Day 31 -- Meh?

I don't remember what happened this day. There was probably research or study time for the upcoming collaborative test. Sweet.

Day 30 -- My-"osis" and My-"toe"-sis

Cells have this weird method of reproduction called Mitosis (which is spelled incorrectly in the title for comedic effect). And just to be fair to those who thought it wasn't complicated enough, the cell has a cycle of life (During which it is active only a small portion of the time, and the rest replicating. See below.) and cool stages for reproduction.

• Interphase -- Not much cool stuff happens during this stage. Mostly the cell is preparing for its great process of reproduction.
• Prophase -- The number of chromosomes in the cell double, and the center of the cell becomes darker and more expressed. 
• Prometaphase -- The nucleus dissolves, and the microtubes attach to the centromeres. (See picture)
• Metaphase -- At this point, the cell is much larger and the nucleus has dissolved. The chromosomes align at the middle of the cell, ready to be split out to each side.
• Anaphase -- The chromosomes are split apart , and start being pulled to each end of the cell. At times the outward movement of the chromosomes is visible to microscopes. 
• Telophase -- The microtubles disappear at this stage, and the cell begins to form a gap inwards at the top and bottom, showing that the outside is starting to divide as well.
• Cytokinesis -- This is where the cells visibly divide. The new "daughter" cells each have the original amount of chromosomes as the starting cell.

The cell cycle involves the G1 stage, during which everything happens (normal function), the S phase, the G2 phase, and then the phases listed above during actual division. 

Meiosis is a much different process. The final cells that result from this process do not have the original amount of chromosomes, but half. The resulting cells must meet with another cell similar to its own (sperm to egg) to create a full functioning cell. This is often seen in conception of humans.

Day 29 -- And then there were cells...

With genetics behind us, we now start our Cell Unit!

Since many people (apparently) did not know how to use a microscope, we spent most of the day today looking at some weird things: fleas, cheek cells, plant cells, etc. We observed the differences between the plant and animal cells (animal cells are rounder, while plants are larger with exposed darker middles), along with some other cool determining factors. 

Think I have a few pictures here...

The size of plant cells from a low zoom.

Ditto. (Just LOOK at it.)

With our new-found knowledge of both the optical and digital microscopes, we could now move on to bigger and better things! Like the Cell Project! As I obviously started the project on Day 1 (and learned most of the cell parts back in grade school), I could determine which parts of the plant cell that the animal cell did not have (chloroplasts, large vacuole, etc.) and vice-versa. (Now the bacteria cell, on the other hand, has many differences. But it will also be discussed later.

(Unit 4 Test) Day 28 -- Preemptive Strike

HAH! I WAS READY FOR YOU THIS TIME UNIT TEST!!!

So we took the genetics test today and it wasn't that bad because I KNEW MOST OF THE INFORMATION FROM BACK IN GRADE SCHOOL. All those science classes with Blomberg where everyone thought I was messing around with my computer in the back of the classroom were proven to work VERY WELL with my ability on that test.

TAKE THAT, POPULAR OPINION!

Day 27 -- Incomplete Codominance (..WHAT???)

As with every perfectly acceptable concept, we learned several ways to make genetics and crosses more complicated: we added CODOMINANCE and INCOMPLETE DOMINANCE !!

Of course we had to add something like this. After doing the Punnet Square, usually we have recessive traits (two small letters) or dominant traits (two large letters or one and one). However, with this amazing addition, the Heterozygous traits (Aa) now express a different trait, or a combination of the two. 

When red and white flowers are combined and the traits could possibly express incomplete dominance, the RRxrr cross results in all heterozygous flowers. While normally this would mean "all reds that carry the recessive trait," the resulting flowers now express the incomplete "pink" color due to their heterozygous nature. If you cross the pink with another pink, the chance would be 1 Red : 2 Pink :1 White, because a RR dominant or rr recessive could result from that cross. In short, the incomplete dominance means that neither is completely dominant, and there may be a cross between the two (Red and White make Pink).

On the other hand, codominance finds some way to express both traits in the case of heterozygous recipients. Imagine the red and white flower cross above. With the codominance, this time, the Rr offspring would be white with red spots (or red with white spots). This is very similar, but both are expressed in some way in the offspring. 

Also, sometime in this time period we learned about pedigrees. When looking at a cool graph thing with boxes and circles, we have to decide several factors in determining a trait's passing motion. For example, we have to check whether the trait is sex-linked or autosomal first. This requires running through the parents of one of the recipients with a Punnet Square of XX x XY. If the trait doesn't roll that way, then it is autosomal. At that point, we determine if it is linked to the dominant trait or the recessive by placing it into another Square. If all goes well, we can determine how it is passed down by the recipients from the Punnet Square.