Cancer Interview

I normally do not enjoy talking about illness and things that cause sufferings, but when I talked to anonymous I interviewed, it changed my perspective not only on cancer, but what it actually is. Anonymous was forty-three when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She felt a lump, and was feeling pain and tiredness. She went to the doctor and in under two days she was diagnosed with a major tumor. Upon receiving this information, she was shocked and saddened to find that she had one of the most deadly and incurable illnesses in the world. She was immediately put through chemotherapy, which lasted seven months. During chemo, she felt extreme exhaustion, and spent most of her time sleeping. She also Lost all of her hair and had to wear a wig or hats in public. Near the end of chemo, she got sick easily and contracted colds, flues, and other ailments that were around. After she successfully completed chemo, she went through four months of radiation.  It caused her major rashes and her skin was severely damaged. She had to change her clothing style, and could not wear many things that she loved before. After cancer, her life changed for the better. She realized who loved her, cared about her, and how much her family meant to her. She told me that It made the family stronger in a sense. Having someone that close to being lost changes the way people see things in the world. She continued her old job, the one she had before she had cancer. After over a year in treatment, she was done. She told me that a common misconception is being lazy. She wanted dearly to move around and start working, even though she could barely walk. The motivation to do something was huge, but chemo was so devastating. A few recommendations she had for everyone  was to go along with cancer screening, and identify any symptoms as quickly as possible, and importantly, hang on to the things you love.


Breast cancer effects the breasts, and it is most common in women. It effects the inner cells, forming a tumor that feels like a bruise from the outside. Once the tumor is created, it starts to spread throughout the body spreading pain and killing the normal cells and tissues. It effects the ability to produce milk, the ducts carrying it, and the fatty tissue surrounding it. There is no sure cause of breast cancer, but one fact is that it is caused from mutation in a cell that reproduces faster than normal cells. It can be genetic or random, and no one is immune. Since cancer is random, there is no sure way to stop people from getting it. There are a few theories as to what can prevent it, such as breastfeeding, exercising, reducing alcohol, and other generally healthy activities. There are many ways to treat cancer. This includes surgery(removing the tumor),  Radiation(Killing it with X-rays), and Chemotherapy(Cancer-killing Drugs.). There are other ways to remove cancer but breast cancer generally uses these three. In 2014, twelve percent of all females were found with invasive breast cancer. This is a massive part of the population. Because there are 160,000,000 women in America, there are 182,000 people with breast cancer(Approximately). Breast cancer is most common in the United States and UK, but generally only hits people before they are fifty years old.


REFERENCES:
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-what-causes
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-what-is-breast-cancer
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/womens-health/in-depth/breast-cancer-prevention/art-20044676
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-treating-general-info
http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1697353-overview#aw2aab6b3

Mitosis Lab Report

INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURES

Purpose of this Lab: The purpose of the Mitosis lab was to find the different cells in their stages of mitosis and determine the amount of interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase cells.

Hypothesis: There will be more interphase and prophase than metaphase and anaphase. This is because they are the two longest stages of mitosis.

Procedure: In the Mitosis lab, I worked with my partner Mike to take pictures of cells so we could analyze the data and find results. This started with getting an onion root tip on a tray, and then looking at it through different magnifications. We started with the 10x magnification, but since that was very difficult to see: 

we decided to move to a higher resolution. We chose to move up to 40x:

 This was perfect for us because it not only provided a lot of different cells, it was close enough to tell the stages. From there, we got many different segments of the onion root until we had many pictures of cells. 

RESULTS

This was my table of results. This shows that the approximate time spent in each stage is very similar to the percent of total cells counted. Here are some photos of the cells I took:

This is a pie chart I created showing the percent of each stage from my data.

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS

After reviewing the data, it shows that the time spent in Mitosis is very similar to the percent of cells in that stage. This means that the more time a cell spends in that stage, the more likely you are to find it there.

My hypothesis was proven because the prophase and interphase cells were found the most. This shows that they also spend the longest time in there.

Questions:

1. Why is it more accurate to call mitosis "nuclear replication" rather than "cellular division"?

Nuclear replication is more accurate because the cell is replicating its DNA, instead of just dividing itself. It is creating a literal copy of itself to go and create more copies. 

2. Explain why the onion root tip is selected for a study of mitosis.

The onion root tip was chosen because the chromosomes are very large and dark when stained. They are easy to find and does not damage the root tip in the process.

1. If your observations had not been restricted to the area of the root tip that is actively dividing, how would your results have been any different?

My results would have changed dramatically because if I took pictures over time, the cells would change stages. This would result in minor data changes, and definite proof of the time that cells spend in each stage.

2. Based on the data in the table, what can you infer about the relative length of time an onion root-tip cell spends in each stage of cell division?

Based on the data, I showed in the pie chart the percent of each stage I found. I infer that the time spent in each stage would be similar to the percent of cell stages I found. 

Up Up and Away Blog Lab Report

UP UP AND AWAY

A group lab report by Mason, Abhinov, Mike, and Joel

Materials Used:

Glass Stirring Rod

Two 500 Ml containers

Baking Soda

Distilled Water

Liquid Dish washing Detergent.

Leaves from Hedera or Spinacia families    

Aluminum Foil

Stopwatch

Camera

2 clear plastic cups

Hole Puncher

Syringe

Procedure:

1. Make a sodium bicarbonate solution in a beaker by combining the baking soda with the distilled water, then mix
2. Add detergent, and stir gently
3. Use a hole puncher to make 60 leaf disks.
4. Make a vacuum in the syringe with 30 of the leaf disks.
5. Put this in a clear cup with the solution, covered in foil
6. Repeat step 4 and 5 but with the cup in the light.
7. Set a stopwatch for 21 minutes and count how many disks rise every minute.

Hypothesis: If the leaf disks are left in the water for a longer amount of time, more leaves will experience photosynthesis and raise to the top.

Purpose: The purpose of this lab was to learn about photosynthesis and how is is triggered. The light and water in the experiment along with the solution sped up the process and demonstrated how it worked. 

Results and Data:

Line graph of the Data we found during the Lab. It seems like the dark treatment barely had any photosynthetic reactions while the light reaction cup was steadily rising for 21 minutes.

This is a video of two leaf disks rising under the light cup.

Picture of the leaf disks rising in the light cup.

Graph of our original Data.

Analysis: Our results showed that my hypothesis was correct, the longer the disks are in the water with light, the more photosynthesis will go on. As the line graph showed, there was a steady raise of 1 or 2 disks per minute. The disks rise slowly, as shown in the video. This means that the photosynthesis reaction happens slowly or the density of the leaves are slowly lowered. Our light reaction seemed to work out well, while our dark reaction had a few issues. This could meant that photosynthesis is impossible without light, or there was scientific error on our end.

Conclusion: Our photosynthesis experiment was successful and we learned a lot. We concluded that the rate of photosynthesis depends on the amount of light being received. The more light, the faster the leaves rose.

In this lab activity, we tried to find out how much oxygen would come out of the catalyst reaction. My hypothesis is that the more enzyme we put in the hydrogen peroxide, the more oxygen will be produced. The procedure began with us getting a test tube and putting varying amounts of enzyme in the tube. Then we put it underwater and measured how much oxygen comes out using a second test tube.

Picture of the enzymes in the tube.                  

Picture of the water we used.                          

Picture of the enzymes getting ready for use.

Picture of the completed reaction chamber.   

Start of the lab with all of the materials.        

Table with our Data.                                  

My hypothesis was proved because more oxygen was leaked with four enzymes than when we had one enzyme. We did this lab to explain enzymes and how they work with the environment. I learned that reactions can be sped up by adding more enzymes.

Interstellar Advanced Screening

• the scientific, mathematics, and humanitarian questions raised by the film

One of the main scientific questions asked by the film was how gravity effects others in a different time, area, and dimension. Another question was how far would you go to save humanity, or would you save humanity or your family?

• what you learned about relativity

I learned that massive objects with gravity can have an effect on space and time. I also learned how gravity is so strong it goes through dimensions.

• the importance of gravity in the movie

Gravity was the main theme of the movie. Gravity went through dimensions, and it was used to send a message through time.

• your thoughts on time travel and wormholes

I think that "time travel" is actually just time moving slower in a specific location. It will never be possible to create a time machine unless we slow down time enough that we can go BACK in time. I doubt we will ever be able to go to the future. Wormholes seem like a myth to me, even though they can exist. They are like portals from one area to another which seems very science "fictiony" and entertainment value driven. 

• the possibility of sustaining life on planets other than earth

I believe there is life on other planets than Earth, and that there can be life on other planets. This seems very possible to me because there are billions of galaxies and solar systems, and we cannot be unique. Even if the organisms are uni-cellular and very simple, I believe they are out there somewhere.

• challenges presented in the movie that you can relate to

One challenge that I related to well was the struggle between family and a bigger problem. You have to sacrifice something and you are not going to like it. I also related to the challenge of lying to someone to get a better result. When the professor lied about plan A to save the human race, I felt like that was something that many people have to go through, and it was a tough decision.

• challenges presented in the movie that you cannot relate to

I couldn't relate to the challenge of killing someone to save the human race. Not only was that hypocritical, but Dr. Mann was trusted by so many people. He ended up almost committing homicide to save a race.

• how the movie has changed your understanding of science, space-time, and what's important in our day-to-day lives

The movie gave me a greater understanding of gravity and how gravity effects time through dimensions and space. It was also a dark omen to what could happen to our planet if we are not careful with what we do. We should all make sure to treat the planet the best we can so it survives.

I do not have a picture of me at the museum but I do however have a picture of diet coke.

In this lab activity, we tried to find out if osmosis works in other ways than cells. My hypothesis is that even though it seems like the packages are “waterproof” the material will still leak out. The procedure started by getting bags of starch and glucose and putting them in the water. We would then put iodine into the starch bag and wait twenty minutes. After the twenty minutes, we would look at the results and get a glucose chart and look at the glucose level in the water.

The picture on the left is the starch while the glucose is on the right.This picture shows the starch at the beginning when we poured the iodine in.

This is a picture of the glucose levels results.

This is after twenty minutes of having the iodine in the starch. This means the iodine leaked into the starch.

This picture shows the starch at the beginning when we poured the iodine in.

This picture is the iodine we used. We used 15 drops.

My hypothesis was proved because in the glucose container, the glucose leaked into the water, as shown by the picture above. In the starch container, the iodine leaked into the starch making a blue color. We did this lab to explain osmosis and the transmission of fluids and materials between cells and the environment. I learned that cells try to have an equal amount of X as the environment.

Strawberry DNA Extraction Lab Report

Last Monday, our lab group completed the Strawberry DNA lab. We did this to show DNA structure, and what it looks like in real life. It was also to show us how easy it is to extract DNA. My hypothesis for this lab is that when you extract DNA, you can see it clearly floating around. This lab was completed in a few steps. First,  we made the extraction buffer out of dish washing detergent, salt, and water. We then put the strawberry and the extraction fluid together and mixed it. After that happened, we isolated the DNA using a funnel and cheesecloth. Finally, we added ice cold alcohol to separate the juice and the DNA.

Picture of the Cheesecloth and the funnel.

DNA Final Extraction. The white swirly stuff near the top is the DNA.

This is us pouring in the extraction fluid.

My hypothesis was proved because when you extracted the DNA the DNA was clear at the top. I feel like DNA can be manipulated once extracted like this. This lab made me realize how easy it is to find DNA. I also think that there is a lot of DNA in a small area. We took one strawberry and found a bunch of DNA. The resulting DNA was smaller than I expected, but it still was very large compared to the rest of biological material.