Why is Sex Important?

Why isn't sex important? Sex is the way that we reproduce our own genetic code. Sex is the way our race, whether human or beast, or bacteria grows and flourishes. When a male and female perform sexual intercourse, their genetic code gets transported and shared. Without sex, your race will cease to exist. Asexual reproduction is a way to escape sex, but in most cases, giving up sex leads to the extinction of that race. Since reproducing asexually leads to mutations infecting the embryo, races can be wiped out completely. To tell whether a organism is truly asexually is by looking at the offspring. IF they have to same exact patterns, then they are asexual because the only thing that can cause differences is mutations. Fungi reproduces asexually, and so does E.coli, as known to its friends. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH Br. Coli
IT IS NOT THE SAME!!!

Unit 3 Reflection

In this unit, we studied the parts and functions of a cell. Since everything living contains cells, it is important to know what occurs in a cell and how a cell is set up. Processes like osmosis and photosynthesis and cellular respiration are essential to life, and we performed different labs to work on how they worked. Cells are made up of organelles like a nucleus, and some cells have other parts as well. There are many types of cells Plant and Animal cells, There are two main types prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and they both have different characteristics and defining features. It was easy to grasp the parts of the cell since we learned that last year, but when we drew the diagram of photosynthesis, I was completely lost. I had to go back and watch the vodcast to even understand the diagram. 

I learned about the process of osmosis and how diffusion works with it. I also am now able to talk about the differences and similarities of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. I feel like I came from very little background on cellular respiration and osmosis, but after doing the egg lab and studying more about it, I was able to understand Osmosis. I am still working on understanding cellular respiration, but I know a lot more than from where I started from. Below is the Egg diffusion lab we did in class.

This is the diagram of photosynthesis I had trouble understanding.

Egg Diffusion Lab

In this lab we looked at osmosis and diffusion by putting two different eggs in solutions of deonized water and corn syrup. We were testing the difference between hypertonic and hypotonic solutions by seeing hoe keeping the egg in the solution would affect it. The definition of Diffusion is when the solvents go from a low concentration to a high concentration of water to the equilibrium, or even point. This is called passive diffusion when it doesn't require the cell to use energy The water inside the eggs left to the outside, in the sugar water beaker, making the egg shrink and colapse on itself in places. In comparison, when left in the deonzied water, the egg grew as the solvents in the water infiltrated the eggs membrane and filled the egg making its percent of  change 7.78. This as well as the fact that the mass' percent of  change was .44 grams shows diffusion and proves the difference between hypertonic and hypotonic solutions. 

Grocers in a market sprinkle their produce with water to prevent them from shrinking and losing its inner moisture in the sun, as well as simply dehydrating. Roads are sprayed with salt when it is wet or covered in snow because the salt melts and dries the road out, making it safer to travel on. When it is mixed with plants, the salt dries the plants out killing them as plants require water void of salt to hydrate it. That is also why humans cannot drink salt water, because salt dehydrates us. 

Since this lab proved that putting a egg in a hypertonic solution makes it shrink, does putting it back in hypotonic solution make it grow again? Theoretically it should, since the converse of the definition of hypertonic states that it would grow, but in real life would it be possible? Does putting a dehydrated grape in a solution of water revive it? I would really like to test that, even though based on life experiences, I can hypothesize the answer would be no.

Here are some side by side pictures comparing the eggs we tested.

 In both the pictures, there is clear difference between the eggs as one is shrinked and the other filling the beaker completely.

Here is the data table our class shared with the average percent of change :

Egg Cell Macromolecules lab

In this lab we asked the question: Can macromolecules can be identifies in an egg cell? Using different chemicals and solutions, and mixing it with the egg parts, the macromolecules are exposed. For example, monosachharides are found in the surface of the cell, and using benedicts soulution, we tested if it is in the egg. If there were monosachharides it would have turened from blue to green, to orange. In that way we tested all four major macromolecules. First we separated the egg into three parts, the egg yolk, the membrane, and the white, then we tested each part to see which macromolecules were found in it. Since protein is udually fund in the center of the cell, in the structure, I assumed that it would be in the yolk of the egg since that holds the structure for the baby chicks. If there was evidence of protein in the egg yolk, then when mixed with CuSo4, it should turn from blue to purple. In the negative control, which was water, it showed on a scale to one to ten as sa zero, but when exposed to the egg yolk it was a two. It had turned from yellow, to a blueish purple color indicating that there was indeed protein in the cell. Since the egg white is the cytoplasm of the egg, and has many amino acids, I reasoned that it would contain protein. When we tested the egg white, with the CuSo4 to see whether it had any protein, it showed up as a light purple, almost lilac. On the scale we ranked it as a seven on brightness, which indicated that it did have protein. The egg whites are eaten by body builders as well as normal people as a protein source, so there had to be some evidence of protein in it. When mixed with a substance containing lipids, the chemical Sudan III turns from a red to an orange, and when we mixed it with a test tube of cell membrane, it turned into a bright orange color. We ranked it as a 10 in color, while the negative control, water, was a 0. It made sense there was lipids in the egg membrane because cell membranes are made up of lipids.

Some possible errors that could have occurred while performing the lab was cross contamination of the the substances. While we were splitting the egg, some of the yolk might have mixed with the membrane or the white since it exploded everywhere when we tried to cut it open. That could have affected how the chemicals responded with the substances because we were testing to compare between the parts and if the parts of the egg were mixed, it wouldn't have been a fair or accurate comparison. Another mistake could have been made was the timing of how long we left the chemical solutions to rest before judging what color it was, as well as how much of the substance that we mixed with the egg. Another huge thing that could have affected our final results was our definition of what a color is. Due to these errors, i say we should have timed how long the substance was left to rest, as well as a set amount of how much to mix in instead of 8 drops, an actual vial to mix in.

We did this lab to see and reinforce what we learned in the vodcasts, where do macromolecules exist in a cell. Since the egg itself is  a cell, we were able to relate and compare it to an actual cell. We learned that cells are everywhere in our lives and eating certain parts of a food can benefit us in different ways, like body builder eating the egg whites, and the chick growing in the yolk of the egg.

Here are some pictures from the lab: