GLOWING BACTERIA!

This lab was crazy.  We transformed bacteria to glow.  It was very interesting how we did. We had for containers with bacteria in them.  We put two containers that consists of plasmid.  Plasmid consists with many genes like the green genes and other genes.  The test tubes with out the plasmid was our control just to see the changes with the plasmid. We kept putting the test tubes in ice then in hot water.  This is called a heat shock, this is because the bacteria will open and allow the plasmid to enter into the the bacteria to give it another gene.  After this we put the test tubes into an incubator at 37 degrees Celcius.  The next day we would take them out and put them under a UV light.  One of our test tubes that is mixed with plasmid glowed up.  This was very crazy.  I didn't think it would work but it did.  Many scientists around the world are doing this same process to many organisms like they are making glowing cats, and glowing mice.  It is very crazy how they can put a glowing gene into a figure.  This glowing bacteria lab was very interesting maybe someday I will get to make a glowing cat that would be fun.







This is the photo I took of the glowing bacteria we made. It glows when under a UV Light. It was very interesting.  The glowing is from the plasmid which was injected into the bacteria



                                                            These are the test tubes we used.  The ones with the minus - signs
                                                             are our controls they didn't have plasmid in them. The ones with  
                                                             the plush + sign consists with plasmid.

<==== The Glowing mice.  This is what scientists are doing.
            They kinda did the same process we did wit our bacteria this
           would be crazy to see.  They put a gene into the mice which    
           makes them glow.  Scientists are also doing this with many
           other creatures like cats.
       

GATTACA

Gattaca is a movie that we watched in class.  This movie was very interesting.  Its about a boy named Vincent who brother name is Anton.  When the parents wanted to have a perfect child, they used the eugenics theory of a perfect child.  They took all of the bad genes out of Anton and gave him more genes.  I remember the doctor asking the parents if they want to take out this disease of Anton.  Aton was a way more healthier child then Vincent.  Anton and Vincent would always have a swimming contest who could swim the farthest. They called it chicken.  One day when they Vincent beats his brother Anton.  After Vincent won, he decides to leave, after he leaves he decides to rip his picture, I am really not sure why he did this but he did.  Once Vincent leaves he wants to research his dream and go to space.  He runs into many problems because the people who controls who goes to space wont allow him to go because he has many problems.  This movie is based off of the theory of eugenics, forming the perfect child.  When he goes he mets this guy named Jerone who is a guy who had perfect genes, but he doesn't really use them because he was hit my a car and became paralyzed. So they transform Vincent into Jerone so that Vincent can go to space.  Vincents had to do many things to look like Jerone, but they finally did it.  One day when VIncent goes to work aka Jerone there is a murder that occurs.  Vincents real hair was found and now he is a suspect but they can't find Vincent because he looks like Jerone.  This movie is very confusing but it is really interesting.  It made me understand the world of how eugenics works.  In my opinion eugenics ruins families just like it did to Vincent and his family.  Anton Vincents brother really didn't get along because their parents focused more on Anton because he was a perfect child and Vincent had a few problems.  I remember when the doctor asked the parents that they could take out this gene because it had a diesea in it.  Vincent is a strong person because he didn't let anyone tell him he can't.  Vincent never got busted with the polices because him a Jerone had a good plan of getting around them.  Vincent was a hard working man with a lot of help from his buddy.  He got to go to space, thats what he always wanted to do.  I think this movie is very interesting, it helped me understand the world of eugenics.  I truly enjoyed this movie it wasn't just about one person giving his DNA to another person I think it also a life lesson, let nobody tell you you can't just like Vincent does in this movie.

DNA LAB!

In class we built our own DNA.  First we mixed a gram of wheat germ with 25 milliliters of warm water.  Wheat germ is a little brown substance that is soft.  Then we mixed the two substances together for about three minutes. After the substance was mixed it turned a brown color, then we had one fourth of teaspoon of detergent. After the detergent was in the test tube we mixed it for about five minutes.  After we mixed the detergent with the substance we added 14 milliliters of alcohol to the test tube.  Make sure when you pour the alcohol in the test tube you tilt the test tube and pour the alcohol solution in slowly so the that they don't mix.  So it looks like that there is a light brown yellow substance in the bottom of the test tube and a clear substance on the top of the test tube.  Now this gets really interesting.  But make sure that you don't mix after you pour the alcohol. As you wait and stare at the test tube for a couple minutes a clear filmy substance starts to form.  It is really weird how it starts to form it comes form the bottom and starts moving up.  While you keep watching in like ten minutes more and more of this starts to float up to the top.  It was funny because Cody started screaming when the substance started floating up.  The clear substance is DNA.  I am not really sure how it was formed but it was DNA.  As a group we grabbed a stick and poked at the DNA.  As you grabbed it with the stick more and more DNA would come up.  We made our own DNA! In this lab I truly learned how to make our own DNA.  This lab was very interesting and fun because I made something that I never thought I could or would make.

This is how our test tube looked like. The clear white substance floating to the top is DNA created and being created.  It doesn't look to interesting but once you see it forming its really cool and interesting.

DNA model

The pictures are pictures of the DNA models we have created in class.  DNA is a very important structure in the human body.  DNA gives characteristics to any living creature.  Building these structures were fun and interesting.  As a class we each built little models of DNA and connected them into one, it was a huge model.  We also drew a model on the white boards, that made me understand more like what DNA is and what the sugar bonds and hydrogen bonds are. Building these DNA models truly helped me understand the structure of DNA. The first picture is labeled with all the parts of DNA. I truly understand all parts of DNA and how they connect together to form it.

Eugenics

Eugenics is a very cruel way of breeding human beens in my way.  First of all each kid has special characteristics which should be special to the human. Eugenics is when you eliminate certain genes of a child, so you can have a so called "special child". In my opinion I think all kids are special and shouldn't be breaded for certain genes.  For example I don't think its right if you have blond hair and your spouse has red hair and you don't want your kid to have red hair so you eliminate that gene.

Eugenics become a big part of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s.  Our country was going through some hard time and a depression.  Many people lost jobs, homes, and money due to this depression.  Many people started to get diseases and other sicknesses.  Many people started using eugenics to have healthy child, this is one good thing of eugenics. But other people started to abuse just because they didn't want their child to have a certain genetic.  Eugenics was used mainly on the emigrants coming to the United Sates, many people used this science to eliminate certain kinds of races to.

In my opinion I truly think that using the method of eugenics is very wrong and not right.  I think that each person should have his or hers certain features and they shouldn't be changed for any reason.  In my research I found out that eugenics was a type of science to mess up the types of a humans Dominant and Recessive genes. A Dominant gene is a feature or disease that sticks out the most from your generation or your family tree.  A Recessive gene is a feature or disease that skips a generation because it takes two copies to make the gene.  Eugenics was used to change or manipulate these genes.


Eugenic was a huge part of American culture in the early twenty century.  Eugenics is meant to be "good   birth". Eugenics was first founded in Britain, but was brought to the United States. I truly think Eugenics is a cruel way to bread a child or more than one child.  Many families who used eugenics was most likely to have more than one child.  In my opinion using eugenics is a cruel way to have a perfect baby, I truly think it will ruin your family genetics.  I truly think that making a perfect baby is impossible because nobody is perfect.

BLUE FAMILY

The chart above shows the family generation of a small community in Kentucky.  They had a weird skin pigment that changed their skin blue.  It was started to spread because many people had babies with their own cousins.  Its kinda gross but the gene was passed down from generation to generation.  It was a dominate gene early in the generation because it was a small community and most family members had kids together.  As the town started getting bigger due to mining the blue skin started to fade away.  Many doctors didn't know why their skin was blue but it was very interesting.  This was a very interesting article, their was so much information on this generation of blue people.


http://www.indiana.edu/~oso/lessons/Blues/TheBlues.htm#pedigree
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/blue-skinned-people-kentucky-reveal-todays-genetic-lesson/story?id=15759819#.T0voNlFTNSq

Fugates of Kentucky: Skin Bluer than Lake Louise

TASTE STRIPS-Genetics

This chart shows a little part of my family generation.  We were given these strips that you put on your tongue to see if you can taste it or not taste it.  My mom wasn't able to taste it or her parents or my little sister could not taste the strips.  On the other had my dad could taste it.  I could also taste it and so could my older brother and sister.  The squares stand for boys and the circles stand for girls.  If the shape is colored in the person could taste the strip of paper.  This all has to do with genetics if you can taste it, its a dominate gene in my family.  This little experiment was very interesting and I liked watching my dad and older brother and sister taste it because they made a funny face.  This is truly a dominate gene in my family because more people could taste the strip.

Mouth CANCER

        Mouth cancer is a very harmful cancer, there were about 35,000 people in the United States who got oral cancer in the years of 2008.  Cancer is defined as the uncontrollable growth of cells that invade and cause damage to the surrounding tissue.  Men have a higher chance of getting mouth cancer than females.  Males or smoke or use smokeless tobacco, or also know has snuff have a way higher risk of getting oral cancer.
        How can you tell that you have or are getting close to mouth cancer?  Sores is one symptom that you might have oral cancer.  Oral cancer can occur any where in the mouth, like on your tongue, gums, lips, floor of your mouth, top of your mouth, or in your throat.  Bleeding in your mouth is another way you can tell that you have oral cancer.  Smoking and chewing will make you have a higher risk of getting mouth cancer.  Genetics is another way that you can receive this horrible cancer.  If people in your family tree has had oral cancer, their is a possibility that you can get it.  Mouth cancer occurs when cells on your lips or in your mouth develop changes in their DNA, this is called mutations.  These mutations allow cancer cells to grow when the healthy cells die out.  Mouth cancer cells can grow into tumors.  Once the cancer is growing it can spread through out or body, which can cause death.  Oral cancer is very harmful and you truly have a higher risk if you smoke or chew tobacco.

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/oral-cancer

STEM CELLS

-What are stem cells?
Stem cells are many types of cells that divide into many other types of cells. It matters if the cells are in multipotent or pluripotent, the both are repairing systems, that can divide as many times as they want.


-What are the different types of stem cells, and where do they come from?
The different types of stem cell are multipotent or pluripotent, and they come from many other cells like, red blood cells, muscle cells, or brain cells. The stem cells mainly come from human embryos. 
-Pluripotent stem cells can give rise to any type of cell in the body except those needed to support and develop a fetus in the womb.
-Stem cells that can give rise only to a small number of different cell types are called multipotent.


-What is the potential for new medical treatments using stem cells?
The purpose for using stem cells as medical treatments is because if some one is healthy, they can take that stem cell out.  They can freeze it over time and inject it in some one else who needs it.  They are mainly injected to the immune system to help people get better.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/StemCells/Templates/StemCellContentPage.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID=%7bA604DCCE-2E5F-4395-8954-FCE1C05BECED%7d&NRORIGINALURL=%2finfo%2ffaqs%2easp&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest#whatare

Genetics Key Terms!

These are the terms that we have learned about genetics.  All terms are very important to genetics.

Onion Root Tips Table

Interphase Prophase Metaphase Anaphase Telophase Total 20 10 3 2 1 36 36 56% 28% 8.3% 5.6% 2.8% 100% 100%

1. What percent of cells were in interphase?
56% of the cells where in the interphase.

2. What percent were in mitosis?
The  percent in mitosis is about 54%.

3. Which phase of mitosis takes the longest?
The Prophase takes the longest of mitosis.

4. During which stage is the nucleolus visible as a dark spot?
Interphase is when the nucleolus is visible as a dark spot.

5. How can you recognize a cell in metaphase?
You can recognize a cell in metaphase is when the chromosomes are lined up in the middle of the cell.