Tag: chemical process

Bio week 8 – Cell Time

On By patrickledouxbiologyIn Big Idea 2, Big Idea 3

Image result for cell art

Summary

This week we focused heavily on the mechanics of cells. This included how cells “eat” and “drink,” as well as what makes up the borders of cells and how materials flow through and across these boundaries, aka cell membranes.

Terms

Phospholipid Bilayer– the backbone of the cell membrane, making up most of its surface and structure. It is comprised of two layers of lipids aligned with their hydrophobic fatty acid tails facing each other and their hydrophilic heads facing each other. This provides an effect boundary for the cell, through which only small nonpolar molecules can pass without the help of proteins.Image result for phospholipid bilayer

Extra Cellular Matrix- Wire like in appearance, strands of proteins that attach to cells and hold them to each other.

Image result for extracellular matrix

Passive Transport- The action of molecules moving across the bilayer with no effort done by the cell. This happens when there are varying concentrations of molecules inside vs outside the bilayer, so molecules flow on their own from high concentration areas to low concentration areas.

Image result for Passive transport vs active transport

Active Transport- The action of cells using ATP and protein pumps to ship molecules across the membrane, especially from low concentration to high concentration.

Tonicity- A relative measurement of the combined concentration of all solutes in solution.

Endocytosis- The process by which a cell will “eat” a mass of food (or something like a plastid or mitochondria) by wrapping its cell membrane around the item then enveloping it inside the cell to be digested.

Image result for endocytosis

Exocytosis- The reverse of Endocytosis.

Questions Going Forward:

This past week has made me more excited to learn about specific cell mechanics, and to better understand how my own body functions. That being said, how do ribosomes actually work? Why don’t ribosomes read DNA instead of RNA? Can cells merge? How do cells recognize other cells as part of the same whole? How is food and minerals delivered to cells?

Weekly Reflection #6

On By patrickledouxbiologyIn Big Idea 1

Tundra_Biome_600

This week we began learning some biochemistry, focusing on the properties of water. To start, we reviewed and defined the three subatomic parrticles we will need to know:

  • protons: positively charged particles found in the atom’s nucleus. Have a mass of 1 amu and a charge of +1
  • neutrons: neutrally charged nucleus particles, mass of 1 amu
  • electrons: negatively charged particles that orbit the nucleus. Basically massless and have a charge or -1

These are all what makes up an atom. An element is a type of atom with a specific number of protons, and is the smallest unit of a substance that still retains its properties. (ex. carbon, 6 protons). There are about 120 different elements represented on the periodic table, of which biology uses CHONPS (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, silicon) most of the time.

We also learned about how atoms interact, i.e. different types of atomic bonds.

  • Bio Covalent
  • Covalent Bonds- bonds created by atoms ‘sharing’ an electron. Ex. O=O bonds or C-H bonds. These bonds are relatively strong.
  • Ionic bonds- created when one atom gives an electron to another atom. This usually happens to complete the outer shell(s) of one or both atoms. This creates an attraction between the atoms as one atom is now negatively charged while the other is positive. In general these bonds are relatively strong.
  • Hydrogen Bonds- Intermolecular bonds that form between the positively charged hydrogen of a polar molecule and the partially negatively charged oxygen or nitrogen end of another polar molecule (ex. H — O bonds between water molecules)

Next, we learned about why water is so important to human bodies. The primary reason for this is that water has a high specific heat (4.184 J/g*C). This means that it takes a lot of energy to change the temperature of an organism containing lots of water, so it is easier for said organism to maintain homeostasis.

Next we had a discussion of the pH scale and what it measures.  We read an interesting set of stories that explained how a lower pH (0-7) indicates an acidic solution, while a high pH (7-14) indicates a basic solution. An acid is a substance that donates protons to solution, like HCl, while a base is a substance that accepts protons (like bleach). The pH of a solution is the -log[H+].

Questions Going Forward

Will we need to memorize the body’s buffer compounds? How much chemistry will we need to know for the AP test? Will we do a lab regarding pH or specific heat?

 

Fermentation – Summer Item #3

On By patrickledouxbiologyIn Uncategorized

IMG_2422.jpg

Fermentation is a metabolic process that chemically breaks down/consumes sugar in the absence of oxygen using yeasts, bacteria or other microorganisms. Pictured above are bottles of beer, a drink containing alcohol produced from the fermentation of simple sugars from various grains and hops with yeasts.

List #46