Eugenics

            What is eugenics?  The definition of eugenics is the theory of human can influence our own evolution, through selective breeding, or genetic enhancement.  What do I find wrong about this?  EVERYTHING!  While I was reading about eugenics I thought it was very disturbing.  I know they were trying to be scientific and find out new things about DNA and reproduction but it was not right for them to go around judging people.

            What they used to do was take people that they thought were perfect to make a perfect baby.  They made laws and rules that if there was someone imperfect that they were not allowed to breed with somebody else.  Some of the laws they made were no blacks and whites were allowed to reproduce.  Actually there could be no mixing races at all.  They made everybody think that the only ones that were perfect to reproduce were the whites.  The scientists also made everyone believe that anybody that had a problem was unfit to have kids.  What they did with the people who “they” thought were unfit was sterilize them which is to make sure they could not reproduce.  Everyone started judging the mentally challenged, the alcoholics, the depressed, and many others because they believed that everything was genetic.

            Although the scientists thought they were doing this correctly their research did have some flaws.  One of their flaws was that they were not very good at defining the traits.  The only traits they really recognized correctly were the obvious such as eye color, stature, and blood group.  The second flaw they had was that they thought their was only one kind of intelligence and it came from the brain which there are many different ways to be intelligent.  The third flaw was that they had very poor information; they only got information from the last two generations so they did not know everything that could be passed on.   The fourth flaw was that they thought that if somebody scored high on an intelligence test that their gene of intelligence would be passed on.  Also very poorly educated people created the tests.  The fifth flaw was that they believed that the life styles were also genetic because they found in some families the life styles were often similar.

           

The social origins of eugenics hurt a lot of people throughout the country.  This influenced a lot of cultures such as Nazis.  It ruined a lot of businesses and sent a lot of people into the depression.  The birthrate went down hill and a lot of people who were wealthy could not pass anything on.  Although it was their fault they turned their problems to the mentally ill and said that if they were sterilized then everything would start to look up for them.  They also believed that immigrants were another problem socially so they decided to make immigrant restrictions.

           

The scientific origins were very strange.  They believed that bad environmental influences damaged hereditary.  This theory over the years turned into onanism, which they believed was bad environmental influences.  They thought this would affect their health.  They also believed that over 3 years of genetics people would become worthy citizens.  The scientists became scared that people that had a problem were having way more kids then the wealthy intelligent people so that when they would sterilize them.

They had many other laws such as marriage laws.  Nobody “perfect” was allowed to marry someone “unfit” because that would mean they would have children and that would not be acceptable for the scientists.  Of course they always thought that other races other then white were unfit to have children so whites were not allowed to marry another race.  They believed that if too many whites had kids with other races that soon the white race will eventually disappear.  They thought this would happen because a white person with a black person would end up having a white kid, the same for white and Mexican, white and Indian, and so on.  When all of this happened all the other races had to go through so many steps to become fit to be a white person and if not you were separated from them.

All in all this mess was inspired a lot of bad things and surprisingly good things.  Eugenics has helped us be more advanced in research today.  On the other hand it ruined a lot of peoples lives and inspired a lot of bad events in history.  In my opinion I did not like what happened with Eugenics.

Making A Baby

In the past week we have been doing a lab on making a baby.  Our whole lab was mostly focused on how the baby can get a trait from each parent by a 50/50% chance.  Me and Ashley made a baby and his name was Michael.  What we did was we got a chart and a packet that showed the different traits on it.

Trait Chart

Create A Baby Table

 For example:  The eyebrow size-  Me and Ashley both did not have eyebrows that met so we both had little e's in out genotype.  So we did not have to flip the coin because we both did not have that trait.

For Example: Cheek Freckles-  With freckles Ashley had them and I didn't so that gave her two FF and me ff so we had to flip a coin.  Automatically since she is the mom she would take over a gene which was F.  Since I was the father I had to flip the coin and I flipped tails so that would give me f.  The outcome would be Ff which means the baby would have freckles.

In every outcome we had Ashley would automatically give the baby one of her genotypes since she was the mother.  As the father I would only have 50/50 chance of the baby getting my genotype.  Now if we did or did not have the same trait the baby would most likely get the same exact trait that we both have.

Stem Cell

Stem cells are very important to our body.  They can help our body do many things and help us through many stages we go through such as growth.  They also can be an "internal repair system."  They can repair many cells as long as you are still alive.  Stem cells are special they can repair themselves as well as other cells.  These cells can do this by dividing.  Stem cells cannot only repair other cells but damaged tissue, but although they can do this it takes a lot for them to actually go through with this action.

FOUR KINDS OF STEM CELLS!
Embryonic Cell:
Primitive cells derived from a 5-day embryo that are capable of dividing without differentiating for a prolonged period in culture, and are known to develop into cells and tissues of the three primary germ layers.

Somatic Adult Cell:
A relatively rare undifferentiated cell found in many organs and differentiated tissues with a limited capacity for both self renewal (in the laboratory) and differentiation. Such cells vary in their differentiation capacity, but it is usually limited to cell types in the organ of origin. This is an active area of investigation.

Human Embryonic Cell:
A type of pluripotent stem cell derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst.

Induced Pluripotent Cell:
Somatic (adult) cells reprogrammed to enter an embryonic stem cell–like state by being forced to express factors important for maintaining the "stemness" of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Mouse iPSCs were first reported in 2006 , and human iPSCs were first reported in late 2007 . Mouse iPSCs demonstrate important characteristics of pluripotent stem cells, including the expression of stem cell markers, the formation of tumors containing cells from all three germ layers, and the ability to contribute to many different tissues when injected into mouse embryos at a very early stage in development. Human iPSCs also express stem cell markers and are capable of generating cells characteristic of all three germ layers. Scientists are actively comparing iPSCs and ESCs to identify important similarities and differences.

All in all stem cells can help your body in many different ways.  They can repair mostly anything inside of your body.  Messed up tissue, the heart, lungs, skin, sperm, eggs, bone marrow, muscle, and the brain.

Onion Roots and Cell Cycles!

I was asked to answer a couple of questions on onion roots and what stages a cell goes through...this is what I learned.  MITOSIS!

STAGE ONE!
Interphase Description: Mostly looks like a circle or oval with a whole in the middle...looks more like a bowl.  The cell looks like it is starting to try to come apart.

Interphase Definition:  A normal resting cell exists in a state called interphase in which the chromatin is undifferentiated in the heavily-stained nucleus, as illustrated above.

STAGE TWO!
Prophase Description:  Looks like a circe filled with with black spots.  Looks like everything inside is breaking up into to smaller pieces.

Prophase Definition:  The first phase of mitosis is known as the prophase, where the nuclear chromatin starts to become organized and condenses into thick strands that eventually become chromosomes.  Also there are two types of prophase early and late.

STAGE THREE!
Metaphase Description:  Looks like black lines that are trying to stretch apart.

Metaphase Definition:  metaphase where the chromosomes, attached to the kinetochore microtubules, begin to align in one plane (the metaphase plate) halfway between the spindle poles

STAGE FOUR!
Anaphase Description:  This phase takes the longest.  It looks like the pieces are bigger now and moving to one side. Two big pieces on each side.

Anaphase Definition:  anaphase. Almost immediately after the metaphase chromosomes are aligned at the metaphase plate, the two halves of each chromosome are pulled apart by the spindle apparatus and migrate to the opposite spindle poles.  Also there are two different types of anaphase early and late.

STAGE FIVE!
Telophase Description:  The last stage!  It looks like anaphase but more developed and some spaces between the pieces not as compressed as anaphase.

Telophase Definition:  When telophase is complete and the new cell membrane (or wall in the case of the onion root tips) is being formed, the nuclei have almost matured to the pre-mitotic state.

Green Human Project

https://docs.google.com/a/lajunta.k12.co.us/present/view?id=df5mtmq_3grg2x9dx

Poisons: Chokecherry

CHOKECHERRY

The Chokecherry also known as the Prunus Virginiana comes around usually in August.  The one thing you want to pay attention in the word chokecherry is "choke" because the name comes from the symptoms you get when you eat.  When you eat this plant it affects your respiratory system which makes you have rapid breathing and it feels like you are choking.  That's where the name chokecherry comes from.  This plant is from North America and not eaten it these cherries are very small and contain hydrocyanic acid.

Chokecherry very small and known for its tiny white flowers

Chokecherries are very dangerous but they can also be made into food too such as jelly.  You must be very careful with these although they are very delicious.  Once you pick the cherries you must squeeze out all the juice and get all the acid out of it.  After you follow the instructions for the delicious recipe you will get your now edible, delicious jelly.

Chokecherry Jelly

Chokecherries are not only bad for humans but they are also very bad for animals such as livestock.  When there is a drought in the ranges of the livestock they start to feed off of twigs and other plants and usually there are chokecherries.  Livestock can be harmed by the cherries when they eat large quantities of it in a short amount of time.  The death by these cherries is common in sheep and cattle.  Sheep love to eat the cherries after they drink some water and the cattle are just attracted to the leaves which have the most poison on them.  The symptoms for livestock after they eat the cherries is respiratory failure and the symptoms hit fast and death may come a few minutes after eating.

http://aden4lyons.tripod.com/poison/choke.html

http://www.wildfoods.info/wildfoods/chokecherry.html

http://webecoist.com/2008/09/16/16-most-unassuming-yet-lethal-killer-plants/

Basic Cell Structure

http://goanimate.com/movie/0pmfrf8tyTa4?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0jymuYHkOtuw