Tag Archives: ScienceStuff
=GeneticEngineering=
So, you want to learn about Genetic Engineering right? Well, good news! It’s a pretty simple concept once you get a good example. Like for me, it was this Futurama episode where a character did genetic experiments to breed the perfect green pea plants.
(End result of the experiments, from the Futurama episode ‘Leela and the Genestalk’)
Genetic engineering or Genetic modification is basically where someone manually alters the DNA of an organism to produce a protein for a desired trait, but to a limit. It’s not like someone could completely alter every trait you have. No, scientists are still learning more about it to this day and they’re starting small so they’re trying with a couple traits at a time.
The simplest example I can find of its process is what scientists are doing for Humulin. Humulin is genetically modified insulin for those with diabetes (Diabetes is when your body doesn’t produce enough insulin in the pancreas).
(Found on the website ‘www.yourgenome.org’)
Here they have extracted a piece of DNA, cut out a small section they don’t want, replace it with another gene, and because it’s DNA from bacteria, it can easily be multiplied, purified and packaged into bottles for medicine.
(If you need a better explanation I recommend the video below by Eco-Wise Videos.)
Yes, It’s that simple. Though scientists have other examples of genetic engineering like extracting spider DNA into a goat so that it’s milk have these spider web-like silk or in the episode I talked about earlier, one of the characters experiments was splicing elephant DNA into green beans to make giant green beans (Sorta like Jack and the Beanstalk).
A good example to me is the genetic engineering is done for food because believe it or not, a lot of the food nowadays in genetically modified. Scientists have genetically modified crops to withstand weed killers that would damage the crop. Again, they modified its DNA to withstand chemicals.
Seems like genetic engineering is a good thing, right? Well, not really, there is still a lot of controversy around this topic mostly about the food. Like, because it can withstand the chemicals means that chemicals are on the food which people do eventually eat. People don’t think it’s right to alter the genetics of another living organism. I find it’s mostly religious people who believe this because ‘you shouldn’t mess with gods creations’ but to me, it’s more concerning because since it’s a relatively new experimented topic, it’s hard to see it’s lifelong effect/results.
(Because this episode is a really good example of the topic, I’m using it again).
The character Leela is one of those people who think it’s cruel and mad to genetically experiment and even in the show it’s illegal to genetically experiment, through the experimenter shows her how helpful it can be once she cures Leela of ‘Squidification’ (don’t ask).
Now even with the controversy of this topic, scientists still want to learn more about it and hopefully, genetic engineering will be able to help a lot of people with bad heredity traits passed down from parents or other negative genetic traits. Even with the possible problems of modifying genes, it’s safe to assume we’ll be more knowledgeable about it in the future if something really amazing happens.
Hope you learned a little!
(Sources used: http://agbiosafety.unl.edu/basic_genetics.shtml
https://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-genetic-engineering
-InnovationProject:HoloBox-
For our Innovation Projects in Science, Maebel and I did the Dragons’ Den Presentation and it was pretty fun. We also ended up helping our friend cause her entire group was gone. Overall I really loved seeing what other people thought of and It was amazing.
Since I did the project with Maebel, we’re similar in the way we think so we both had to focus on Critical Thinking. I would do my best to ask pretty open ended questions and gather info but lots of them just became closed questions but I did do my best to gather info about them but not a lot. While researching I didn’t keep an eye out for fake info so Maebel would have to decipher it for me, though sometimes I would catch fake info. With some of the fake info, it’d also be hard to tell differences between fact, opinion, and judgement but I think I did my best, though I don’t think I did a good job.
For the collaboration portion, I really liked collaboration with Maebel, we became real friends and we think things the same way so it was easy to collaborate. I wish I could’ve contributed a lot to the psychical construction portion, just because Mabel did most of the building and I wish I have more physical examples rather than saying them out, I should’ve made some slides… Overall we did awesomely. Our artistic strength combined really helped a lot and when we were stuck it’d be easy for us to pick up where we lost.
With the experiance itself I loved it. It was a cool idea for whoever came up with it. I esspeically loved how they gave us lots of time to plan and prioritize as well as create and practice everything. I wish I spent more time on the presentation itself rather than 80% on the actual product but it was still an awesome lesson. I learned a lot about collaberating in different ways as well as creating something specifically for one problem and expanding it to fix others.
Yup, that’s my reflection. Have a good day!
=DNAModel=
So today we made DNA models out of marshmallows and twizzlers.
It was fun, Maebel was a fun partner. Along with that I had to answer a few questions.
- How are chromosomes, DNA, and genes related to one another (you will need to research this) They are related because since the DNA are important to make you unique and special so to make you, you. You have Genes which are located on the chromosomes which give the DNA specific traits that act like code for how you are made.
- Explain what these pieces represent:
- Licorice represent the backbone holding the strand together
- Marshmallows represent the four bases in DNA (Thymine=Orange, Adenine=Yellow, Guanine=Green, Cytosine=Pink)
- How did this activity help you understand the structure of DNA
It helps me understand which DNA bases go together, how it looks, and what the backbone is for.
That was a fun lab.
Have a great day!
=CellLab=
So in Science we did a lab about looking at cells under a microscope and… It was really odd… I mean, it was fun but most of the time I was kind of confused with “IS THIS IS THE CELL???” So yeah.. Sorry to all the science experts out there.
But now I shall share my findings:
- (Right circle is the plant cells, Left is the animal cells)
a)Under the microscope, the plant cells looked like bricks of a wall. So I guess I saw the cell walls? Second biggest part of a plant cell is the vacuole but I don’t know if I saw that.
b) Under the microscope, the animal cells looked like confetti dots. I think I saw Cytoplasm? I don’t know about the Ribosomes, Nucleus and Mitochondria
2. For my logic, I think I would’ve figured it out with the idea of the plant cells look like a wall and only plant cells have plant walls?
3. I think it’s because dead skin doesn’t really have a colour because since it’s not part of your body anymore it shows no real colour of blood or pigment so in order to see it you need to dye it something.
4. I learned that A) A microscope is hard to use, B) I should not be trusted with one, C) Cells look cool through a microscope, D) It’s hard to take a picture through a microscope, E) Plant cells to me, look cooler than animal cells, and F) Setting up a slide is pretty difficult.
So that’s what I learned about the lab. My lab partner Kass also took a picture of my cells through the lens, which look pretty cool. 
Have a great day, I have nothing else to say.
=HologramsProposal=
Our proposal is to create holograms for the public.
Define: Pros to Holograms:
- Holograms could provide a 3D space for presenters that need a 3D model
- Special effects for entertainment
- Prototype model for inventors
- 3D effects movies, tv shows, and videos
- Used for online communication worldwide
Discover:
Using the “Pepper Ghost Illusion” https://diyhacking.com/diy-hologram/ and the idea for a How To Make Light Bulb Smart Phone Projector At Home Easy DIY Light Bulb and Shoe Box Projector.
We learned that holograms have been made (ish) but not like in Star Wars, so we’re doing a basic hologram with plastic and a smartphone. We’re taking a really intense idea and kind of simplifying it so that it’s doable but still representing our bigger idea. We learned that holograms or Holography (Study of holograms) can range from actual light distortions from shadows and mirrors so we’re using a mix of both with mirrors and light distortion.
Holograms can replace 3D printers which cost a lot of materials and damage the ecosystem and with the built in speaker enhancer it can play videos in movies instead of going to the movie theatre to watch something 3D.
Dream:
- Replace 3d Printers
- Can save money from going to the theatre
- Helps 3d modellers create objects easier
- Minimizes the amount of electronics you need to buy
Deliver:
We were able to come up with a device with a built in speaker enhancer, hologram and light inside it so people can see it inside out:
This is what we hope to make.
Hope you enjoyed!
-StaticElectricityDiscoveries-
Hey! So in Science we’ve been learning about Static Electricity and it’s pretty fun coming from someone who’s not that passionate about science.. It’s a simple topic but there are some things to note about it that really surprised me the most:
–Static electricity hurts (Trust me)
-Electrons are for the Negatively charge atoms, not the Neutrons (I’ve made this mistake too many times)
-The metal robs on some buildings are used to ground electricity
-Socks are great conductors (Don’t ask)
It’s very easy to understand with some labs and the one that worked the most for me was our “Car Race” where we balanced a meter stick on something and used static electricity from two objects to rotate the stick. It made me question a lot of things as well as answer things for me. So that’s science so far!
-Science 9-
Gummy Bears! Well, not really. But in Science 9, our very first lab was on gummy bears which was pretty cool.
And me being me, I took a fancy picture instead of a normal birds eye view one….
