Module #7 - Cellular Reproduction and DNA

Genetics - the science that studies how characteristics get passed form parent to offspring
Gene - A section of DNA that codes for the production of a protein or a portion of protein, thereby causing a trait
most of your characteristics come from a store house called DNA, DNA is mostly for making proteins. But the proteins it makes, is what makes you have blue eyes or green eyes, brown or blond hair, and other things! of course not all traits are made from DNA protein. if you never pick up a weight in your life, you’re not going to be very strong no matter what your ability is. the ability, or range of how strong you can be come from you DNA proteins, but it’s up you to make your strength at the bottom of that picked scale or at the top. a gene also helps with traits, like proteins. but genes are the coding for a particular genetic trait or tendency.
there are three factors that make up who you are
Genetic Factors - proteins & genes
Environmental Factors - surroundings & situations
Spiritual Factors - relationship with god & understanding of the gospel
all of which help make you, you. however at the scientific point of view Genetic, is the most important factor, we can decide for ourselves.

Protein Syntheses - how you get the protiens
First comes Transcription - In transcription part of the DNA of a cell unwinds itself and opens up for a RNA ( a strand like DNA but without the deoxyribose it made with, instead is has ribose. Also it has it has a different 4th nucleotide base. DNA has adenine, cytosine guanine and thymine while RNA has Uracil instead of Thymine.) The strand opens up and lets the RNA in to make an opposite copy of the DNA, the RNA take the copy to the ribosomes to make protein.
Then comes Translation - In the ribosome,tRNA strands(trancefer RNA) attract with mRNA strands( messenger RNA) that have a codon (a section of mRNA that refers to a specific amino acid) that an anticodon ( a section of tRNA) and they bonds to. The tRNA strands bond with mRNA, pulling amino acids behind them. Then the amino acids have to bond and then after that happens many many times, you finally get a protein!

There was more in this module, but this is all i’m going to write. If you want to know more go read it yourself.

by: Tameanea

Module #6
The Cell

In this module we studied,
· Cellular Functions
· Cell Structure
· The Cell Wall
· The Plasma Membrane
· The Cytoplasm
· The Mitochondrion
· The Lysosome
· Ribosomes
· The Endoplasmic Reticulum
· The Plastids
· Vacuoles and Vesicles
· Golgi Bodies
· Centioles
· The Nucleus
· The Cytoskeleton
· As If This Isn’t Already Complicated Enough!
· How Substances Travel In and Out of Cells
· How Cells Get Their Energy
· ATP and ADP

As you can tell, we’ve been busy!!! I found this module completely fascinating! At some points (as you can see) seemed to be a little drawn out. But as you learned of more and more that was hidden in our cells you realized that we were barely touching the surface of something we know very little about it. It testified of a Divine Creator, and that we and every magnificent being around us, was not brought about by chance.

As we got talking, our teacher (Brother Butikofer. AKA: Bio Domin) realized I might need some help on this one. So Vanessa and Eliza were willing to help, here’s what they had to say on a few different topics-

Anaerobic verses aerobic cellular respiration and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) release!
if you want to know what this means or don’t want to feel like a failure for the rest of your life because you were scared too read on, please do yourself a favor and simply read through the paragraphs below it’s not that hard and it will help you to avoid any therapy if you don’t!
By: Tamea

There is such a thing as aerobic cellular respiration, for those that don’t know. It is how the cell makes energy. Stage 1 of aerobic cellular respiration is the stage that represents the anaerobic perceptive (anaerobic meaning with out oxygen.) in this stage, called glycolyses, yields pyruvic acid, 4 hydrogen molecules and 2 ATP’s (energy). Actually this process made 4 AT’s but since 2 were spent to drive the reaction, only half of the ATP’s can be used as energy for the body and cell. If the cell has time it will continue to stages 2,3, and 4 but if you need energy fast, you body will only proceed to stage 1 resulting in small burst of energy.
Stage 2,2,and 4 of aerobic cellular respiration is the aerobic phase. (This time it is using oxygen) to make things short, lot of pyruvic acid mixed with 2 acetyl coenzyme A some hydrogen, some oxygen, and some other things put together in different steps and at different time, will make an astonishing number of 32 ATP’s! The over all reaction of these stage is this.
C6H12O6 +6O2 = 6CO2 +6HO2 + 32 ATP’s (energy)

This will give your body more energy but you’ll have to wait longer for it. What’s more is that you will have to complete stage one, 18 times before you would get the same amount of energy you would get form completing all the stages.

2 ATP’s times 18 = 36 ATP’s
It’s just that to get 36 ATP’s you have to wait longer. if you need energy now it’s better to got or the 2 ATP’s 18 times.

why do ATP’s matter?
An ATP is made up of adenosine linked to 3 phosphate groups. an ADp is made up of adenosine with 2 phosphate groups. ADP’s are made when one of an ATP phosphate groups are taken away, this makes a gentle release of energy crucial for the cells survival. Sudden energy release would destroy the cell completely. Eventually after the phosphate group has broken off an ATP (to make an ADP) it will find itself again either in the cytoplasm of a cell, or the mitochondrion and reassemble to makes another ATP to store more energy.
ATP ADP + P + energy

Wow! That was quit the mouth full! Thanks Nessa!!!
And just to help you seen again what we got a little more indepth in, we studied the main parts of the cell, which are: (and forgive me for them not being in any special order)
· Chromatin
· Nucleus
· Nucleolus (and yes there is a different between this one and the last one)
· Pore on the nuclear membrane
· Plasma Membrane
· Lysosome
· Ribosome
· Vesicles
· Golgi Bodies
· Vacuole
· Smooth ER
· Filaments of the cytoskeleton
· Mitochondrion
· Rouch ER

Each one of these, when looked at even closer then just parts of the cell has parts of its own. If you are interested in this subject in more depth, I highly recamend reading Module #6 in the Exploring Creation with Biology by Wile and Durnell.

Module 5

Module # 5: The Chemistry of Life

One thing that we learned in this module was about changes in matter. There are two different categories of change within matter; physical change and chemical change.

Physical change – a change that affects the appearance but not the chemical makeup of a substance.

Chemical change – a change that alters the makeup of the elements or molecules of a substance.

One way to determine whether a change within matter is physical or chemical is to remember: physical changes are generally reversible; chemical changes are not.

An example of physical change would be to boil sugar water. When you put the sugar in the water, the sugar would seem to disappear. But if you boil the water off, the sugar would be left in the bottom of the pan and it would be the same as before. Likewise, if you collected the water vapor and condensed it you would have the same water as before. This is an example of physical change in that it could be reversed.

A good example of chemical change is lighting a piece of paper on fire. Once it has been burned the chemical makeup has been altered and it is impossible to get the paper back to how it was before. Because to is irreversible, it is a chemical change

Osmosis & diffusion

Diffusion – the random motion of molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration

Concentration – a measurement of how much solute exists within a certain volume of solvent

An example of diffusion is if you place some sugar in a napkin and then wrap the napkin into a small package and put a rubber band around it so that the sugar can’t escape, and then place the package with the sugar in a bowl of water. If you left it there in the water for a while and then tasted the water later you would taste sugar in the water. Why? It is because once the sugar was dissolved into the water it moved around randomly and it could go through the napkin. It was just by random chance that there was sugar in the water; it was not moved there by any mysterious force.

Osmosis – the tendency of water to travel across a semipermeable membrane into areas of higher solute concentrate.

Semipermeable membrane – a membrane that allows some molecules to pass through but does not allow other molecules to pass through.

An example of osmosis can be seen in an egg. If you soak an egg in vinegar for a while it will lose its hard shell and you will be left with a semipermeable membrane. Once the hard shell is gone you can see what the egg does in different solutions. If you place the egg in clear sugar syrup and leave it, the egg will get smaller. If you put it in plain water the egg will expand. The reason for this is that in the syrup there is a higher solute concentration outside the egg in the syrup then in the egg. The water moved through the semipermeable membrane to even out the solute concentration. The same thing happened in the water except this time there was more solute inside the egg then outside. The water moved into the egg to even out the solute concentration.

The pH scale

Two classes of molecules we learned about were acids and bases. In general, acids are substances that taste sour, while bases are substances that taste bitter.
In most of the chemical reactions that make life possible, the amount of acid or base present has a profound effect on the speed and effectiveness of the reaction. So it is important to know the level of acid or base. One way to do this is with the pH scale. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14. When a solution has a pH of 7 it is considered neutral, having no acid or base characteristics. The lower the pH, the more acidic it is. Solutions with pH from just above 7 to 14 are called alkaline and have the characteristics of a base.

We also learned about lipids, proteins and enzymes, amino acids and DNA, but sadly I have no time to tell about them. If you would like to know more, buy the book: Exploring Creation with Biology (Second edition). Have a nice day.

Animalia