kelles -- Blogmeister

Why yes, I am very late to be writing this blog, but will nevertheless.

I have a few things to address, all being political, and I'm fairly certain most of you will not like (or just not read) what I have to say.

The first thing I'd like to talk about is how President Obama leads the country. If I said he leads from the left would you understand what I meant? Obama is a Democrate, no questions asked, and being a Democrat is fine, I have no problems with them. I do have a problem if a Democrat (or Republican for that matter) blatanly disregards the wishes of the other party. He seems to be hellbent on undermining and making the Republican party a joke.

Do you remember "Obamacare"? Not a single Republican voted for that, not a single one of them. I'd just thought I'd let you know.

I also wish to address the fact that people are telling me I must respect the President because he is the President and also our Commander in Chief. I will gladly congratulate the man for wining the election twice, but do not ask me to respect him for it. My respect is earned not given. He has not earned my respect by totally destroying the economy then blaming it all on Bush. It's not all Bush's fault, maybe if the president took a moment to self evaluate, stop being so arrogant and think of the country as a whole we'd be getting more done.

But, that is just my humble opinion, which I am free to express, and I'm sure most of you disagree with me. Either way, it's out here now an I have no intentions of deleting it.

Have a lovely day, or nght depending on when you read this.

Would you rather be a solid eight, or a wobbly nine?

Not entirely sure what I mean? Well, you know when someone says "On a scale of one to ten are you a. . ." and the other person usually responds with "I'd say I'm a solid. . ." Well, the other day I was thinking about this and I wondered if it was better to be a solid lower number, or a wobbly higher number. So, what would you rather?

I really don't care whether you think of yourself as a Prokaryote or a Eukaryote, seeing as your not a cell at all, so you can't be either. And even if you were a cell it's not my job to listen to whatever you think you are, my job is to simply tell you the difference between the two.

A Prokaryote is a cell that doesn't have a necleus or any membrane bound compartments. A Eukaryote has both a necleus and membrane bound compartments.

My source of information; Mr. G.

So, you guys probably didn't read my blog about mitosis, so I'll give it to ya in a nutshell; horrible. So, I'm hoping that I can compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis a bit better.

I'll start with the definitions. Meiosis is a type of cellular reproduction in which the total number of chromosomes decrease by half through the separation of homologous of chromosomes in a diploid cell. Mitosis is a process of asexual reproduction in which a cell devides in two producing an exact replica of the orgnal.

Meiosis occurs in plants, animals, fungi and humans while mitosis occurs in all living things because as you should know by now, all living things are made of cells and all cells go through mitosis.

Meiosis is a form of sexual reproduction while mitosis is asexual. In meisos the product (whatever you want to call it) is genetically different than the two "creators" so to speak and, like previously stated, in mitosis the product is exactly the same.

In meiosis the mixing of chromosomes can occur while in mitosis no crossing over can occur ever because they are exact clones and if crossing over occured it woud defeat the entire process.

I certainly hope that wasn't too horrble, but then again, no one told you to read this.

Mitosis, in a nutshell is when an eukaryote cell produces identicle "twin" daughter cells. But, we're going to go into a little bit more depth than that.

Interphase i the ongest phase of a cells life in which DNA replicates itself and the cell grows.

Mitosis is made up for four stages; Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase and Telophase.

PROPHASE:

Prophase is a stage in which duplicated chromatin condense or become tightly coiled to form chromosomes and the nuclear envelope disintergrates.

METAPHASE:

Metaphase is a stage in which the spindle fibers extend to the chromosomes (kinda like Rose and Jack in the Titanic, but the spindle fibers don't let go because they realized that there was plety of room on the raft thing) and they align at the metaphase plate.

ANAPHASE:

Anaphase is a stage in which the chromosones seperate and the sister chromatids are pulled to opposite poles of the cell. When separated the chromatd becomes a full chromosome.

TELOPHASE:

Telophase is a stage in which the daughter cells slowly become less condense to form chromatid fibers. The fibers dissapear and the nuclear envelope begins to form along with new chromosomes. Cytokinesis occurs once Telophase is completely over.

After two nuclei form, chromosomes alo form and create seperate cells.

Isn't that great?

Often in life we look over the edge of the metaphorical cliff, but only do the select few have the courage to jump. Most people glance over and see the bottomless pit of opportunities but never do they see these as opportunities to jump, instead they see excuses to stay atop the cliff and go about their daily business wondering why there life is so bland. Well, the answer lies in all the things we haven't done instead of those those we have. We have yet to jump off that tall lingering cliff.

And why is that, do you suppose? Frankly I believe it is because people are cowards that are so deathly afraid of failure they cannot embrace success. People, in life, are so terrified of the 'splat' they believe comes with jumping off the cliff they do not wish to take the risk at all. Now, if this was a real cliff that was not entirely metaphorical, I too would be terrified of the splat and most likely if not definitely stay atop the cliff. In fact, I think I would actually run away from the edge because I truly do not enjoy the curling of my toes and I am horrified of heights, but that is not the point. Why are people so afraid of the splat? What is there to fear when the opportunities are endless have you only the will to succeed?

All that is needed to succeed in life is the unwavering belief that you will instead of the fear that you will not. Think about it; all the vastly successful people in history never woke up and thought "I cannot do this because there is a chance that I will fail." Instead, they woke up and thought "I must do this because there is a chance that I will succeed." People have told me, and undoubtedly will continue to tell me that I will not do well in life simply because the occupation I wish to have is harder to obtain than theirs. That is like telling a child they can do multiplication but not division because division is harder. And this is where my next point falls into place.

At a very young age children are told that they can be whatever they want. If a child wants to be an astronaut the child can be astronaut! But as this child grows up, peoples beliefs start to change Instead of telling the child that he or she can be an astronaut they tell the child he or she cannot because an astronaut is a very peculiar, hard to obtain job. Now, after a few years of having been told that being an astronaut is unobtainable the now young adult begins to believe what they're hearing. At this point the young adult begins to question their chance of success and no longer wishes to jump because the splat is far too scary to risk. So, the young adult grows into an adult and never takes the chance and now we've lost another astronaut.

Had this child been told that he or she could be whatever his or her heart desired throughout his or her young adulthood he or she may very well have been an astronaut. Of course this child would have have his or her challenges; that is required for success, but in the end the child would be an astronaut instead of whatever it is they picked instead because being an astronaut was far too challenging and scary.

When you wake up, do you doubt your ability to dress yourself? No, of course not, because you have no reason to. You have an unwavering belief in your ability to dress yourself because all through your life you have been dressing yourself and no one has told you that you can't. Why should life be any different? If you wish to be a baseball player, and you have worked very very hard to be a baseball player why should you have any fear that one day you will not become a baseball player? Do not misunderstand me, you will have troubles and you will have trials, but if you truly want to succeed and you truly believe you will there is no reason you shouldn't. If you do not succeed there is no one to blame but the face in the mirror. Do not blame the talent company that did not give you an audition, do not blame the record company that did not sign you. Trying in the first place is not the mistake; the mistake is not trying again.

So now I will pose my final question, will you jump of the cliff? Remember it is entirely metaphorical.

So, as most of you know, we ran around the school swabing everything we possibly could hoping we would be able to find (well we would most definitely find) and grow bacteria. We could swab anything; a door handle, a table, a shoe, anything. My team even swabbed a teachers mouth! Anyways, this blog is dedicated to the unreliable conclusion I have come to draw.

A is for the answer to the question but I suppose you'd like to know what the question was before I give you the answer. I had wondered what had more bacteria, an iPod home button or a human mouth. Well, the answer is sketchy because we happened to use hand sanitizer and we used a bit too much. So the bacteria swirled together, therefore I cannot give the question a straight answer.

E is for the evidence I can't use, as stated above, the bacteria contaminated itself.

I is for inaccurasies and all the sources of error that surfaced in this project. Well, again, read the second paragraph.

O is for observations I may or may not have trouble discribing. Well, three quarters of the entire dish were overtaken by a swarm of bacteria. It had irregular edges and was the same color as teeth that really needed to be brushed though I don't think they were fuzzy.

U is for what I understood. I understand that I may never know if an iPod home button has more bacteria than a human mouth. I also understand that if I ever conduct this experiment again it may be best if I use a little bit less hand sanitizer.

And most definitely Y for another pertinent question. Doe an iPod home button have more bacteria than a human mouth?!

The world may never know.

So, we all know about the Cell System assignment, right? Well, I never finished that due to the fact that I was doing it at home and the computer I was using was incredibly old so it turned off and refuses to turn back on. So, finally here is my Cell System assignment.

The Plasma Membrane is kinda like the shipping and receiving department because it regulates and controls what enters and exits the cell. The Plasma Membrane is also kinda like the communications department because that's where the cell contacts the outside world so it can have friends and not be totally lonely.

The Plasma Membrane consists of a bunch of phospholipids and proteins. The proteins aren't set in any specific pattern, instead they kinda just float around in the Fluid Mosaic Model of the cell membrane.

Phospholipids have an end that is attracted to water and an end that isn't. When the phospholipids are mixed with water, they line up in double layered spheres. This clever designs accomodate both ends of the phospholipid. The end that doesn't like water doesn't have to touch water, while the end that loves water, gets to swim all it wants.

Inside the phospholipid bi-layer are five various types of proteins.

Peripheral proteins are very lazy and just kinda lay on the surface of the membrane while another protein called Integral proteins extend into and sometimes even all the way through the entire membrane. Integral proteins generally fit into three categories; marker, transport and receptor proteins.

Marker proteins are sorta like name tags, they identify their cell to other cells. Every organism has its own unique marker proteins (so your parents technically weren't wrong when they called you special.) One of the functions of the "name tags" is to allow a person's immune system identify it's own cells from invading cells.

Transport proteins are the shipping and receiving department of the cell. They're the ones that move materials in and out of cells. Some transport proteins act as pores to allow substances to diffuse and leave the cells, while others do the exact opposite and act as pumps that pull molecules across the membranes.

Receptor proteins are exactly what they sound like. They extend into the membrane and act as the communications department, allowing the cell to interact with other cells. Without receptor proteins, our cells would be lonely.

Those three proteins are the main workers in the plasma membrane.

The Nucleus is the CEO of the cell because it controls all cell activity (if there's a taco Tuesday, the nucleus is gonna know about it) by regulating what kinds of proteins are made. The nucleus is a large organelle that can easily be seen with a light microscope.

The nucleus is composed of a nuclear and nucleuoplasm. The nuclear membrane is a double membrane that also happens to contain the nucleuoplasm which contains a combination of DNA and proteins.

All cells carry much more DNA then they really care to use, only a very small percentage of the DNA is actually active, the rest is out of date and the organism can't use it anymore, kinda like your coupons. As a species evolves, mutations mutate (duh) the DNA. The outdated DNA is never thrown away though it is never used again. The process of transcription and translation allow the cell to decode it's evolutionary history and allow it to make proteins.

The real work begins on the factory floor, or more scientifically put, the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm consists of mostly water, salts, organelles and some proteins. These structures preform several different functions that generally fall under the categories of production, maintenance, and energy transformation.

The assembly line in a factory is greatly like the Endoplasmic Reticulum, or ER if you will. The ER stretches from the nuclear membrane to the plasma membrane and serves as a pathway through the cytoplasm as a support structure for other organelles (hey, we all need somebody to lean on) and also functions as a workstation for ribosomes. The ER can be cut into two part; the rough ER and the smooth ER.

While the rough ER has ribosomes attached to it and provides a nice surface which protein assembly can occur the smooth ER does not have ribosomes and and is more tubular in appearance. In human cells the smooth ER makes steroids while in other cells, it regulates calcium levels. The rough ER manufactures the the membranes of the smooth ER in a process scientists still don't understand.

Ribosomes are the workers inside the assembly line that build proteins. They're manufactured by the nucleus and they consist of two separate subunits; a large lower subunit, and a smaller upper subunit. As I've stated before, ribosomes attach to the rough ER.

The Golgi Apparatus is kinda like finishing and packaging. Most products are transferred into the Golgi Apparatus after leaving the production site of the ER. The Golgi Apparatus (how 'bout GA for short, typing "Golgi Apparatus" so often is going to get very tiring) is made of several saclike, flattened membranes, these sacs sit atop another and all are interconnected (wow, I really feel like Mufasa. . . Circle of life guys!) What I find kind of weird about the GA is that the Smooth ER manufactures the GA by pinching parts of itself off. Just think about that for a second. . . Woah.

The GA is analogous to the finishing/packaging department in a factory. Once the ribosomes finish making proteins, the proteins needs to be prepped for use or export, enzymes will trim off any exasis amino acid and then the protein moves through the smooth ER.

Soon enough, bits of the smooth ER are pinched off into little things I like to call "Spherical Vesicles". The proteins are either carried inside or on the surface of said vesicles. The vesicles are then absorbed by the GA and then the proteins are processed as they move from sac to sac. When the proteins is ready for export, the GA pinches it off and is gladly released into the cytoplasm.

Lysosomes is kind of a cool name, it's Latin for "kill body". Lysosomes are responsible for the breakdown and absorption (absorption sounds like it would have a slurping sound as a side effect, doesn't it?) of materials taken in by the cell. Like the maintenance crew of a factory if you will. Most of the time a cell will engulf a foreign substance through Endocytosis (another form of active transport) if the substance needs to be destroyed Lysosomes combine with the substance and release their enzymes.

Lysosomes are also sometimes called "suicide sacks" because they are also responsible for the process in which a cell self-destructs. When a lysosome ruptures in a cell, it causes all of the cell's internal proteins to be digested. This isn't accidental, quite the opposite actually, this is regulated by signals scientists can't fully understand.

Without this "clean-up crew" the cell would accumulate to much junk to actually function and it would kinda resemble anyone on a Monday morning after a long weekend.

While in an actual factory these are not given an actual category, these are vastly important. The support beams like the walls, the ceiling, the floor and such things.

Within the cytoplasm of a cell, there are a bunch of protein fibers that act as these "support beams". The proteins fibers are called Microfibers and are composed of a specialized proteins called Actin. Actin has the not so magical but still pretty cool power of linking fibers together quickly. The fibers an invisible support structure inside the cytoplasm called the cytoskeleton, The cytoskeleton maintains the cells shape and can be used to move the cell membrane.

Building proteins is the main function of cells (wow, that's kind of a sad and depressing life) but for that to occur, a cell must have energy and said energy must be in a form said cell can actually use. The mitochondrion and the chloroplast are the "power plant" for the cell.

Chloroplast's don't actually exist in animal cells, just plant cells and some protists. The chloroplast has an outer membrane and an inner membrane and then a third membrane inside in a cavity called the Stroma. Energy enters the metaphorical food chain through said chloroplast. Chloroplast's trap light energy and convert it into sugar, living things use sugar as their primary energy source, and no, not necessarily the sugar in your cereal. The innermost membranes (located in the Stroma as previously stated) are called thylakoids and they're arranged in stacks by the name of of Grana. Along the thylokoid membrane is where most photosynthesis occurs.

Once energy is is trapped in the form of sugar, it must convert into energy that the cell can easily use. The energy source cells use is a chemical called adenosine triphosphate or ATP. Respiration releases the energy that was trapped by photosynthesis and converts it into the easily accessible ATP. All living things need respiration to produce ATP. The Mitochondria, just like the Chloroplast is a double membrane structure, the outer membrane is smooth, and the inner membrane is ruffled like your mother's favorite dress may or may not be. The essential energy releasing reactions of respiration takes place along these membranes.

The chloroplast and mitochondria both have distinguishing features that separate them from other organelles. They contain their own DNA, they produce a lot of their own proteins. This is very similar to what a bacteria does, thus leading scientists to believe that these organelles have evolved from independent bacteria.

So, that was my very long, winded explanation of a cell and I hope that you leave this blog post even a touch smarter than when you first arrived. Or don't, not like I'd be able to tell the difference seeing as I'm not sure how smart you where before you had the blessed opportunity to read this.

No, there is no more.

You can go now.

I mean it.

So, um, I tried to check my email to see what I got on the quiz, and it was silent in the classroom and then an ad popped up and was like "DO YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH!?" and I FREAKED out, I nearly screamed and everyone started laughing and just embarassment. SO, I know I did horrible on the short answer questions seeing as I barely tried except on the first short answer question which I have an okay shot at.

Anyways the main cause of me failing this quiz is I couldn't actually tell what the people were saying, and I neglected to read most of the pop ups. All in all it was my fault that I didn't pay attention and I intend to replay the game after school soon. My mother used to say 'soonly'. It sounded really cool. Can we just all agree that soonly is a word and start using it? I say yes.

Okay. - From Mr. G

Bill, (student number two) is right, Tom (student number one) needs to realise this fact and be like "I'm sorry Bill, you are so right."

And then Bill would say, "Yeah I know, I'm smart like that."

But in truth, Bill is right, if Elodea cells were seperate they wouldn't be able to live, they would die and never come back to life EVER.