Jolyn's Blog for Hotdawgs

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis 1. Obtain your team plates.  Observe your set of  “+pGLO” plates under room light and with UV light .  Record numbers of colonies and color of colonies. Fill in the table below. Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under UV light - pGLO LB 8 Tan-ish/white, opaque Light purple - pGLO LB/amp 0 No bacteria No bacteria + pGLO LB/amp 1 Tan-ish/white, opaque Light purple + pGLO LB/amp/ara 4 Tan-ish/white, opaque Neon green 2. What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have? The transformed bacteria, which is the dish that contain LB/amp/ara, glows underneath the UV light. This is an effect of plasmid that turns the bacteria into a green fluorescent color. The plate also carries agarose sugar, the only thing that can make the bacteria glow if the plasmid is not present. The bacteria was resistant to...

Unit 6 was all about biotechnology, the application of biology. It is"the study and manipulation of living things in order to benefit mankind". Today in the modern world, biotech is used in many different fields: industrial and environmental, agriculture, medical and pharmaceutical, and diatonic research. We also went into extensive detail about gel electrophoresis that can be read in previous post. We learned about polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, which is a process to amplify a specific DNA region. It's usually used to detect diseases and such. rDNA, recombinant DNA, is similar to PCR except it is specifically to insert DNA of one organism into the DNA of another organism. A main topic that was enforced repetitively was the idea of bioethics. That is the study of decision that have to be made because of advances in biology, medicine, and technology. I thought this unit went by a lot faster than the other units. Maybe it's the personal interest I had with the co...

Today, we extracted food dye from different candies and compared them to commonly used artificial food dyes. I know candy is bad for you, but c'mon, how bad is chocolates and sweets? We read how "foods were colored with substances that were not safe to consume, such as bread whitened with chalk or cheese made yellow by lead tetroxide". We tested orange skittles, yellow reese's pieces, green mike and ikes, and blue M&M. You can say our lab was "sweet" success *crickets*, not really, but I'll get to that later. We were given focus questions to answer about today's experiment. 1. Stated above, we have four different colors; orange, yellow, green, and blue. The reference dyes that our teacher provided, did not have a reference for our green candy dye. Also, we left the gel in the electrophoresis chamber (which you can read about in my previous post) for over 40 minutes, when it instructed for 15 minutes. The dyes "ran" off the end of the...

Our assignment is to record two smart goals for the second semester. One goal that I WILL achieve is to stop procrastinating. This has been my weakness for a very long time, which has put my grades in risk. First, I will stop taking six hour naps and start my home right when I get home. My lengthy naps force me to finish homework around two o' clock in the morning, making my concentration during school ineffective. Also, to achieve this goal, I'll stop using my phone during homework and studying time. Like the teenager I am, I'm on my phone 24/7. This use to not be a problem, but now I'm addicted to whatever that distracts me on social media. From Instagram, to Facebook, to Snapchat, to even Facebook Messenger. By taking away all my distractions and naps, I'll have a better understanding on the concepts I am trying to learn, especially in biology. My other personal goal might take me a long time to accomplish but with the right mindset, I know I'll do it. I WI...