Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

The experiment that I found is about liquid water flowing on today's Mars. The sturdiest evidence yet of liquid water flowing intermittently on present-day Mars was just found by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). With the image that the MRO provided, scientists believe that the salty brines, which are in the dark streaks on the surface of Mars, show that salty water is flowing on Mars. The link to the original study is http://www.livescience.com/52321-photos-mars-flowing-water.html

The question of this experiment is if water is actually flowing on the planet Mars. The hypothesis to that question is yes, water is flowing on the planet Mars.

If there are salty brines in the dark streaks that show up on the planet Mars, then there is salty water flowing on the planet.

Cheese Lab

	Time to Curdle (Minutes)
Curdling Agent:	Chymosin	rennin	buttermilk	milk (control)
Acid	5	5	5
Base	20
pH control	15	10
Cold
Hot	5	5
temp control	10	10

You, my supervisor, wants to know what the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese are and I have the answer for you. I found that warm and acidic (pH control) atmospheres are the optimal conditions for making cheese. As you see in my graph and table, the shortest time that chymosin, rennin, and buttermilk, started having curdles is 5 minutes. The curdling agents only started to curdle by 5 minutes in certain conditions: Acid and Hot. This evidence supports my claim because these are the fastest time that curdling started to occur and these times only occurred in a acidic and hot environment. I also found that the best curdling agent for making cheese is chymosin. Except for “Cold”, chymosin curdled in every kind of condition. This evidence supports my claim because chymosin is the curdling agent that curdled the most which proves that the best curdling agent for making cheese is chymosin.

One error that might’ve slightly messed up the data is the accuracy of the initial time. The initial time wasn’t exactly when the curdling agents was put in its conditions. When we started the time, the curdling agent still wasn’t in its condition yet; therefore, the initial time was a bit earlier than what it should’ve been. This error might have affected our results by not allowing the curdling agents enough time to actually start curdling. Another error that could’ve occur in this lab was the condition of the temperature control. With this condition, someone had to put the curdling agent below their armpit. This would not result accurately because the temperature of each person’s armpit varies widely, therefore giving the curdling agent being tested an advantage of curdling sooner if one’s armpit is hotter than the others . Someone wearing a sweatshirt would cause a hotter temperature for the curdling agent then someone who put it against their bare skin. Someone that just got back from PE would cause a hotter temperature than someone who just got out of a air conditioned room.  This error would’ve affected the accuracy of our results by giving certain curdling agents the advantage to curdle faster because of the hotter temperature of the member’s armpit.

In order to improve the experimental procedure and reduce/minimize errors, I would recommend always keeping track of the time and clearly splitting up who’s doing what at the start of the lab. Always keeping track of time will give you more accurate results and clearly splitting up who’s doing what at the start of the lab will help your group steer clear from any confusion of what’s been done and what hasn’t.

The purpose of this lab was to become more familiar with enzymes and how they’re important and used in everyday life. It was also to become more familiar with what acids, bases, and pH are and how the conditions can be important in everyday life. In this lab, we got to know more about enzymes, which we had already gone over in class. We also got to see how Acids, Bases, and pH, which we’ve already gone through in class, could be applied in real life by having them as the conditions for the curdling agents.

The outcome learned from this lab could be applied to other situations. For example, if someone wants something to turn sour faster than the natural time then they’ll know that an acidic and hot condition would be the best condition to put it in.

Unit 2 Reflection

Unit 2 was about Miniature Biology, it was about how increasing molecular complexity serves as the building blocks for life. The first essential understanding was the Nature of Matter. For this section, I had a fairly easy time learning about the atom and its structure. I also had a easy time learning about elements, including the Periodic Table, and Compounds/Molecules. This was mostly a review for me for I've gone through these topics before in school. It started getting difficult in Chemical bonds and its type. I've never gone through this topic before so it was sort of difficult for me. Though it was a bit difficult, I understood it in the end. The second essential understanding was Water. In this topic, I learned about the properties of water, why water is so attractive, and why water is great for making solutions. It was a little difficult when learning about the properties of water and why its so attractive but I soon got it. Learning why water is so great for making solutions, though, wasn't very difficult for me. I've made solutions before and have figured out myself that water is a great component to add in solutions. Also, most of what was taught in this section, I've been taught before in previous classes. 

From this experience, I've learned how to managed my time more carefully when in a lab and also how to split work so that each person has something to do. I've also learned to be more careful when reading instructions and to fully understand steps before actually doing them. 

Sweetness Lab

The purpose of this lab was to find how the structure of a carbohydrate affects its taste (sweetness). I believe that the Monosaccharide carbohydrates were the sweetest, the Disaccharide carbohydrates were the second sweetest, and the Polysaccharide carbohydrates were the least sweet. I believe that the Monosaccharide carbohydrates are the sweetest, when in comparison with all the other types of carbohydrates, because of the data I collected. In the eight carbohydrates, three were Monosaccharide: Glucose, Fructose, and Galactose. With a sweetness scale that ranges from 0-200, Glucose got a 140, Fructose got a 150 and Galactose got a 120. These were the three sweetest in the eight total carbohydrates. This data supports my claim because the ratings of Glucose, Fructose, and Galactose, all Monosaccharide, are all higher then the other carbohydrates. With the Disaccharides carbohydrates, they were definitely the second sweetest when compared with all the other types of carbohydrates. There were three Disaccharide carbohydrates: Sucrose, Maltose, and Lactose. Again, with a scale that ranges 0-200, Sucrose got a rating of 100, Maltose got a 15 and Lactose got a 55. This data supports my claim because the ratings of Sucrose, Maltose, and Lactose, all Disaccharides, were higher then the ratings of Polysaccharide carbohydrates but still lower then the ratings of Monosaccharide carbohydrates. The Polysaccharide carbohydrates were the least sweetest when compared with the Disaccharide and Monosaccharide carbohydrates. There were only two Polysaccharide carbohydrates: Starch and Cellulose. Again with the scale that ranges from 0 to 200, starch got a rating of 10 and cellulose got the rating of 0. This data supports my claim because the ratings of Starch and Cellulose, all Polysaccharides, are the lowest out of all the other carbohydrates.

Carbohydrate structure (shape) might affect how they are used by cells/organisms because depending on whether it's a monosaccharide, disaccharide or polysaccharide carbohydrate, each carbohydrate structure is different therefore each carbohydrate has a different degree of sweetness and is used for something else.

My group and I didn't have the exact same ratings for each sample. The rating of the same samples could be different for different tasters because each person has their own unique sense of taste, some testers might have a higher expectation for how sweet something should be (therefore lowering the degree of sweetness more than others), and some might have washed the taste out of their mouth before the sweetness could actually set in.

Our taste buds causes us to taste sweetness. According to liveScience, there is a chemical messenger in our taste buds called neuropeptide Y. This chemical messenger signals the brain when something sweet is being eaten. While cholecystokinin, another chemical messenger, signals the brain when something bitter is being eaten. With this information in mind, I believe that some tasters could rank the sweetness of the same samples differently because some peoples chemical messengers might be weaker then other, therefore not being able to signal the brain if something sweet or bitter is being eaten.

What is Biology?