20 Big Questions

I'm most interested in the big 20 question "Are we alone in the universe?" I am interested in this question because it would be so cool to know if there were actually aliens living in the world with us humans. This question has always been a myth that no one seemed to be able to solve. There have even been movies and songs about extra-terrestrials. A current hypothesis for this question could be "If radio telescopes have received a signal bearing the potential hallmarks of an alien message, then there could be places such as Europa and Mars in our solar system to planets many light years away that could have given rise to life. My big 20 questions are very different from the big 20 questions of science.

My big 20 questions:
1.  Will robots take the place of humans?
2.  Can we teleport from place to place?
3.  Is it possible to use 100% of your brain?
4. Did the Big Bang really happen?
5. Why do geniuses usually have a mental illness?
6. Are demons and ghosts real?                                
7. Can people live for ever?
8. Will we ever be able to smell over the phone?
9. Is it possible for everyone to look the same?        
10. What will happen when the sun explodes?
11. Why do we have nightmares?
12. Can people go back in time?
13. Does God exist?
14. Does Big Foot exist?
15. Will there ever be a 10.0 earthquake?
16. Can people live on different planets?
17. Can images on a phone be 3D?
18. Why do people feel pain?
19. Why do people get sore after exercising?
20. Why do some people sweat more?

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

The scientific study that I chose was an experiment about dreaming. The question of the experiment was whether or not there is a purpose to dreaming or if it is merely electrical brain impulses. Their hypothesis was that dreams don't actually mean anything, and that they are simply electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories. If previous studies have shown that people are more likely to remember their dreams when woken directly from REM sleep, then dreams should just be electrical impulses in the brain. This hypothesis was based on the theory of a prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming called the "activation synthesis hypothesis". The experiment was run by the Italian Research Team and they invited sixty five students to sleep in their research laboratory for two nights. During the first night, the students were left to sleep in sound proof and temperature controlled rooms. The scientists did not run any tests on the students and let them get used to their environment in the rooms. However, on the second night of the students sleeping in the laboratory, they measured the students' brain waves as they slept. While the students were sleeping they were frequently woken up to fill out diaries about whether they dreamed or not and if they did, whether they could remember the content of their dreams. The results showed that people who exhibited more low frequency theta waves in the frontal lobes are more likely to remember their dreams.

                       http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-dreaming/

Unit 2 Reflection

          This unit was about the big four macromolecules: carbohydrates, nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. There were many themes and essential understandings that were very important, but for carbohydrates, we learned that there are monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. The more rings there are, the less sweet it is, and the less rings there are, the more sweet it is. Carbohydrates are very important because they store energy in our body and carry out many essential functions in our body for us to survive.
          In addition to learning about carbohydrates, we also learned about lipids. Lipids and carbohydrates have somewhat a similar function which is to store energy, but they are different in many ways. Lipids are large molecules that include fats, phospholipids, oils, waxes, and cholesterol. A phospholipid has a tail and a head and the head is hydrophilic, which means it likes water. However, the tail is hydrophobic, meaning that it stays away from water. Lipids mainly store energy, but they also make up cell membranes, and are sometimes used to make hormones.
          We also learned about nucleic acids. Nucleic acids are composed of up to thousands of repeating nucleotides. Nucleotides are made up of a sugar, a phosphate, and a nitrogen containing molecule called a base. Nucleotides bond together to make either one or two strands. If it bonds to create two strands, then it becomes DNA. If it has one bond, it is RNA. DNA serves as a blueprint for making proteins and is a source of information passed from generation to generation.
         A strength that I have is that I understand nucleic acids and proteins really well, but weakness that I have is that I get confused sometimes with the different functions of carbohydrates and lipids a lot of the time. Some successes is that I finally understand what enzymes do and that they are really essential to our body, and I now know that DNA has two strands while RNA has one. A weakness that I have is that I get confused a lot between whether the head is hydrophilic or the tail is hydrophilic and the other way around.
          I learned a lot about this unit. I learned all about the big four macromolecules. I also learned about all the functions of each and every one of the macromolecules. Lastly, I would like to learn more about proteins in specific because it really interested me the most out of all the macromolecules.

Cheese Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question “what are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese?” We found that in order for milk to curdle, the best conditions would be to have a warm and acidic environment. When the milk with chymosin was put in hot water, it curdled within five minutes comparing to when it did not curdle within twenty minutes in the cold water. When it was put into a person’s armpit, it curdled within ten minutes. It was neither cold nor hot so it took a little more time to curdle than the hot, but much less time than the cold. Chymosin was the same outcome as rennin, however, rennin took a little longer to curdle. The chymosin and rennin had the exact same results except for the base. Chymosin took a long time to curdle, but the rennin did not curdle at all. Chymosin took twenty minutes while the rennin did not fall within the time range. This data supports my claim because it shows that milk curdles the fastest when put in warm conditions with a low pH level, the milk curdles the fastest.

While my hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors due to time and warmth. The milk could have curdled faster than the amount of time we gathered because we only checked the milk every five minutes. The milk could have curdled before we checked on it causing the data to be somewhat inaccurate. For example, we said that the milk with chymosin in hot water curdled at five minutes; however, it could have curdled at two minutes or three minutes. Another issue could have been that when people put the test tube under their armpits, some people could have been wearing jackets while others were wearing tank tops. If someone was wearing a jacket, it would cause their armpits to be much warmer and therefore make the milk curdle faster. On the other hand, if someone was wearing a tank top, it would curdle slower. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend to either constantly stand by the milk to see if it curdles or to check it more often and have everyone either  wear a jacket, or put the test tube on their bare skin.

This lab was done to demonstrate which conditions and curdling agents would make the milk curdle the fastest. From this lab I learned that in order for milk to curdle and turn to cheese, the milk needs to be put in a warm environment with an acidic curdling agent. Although chymosin and rennin work almost exactly the same, chymosin is the better curdling agent because it works slightly faster than rennin. After all, time is money. We learned in class that chymosin is found in calves and the milk that they ingest. Inside of a calf’s stomach, it would be very warm and acidic. In the lab we put the milk in warm water, and we added the chymosin to the milk in order to make it acidic. This lab experiment could be applied to other situations such as in cheese factories to show which curdling agent works best and in what environment or to teach milk factories how to make sure their milk stays fresh.

  Time to Curdle (minutes)

Curdling Agent:	Chymosin	Rennin	Buttermilk	Milk (control)
Acid	5	5	5
Base	20
pH Control	15	10
Cold
Hot	5	5
Temp. Control	10	10

Sweetness Lab

In this lab we asked the question of "how would the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste?" Monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides are all different types of carbohydrates. The more rings a carbohydrate has, the less sweet it is, and the less rings a carbohydrate has, the more sweet it is. Monosaccharides are the sweetest, then disaccharides, and lastly polysaccharides are the least sweet. Starch and cellulose, which are both polysaccharides, were rated a five and a zero compared to the degree of sweetness of sucrose, which was a hundred. Maltose and lactose are disaccharides, and they had higher ratings of sweetness than polysaccharides but lower ratings than monosaccharides. Maltose was given a rating of fifty and lactose was given a ten. Lastly, the monosaccharides glucose and fructose were given very high scores of seventy and one hundred and fifty. This data supports my claim because I rated all the monosaccharides the sweetest, the disaccharides the second sweetest, and the polysaccharides the least sweet. The shape of the carbohydrates might affect the way that cells and organisms use it because it could give them more or less energy depending if they're a monosaccharide, a disaccharide, or a polysaccharide. This could affect the amount of energy used by the organism or cell. All testers did not give the same ratings because different people taste different levels of sweetness. One person could think that glucose is sweeter than sucrose while some people could think the opposite. It is very subjective and it really depends on how your tastebuds work. Also, different people would get different amounts of the carbohydrates and some might pick up more of it, causing it to be sweeter. The last reason why some people could have ranked it differently is because they could have tasted the samples in a different order causing something to maybe taste more or less sweet. They could have had something sweeter before and make the next sample seem sweeter than it really is, or the other way around. When humans eat something sweet, it stimulates the receptor proteins on the outer tips of the sweet-responding taste cells. When your taste buds taste something sweet, it excites the sweet taste cell and it sends a message to the brain, to particular centers of the central nervous system that respond to sweetness. Sugar transporter, special ion channels, and potassium ion channels respond to the metabolic state of the organism or the metabolic state of the taste cell. Tasters could rank the sweetness levels of the same samples differently due to the fact that the brain sends different responses on how sweet the substance is to your body.

Carbohydrate	Type of Carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness	Color	Texture	Other Observations/Connections to Food
Sucrose	disaccharide	100	white	granular	melts very fast in mouth
Glucose	monosaccharide	70	white	granular	melts quickly
Fructose	monosaccharide	150	white	granular	very sweet
Galactose	monosaccharide	30	white	powdery	texture of powdered sugar
Maltose	disaccharide	50	brown	clumpy	weird aftertaste
Lactose	disaccharide	10	white	powdery	tastes like flour
Starch	polysaccharide	5	white	powdery	tastes like paper
Cellulose	polysaccharide	0	white	powdery	tastes like nothing

What is Biology?