Why is Sex so Great?

The selected reading was about the good and bad parts about sexual and asexual reproduction. In the note from Dr. Tatiana, she talked about how sex was such an important aspect of life. In the chapter "Wholly Virgin", the author gives reasons about how asexual reproduction is good or bad, and also compares it to sexual reproduction.

Sex is important, since without sex, everything that is beautiful in nature would exist. This is because the organisms would have to try to attract mates by "wearing costumes". It is also important for survival and reproduction. The mixing of genes during sex will help with the process of natural selection and mutations.

One benefit of sex is that sex mixes genes from different individuals. It is an internal shuffling of each chromosome, so it produces a different genetic combination than each of its parents. This shuffling can also keep the amount of harmful mutations down, which will increase the survival rate of the species. Another benefit of the shuffling is that diseases will have a harder time infecting the species, as the species will evolve to resist the disease. Although sexual production has many benefits, it also has some costs. For example, the species will not be able to produce as quickly or easily as asexual organisms.

 Asexual reproducing organisms, such as the Philodina and E. coli, are benefited since asexual production is more efficient than sexual reproduction, as it produces twice as much offspring. It is also easier to do, since it does not require the participation of a male organism. A cost of asexually reproducing is that it is a evolutionary dead end and usually quickly leads to extinction. There are many ways to extinction, including harmful mutations and diseases. These problems can be sidestepped with effort, for example, a species can have a very large population, which will help the amount of organisms without harmful mutations to grow. They can also go through anhydrobiosis, which will stop the disease problem, although not all organisms will survive the process.

The difference between Muller's ratchet and Kondrashov's hatchet was kind of confusing, as they were pretty similar. I would like to learn more about viruses and how they work. 

Unit 3 Reflection

    This unit was about many different aspects of cells. It talked about different parts of the cell, and their functions. The process of how a protein was made in a cell was described. Different ways for a molecule of any sort to pass through a cell membrane was discussed. The process of photosynthesis, which takes place in chloroplasts, and the process of cellular respiration, which takes place in mitochondria, were described in a lot of detail. It walked us through the steps of both of the processes. The big ideas of this unit were the cellular basis of life and matter and energy.

    This unit went along decently well. I am getting more used to the classroom and how Mr. Orre teaches. I can make myself be more concentrated and more productive. Despite this, I also have some setbacks. For example, I do not like my current group as much as I liked my previous group. Half of the time, one person was missing, and there is also a person who keeps talking and is kind of dictatorial. The photosynthesis and cellular respiration processes were kind of hard to understand and memorize. 

    From these experiences, I learned that I can take advantage of the knowledge of the patterns of how Mr. Orre assigns things and can do predict that some things will happen and do them ahead of time. I can also learn how to cooperate better with my classmates. I can also use what I learned in class to do things related to cells in better ways, such as taking better care of plants.

    I want to learn more details about photosynthesis and cellular respiration, since we did not cover much of that in class. That is practically all that I am unsure about. I wonder about how amazing the world of cells is.

• What do you want to learn more about? What unanswered questions do you have? What do you wonder about?

Photolab

Hypothesis: If the temperature increases, then the amount of oxygen bubbles being released will decrease.

The number of oxygen bubbles being released, the dependent variable, will depend on the temperature of the plant’s surroundings, the independent variable. The amount of carbon dioxide, light intensity, light color, and time tested will be constants.

Amount of CO2: Increased
Light Intensity: 40
Light Color: White
Data Table:

Temperature (in o)	10	25	40
# of Bubbles/ 10 sec.	11	9	4

Conclusion:
    In this lab, we asked the question, “How does temperature affect the number of oxygen being released from a plant?” We found that the plant produced the most bubbles when the surrounding temperature was at 10o. It produced 11 bubbles in 10 seconds at 10o, 9 bubbles in 10 seconds at 25o, and 4 bubbles in 10 seconds at 40o. This supports our hypothesis because the plant produced bubbles at a lesser rate as the temperature was raised.
    This lab was done to show how the temperature impacted the amount of oxygen produced by a plant. From this lab, I clarified my understanding of how temperature affects photosynthesis, helping me to also understand photosynthesis, as we learned in class. Based on the experiences of this lab, I can treat my plants with better care, and I can apply some of my knowledge of photosynthesis to other labs in the future.

Microscopic Organism Lab

Animal Cell: Skeletal Muscle Tissue
Power: 400
Has strations separting cell chains
Many chains of cells separated with some lines
Eukaryotic, Heterotrophic
Identified: Nucleus, Strations, Muscle Fiber

 

Plant: Ligustrum
Power: 400
Has many layers of cells of different sizes
The plant leaf is a long strip containing many cells in it
Eukaryotic, Autotrophic
Identified: Chloroplast, Epidermis Cell, Vein

Plant Cell: Spirogyra
Power: 100
Forms long chains
Has a lot of chloroplasts
Eukaryotic, Autotrophic
Identified: Cell Wall, Chloroplast, Cytoplasm

Bacteria Cells: General Shapes
Power: N/A
Extremely small
Not much detail in the cells
Prokaryotic, (Autotrophic or Heterotrophic)
Identified: Coccus, Bacillus, Spirilum

Cyanobacteria (Blue Green Algae)
Power: 400
Made life possible for us
Contains chains of circular cells
Prokaryotic, Autotrophic
Identified: 1 Cell

Euglena
Power: 400
Large with obvious inside elements
Flagellum is very thin and unnoticeable
Eukaryotic, Autotrophic
Identified: Nucleus, Chloroplast, Flagellum

Amoeba
Power: 100
Many different colors for the cell
Many pseudopods sticking out of the cells
Eukaryotic, Heterotrophic
Identified: Nucleus, Cell Membrane, Pseudopods

In the lab, we took a look at different types of cells, and their components, using a microscope. We found out what was unique for each cell, did some observations on each cell, determined if the cells were eukaryotic or prokaryotic, and autotrophic or heterotrophic. We also identified some different parts of each cell. The autotrophs made their own food. Some of them had chloroplasts and some of them were located inside cells. The heterotrophs obtained energy through other means. None of them had chloroplasts and some had pseudopods to bring in things from outside the cell. The eukaryotes are not extremely ancient, and they all contained nuclei. The prokaryotes were ancient, and were extremely small.

Egg Diffusion Lab

    When the sugar concentration increased, the mass and circumference of the egg decreased. This is because the egg was placed in a hypertonic solution. The sugar is the solute and the water is the solvent. The water molecules diffused through the membrane through passive diffusion from the low concentration of the sugar to the high concentration, so the egg shrunk.

    The cell's internal environment changes as its external environment changes, since the cell is pressured to keep the sides in equilibrium. The egg grew when it was placed in the vinegar, as the vinegar had a lower concentration of sugar than the egg. The egg grew even more when it was placed in water, but it shrunk when it was placed in sugar water.

    This lab demonstrates the biological principal that everything wants to reach equilibrium. The solvent diffuses through the membrane to make both sides of the membrane have the same concentration of sugar.

    Fresh water is sprinkled with water so that the water on the vegetable evaporates before the internal water evaporates. This will keep the vegetable fresher for a longer time. Putting salt on roads will "draw the water out of their iced form", making it melt faster. This salt also extracts the water out of the plants on the roadside, making the plants more dry. This is because the water moves from the less concentrated solution on the interior of the plant cells to the outside with the salt.

    Based on this experiment, I would want to test putting eggs in more types of solutions. This is because I am not sure if the egg only shrinks in the the corn syrup or if it shrinks in all high-sugar solutions.

Egg Macromolecules Lab

    In this lab, we asked the question "Can macromolecules be identified in an egg cell?" We found that monsaccharides, polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids were all located in the cell. We found that there were monosaccharides in the egg white, and lipids in the egg yolk and egg membrane. This information is also in the biology textbook and in the background information article that was given to us. It talks about the functions of the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane. We can infer what macromolecules each part contains through these observations. This data supports our claim in the following ways. The nucleus has a membrane, and all membranes contain lipids bilayers, so the egg yolk will contain lipids. The cell membrane also is a membrane, so it will also contain lipids. The background information stated that the cytoplasm contained monosaccharides, which supported our claim, as it the egg white tested positive for monosaccharides.
    While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors due to the fact that we may have put too much or too little solution in our tests. This could have impacted our results because the amount of solution may have changed the final color of the solution, making it more like the original solution color, or something like that. Another error might have been that our samples of the different parts of the egg may have been contaminated with other parts of the egg. For example, the some of the egg white may have went into the egg yolk part. This will have impacted the final results, since the different parts of the solution have different amounts of the macromolecules we were testing for. This would yield colors that are not for the part we are testing for. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend that the scientists should be careful to correctly separate the different parts of the egg in the beginning and also carefully measure the amount of solution you put in the tests.
    This lab was done to demonstrate which types of macromolecules are contained in each part of the egg, or cell. From this lab, I learned how the different functions of organelles function impacts what macromolecules are in it, which helps me understand the concept of the parts of a cell and what we learned in class. Based on my experience on this lab, I can learn the concepts of biology better.