Unit 6 Reflection

          This unit was about biotechnology and its implications in the world. The themes and essential understandings were what biotechnology was, its uses, its effect on society, and how to use it. What we learned was the different domains of biotechnology, industrial environmental, agricultural, medical and pharmaceutical, and diagnostic. Each of these fields of biotechnology have specific practices they do to achieve what they want, such as PCR, fermentation, electrophoresis (check Candy Electrophoresis Lab), sequencing, recombinant DNA, and pGLO (check pGLO Lab). However, there are some ethical issues with many biotechnological practices, such as cloning and genetic enhancement. These are based on people's morals that intersect with the breakthroughs in biotechnology.

          The labs that we did were the candy electrophoresis lab and the pGLO lab. In the candy electrophoresis lab, we extracted dyes from candies and ran them through a gel. We saw how far each dye moved through the gel and we estimated the length of the molecules by that. In the pGLO lab, we inserted a plasmid for ampicillin resistance in the presence of arabinose into bacteria. We tested that by putting the bacteria on agar with ampicillin so the bacteria without the plasmid would die and the ones with would survive. Also, on the agar with ampicillin and arabinose produced bacteria colonies that glowed in the dark.

          What I want to learn more about is more about bioethics and its effect on the progress of the advancement of biotechnology. I also want to learn more about cloning and how to clone and how to genetically modify an embryo. My progress in my new years goals is going good so far. I am staying on track with my homework and I am managing my time well. So far, I think I am living up to my new years goal's expectations for biology and for all of my classes in general.

pGLO Lab

The number of the colonies in the -pGLO/LB were almost none. The number of colonies in room light and UV light were also none. It was the same for the -pGLO/LB/AMP. In the +pGLO/LB/AMP there were many colonies. In room light, there were many colonies, but in the +pGLO/LB/AMP/ARAC there were many volumes in room light and in UV light. The 2 new traits that the transformed bacteria have are resistance to ampicillin and fluorescent light. I estimate that there were millions of bacteria in 100 microliters of bacteria because many bacteria have to be in the solution for the plasmid to be sure to be transferred. The role of the arabinose is to feed the bacteria to allow it to grow more. Some current uses of GFP in research and science is to make things glow to observe the effects and practicality of this protein. Another application of genetic engineering is to produce many proteins that we want such as insulin for our benefit.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab

          All of our experimental dyes did not match our control blue dye. They all traveled farther than it. Also, our experimental dyes did not go as far as the control yellow dye. The control orange and red dyes went about the same distance as the experimental dyes. Most of the dyes were the same size. Our first experimental dye was not any color we had for our control dyes. Our second and third experimental dyes matched the control dyes better.
           I think that Carminic Acid or Fast Green FCF would have gone about the same distance as our experimental dyes. I think so because they are relatively short, so they would have traveled farther down the gel. Our experimental dyes traveled farther which means they are also relatively short molecules. Also, the colors that Carminic Acid and Fast Green FCF match the colors we used in our experimental dyes.
          Dog food manufacturers put artificial food coloring in their dog foods because they want the dog to be attracted to those colors and want to eat their food. The colors that they put in the food would be bright colors for dogs. The bright colors attract the dog and the dog would want to eat that food.
          I think that artificial food colorings are more preferable than natural food colorings because humans can synthesize the color to be bright or add any other characteristic of the color that they want to add. But natural colorings have limitations to the number of colors and the characteristics of the colors that the people want.
          The two factors that determine how far a dye moves through the gel are length of the molecule and its charge. The length affects the distance a dye moves through the gel by physically making it harder to move through the gel because it is bigger. Its charge also affects the distance a dye moves is because the thing that makes the dyes move is a positive charge. The dyes are a negative charge, so they are attracted to the positive charge. But some dyes might not have a strong enough negative charge to be pulled into the positive charge at the end of the gel as much as another dye molecule.
          The force that moves the molecules through the gel is the attraction of positively and negatively charged particles. At the end of the gel, there is a power source that produces a positive charge, and at the top of the gel, the power source produces a negative charge. The dyes are naturally negatively charged, so they naturally travel towards the end of the gel.
          The component of the electrophoresis process that separates the dyes by size is the gel itself. The gel has many small holes in it to allow the molecules to pass through while going to the end of the gel. Shorter molecules have an easier time getting through these holes compared to longer molecules. At the end of the electrophoresis, the shorter molecules would have traveled further down the gel than the longer molecules, which also allows you to measure the length of the molecules.
          In agarose electrophoresis, I would expect the DNA molecule with 5000 daltons to stay at the top of the gel, while the molecule with 2000 daltons would travel a bit further, and the molecule with 1000 daltons would travel even further, and the DNA molecule with 600 daltons to travel the furthest.

Our gel that has the dyes that were electrophoresized.

New Years Goals

          Two smart new years goals I have for this semester of school are to get an A in biology and to learn new things. My action plan for achieving the first goal is to do all of the homework on time and study for tests. The way I can achieve that is to manage my time well and plan out the work I have to do so I can do them more efficiently. My action plan for achieving the second goal is to actively learn and study concepts and ideas to help me understand them better. This will help in homework and tests in all classes. The way I will achieve that is by also managing my time to allow for active studying and learning to further my education. The result I am expecting after the semester is to see that my homework and studying time will reduce and my understanding of most of everything will be better.
          What I want to keep doing is managing my time and getting work done. This has given me a good grade in all my classes and has made me learn many things easier. What I want to change is also managing my time, because sometimes I lose track of time and I end up staying up late to do homework, which I don't want to do, considering that I have the ability to not do that.