Blog #14: Semester in Review

The first semester of my sophomore year has been a busy one. Even though it has been more fun than freshman year, especially Tri-City Orchestra, it has been a lot more stressful due to my effort in trying to keep all my straight A's well..... straight.A's. Biology, for one, has had its ups and downs. My favorite activities of the semester are those that had to do with microscopes. I liked it best because I thought it was fun and very interesting. My least favorite activity of the semester is the Wiki project that we are doing right now. It is my least favorite because of the fact that it's really hard and confusing. If I could change one thing to improve the next semester, I would want to not have a project that is really confusing and uses a method that none of has have ever had experience with, like the Wiki project.

Blog #13: DNA and Crime investigation

DNA has changed how we investigate crimes in many ways. One way is that it helps clear people that have been wrongfully charged,  of their charges, and throws the correct suspect in jail. Even decades later. It is way more precise than older methods. But unfortunately there has been such a huge pile up of cases over the years, that there are not enough forensic analyzers.

Two examples of tests are:
1. Salivary Tests

2.  Blood Tests

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.