Green Man

and Vannessa

Carbon Monoxide-POISON!

Carbon monoxied is a very poisonous gas that kills about 500 people in a year in the United States. How this poisonous gas gets in you is either by a stove, or a water heater. You can't smell, hear, or taste it. Its known as the "silent killer." CO is a by-product of incomplete combustions. When it gets in the body, the CO takes over the normal oxgyen molecules, and enters the bloodstream and goes to the brain and heart. Inhaling a great amount of this poison can lead to death. Syptoms can be flu-like, including headache, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. People who have CO don't know it till its too late. Now, they have carbon monoxide detectors that sends an alarm like a smoke detectors. Getting one is a must during winter time, especially when we're using our furnaces.

Source

Mircoscopes!!!

For the past couple of days, we've been experimenting with microscopes.What we've put on the slides to look at were blood (donaited by David), an onion skin, a rat's brain, a piece of paper, strans of our own hair, pond water and cheek cells. We put all these products on a slide with a cover over them and put it under the scope. It was amazing how you can see the individual cells in the blood. Just like little red circles. What we saw in our group in the pond water, were little organisms. They were moving and everything. It was amazing how these little, living things are what we live from. When you look a paper from a human's eye, it looks like, well, paper, but under the scope, it looks like crystals. It was weird, but interesting. I really liked this week and what we did.

ITS SCIENCE PEOPLE!

Our lab that we did was amazing. We had a cylinder about 3/4 of water. We added idoine in it until it was a good looking brown. What we were trying to do was look for glucose. The water with idoine didn't have any, but when we tested the glucose/starch, of course the strip changed colors. We put the glucose/starch in a thin baggy. The baggy represented the membrane of a cell. We put the baggy in the water and let it sit for about 30 minutes when we notice some changes within the baggy. The glucose/starch was clear, but after a while, a black substance started to appear on the bottom. After leaving it for a day, the baggy turned a gray-ish color with more black stuff on the bottom. The baggy was a little bit more puffy than it was. We made a conclusion that the glucose from the bag had left and the idoine from the water came in. The idoine was obsorbed by the starch, and the glucose levels raised in the water. This is kind of what happends with cells. The membrane of the cells can let what ever it wants in, or out.

Membrane Structure

So, last week we made a model of a fluid mosaic. To Caryn, it looked like a piece of pie. But in it, we have proteins, lipids. carbohydrate chain and a protein channel. It helped me understand the structure more. The carbohydrate chain helps identify other cells. Thats the long looking red thing in our drawing. I really like this activity.

Fruit Loops are Macromolecules

Last week in biology class, we messed around with some fruit loops, and not just to eat them, but to learn about macromolecules. We got a piece of string and got some fruit loops and made a long strand of fruit loops. Each yarn represented one macromolecule. Each person had to find someone else and either make a blob, which was macromolecule bunched up with others. Or, you can get two other strands and make a rope like fruit loops, braided into one. I liked how we got to do that because it helped me understand it a lot more than before. I hope we can do some more stuff like that in the future.

Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are synthetic sugars. Synthetic sugars is a substitute for the real sugar our body craves.  Artificial sweeteners are also known as intense sweeteners because they are many times sweeter than regular sugar really is. Some people think these sugars help them with their weight loss, but not really. They add no calories to your diet, but you still need sugar for your body. Artificial sweeteners are used widely in processed products like candy, pudding, anything sweet. It can be used in your household foods also when your mom is cooking dinner. Certain recipes may need modification because artificial had no bulk or volume like regular sugar. Some sweeteners leave an aftertaste. People who should use these are people who have diabetes. Unlike sugar, artificial sweeteners generally don't raise blood sugar levels because they are not carbohydrates, but always check with your doctor to make sure. That is what artificial sweeteners.

tums and such

Food Testing

So the lab that we did was quit interesting. We got simple products; sugar, honey etc. and tested if they were mono, di, or polysaccharieds. How we did this was using iodine and benedict. This helped us see which one it was; a mono, di or poly. After we got some products and put some drops of iodine or benedict, we put it in hot water for about five minutes. Pretty soon, the product started to turn colors. Some of them didn't change at all. This determined that the products where di. Some products turned dramastically. Some just stayed the same like I said before.

Acid Lab

While doing an acid lab, we came up with a hypothesis that the name brand would work better than the cheap brand.  We discovered that some products like Tums and Rolaids, act different in Milk of Magniesa. The tums became very bubbly and turned strange colors. Then, we were able to use acid strips to see what color they changed. Most of them where a 5, but there was one that turned a 7. Most of the stomach medicain are like really chalky, and taste very nasty. But we came to a conclusion that Rolaids works the best.

Water Properties

This week, my class has been studying water; its molecules and their properties. Water isn't a tear drop shape like everyone thinks. It's actually like a blob. I always thought that it was tear but its not. In the morning, dew on leaves are a spherical shape because the shape increases the density of the water drops. Also, if you try and put as much water as you can on a penny, it kind of has a bent shape on the top. Thats because of the surface tension. Also, while holding a long, wet string vertically, we found out that the water kind of attached to each other. The water had a swirl to it while it when down the string. How it got that way, I'm not for sure, but I know I will find out.
It takes more energy to turn a solid to a liquid, then it is to take a liquid to a gas. Water molecules are cohesive and adhesive. Cohesive is when water flows freely, but the water molecules don't separate from each other. Adhesive is the opposite.
Water is a very funny element that we have on our Earth, and I want to learn more about it.

Double Blind Placebo

While reading about double-blind placebo at www.clinicaltrials.gov, I've learned that its purpose of the study is to Copaxone in CD patients. Crohns disease is a chronic disorder that affects the digestive system. If effects people in their late teens or early twenties, but it can appear at any age. Some signs are weight loss, fever, and abdominal pain. It also attacks the nervous system, and makes the system very weak.
The drug that the doctors would use is Idebenone. This drug like a deitary supplement.