EPIC YOUTUBE.

Enjoy!
Glucose


Mitosis


Mutualism

DNA

A great video on the current topic we are discussing, DNA! (and the last minute is oddly, nonrealted, so never mind it!)

Allergies

Many of us experience the spring time sniffles. Some worse than others, some just plain bad. My Dad and I both have extremely bad allergies when it comes to pollen. In the spring when all the little flowers decide it's time to bloom, they release their pollen into the air, with the help of pollenators. Thanks. The little particles of pollen then brush off the feet and antena of these little insect helpers and blow through the air, sometimes landing in your vicinity or even brushing up against your nose. This is no bueno. The little pieces of pollen enter the nose and it's up to your body to decide how it reacts. Sometimes the body decides the pollen is an invader and attacks, causing an allergy to develop. For some people, their body just allows the pollen to pass, free from any of the side effects. Trust me, for living a life where 2 months a year you have a runny nose, itchy, watery eyes and you sneeze multiple times a day, you are so lucky if you do not have allergies! This video explains it a little more.
So whether you do or don't have allergies, you now know who to thank when you are sneezing like crazy, unless it was the cat!

Genetics

These past two weeks we've been studying all about DNA and Genes and inheritence and traits and so on and so forth and it is quite fascinating. We've all been practicing our punnett sqaures and loooking at all the possible combinations for offspring with two certain parents. It's been really cool to discover why my hair is curly or why Zach's eyes are blue or why Reid's hair is brown.
It's interesting to hear each of us try to stump Mr. Hillegass, but he knows it all and their is always an exception to the rule or we've missed a legitimate factor to the problem. Anyways, we are just learning that genes are portions of the double helix strand of DNA and each person has 2 sets of each gene, one from their mother, one from their father. When offspring are made, it means their are 4 different options for the genes for just one of the 23 genes each human has, because Mom has 2 options and Dad has 2, also. 23 chromosomes from Dad and 23 from Mom mean each cell has 46 chromosomes in it, how joyful! Anyways, simple being, their is a dominant gene and a recessive gene, sometime they are equally expressed, sometimes only half of each is expressed, sometimes only the dominant. This is why we don't all look the same. Exciting stuff, too much info to give to you all at one time, so we'll call this part one!

Dissections

We dissected a pig, a heart, a brain and an eyeball. Here are some pictures!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8297096@N02/sets/72157623932658318/

Respiratory System

Everything thinks that the heart is the most important thing in your body, and sure it's up there, but it is highly dependent on a lot of other body systems, specifically, the respiratory system. Without the respiratory system to oxygenate the blood, you wouldn't be here reading my blog post! The trillion cells in your body need oxygen so that they can keep you alive, a pretty essential thing to do if you ask me, and they can't exactly get that through any other way, but the highly efficient, highly effective transfer of waste and oxygen, through the respiratory system. Not only does it oxygenate the blood, but it also removes waste from the blood, all through simple diffusion too and in a short amount of time, but HOW!?



So, the diaphragm contracts, moving downward, which helps to suck air into the lungs, through the change in volume which affects pressure (inversely proportional, it's a physics thing!). The air travels down the trachea, in the the bronchus, into a bronchial tree and into the alveoli at the end of the tree. There are thousands of alveoli in the lung that all perform this transfer of materials through the tiny capillaries that cover the alveoli, which kind of resemble a bunch of grapes.

Once in the alveoli, the blood is right there and the CO2 leaving the blood, as well as H20, simply transfer down their concentration gradient so that they can exit through the exhalation when you breathe out. The oxygen in the air you breathe in shuffles across to the blood, down it's concentration gradient, so that it can be at a happy medium too. Then the air, now containing the waste from the cells moves back through the bronchial trees, out through the bronchus, up the trachea and out the oral or nasal cavity meaning the diaphragm can relax and breathe out. Simple? SURE THING!

Without this one system in the body, the body cannot support life. It's that essential and that simple. So, if you have the ability to breathe on your own, please, don't take it for granted! It means more to you than you think!

Digestion.

Everyone eats. So everyone does a really cool process called digestion. Question #1, Where do you think the majority of digestion happens? I bet 95% of you just said "The Stomach of course!" WRONG. 1 word for you. Duodenum. This little guy is your best friend. He is doing nearly ALL the work. He's located in the upper section of your small intestine, right after the tumtum. Your stomach is really, well, it's like a fondue pot of hydrochloric acid! The esophagus allows the food to move down into the stomach, by peristalsis and then the main function of the stomach is to just kill any pathogens that may have been left on the food. The good ol' Pancreas then comes into action and squirts out all its lipases and proteases and amylases and any other digestive aids that it stores in the form of chemicals. The pancreas may not be where all these great helpers are made, but they are all sent there to live and wait to be put into action. This chyme (gooey mess that once resembled food) moves on through the small intestine where it must be neutralized with sodium bicarbonate, yes the same thing that you use in baking, Bicarb Soda! This is because when the chyme comes from the stomach, the stomach has a pH of 1-2, HIGHLY ACIDIC. The bicarb soda brings that to a 5, neutral, so the chyme doesn't burn holes through the walls of the small intestine. As the food moves through the small intestine it is digested and the nutrients from the food is absorbed into the blood stream. What's left is a slushy icky mess that then needs to have all the liquids removed from it and you are then left with two forms of lovely excretory waste. Enjoy the way I worded that? Fantastic if you ask me! Enjoy your next meal! :)

Faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper

Do you know where your food comes from? Do you know how and by what means it is produced? If you don't, do you even want to? This past week we watched the film Food Inc. and I STRONGLY encourage everyone to watch it. Yes, some of it will shock you and probably make you not want to eat (it would probably be wise not to eat during the film), but when finished, it does provoke some amazing conversation between all ages.
47,000 products are in your local supermarket on average.
The human diet has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000.
The American supermarket has nearly no seasons.
We don't know where our meat is coming from as now there are only 13 meat producing factories in the entire United States. The majority of chickens in America are genetically modified and corn fed so they can become fatter faster, but at the same time, have a larger breast, as that is the part people want to eat.
Cows are corn fed and restricted movement so they too can follow in the chicken's footsteps. Fatter faster = more money in the producer's wallets. These cows being so close together are usually 6 inches deep in there own fecal matter, the perfect breeding ground for Ecoli. You think that this isn't a big deal because of course YOUR hamburger has only 1 cow's meat in it. WRONG. Think again. Try up to 1,000 cows are in the one hamburger. So the chance of 1 in 1000 having Ecoli is now significantly greater. If a human gets Ecoli poisoning it is most usually fatal. Unfortunately, Ecoli outbreaks are common in America. Something that is so easily solved if the care for these cows was improved and sanitation was taken a little more into account and things were fresh, pesticide free, and organic. Ecoli now breaks out in tomatoes, spinach, leafy greens and meats. Ecoli O157H7. A killer of lives. This Ecoli fatally kills your small and large intestine, and sweeps through the nation when Ecoli outbreaks occur. Something so preventable, but so difficult at the same time. Because companies do try to make reforms, prices go up and people don't want to spend $6.99/lb on ground beef when they can buy a BigMac on the dollar menu. Instead of making the healthy option the one people want, society and supply and demand drive them toward the bad calorie rich option. We are doing this to each other, practically killing each other through obesity rates that are sky rocketing and heart attacks, myocardial infarctions being the #1 killer of people in the United States, a common consequence of obesity. So what are you going to do? Not only for yourself, but for those around you, your family, and children. Think, how can you make a difference, because, there is no such thing as small change.

Goats

Goats, you've all heard of them, think they are pretty cute? Think again! They are pretty normal, except when it comes to finding a mate. Let me just warn you, this is beyond odd. In order to find a mate, their is a 3 step process. To begin, the male goat leans over in such a position that when he urinates, the urine runs under his belly, along his chest and wets his chinny chin chin. The smell of three fatty acids in the odor of the urine begin to attract the females. As they get closer, some are attracted to the male goat's body odor. Yes, that is right, some females do enjoy the natural perfume of a man, but let's face it, the majority do not! After the select few have approved the BO and the smell of the Urine the REAL test is to actually lick the male's chin and get a taste of this bodily fluid. I feel myself regurgitating as I think of this action, as there is no way that this would probably work in the human society, but seeing a man try would most definitely be enjoyable. After the taste test, one will chose her man, and the deal will be sealed. Gross, disgusting, awful, blech are the only words I can currently think of, but it does show you some variety in the mating rituals of animals.

To finish off, some fun facts about goats, they actually make more milk for their size than compared to a regular dairy cow AND their milk has a lot more calcium naturally in it than a cow's. Goats meat is also better for you as the percentage of fat is thoroughly decreased than that of a cow. Moral of the story, why isn't MacDonalds serving Goat Burgers with goat milk as their number one supersized meal? Beats me!

Figure Flattering or maybe not so!?

We, as natural human beings of the female population, idealize the perfect body type. To us, that means that you have to be thin, skinny, small, petit, no extra 'padding' anywhere. Naturally, we think that if anyone is that size, they must be really fit, meaning they are really healthy. Those 'perfect' people always say "Oh, I just have a great metabolism! That's all it is, really!" LIES, I tell you. Let me explain. Everyday, we take in energy from the food we consume. Our body needs this energy to keep all our cells alive, keep our body functioning and make sure we head on our merry way. Now comes the interesting part. Due to a level of hormones, which regulate cell work and how fast it is working, determines the energy needed. No matter what the origin of chunk of energy that is left over, it will almost always be converted to fat. Why? Fat can store 9Cal/g, the most out of all the others, simply put. The body will use some amount of the energy and the rest will be converted to fat. So, you assume, you need an overactive metabolism. Think again my friend. The metabolism that is best is actually going to be the metabolism that can use the least amount of energy to get all the cell jobs done, meaning that there will always be some of the energy you take in left over. But some may say that then you will have that extra energy converted into fat! Wouldn't you rather though have the most efficient metabolism than a less efficient metabolism just so you can be skinnier? Maybe society should reconsider the fact that having the smallest amount of body fat doesn't always make you the healthiest person, and that extra pound or two, puts you above a smaller person on the health chart. As they always say, it's not how it looks on the outside, but what is on the inside that matters!