Who figured genetics out? That is to say, who dove deeper?

        Hiya, people. I hope I find you well. Today we're going to learn about people who weren't afraid to dive deeper than anyone into the mysteries of genetics.  The lucky contestants who studied genetics are: Francis Crick, James Watson, Severo Ochoa, and Barbara McClintock. I have to admit, they've got pretty cool names. But that's not why they're important. Far from it (though you may believe otherwise). Now, if you're interested, let's get started.
        Francis Harry Compton Crick was born June 8th, 1986. James Dewey Watson was born on April 6th, 1928.


James Watson (left) and Francis Crick (right)



Cartoon of Francis Crick and James Watson

  
         They were partners, and they discovered the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) double-helix.



Double-Helix



         That's how they contributed. They discovered that thing up there, and without them, we wouldn't know what it looks like! That double-helix appeared in the scientific paper on April, 1953, where James and Francis showed the structure of the DNA helix, the molecule that passes genetics from one generation to the next. Francis Crick died on July 28th, 2004, of cancer. James Watson is still living today.

        FUN FACT: The first time Francis Crick and James Watson tried to build the DNA structure, it didn't work.
        FUN FACT: Francis Crick has a brother, who is a doctor in New Zealand. He was going to get his Ph.D, but  the war interrupted him. 
        FUN FACT: James Watson wrote several papers on the construction of the virus. He likes bird watching, and he has never married.
        Next up, Severo Ochoa. He's got a cool name. Severo Ochoa was born on September 24th, 1905. He's a bit older than Francis and James, but it's fine. Severo Ochoa contributed to genetics with the genetic code. The genetic code is 64 triplets of nucleotides. Nucleotides form the basic structural units of nucleic acids, like DNA.  



The Nucleotides of DNA



        Anyway, the triplets are called codons. In 1931, Severo married Carmen Garcia Cobian. He died November 1st, 1993.
        FUN FACT: Seveo Ochoa was a Hispanic scientist, and the youngest of seven children.

 

Severo Ochoa



        Last but not least (because she's a girl), Barbara McClintock. Now, in my opinion, she's the best, but not because she's a girl or anything, and that makes her superior, but because...well, she's a girl, and that makes her superior. It makes her superior, not only because she's a girl, but because science was thought to be beyond woman's abilities, even though woman had a lot to do with some of it, like the discoverer of radioactivity Barbara McClintock was born June 6th, 1902. Her contribution to genetics  was the genetic transposition. She also helped us a little in understanding chromosome structure.



Young Barbara McClintock



Old Barbara McClintock



        Um, if you wanna know, genetic transposition is 'the ability of genes to change positions on chromosomes, in which a transposable element is removed from one site and inserted into a second site in the DNA'. I got that definition at http://www.medterms.com/. Anyway, Barbara McClintock died on September 2nd, 1992.
        FUN FACT: Barbara McClintock began her interest in genetics when she was an undergraduate. 

        So, out of the four people we talked about today, one is still alive. That's kinda sad. I hope you enjoyed, and I ask you guys for no haters...on any of my classmate's bogs. Okay? Good. Speaking of my classmate's blogs, if you wanna know/learn more, please go to their blogs. As always, the links are below. Stay tuned!
SuperSara's Blog
youngro-jalenguy's blog
Katie's Blog
Kevin's Blog

        

       

How do Genetic Mutations happen? Do you get super powers? Do you get to be a villan?

        Hiya! How are you? How's your brain? How's your stomach? Good? I hope so. Because you're about to take a journey, a journey to a place no other creature has gone... INTO THE WORLD OF WONDERLAND! Ha ha, just kidding. That was Alice. Speaking of Wonderland, we did that play last year, but that's another story. Well, technically, you will be going into a world of wonder, just not the Wonderland Alice went to. Yeah, yeah, let's get started.



Radioacive Spider





Spiderman, Spiderman, friendly
neihgborhood Spiderman!





        So, I did ask you how your brain and stomach were, right? Okay, good. That's something I'm required to do, lest I get sued...uh, not something I wanna go through. Alright, alright, today we're going to learn about *deep voice*  genetic mutations! I know how all those movies say that... I dunno... Spiderman got bit by a radioactive spider, and, because of that, his genes were altered. Now, SuperSara, don't get a big head; I don't like Spiderman, I just couldn't remember how Superman got his powers. I like the idea of Spiderman, just not the actor.

        Anyway, getting off topic. So, Spiderman got bit, he got some spider genes, and, voilà. Spiderman was born. But it doesn't work like that. That's just imagination and fiction. Most genetic mutations wouldn't help you like that, if you could call turning into Spidy helping. I guess it just depends on your point of view.

Eh, it looked awesome.

        Now, don't get the wrong idea. That's not what I'm paid for! Come to think of it, I'm not paid at all. Maybe I should ask.... Anyway, the point is, if you happen to come across someone who has a mutation, don't treat them like they're ebil or ugly or different.



Genetic mutated bull or cow, I can't tell



        Let's see... where was I? Ah yes. It doesn't matter if there's something wrong with your parents... you know, like diabetes or cancer. Well, technically, it does matter, but not to your body. See, the only cells of your parents that matter are the sperm and egg cell. If your parents happen to have diabetes or cancer or something, it would certainly increase your chances, but it would not be passed down to you. Now, if there is something wrong with the sperm and egg cell, then it would be bad. With a capital B-A-D.

        Mutations. The Elephant Man was a a mutation. He was mocked and made fun of. He was disformed, but he's still famous even after death. Here:

        Not pleasant, eh? Still, it doesn't give anyone the right to make fun if him, but we can't change what happened a lifetime ago. Anyway, mutations can be inherited, like I said, or they can come during a person's lifetime. Dun-dun-duuuunnnn. He he, sorry. Now, if your confuzzled, I'm sorry. I'll try to stay on topic and make this as easy as I possibly can...starting...NOW!

        Mutations that are passed from parent to offspring are called hereditary mutations or germline mutations. Germline mutations are called that because the sperm and egg cell (the only cells that can affect you) are also called germ cells. That type of mutation is present all throughout that person's lifetime, in almost every cell in the body. Eek.

        All right, here are a couple of types of mutations:

Normal gene: The dog ate the ball because it was small.

Point mutation: The dot ate the ball because it was small.

Deletion: The dog the ball because it was small.

Insertion: The fat dog ate the ball because it was small.

Frame shift: The dog ate the labl ebuceas ti saw lmal.

        As you can see, point mutation is when you replace one 'letter' with another. Deletion is pretty self-explanatory, as is insertion. But still, I'm required to teach you everything, and here it is: deletion is when you delete a 'word'. Insertion is when you add a 'word'. Frame shift is when you mix up the 'letters' in the 'word'. If any of these things happened to your genes, you can bet your buttons it'll be bad.

        As you can so obviously see, mutations aren't very good. They can be fatal. Mutations are not something to be taken lightly. Not at all. Trust me, one mutation can change your life forever. I hope you learned something here, because I worked hard. If you wanna learn more, go to my classmate's blogs, I'll put the links below. And below the links, if you have time, is a video. Peace out, and I'll talk to you next time!

SuperSara's Blog

youngro-jalenguy's blog

Katie's Blog

Kevin's Blog

      

Science Fair Project

        Hello, people. How are you? So, you probably really don't care, but here's my experience with the science fair. Yeah, yeah. I know what you're probably thinking, Aw, come on! Why do we gotta read about the science fair when we already lived it? To be completely honest, I'm thinking the exact same thing. But if you really wanna know, ask and blame Mr. Sellers. So, this is the behind the scenes look at the science fair! Well, actually, my science fair project, but oh well. Details, details.

        So, before we start, I just want to let you know that I will completely understand if you get bored during this. If it were me, I'd kinda be bored, too. So don't worry. We all feel your pain. We understand. Just wanted to throw that out there. Okay, let's get started.

        The first thing I did for the science fair was to get forced to research topics. Let me tell you, it's not as easy as it sounds. I didn't really like anything that had to do with animals, 'cause most of them involved experimenting on them. But there was one, with frogs, that didn't involve that. You just had to examine the frogs. It was called Froggy Forecasting. Cool, huh? Just one problem. My mom doesn't like animals in her house. Whoop dee do.

        She told me I couldn't do it. Well, gosh. That ruined my plans completely. Now I had to look for another science fair project, and that didn't improve my mood. It took me two weeks to find Froggy Forecasting. Stinks, huh? Yeah. It stinks real bad. Well, the frogs would've, so I can kinda see her point. The only problem was, I had no idea what to do with my science fair project, because the Internet hadn't released any projects that looked or sounded good. To make up for rejecting my project, my mom offered to help find one.

        If I could, I wanted to do something with animals. The environment was my second choice. But alas, there was nothing on animals. Nothing. Well, nothing except experimenting on the animals, and that was something I refused to do. So we looked for environmental projects. Not as good as friendly animal science fair projects, but close. We looked through the Internet, but, like I said before, it didn't give us any good projects. So we looked through books. Not bad, I suppose. But no book yielded information. Except one. It was Science Fair Projects for Dummies. Yes, I used a science fair project from the book. No, that doesn't mean I'm a dummy.

         So, I looked through it, and I found two that looked promising. Can you power electricity with fruit was one. The other one is classified, just in cast I come back to Shreiner next year and do the science fair. We were going to use lemons:

        Limes:



        Grapefruits:



        And potatoes:



        So, I'd finally found a science fair project. Put my sweat, blood, and tears into it, too. Not even kidding. I accidentally cut myself, and it hurt. As if that wasn't bad enough, while I was cutting a lemon, the lemon slipped and landed right on my cut. Super dee duper.

        Eh? Oh, right. Back on track. So... where was I? Ah. Yes. Right. Okay. So, I found the science fair project, yada yada, and we resolved to get the supplies on that Saturday, because my father was going out of town, and my mother was booked in meetings. For the weekdays, I started on the introduction, hypothesis, and the materials. When Saturday arrived, we went to Wal-Mart—

       —and we bought the fruit first—lemons, limes, potatoes, and grapefruits. Then we went to Home Depot—

       —to buy copper nails, galvanized nails, wire, alligator wire, and a volt meter. After we got them, we went home, and decided to start on the science fair project tomorrow, so we could get to sleep. The next day, we stuck the galvanized and copper nail each into the fruits. Then we connected the similar fruits to each other. Like this—

        After we did that, we attached one alligator wire to each nail—galvanized and copper—and took the measure with the volt meter. Afterwards, I wrote down the procedure.

        Everyday for nine days we took the measure. We did nine because I wanted to do eight, and my mom wanted to do ten, so we did the number in-between. After nine days, we finished the data, conclusion, and the results. Then I glued it all to the trifold. I added pictures, and I was done. Then the science fair started, and unfortunatly, I was wrong in my hyopthesis— If grapefruits, lemons, limes, and potatoes can produce electricity, then it can power a light bulb, because light bulbs run on electricity. Furthermore, as time passes by, I can produce more elecricity, because the fruits are getting ripened, and have more acidity. The electricity that you can produce from high acidic fruits is more than that produced from the less acidic.

        I presented to the judges, and that was that. End of science fair. Goodbye. I know this wasn't the best, but it works. I was assigned it, and I finished. I can't honestly say I hope you enjoyed it, but alas, I'm obliged to. I hope you enjoyed! See ya later, and until next time!