Essays, Notes, School Work

Every day we go through life, but how does it work? In a life time we grow 590 miles of hair, we wait 2 weeks in front of a traffic light, how about 2 years on the telephone. We even spend the same amount of time eating as we do blinking. We would have to be alive to enjoy those pleasures. So how do we grow? How do we live? And how do we die?

The reason why humans grow is because we are composed of cells and the cells multiply making us larger. Miller Levine's Biology says, “A baby's cell is the same as an adults cell, but there certainly are more of them.” There are limits though! A cell cannot be as big as a human. There is something called a surface area to volume ratio that doesn't allow cells to be as large as humans. The larger the cell is, the smaller the surface area to volume ratio gets. The decrease in this ratio would not allow enough components to enter through the membrane such as food, water, or oxygen. Without these components leads us to thought of living.

In addition to those components entering the cell there are also waste products leaving the cell. They are not always waste products though according to Bernie Faber from Salem, Oregon. Cows and their guano are turned into manure. Releasing methane gas while being fermantated on the fermantator (bottom).

In order for a cell to live energy is required. Energy is taken into a cell through respiration for an animal cell. These factors are required for this to take place:

• Oxygen
• A food source
• Water
• Shelter

Respiration is an aerobic process, which means it requires oxygen. Respiration takes place in the mitochondrion. The object is to get ATP a source of energy for the other organelles.

Before respiration takes place Glycolysis occurs to acquire 2 net ATP. Glycolysis is an anaerobic process so it does not require oxygen. Its energy is quite useless though at 2 ATP.

At 2 ATP for Glycolysis and 32 ATP for Respiration the total comes to 36 ATP.

Portland General Electric has made a power plant in back of Faber's farm pumping manure into a fermantator. At the fermantator certain bioagents are added to allow the manure to release methane gas. The methane is used to turn a generator capable of producing a whopping 100 kilowatts, an estimated 70 homes can be powered from one generator. The generated power is fed to a feeding plant and into some power lines to feed the surrounding homes.

Telomeres are repetitive Deoxy ribo neucleic Acid (DNA) sequences found on the ends of chromosomes, specifically eukaryotic chromosomes. These telomeres maintain a fidelity of genetic information during replication. Every cell division causes these telomeres to shorten to a point that a telomere is so short. When this happens the telomere signals the cell to stop dividing. In abnormal conditions such as cancerous cells the telomeres are repaired under each cell division with an enzyme called telomerase Telomerase contains some Ribo-Neucleic-Acid (RNA) that codes for some proteins that fix the telomeres.

Without Protein Synthesis then we would not be able to make a RNA on the telomerase enzyme. Without RNA we would not be able to make a protein, because RNA codes for the protein. No protein = No repaired telomere.

Protein Synthesis starts out in the nucleus. Here in the nucleus the DNA is not allowed to leave. So an enzyme separates the two helix strands to make a copy on to an RNA. (This activity was demonstrated on the “Sickle Cell Activity”) That process is called transcription because DNA is transcribed into RNA. The RNA copy is allowed to leave the DNA and is taken (actively transported) though the cytoplasm to the ribosome located on the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum (Rough ER). At the Ribosome a small piece of it joins with the RNA and the RNA attracts anticodons located on a Transfer RNA (tRNA). On the tRNA an amino acid on the top is brought. A larger piece of the ribosome then joins with the smaller one. More and more tRNAs are brought then peptide bonds form between the amino acids. (This is sounding like the protein synthesis video I made). The polypeptide chain is made from these amino acids forming the protein.