Blog #12: Gregor Mendel and His Plant Experiments

In Gregor Mendel's Pea Plant experiments, the P1 look the same because they were created by combining two types of genes. F2 look different because they are a cross of F1 and F2 offspring.

Blog #11: Customizable Babies?

In the movie Gattaca, parents were able to pick the traits of their babies. I personally think that this should not be aloud. Mainly because it's just not right. But also there is also the possibility of a higher level of disappointment if the baby was to come out differently than the parents would have wanted.

Blog #10: Fermented Recipe

Lemon Pickle

Ingredients

• lemons - 12 small or 6 large (thin skins preferred)
• juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons
• ½ cup of salt
• ¼ cup of red chili powder
• ½ cup of sugar
• 3 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp fenugreek seed
• 1 tsp black mustard seed
• ¼ tsp asafoetida powder

Preparation

1. Wash the lemons and dry them well, leaving no water on the lemons. Trim off the stalk and any odd bits.
2. Cut the lemons in to small pieces about 2 cm / ¾ inch on each side, and place in a bowl.
3. Dry-roast the fenugreek, black mustard and asafoetida together in a pan on a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Don't burn them!
4. Grind the roasted spices in a grinder, or a mortar and pestle.
5. Add the ground spices, turmeric powder, salt, sugar and chili powder to the bowl and mix together well.
6. Pack the mixture into a 2 quart jar, or use a couple of smaller jars. Don't fill quite to the top - allow at least 1 cm space.

Fermentation

Sit the jar where it will get the heat of the sun. Bring the jar inside in the evening, and put it back out in the morning. Do this for at least a month in summer, two months in winter. The warmth of the sun will help the pickle to ferment.

Blog #9: Government Disease Isolation

I think that the government should contain a person/people/town (if necessary) in order to prevent the spread of the disease, but they should treat the people less harshly than the movie. I think that the government involvement should depend on how serious the disease is. I also think the same thing about the army involvement. They should only be needed when it is truly necessary.

Blog #8: Hot Zone Biocontainment Facility Cautions and Procedures

When entering a hot zone biocontainment facility, there are many cautions that you should heed, and many procedures that you should follow. First, you should always wash yourself and eliminate as many contaminants as possible. Then you would put a "space suit" on to protect yourself from everything. When you're done, you rinse off the suit, then you leave the room and take it off. Some precautions are: NEVER have direct contact with the specimen, to ALWAYS keep your suit on when necessary, and to always clean yourself off so that no contaminants can stow away on you and hijack yours or even someone else's system.

Blog #7: IM Message

IM: dis is y i would never want to get chicken pox. even though i already got it once, i would h8 to get it again. :( the symptoms include itchy rashes, fever, malaise, irritability, mild headache, abdominal pain, and loss of appetite. -_____-  it only lasts 10 days though. it only spreads by direct contact. and once u get it once, it is very rare that some1 gets it again. :)

Translation: This is why I would never want to get chicken pox. Even though I already got it once, I would hate to get it again. The symptoms include itchy rashes, fever, malaise, irritability, mild headache, abdominal pain, and a loss of appetite. It only lats ten days though and it only spreads by direct contact between people. Once you get it, it is vey unlikely that you will ever get it again.

Blog #6: Marburg Poem

Marburg's symptoms
Agonizing pain
Restless
Bedridden
Unhealthy
Regurgitating
Gone

Blog #5: The Good and the Bad

One good prokaryote (bacteria) named Lactobacillus Bulgaricus can help people digest lactose. It is one of the types of bacteria that is in yogurt. Which means that people who are lactose intolerant can eat yogurt without any problems.

Lactobacillus Bulgaricus

One bad virus is the Varicella Zoster virus. It is bad because it causes Chickenpox. Which can rarely result in even worse problems such as Pneumonia.

Varicella Zoster

Blog #4: Article Summarization

'Goldilocks' Planet's Temperature Just Right For Life

Scientists recently discovered a special new planet. The new planet, that scientists are calling "Gliese 581-g" is special because it is the right distance from its star to be able to hold liquid water and support life. Astronomers have found hundreds of planets over the past few years, but none are as revolutionary as this one. Anywhere on Earth, if you can find water, you can find life. The only problem is, for now, there is no direct evidence that the planet has water.

I think this article is important because it announces that astronomers have just discovered a planet that might have life on it. Life on other terrestrial bodies has been speculated for a long time.

Click on this sentence for the article.  

Blog #3: Are Non-Carbon Based Life Forms Possible?

I think carbon based life forms are completely possible. But only on other places in the Universe because every living on Earth is carbon based. I think that they are possible because other places in the Universe have different environments. I also think its possible because NASA probes haven't even left the Solar System yet. So there are millions of possibilities

Blog #2: Should the U.S. switch to the metric system?

A few years ago, Climate Orbiter, one of NASA's Mars probes was lost. It was due to a mis-measurement when some of the scientists in England used metric measurements, while the scientists in the U.S. used the standard system.

Even though the rest of the world uses the metric system, the U.S. uses the standard system. It can cause confusion between different countries. But I personally don't think that the U.S. needs to switch because:

1. It would cause confusion for the people in the U.S. who didn't hear about the switch.
2. It would take a very long time for all the companies and the public to make and get used to the switch.

Mini Bibliography: This is a link to the page that I used to get a bit of info about the probe.

NASAs Metric Confusion Caused Mars Orbiter Loss

Blog #1: Goals for Class and School

Goals for class:

• Get an A for both semesters.
• Learn many new things.
• Make new friends.
• Have fun. 

Goals for school:

• To make this year a memorable and enjoyable year.
• To pass the CAHSEE. 
• To get at least a B in math, but to get an A in the rest of the classes.

Picture that represents me:
I can't really find a picture that represents all of me. But I found one that represents one of them. :)

First Post

I've been thinking about making an account on this for a while. But since I have to now, I finally made one. lol :)