Questions on My Mind

         After reading the article "20 Big Questions In Science", the question that I am most interested in is "what is consciousness." I am interested in this question because I wonder about what causes our brain to have thoughts and speak with itself. How does ones consciousness develop? Currently, one hypothesis is that different regions of the brain connect with each other and consciousness is there way of communicating with each other.

My 20 Big Questions:

1. What caused the big bang?
2. What happens when multiverses collide?
3. What causes gravity?
4. How is light created?
5. Is it possible to live for ever?
6. Is there an end to the universe?
7. How can time slow down?
8. Are there other living organisms in the universe?
9. Can humans live for ever?
10. What factors cause evolution to occur in species?
11. Can an organism be recreated?
12. Can humans travel at the speed of light?
13. What is inside a blackhole?
14. How do humans dream?
15. What are atoms made of?
16. How is pure energy created?
17. Do any people in the world share the same iris?
18. Why are flamingos pink?
19. What causes siamese twins to be born?
20. Are mosquitos contributing members of the ecosystem?

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

          The study I found is called the Stanford Marshmellow Experiment, and it was a study done in the late 1960's on the delayed gratification in children, when it develops, and what conditions it develops in.. They found that children used many methods, such as closing their eyes, hurting themselves or thinking of dark thoughts that would allow them to wait. It the test, children were told that either they could have one marshmallow now, or two in fifteen minutes. In follow up experiments, they noticed that children who were able to delay there gratification tended to have better life outcomes, such as higher SAT scores and healthier BMI's.

          The original question asked when does the control of delayed gratification develop in children. The hypothesis of the experiment was if different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicity's and age effect the way that children think, then delayed gratification will develop in children later in life and those who come from better economic backgrounds. This hypothesis was based on the prior knowledge of a similar test done in Trinidad in which different ethnicity's effected the results and children from poor backgrounds were more likely to gain the immediate reward rather then wait and fear losing the reward.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/the-marshmallow-test/

Unit 2 Reflection

       Unit 2 of biology was about the chemistry of life and chemistry is used to create the cells and other parts of living organisms. The theme of this unit were how chemistry is used to create matter and in turn biology. This included sub units about the the different carbon compounds, the properties of water, enzymes and chemical reactions. Learning about the different carbon compounds and enzymes were easy because the fundamental chemistry of them is based of off carbon connections and in the case of enzymes, proteins. the The macro molecule vodcasts clearly showed how different structures of carbon can create different molecules with different purposes. This included carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acid. The sweetness lab showed the difference between complex and simple carbohydrates and difference in taste between them.  In the messing with enzymes vodcast, it clearly explained the factors that effects enzymes and how they can be denatured. The experiment we did on cheese curdling was a very fun way to learn about how different environmental conditions can effect enzymes and to further our understanding of them. On the other hand, I had a hard time with the properties of water, in particularly polarity and how it allows water to easily combine with itself and other molecules. I still don't fully understand the meaning of polarity and weather other molecules not known as water can be polar. Despite doing the vodcast, it would have been nice to do an experiment on it to gain a further understanding on it. The properties that make water wet were easy to understand and I learned what they are, but polarity and how it effects water still confuse me. I learned from this unit how chemical reactions take place and how different conditions can effect what happens. This can help in the future with biology because chemical reactions and chemistry itself is very important in biology and chemical reactions happen at a microscopic level in cells to allow the body to properly function. One thing I want to learn more about besides polarity are ions. Despite knowing that hydrogen ions effect the pH level of compounds and molecules, I don't fully understand what an ion is and how it can make a compound a acid or a base. are there any molecules besides water that are neutral on the pH scale. I also want to know more about activation energy and how chemical reactions are able to absorb energy. How do they collect and harness the energy to create more chemical reactions? How is energy created from the breaking of chemical bonds? Are bonds created from matter or are they just a chemical attraction holding them together. These are some of the questions I have and things I wonder about. 

Cheese Lab Analysis

In this lab we asked the question of “what are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese.” We found that the optimal conditions for making cheese are a hot temperature and an acidic pH level, while the best curdling agents were chymosin and rennin. In the lab, curdling agents that were placed in acid took an average of 5 minutes, while curdling agents placed in bases did not curdle. Likewise, curdling agents placed under a hot temperature took very little time (5 and 10 minutes) while curdling agents placed under a cold temperature did not curdle. In both situations, curdling agents with controls for their temperatures and pH levels took longer time to curdle than the acid and hot temperature. The best curdling agents for making cheese were chymosin and rennin based off the process of elimination, as they were the only curdling agents that curdled. Rennin took less time with an average pH (10 versus 15 minutes) while chymosin was better in with hot temperatures (5 versus 10 minutes). Cheese is created with the enzyme rennin, which is found in the stomach of baby calves and is kept in a warm, acidic environment for it to survive. This data supports our claim because it shows that chymosin and renin are the best curdling agents since they are the only ones that curdled, and that the best environment is a hot and acidic one because they had the fastest times and are the environment in which renin is naturally found.

While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been possible errors due to human error and inconsistencies due to the timings of when we observed the test tubes. The human error came in many forms, such as problems in measuring liquids for the different enzyme solutions and inconsistent control temperatures. These errors may have impacted the data, as improper liquid measurements lead to inexact solution levels, so the solutions may have been exposed to varying levels of enzymes and acid/base. Differences in armpit temperatures (which were used as a control) may have caused certain solutions to curdle slower are faster than they would have under ideal conditions. Another cause was the length in time between checking on solutions. Experimenters were to check every 5 minutes for curdling ,which left a gap in time in which the solutions may have curdled, causing imperfect data. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend decreasing the time between observations to create more accurate data and to properly measure solutions, which may not be possible due to there always being human error.

This lab was done to show the effects of temperature and pH level on enzymes and to find the best curdling agent for cheese. From this lab I learned how temperature and pH level affect enzymes, which helps me understand the concept of enzymes and activation energy, which can be decreased by a higher temperature and allow the enzyme to work more effectively under the right circumstances. Based on my experience from this lab, I now know the best conditions for enzymes to function in and can create the best conditioned environment for future experiments with enzymes.

Time to Curdle (minutes)
Curdling Agent:	Chymosin	Renin	Buttermilk	Milk (Control)
Acid	5	5
Base
pH Control	15	10
Cold
Hot	5	10
Temp Control	15	15

Sweetness Lab Analysis

The purpose of the Sweetness Lab was to test the degree of sweetness of different types of carbohydrates on a scale of 0 - 200. The carbohydrates sucrose was used as a control and set a degree of 100 in order to ensure a fair scale. Based on evidence found from the lab, monosaccharides are the sweetest, disaccharides are in the middle, and polysaccharides are at the bottom. Most monosaccharides used as unnatural and natural sweeteners in many food products and had a much higher average rating, with fructose earning a high score of 130. Disaccharides are mainly used as mild sweeteners in products such as milk, they had a mild sweetness and are average rating of 50. Polysaccharides on the other hand had very low degrees (average of 3) and are mainly used for providing energy and were very bland. This data supports my claim because they show real life examples of how the different carbohydrates are used and what the data shows about them.

The shape of carbohydrate structure might affect how they are used by cells because carbohydrates with more rings with double bonds can provide more energy to the cells in an organism and are more likely to be eaten for long term usage. On the other hand, carbohydrates with less rings tend to provide a short burst of energy, but do not provide long term energy and can be unhealthy for the body. Thus, they are more likely to be used fors short energy bursts.

Not all tasters gave the same results for many reasons. One of them may be that the taste buds on people are all different and may analyze the taste of foods differently. Another may be that the opinions of people affect how things taste for them, thus it will be different for everyone. Finally, the lab depended on the amount of carbohydrate that you tasted, and everyone may have tasted a different amount, so the flavors may have been different based on the amount.

Humans taste sweetness because everyone has proteins that act as taste receptors and every time you eat something sweet, that sweet protein receptor goes off. The biochemical interaction that takes place in your taste buds sends a signal to a part of your brain that senses that you have eaten something sweet. Taste buds have different types of protein receptors, and everyone has a different percent of the different receptors, so depending on the amount of each kind you have, you may interpret something differently. (http://www.npr.org/2011/03/11/134459338/Getting-a-Sense-of-How-We-Taste-Sweetness)

Biology Collage