Science 10

Will black holes affect our planet during our lifetimes? In what way, and will it be destructive to humanity?

Humanity has resided on Earth for 200,000 – 500,000 years, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But what would happen if a black hole came close to Earth and threatened our survival? The good news is that there is an extremely low (1 in a trillion) chance that a black hole would stray close enough to Earth to cause serious damage to our orbit and solar system, but in the off chance that a black hole does hit Earth, what would happen?

  1. If a black hole enters the solar system, it would send comets towards Earth and absorb all of the planets and mass in its path, including the Sun and Earth. Our solar system would be reduced to nothingness, swallowed by the black hole.
  2. Earth itself would be “spaghettified”, and our planet would be torn into nothingness as well.
  3. Your personal experience of being sucked into a black hole would be similar, first, you would feel as if you were falling into the center of the Earth, and once you reach the center, you would get stretched out until your body turns into minuscule atoms, and you would cease to exist.

The closest chance that Earth has to getting near a black hole is in 4 billion years, when our galaxy, the Milky Way, collides with the Andromeda galaxy. When they collide, the supermassive black hole sitting in the center of the Milky Way could get close enough to Earth and swallow it because of the force of the collision between the two galaxies.

Recently, scientists have unveiled the first picture of the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way, which is called Sagittarius A*. The bright gases surrounding the black hole allowed scientists to gain more visibility and photograph the black hole after 5 years of attempting to get a picture.

In conclusion, the chances of a black hole affecting humanity in our lifetimes are close to zero, so we don’t have to worry about black holes ending the human race. Well, at least not for the next 4 billion years.

Citations:

Siegel, Ethan. “What Will Happen When a Black Hole Hits Earth?” Big Think, 22 Feb. 2022, https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/black-hole-hit-earth/.

Siegel, Ethan. “What Would We Experience If Earth Spontaneously Turned into a Black Hole?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 Apr. 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/10/15/what-would-we-experience-if-earth-spontaneously-turned-into-a-black-hole/?sh=778e2aa51199.

Clery, Daniel. “Shadow of Milky Way’s Giant Black Hole Seen for the First Time.” Science, 12 May 2022, https://www.science.org/content/article/shadow-milky-way-s-giant-black-hole-revealed-astronomers.

O’Callaghan, Jonathan. “What Would Happen If a Black Hole Entered Our Solar System?: Space Facts – Astronomy, the Solar System & Outer Space: All about Space Magazine.” Space Facts Astronomy the Solar System Outer Space All About Space Magazine, 19 Oct. 2018, https://www.spaceanswers.com/solar-system/what-would-happen-if-a-black-hole-entered-our-solar-system/.

Biotechnology Group Post – Epigenetics

The first thing you may be wondering is, what is epigenetics, and to be honest I could go on and on because it’s such a complex subject. To explain it in its most basic form I would say it’s the study of outside effects on our genetics. You may not know this, but your genes are not set in stone when you are born. Take identical twins for example, even though they have the same genetic makeup, they can still be so different, but how? Well, depending on the environment, the nutrition and the people around them, they will develop certain habits which will translate into their genes. Another fun fact, since these habits can be written in genes, those genes can be passed down to their offspring. Therefore, if a mother has bad time management, it will most likely be somewhat passed down to her offspring.

Greatest Advancements in Epigenetics

There have been and will be many more advancements in the field of epigenetics. In my opinion, some of the greatest advancements so far have been discovering the role epigenetics have in exercising, inheritance, and how our nutrition can affect our epigenetics. Firstly, methyl groups, chemical tags attached to DNA strands, can prevent nearby genes from expressing what they are programmed to do. Exercising can reverse changes these chemical tags may make on DNA. Unfortunately, with this test, after three weeks of exercise, the methylation tags came back after two days of resting. Next, in a small Swedish town, genetic scientists analyzed 200 years of harvest records. They discovered that food availability and diet can affect how exact sperm cells are copied from the ages of nine to twelve in boys. Epigenetic inheritance can fluxgate through generations, unlike the genome, which takes many generations to change, epigenetics changes can happen quickly. The inheritance of epigenetics can also be passed down to children from things a parent has experienced, as well as changing from the current environment of an individual. Finally, scientists have found that the food an expectant mother eats not only affects their epigenetics, but their children’s as well. A diet that is low in methyl, the chemical tags, can decrease DNA methylation, which affects how genes are expressed. In bees, scientists have found that a larva destined to become a queen will be fed royal jelly, which is a substance that comes from the heads of worker bees. Scientists discovered that a specific gene called Dnmt3 in bees codes to silence the queen genes. Royal jelly turns off this gene, giving larva queenly behaviors and a larger abdomen for laying eggs. Because the queen bee is fed royal jelly, she will develop these traits, which are different than worker bees, who are otherwise genetically identical.

How is this form of biotechnology best used?

Epigenetics is a form of biotechnology that involves manipulating genes by turning them on or off based on the external factors that affect your lifestyle. This form of biotechnology is best used in the form of cancer treatments, which many scientists believe has changed the way we treat cancer. Cancer was thought to be purely a genetic disease; however, scientists have discovered that cancer is also caused by epigenetic matters. Epigenetic cancer treatments target the genes that have been turned off in cancer cells and instead of killing the cell, specific genes are reactivated, which leads to the cancer cell resetting itself back into a normal human cell. Epigenetics has revolutionized the way that cancer is being treated, as well as other neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia in the form of DNA methylation. DNA methylation is when methyl is added to genes and changes the way that genes express themselves, which changes the way that the brain functions and can help in the treatment of neurological disorders.

Epigenetics is a very new and complex subject which you could probably see from the past paragraphs, but the future is looking up for epigenetics. In this “Scholarly Resources for Learning and Research | Gale. https://www.gale.com/” it was shown that epigenetics could be one of the leading ways that we can help avoid mental disorders in children such as autism. Since epigenetics is all about the study of inheritance so what if we could alter what the offspring inherit. This of course wouldn’t fully cure them of everything, but it could heavily lessen their load. Since epigenetics is so new, most of the things I am talking about are very hypothetical, but bio engineering was all hypothetical when it was first introduced.

The study of epigenetics has evolved significantly throughout the years and has changed the way we use biotechnology today. Gaining a better understanding of how epigenetics works has led scientists to many important discoveries, such as how the external environment affects the development of genes and future generations. Epigenetics has also changed the way certain diseases are treated, such as new cancer treatments which are less invasive and more effective than traditional treatments. Finally, as more advancements are made in the study of epigenetics, we are also getting closer to finding cures for mental disorders in children before they are born. As more research is done on epigenetics, we can be sure that the future can lead to breakthroughs that will drastically affect how we understand and implement epigenetics in our daily lives.

Bibliography:

Xi, Sigma. “Scholarly Resources for Learning and Research | Gale.” Gale in Context: Science , 2012, https://www.gale.com/.

Motevalizadeh Ardekani, Ali. “Role of Epigenetics in Biology and Human Diseases.” Iranian Biomedical Journal, Pasteur Institute, Nov. 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075137/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20major%20effects,to%20health%20and%20cancer%20patients.

Weinhold, Bob. “Epigenetics: The Science of Change.” Environmental Health Perspectives, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Mar. 2006, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1392256/.

Issa, Jean-Pierre. “Epigenetic Therapy.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 16 Oct. 2007, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/epigenetic-therapy/.

“Epigenetics and Inheritance.” Epigenetics and Inheritance, genetic science learning centre, 15 July 2013, Epigenetics & Inheritance (utah.edu)

“Nutrition and the Epigenome.” Nutrition and the Epigenome, 15 July 2013,

Nutrition & the Epigenome (utah.edu)

Cheek Cell Lab Response

1. Pictures

Cheek cell DNA:

Stained cheek cells:

Cheek cells with membrane disruption:

2. Cheek cells are easily removed from the inner lining of the mouth and are a great source of DNA from a person. However, the cells must be broken apart before the DNA can be extracted and studied. There are multiple ways of degrading cheek cells. The goal of each method is the same; break apart all membranes inside of a cell without destroying the strands of DNA. Which of the above solutions do you believe would be useful in this process and why?

Both solutions are useful in the process of studying DNA, however, the first option included more steps such as adding different chemicals and spinning the DNA onto a rod. The results were also less reliable because sometimes the DNA wouldn’t appear or would be hardly visible. The second option allowed you to see the cells clearly under a microscope with all of the details, whereas the first option only had a small amount of DNA that you could study.

3. Comment on the three different labs involving cheek cells: what did you find interesting/new?

For the first lab, it was interesting to see your DNA appear after the experiment, as well being able to see your DNA as a tangible object. In the second lab, I was able to use a microscope for the first time, and figure out how to use the different functions of the microscope to be able to see the cheek cells. Lastly, in the third lab, using different chemicals to disrupt the cheek cells and seeing the difference between the normal cell and the cell that had dishwashing soap/acid on it was interesting to see.

3D Data Visualization Project

Our 3D data visualization project was created over the span of 2-3 weeks, and our idea to create a model of the global child mortality rates was influenced by seeing that child mortality rates around the world are unexpectedly high, especially in developing countries. Most child deaths are preventable with access to proper healthcare and education, which most developing countries don’t have enough funding for, which is the main reason why we wanted to emphasize the issue of child mortality through our 3D model, and hopefully educate others about the importance of keeping younger generations safe, and the healthcare issues that are present within developing countries that are not being addressed as well.

We wanted a simple model which people can understand easily, in order to reach a larger audience and spread awareness, which is why we chose to design our model with simple colours and scales to represent the data in a way that most people would understand. The colours represent the main cause of death in the country, and the size of the child figure represents the amount of children dying per year, or the child mortality rate.

       

 

Final product:

key:

  • red: birth defects
  • yellow: preterm births
  • green: respiratory diseases (pneumonia)
  • blue: infectious diseases

 

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Paper Airplane Results

From this investigation, I learned that paper planes work best when they have a smaller form and have added weight to them. The planes with more mass flew farther than the one without any weight added to it, so when creating a plane, it would be best to have balanced weight on it if distance is the goal.

I also learned that doing research before conducting an experiment is helpful because the information can help you with creating a working hypothesis that you can test. The research we did beforehand helped us because we wanted to test if planes really do fly faster and farther with more mass. Collecting data and recording it on a chart is also another thing that I learned how to use, and the visual representation of data on a chart is useful for future analysis.

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