The 20 Big Questions in Science

Are we alone in the universe?

The question that I am most interested is: Are we alone in the universe?
I'm most interested in this question because I often ponder upon this question on my own time. Sometimes daydreaming and coming out with some solution and sometimes ending with more questions.
My hypothesis is: If we are not alone on this universe, then one day humans will either find us or life will find us.

My 20 Big Questions:

1) Is there another word for synonym?

2)If a turtle is doesn't have a shell then is it considered homeless?

3)What color would a chameleon was put in a room full of mirrors and the room magically contained light?

4)Why is a building called a building if it is already build?

5) What do dinosaurs really sound like? 

6) Why don't most fish blink?

7) Why can't you breathe out of your mouth and nose at the same time?

8) What does water taste like?

9)Who invented school?

10) When did dogs become a social norm to have as a pet?

11)Why do so many people like pizza?

12)Who was the first person to classify something as funny?

13)Who created the concept of money?

14) What would the world look like if no laws were in place?

16)Who is the smartest person in the world? 

17)Why do people have to eat, sleep, and drink?

18)I wonder what life would be like if we did not have school?

19) I wonder what life would be like if we did not invent computer?

20) What does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

The study I have found asks the question: Are viruses alive? 
The hypothesis of the study is: that viruses are living entities that share a long evolutionary history with cells.
This study offers offers the a reliable method that traces viral evolution back in time when neither viruses nor cells existed in the forms recognized today, the researches say.
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150925142658.htm 
Prior Knowledge: Viruses can be difficult to classify. I did not know much about viruses but I did know, that they are an invective molecule which consists of nucleic acid, and is too small to be seen microscopy, and is able to to multiply within the living cells of the host.  

Unit 2 Reflection

Unit 2 was about topics like enzymes, element, molecules, the big 4 Macro Molecules, amino acids etc.

Molecules are made up of protons which have a positive charge, electrons which have a negative charge. We also learned how milk curdles. This happens by taking a substrate (casein) and an enzyme to speed up that process (rennin) and then you create a hot condition and the milk curdles, then you stick the curdles together to make cheese. There are 3 types of carbohydrates monosacchides (which means 1), disacchrides (which means 2), and polysacchrides (which means 3 or more). There function is to store energy. The second macro molecule is lipids and they are essentially long chains that contain carbon and hydrogen called fatty acids. There function is to store energy. The third one is protein. Proteins are build with amino acids and look a little like chains. There are 20 different kinds of amino acids, each with different purpose. Changing one amino acid actual changes the type of protein the object become. The last one is nucleic acids they are large molecules composed of up to thousands of repeating nucleatides.  

My strengths were learning about the proteins and molecules and the process of making cheese. I fully understood this mostly because we touched base on it during class through labs and discussions. I think that one of my weaknesses would be       

Cheese Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question: What are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese? This experiment was conducted to take a closer look at different factors that affect the curdling  of milk (the curdling agent and the and the optimal conditions). My claim is that there were two factors that affected the process the most and they were heat and the acid. The solution to the problem was that both curdled the milk within a good 5-7 minutes faster than our other factors. My evidence gathered supports the claim because cow’s stomach is both hot and acidic. A cow’s stomach is the best place to curdle cheese. Cheese is made by coagulating milk to produce curds (solids) and whey (liquid). More of my evidence proves my claim because the hot and cold temperature took quite a while to curdle with chymosin or rennin, along with the regular milk that had no testing no agent.  In fact when the milk was tested with a cold condition it reached max time (35 mins) without curdling.

There were at least two major errors that took effect in this lab. The first error was that when testing the temperature for HOT, the water that the tubes of milk were put in were colder than the temperature WARM was supposed to be in. In fact, the milk that had the WARM condition curdled in 9 minutes, yet the HOT condition curdled in 20 minutes. So this messed with the results a little because the HOT condition was supposed to curdle faster than the warm condition. The second error that took effect on this lab was a little more hypothetical. In the bucket of ice that was used as the cold condition there was a lot of cold water and some ice. From time to time I had to add in extra ice into the bucket. That may have affected the temperature. Therefore, affecting the end results, the curdle.

There are two recommendations that I would give so that the errors above could either be removed or minimized. My first suggestion would be to check the temperature of the HOT condition and check the temperature of the WARM condition and make sure that the temperature of the HOT condition is hotter that the WARM condition. Regularly check both condition to make sure that the temperature stays consistent. The second recommendation would be to start of with a full bucket of ice and leave it to melt as time goes by without adding extra ice the bucket. This will keep the temperature more likely to become consistent, ending with more consistent results.

The purpose of this lab was to demonstrate how cheese is made. More specifically how cheese is curdled with a substrate and and enzyme. This labs relates to something in class because before the lab began Mr. Orre demonstrated on the board that in order for milk to curdle you must first have a substrate and mix it with an enzyme. In the lab we used this information given in class by using a substrate (EX. Casein) and a enzyme (EX. rennin). I can apply this knowledge in future experiment with enzymes and create the best environment for them to function.

         

Sweetness Lab

          The question of this lab was: How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste (sweetness)?  Monosaccharides were sweeter than the disaccharides and the polysaccharides having three different tests. The first test was fructose I rated this a 100 on a scale of 0-100. Fructose is white and has a granular texture, it melts rather than dissolves in your mouth quite fast. The second monosaccharide that was tested was glucose. Now glucose was not as sweet as fructose but still rated a staggering 90 on the scale of 100. Now glucose was had the same texture (granular) and color (white). I noticed that glucose tasted like an artificial sweetener, kind of like splenda. The third and final monosaccharide was galactose, I rated this a 60 out of 100 which was a lot less sweeter than the other monosaccharides, but it was still one of the higher sugars. I observed the texture of the of this sugar and it felt like powder. Sugared powder. The sugar was also white. The disaccharides were a little different. Most of them were not as sweet as the monosacharides. Sucrose was the only one to rate 100 out of 100 and that had a white granular texture. This dissolved in my mouth really fast. The next disaccharide was Maltose. Maltose did not taste like most sugars and had a powdery texture. I rated it a 40. It did not taste like most sugars, it was more like a maple syrup. The final disaccharide was lactose. Lactose is the sugar in milk and what makes the milk a little sweet, so I was it expecting it to be sweet, but I ended up rating it a 10 on the scale. It had a powdery texture and was white. The lactose also did not melt nicely it just stayed in my mouth and eventually started tasting like paper. Finally, the polysaccharides. To me these did not taste like sugars. There were two and I rated both a 0. Starch and cellulose were both white, both powdery, and neither of them tasted like anything, not even paper.

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          My data states that monosacchrides were the sweetest kind of carbohydrates. This may be because monosacchrides are the smallest kind of structure, and the taste cells on our tongue may prefer single cell structures (monosacchrides) versus multiple cell structures (polysacchrides). The way we measured the sweetness lab had possible error. Everyone has a different conception of what not-very-sweet mean and what very-sweet means. The second error happened because each testers taste cells are different and respond differently to different levels of sweetness. The third and final error would be that maybe not all of the tester could have drank water between tests to clean their palate.

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          Not all tester gave the same rating for all the sugars, especially lactose. Lactose is the sugar in milk, and I rated lactose pretty low. A 10 out of 100. I spoke to some people that rated this 40-60. These people drink a lot of milk and enjoy the sweet taste. Now me personally do not drink mil that has lactose  in it (my mother is lactose free and we just drink her milk). When I was younger I had a problem with dairy products and so from a young age never really enjoyed regular milk. So I think a difference here could be people who like milk and people who do not. I think another difference could simply be that people just had a different thought of what sweetness level 40-60 should be. My 10 could have been another person 40. Lastly, there was a common difference between the sweetness level between sucrose and fructose. For me personally both sucrose and fructose were the same level of sweetness. Only difference was that sucrose melted in your mouth faster than fructose. For other people there could be the problem of have a different definition of sweetness that me on the scale of 0-100.

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          Humans can taste sweetness because of our taste buds. We can taste anything because of our taste buds. Taste buds are sensory organ found on one's tongue. If you were to look at your tongue in the mirror right now you would be able to spot dots/small lumps. Those are called papilla and most of them contain your taste buds. In one's tongue we average to have about 10,000 taste buds that get replaced every 2 weeks. According to KidsHealth while you are chewing the food releases chemicals that travel up your nose.  The chemicals trigger of the olfactory receptors inside your nose. They work together with your taste buds to create the flavor of what your eating. Everyone tastes differently because they have different tastes. This may because some testers have more cells and then they may experience more flavor.

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