Traits

When a child is getting ready to be born, it is very hard for a parent to see what their child may look like in the mother because of how random it is. This is called independent assortment meaning that all options are possible. It all starts with genes from the parents to control what kind of traits a person has. These genes are all made up of alleles that are randomly selected! A child may get the randomly selected traits
which is called genotypes. Each genotype is made up of a selected number of alleles. To get the child's
genotypes you combine the parents genotypes.  These can be both dominant and resesive.  A dominant allele will make sure that the child has the trait and a recessive allele can skip a generation.  Once all of The genotypes have been made you then have the genetic makeup for your child and what it wil look like.  So as you can see chance plays a big role in what a child looks like. So.. this is what Traits means to me and what I learned about them.(:

Gel Electrophoresis

In the lab that we did during Biology was very interesting!! (: I really liked the feeling it when  Mr.Ludwig passed it around :) Anyways...  to start this lab our goal was to try and put three different colored in the gel holes and connected electricity through it too see how the dyes are charged after. The very step that we did was to make the gel plate. This was super simple (if you were paying attention!) We did this by making a mold that was more rectangular shape and put small slots in it to put the different colored dye. We learned how to use micro pipets to suck up the color to pour in the gel rigs. This was the most complicated part in the whole part because you had to be really careful how fast you pumped it out of the pipet and you had to try not to get any bubbles.   When using the pipets we had to get a new nozzle every time so that we did not contaminate the other dyes.  Once Then we poured in the hot get liquid and let it cool for at least for 15 minutes or so. After the gel was hardened in the gel rig, we let it sit for about fifteen minutes.  Then when we came back the dyes had moved.  The negative dyes moved to positive side like DNA would, but there was one positive dye that moved to the negative side.  They all had gone a different distance too, depending on how charged they were.  In all it gave me a good understanding of how Gel Electrophoresis is used to sequence DNA. This was probably my favorite lab that we did this far because the colors that we picked ended up turning out pretty in the end (:

Eugenics!

Lets just say.. Eugenics are basically men terms breeding of humans.  The social origins behind it were that to many immigrants were coming into the country.  When they would reproduce, some of their children would have mutations. So.. the people in "upper' class didn't want FREAKS in America, so scientist came up with the idea of Eugenics! The children that were born would be sterilized so that they couldn't have mutated kids. This is the social origin of Eugenics.

A little bit of History:
For some that don't know (like me).... The very first scientific for Eugenics was if you masturbated, you were considered a degenerated and would be sterilized.  This was known as the "Sterilization Law of 1907."  In the mid 19th century, scientist started to believe that only certain environments cause a such thing as degenerated heredity.  They said: "that a good environment would change bad heredity into good withing three generations."  Two men know as Anton Ochsner and Harry Sharp were convinced that social failure was just a medical problem.  This meant that if you did not have a job, or any education back from your day it was considered a medical problem.  It came up to believe that degeneracy was caused by a germ plasma.

This whole Eugenics research started with Mendel's law of Inheritance of Human Traits.  Eugenics researchers had attempted to trace genetics by a family tree or pedigree. And while they recorded, they had started to make mistakes.  With these little mistakes, it could do simple things such as: face shape but complex things such as musical talent or becoming very intelligent were barely possible.  There were surveys called ERO's while had recorded the family traits and where it went wrong, people were surveying instead of looking at their traits in person. 

So however, Eugenics did come in handy in America and are still used today! It was one of the first and major one of making us get a better education.  Eugenics did the job, and tried to make America a pure race.

I hope you learned just as much as I did while writing about it!

DNA Lab!

This lab was soo cool!! For some that don't know... DNA is a polmer.  In DNA, there are units that are called nucleotides.  The polymer is called polynucleotide.  For each nucleotide, it consists of a 5-carbon sugar, a nitrogen containging a base that is attached to the sugar, and a phosphate group.  However, there are 4 different types of nucleotides that are found in DNA. Down below will show you what each letter means:

A- Adenine

     Def: purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA

G- Guanine

     Def: a purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with cytosine

C- Cytosine

     Def: a base found in DNA and RNA and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with guanine

T- Thymine

     Def: a base found in DNA (but not in RNA) and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with adenine
(In purine bases which are adenine and guanine there are 9 atoms that make up the fused rings, and all of the rings atoms lie in the same plane.)   


So.... in Bio. the class did this lab "DNA Extraction from Wheat Germ. To start off with, the color of the wheat germ soup was a runny brown color.  Then the color had changed while adding detergent and soap turning it lime-green with brown specks.  Adding this to the wheat, is the step of processing it to create DNA.  After, the appearance of the mixture after alcohol was added, there was a five different layer and now it has created more DNA.  At this step, DNA has been created because of the formation it has went through.  Finishing up the lab, the DNA looked like white Clump, kind of like sperm type.....< gross right?! Soooo.... in other words, by doing this lab, I learned about the formation of DNA and how it works!

Babies and Genes :)

Since we have been learning about reproduction for the past 2 weeks or so.. and how there are different ways to make a baby these days, I thought it would be helpful if I explained a few terms in making a baby!! The first word that I learned was Homozygous: 2 of the same copy of a gene. For example AA, or aa. The opposite of Homozygous is another term Heterozygous which means two different copies of a gene. And an example of this would be Aa or Bb. Dominant and Recessive also play a big role in genetics. A dominant gene is a gene that shows up in a trait. A recessive gene is a hidden gene in a trait. Phenotype is a visible trait in the child for example blue eyes or big ears. A genotype are the genes that make the phenotype the genes that are present. Knowing a couple of things about making a baby really helped me in the baby making process!! (:

More Mitosis.

When we did the fun experiment of getting different colored balls with at least 5-10 balls and a partner. One being the mom and the other being the dad!!  This is going to show you how the chromosomes interact with each other. Well you get two different colors with the same amount of balls. Then you mix them together to see how parents can pass chromosomes to their daughter(s) or son(s).  Everyone in the class had different kinds of patterns and it looked really cool :) Well anyways, I found some pictures on the Internet of a chromosome being passed on the to a daughter/son from a parent.  Each phase is included as chromosomes are separated and inherited.

crappp... :/

In Biology we learned the 5 different types of phases of an onion cell. Looking through a microscope slide at a root onion tip, we found cells that are undergoing mitosis. There are some visible chromosomes, I was able to find out what phases took place in the onion. I learned some of the events that went on in that phase!! Here are some important phases when looking at an undergoing mitosis!!

1) Interphase:  Chromosomes are not condensed. Individuals cannot however be distinguished, Chromosomes are visible but they do not appear to be held within a nuclear membrane.
Events: DNA duplicates preparing for mitosis.

2) Prophase: Visible chromosomes, unorganized in a line.
Events: Nuclear membrane dissolves, which markets the beginning of prometaphase. Proteins attach to the centromeres creating kinetochores. Microtubules are then attached at the kinetochores and the chromosomes begin moving.

3) Metaphase: Dark spots in nucleus, distinct chromosomes that are lined up along the middle of the cell. (Line is called metaphase plate)
Events: Nucleus will receive one copy of each chromosomes.

4) Anaphase: 2 clusters of chromosomes that are pulled away from one another. Motion is from a combination of kinetochore movement along the spindle microtubules, through physical interaction of polar microtubules.

5) Telophase: 2 clusters of chromosomes, nuclear membrane is formed around each other which is not longer visible after this happens.
Events: Cytokenisis of cell may form (begin) during this phase




These are the 5 different phases of an onion root cell!! whoop whoopp!!