20 Major Inquiries in Science

The major question in Science  that I am interested in is how did life begin? This question is very interesting to me because it actually gave me something that I never know which is simple chemicals made biology molecules which then caused evolution of humans. I thought at first, that we were simply just evolved from chimpanzees, but actually human were evolved from biological molecules. That is the reason why this year in Biology, it is important to know all the concepts because they help tell us how we existed on this Earth, which then allows us to be in different places around Earth and most importantly, being in school and the classrooms. The current hypothesis is if life started near hot pools and volcanoes because of the "primordial soup theory," then life may have started there.
My 20 Big Questions are:

1. How did food exist?
2. When will the Earth burn and crash down?
3. When is the universe going to crash?
4. Could anyone(humans and animals) on Earth teleport to another planet?
5. How do animals exist?
6. How did the human body exist?
7. How do humans are able to have consciousness?
8. Why could humans talk but, many animals, not?
9. How did shirts exist?
10. How did the solar system exist?
11. How did noodles exist?
12. How was cheese made?
13. Why do humans have nightmares?
14. What is inside a Frog?
15. How did "swear words" exist?
16. Will AIDS and HIV stop?
17. When will the world stop having violence?
18.  How do you determine which sugar is which?
19. When did "grades" exist?
20. Why is juice considered as an acid even though it contains Vitamin C?

Unit 2 Reflection

In Unit 2, we learned basic Chemistry and the particles of an atom: Nuetrons, Protons, and Electrons. The atoms are then combined to form molecules or bonds. This includes Covalent bond which shares electrons while Hydrogen bonds spreads electrons. Also we learned the 4 basic parts of living things Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lipids, and Nucleic Acids, their functions and how they help our life. Carbohydrates store energy for producers and having rings of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, while Lipids also stores energy and are made of fatty acids. Proteins are made of amino acids, and are in all of our everyday foods we eat to help surrive, and Nucleic Acids carries genetic info., DNA and RNA, across our body so that our body is able to function normally. Finally, Enzymes are catalysts that give complex reactions on our life. With activation energy on Enzymes, the reaction is slower whereas without the activation energy on Enzymes, the reaction is faster.  We found out that the substrate of an enzyme is where the enzyme reacts. In the Cheese Lab, the substrate was the dried milk and the enzyme was the curdling agent for making cheese which was either, Chymosin, or Renin. I found out that I am very familiar with Carbohydartes, Proteins, LIpids, and Amino Acids, but I have to understand the parts of an Enzyme and the kinds of bonds.

Cheese Lab Analysis and Conlusion

Jonathan Li 9/18/15

Period 4

Cheese Lab Conclusion

In the Cheese lab, we asked a question that what are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for cheese? Our whole class found out that Chymosin, Renin, or Buttermilk mixed with Acid and Base, and Chymosin and Renin mixed with hot water bath, is the curdling agent and condition of making cheese. By requiring only 5 minutes of making cheese, having Chymosin, Renin, or Buttermilk mixed with acid, is the most efficient way of making cheese. Then,  Chymosin mixing with base,  takes 15 minutes and with renim and buttermilk, mixed with base takes 10 minutes to make cheese. Finally, Chymosin  in the hot water bath, takes 20 minutes which is the 2nd longest time between curdling agent and optimal conditions, and the longest time which is renin in hot water bath takes 33 minutes. This data supports our claim because they all eventually make cheese.

Our data was unexpected, however, because the temperature of the hot water bath was actually colder than what the normal temperature was to be. This cause chymosin and renin in the hot water bath to have a longer time than usual with 20, and 33 minutes. In the future, I recommend that check to see if the  water bath would be at its’ normal temperature. That way, we can prevent from having any invalid  or inaccurate data.

The cheese lab was meant to demonstrate that as activation energy lowers, the process of making cheese speeds up. For example, when chymosin, renin, and buttermilk is mixed with the acids, with enzymes, the time of making cheese is faster. Having activation energy in the hot water bathes, as shown, made making cheese longer. From this lab, I learned that whenever objects have activation energy, the reaction slows down whereas enzymes having no activation energy , the reaction speeds up, which helps me understand how activation energy affects the rate of reaction. Based on my experience from this lab, I learned that cheese can be made in many different ways with curdling agents and optimal conditions, and that it cannot be made fresh unless at room temperature.  

Curdling table	Chymosin	Renin	Buttermilk	milk(control)
Acid	5	5	5	20
Base	15	10	10
Cold
Hot	20	33
Average of controls	13	15

Sweetness Lab Conclusion & Analasys

In the Sweetness lab, we asked a question of how does the structure of carbohydrates affect its' sweetness. My partner and I found out that monosachrides had the highest degree of sweetness, disachrides the 2nd highest sweetness, then the polysachride with the lowest sweetness. For example, Fructose which is a monosaccharide, has a sweetness of 110 out of 200, while Lactose a saccharide has degree of sweetness of 90 out of 100. Finally, Cellulose, a polysaccharide had a sweetness of 85 out of 200. This data supports that the simple the structure it is the sweeter it is, which allow more organisms use simple structures of carbohydrates as often.

While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there were errors due to the fact that we have different taste buds than everyone else. Polysaccharides are the sweetest with composed of more rings, but by tasting it, it was not the sweetest carbohydrate. Same thing that Monosaccharides are the unsweetest with composed of the fewest rings, but by tasting it, it was the sweetest carbohydrate.

This lab was done to demonstrate that the simple the structure of carbohydrates are, the sweeter it can be. By tasting all the sugar with my taste buds, I can tell that Fructose is the most sweetest. According to howstuffworks.com,every taste bud in the tongue contains bascal,which is near the nucleictide where the DNA and RNA are established, and along with supporting cells that maintain 50 gustatory receptor cells. This is how some people have different tastes because what is in the cells for each tongue. So the taster would have a different degree of sweetness for each carbohydrate because the bascal, contains nucleotides which include DNA and RNA, that varies among each individual.

Carbohydrate	Type of Carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness
Sucrose	Disaccharide	100
Glucose	Monosaccharide	95
Fructose	Monosaccharide	110
Galactose	Monosaccharide	85
Maltose	Disaccharide	90
Lactose	Disaccharide	90
Starch	Polysaccharide	90
Cellulose	Polysaccharide	85

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

In February 2015, an article was on Washington Post on whether we are alone in the universe. Yes, by the far distance apart from the people it is hard to send or transfer signals. Even the star says "hello," it is too hard to hear its' greetings. The question of the study was do we know that we're alone in the universe? Based on the fact that SETI, has been sending transmissions to aliens and Frank Drake said we are going to find out what we will become, by activating SETI, humans know that they are alone and unique in the universe.