food, and then that mixture had to be heated for five minutes. If, when the mixture ws heated, a very obvious color change to a bright orange occurred, then glucose was present. When I added the Benedict's solution to the lemon juice, it instantly started bubbling upwards, almost to the top of the test tube. This reaction was due to the acidity of lemon, which caused the solution to react. However, when I heated the mixture after the bubble had settled, no color change occurred whatsoever. With this in mind, glucose is probably present in lemon. The acidity of the lemon most likely caused inaccurate results. According to this website, the presence of glucose in lemon is not listed, but in one cup of raw lemon juice, 5.9 grams of sugars are present. Odds are that glucose makes up part of those 5.9 g. The next test performed was for starch, and called for 5 drops of Lugol's solution to be added to 5 mL of the food and if the result was a dark black color, then starch was present. I decided that my color was a dark brown, but not the dark black that starch indicates. According to the same website, starch data is also unavailable, and this may also be due to the acidity, or it could be due to a misreading on my part. I could have decided that a positive test was negative, not believing the brown to be dark enough to be a positive indicator. The final test was for lipids, and required the food to be rubbed on a brown piece of paper towel and hung up to dry. When dry, a positive read would have a shiny or glossy look. My lemon test was not shiny at all, and this makes sense, as the website I mentioned before states that no fat is present in raw lemon juice. While my results may have been tainted and not 100% reliable, I believe that glucose and starch are present in lemon, and that protein and lipids are not.

Nucleic Acids

For my Jing project, I decided to cover nucleic acids. Below is the presentation that I came up with. (Sorry about the varied volumes as well as the background noises)

Properties of Water

Properties of Water:

• Universal Solvent
• Adhesion and Cohesion
• Polarity
• Density/Lattice Formation of Ice
• Capillary Action
• Surface Tension
• Specific Heat
• Amphoterism/Neutrality

 Listed above are what I believe to be the eight main properties of water. While researching the properties of water, I found some sources that said water had around ten properties, while others suggested it was only four or five. The eight properties that I believe water has are listed above, and in the body of this post I will explain this properties and why I discounted other candidates.

Water is commonly referred to around the world as the universal solvent because so many substances dissolve in it. Since it is very common to find things that dissolve in water, it was given this moniker. Water also is adhesive and cohesive. The adhesive nature of water refers to water's ability to stick to other substances, while the cohesion refers to water's trait of sticking with other water. As a result of cohesion, you obtain surface tension, which refers to the surface of water where the hydrogen bonds need to be severed in order for something to pass through them. This was evident during the paperclip experiment (see picture above) as well as when a person does a belly flop in to a pool. As a result of adhesion, you arrive at capillary action, which refers to when water climbs up the sides of objects such as straws, creating a meniscus. Water is polar, which means that one side of the molecule has a slightly positive charge while the other has a charge that is slightly negative. When multiple water molecules are introduced to each other, the positive side is attracted to the negative side, resulting in a hydrogen bond, which is fairly weak when singular, but strong when in the masses. Water is well known to have a density of 1g/mL as a liquid. Most substances are denser as solids and less dense as liquids, but water breaks this rule. Ice is less dense than water because of the way the hydrogen bonds act when they freeze. While most solids pack more molecules in a smaller space, the water molecules spread out more when frozen, and subsequently lead to a smaller density. (Video is simulation of freezing water) This spread out molecular format is known as a lattice formation. If water did not behave like this, then ice would sink, there would be no more icebergs, and ponds would begin to freeze from the bottom and work its way up. Another property of water is its specific heat. This refers to the amount of energy that is needed to raise one gram of a substance (in this case water) by one degree Celsius. Water has a very high specific heat, which explains why on a hot summers day the water in the ocean stays cool. This is important in nature because it helps prevent the body temperatures of mammals from increasing greatly due to the weather. The final property that I believe water has is amphoterism, or the fact that pure water is a neutral seven on the pH scale, but that it can easily be manipulated to become more acidic or basic depending on what it needs to be used for. It should be noted that the pH scale is a logrithmic scale, which means that for every increase in one on the 0-14 scale, the liquid is becoming more basic by ten times the previous number.  

These are what I believe to be the properties of water that make it such a unique compound.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphoteric
http://www.uni.edu/~iowawet/H2OProperties.html
http://prezi.com/uod1timpjiwk/8-properties-of-water/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmjLXrMaFTg
BSCS Biology a Molecular Approach: Ninth Edition

Prologue and Course Description Response

After reading the prologue of our textbook and the course expectations sheet, I have drawn several conclusions of what I wish to achieve this year. The prologue gave brief descriptions of what would be covered in the textbook, and included topics such as evolution, bioethics, and many others. I hope that the textbook will inform and educate me about how the body works, how cells work, how animals bodies developed over time through natural selection, and how medicine can be abused. The prologue also explained hypotheses and predictions, as well as pseudoscience. I look forward to achieving a much greater understanding of all these topics. Through the course expectations sheet, I hope that this year I learn to become a more independent learner by formulating my own hypothesis and coming to my own conclusions while improving my clarity in labs and projects. Overall, I think this year has a lot to offer academically.