Chapter Three Reading Journal

Questions:

What main thing can account for the properties of water that make it so conductive to life?
- Hydrogen bonding is responsible for the special qualities that water possesses. Hydrogen bonding is responsible for the adhesion and cohesion of water that makes the transport of water within plants so successful. Hydrogen bonding is also what makes water able to maintain relatively consistent temperatures and keeps it from evaporating as quickly as most liquids. This is also a main reason that water makes such a great solvent.

What is PH?
- PH is an expression that helps us see the concentration of H+ and OH- ions in a substance. The lower the PH the higher the concentration of H+ ions and the higher the PH the more OH- ions are present. The PH scale only ranges from 1-14 because it is based on logarithms. A PH of 7 is neutral.

What is a buffer?
- A buffer is something that is able to balance the PH of a substance. A buffer is able to attach some of the H+ ions to itself as well as adhere OH- ions to itself. Buffers are able to do this by being a substance that has an acidic portion and basic portion balancing the excess of either H+ or OH- ions. Buffers within living things are very important for example the presence of buffers within human blood keeps blood at a PH of 7.4 and prevents it from changing PH quickly.

Facts:
- Water is a polar molecule making it conductive for hydrogen bonding with other water molecules
- Cells are made up of 70-95% water
- Water is able to moderate air temperature by absorbing heat from the air surrounding it and then releasing back into the air at cooler times during the day
- The fact that ice is less dense than water allows marine creatures to survive even when a body of water freezes because it does so only at the top layer
- Water’s ability to be a solvent makes it conductive to life especially within cells





This shows the crystal like structure that water forms when it freezes. The fact that the molecules spread out when frozen makes water less dense in its solid state. This is structure is very important to organisms that live in bodies of water. Since the ice is less dense than the rest of the water it floats to the top allowing life to continue under this top layer of ice if this were not the case winter would kill off creatures that live in bodies of water.

Summary:
Water’s polarity results in hydrogen bonding. The behaviors of hydrogen bonding gives water many of its special properties. Water is so conductive to life because of its ability for cohesion, its control of temperature within cells and in large bodies of water, the crystal structure formed when frozen (explained above), and its many uses as a solvent. Water and other liquids are greatly affected by their PH levels, which are determined by the amount of H+ ions. Industrial pollution creates great risk to the planets health by making the ocean and other bodies of water more acidic.

Chapter Two Reading Journal

Questions:

Why is Chemistry important to Biology?
- Chemical reactions within the systems of organism are often essential to the basic functions of life. Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen account for 96% of living matter. Medically speaking chemistry helps doctor study the more intricate functions of metabolism with the use of radioactive isotopes. Understanding chemical reactions gives us a better understanding of organisms internal functions as well as the effect they have on external things (i.e. other organisms or other surroundings)

What’s the difference between a Polar and Non-Polar Bond?
- A polar bond is a covalent bond in which the electrons are pulled towards the nucleus of one atom more strongly than the other. In a non-polar bond the electro negativity of atoms is equal meaning that the electrons are completely evenly shared.

What is a Hydrogen Bond?
- This is a bond made when Hydrogen is already involved in a polar bond and the molecule formed from that bond is then attracted to another atom that is electronegative. These bonds often occur within the cells with Oxygen or Nitrogen atoms being the other involved elements.

Facts:
- The mass number is the sum of protons and neutrons
- The farther an electron is from the nucleus the more potential energy it has
- The chemical behavior of an atom depends mostly on the number of electrons in the outermost shell
- An atom’s valence is typically equal to the number of unpaired electrons needed to fill the atom’s outer valence
- The strongest chemical bonds are ionic and chemical, but the weakest chemical bonds are equally important in the function of a cell





The diagram above displays how important the shape of molecules is. Molecules within organisms only attach to molecules if they have the right structure. The portion of endorphin molecules that attach to the brain cell is very similar to a portion of the morphine molecule. These similarities in structure allow morphine molecules to attach the brain and have similar effects on the brain to that of an endorphin. This makes morphine very useful in prescribing for people that aren’t producing enough endorphins in times of stress.

Summary:
All matter is made up of elements and combinations of elements called compounds. Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen are amongst the key elements within living things. Trace elements are also essential to living things but need in smaller amounts than the above-mentioned elements. Atoms are the smallest unit of matter that can still be considered an element; atoms consist of neutrons protons and electrons. Isotopes are formed when an element has more neutrons than protons. Electrons are the key to chemical bonding. Covalent bonding is determined by the number of electrons in an atom’s valence shell. Ionic bonds occur when negatively and positively charged atoms are pulled together. There are a number of weaker bonds that occur and also have a large impact on cells and organisms as a whole. The creation and the decomposition of chemical bonds make up the chemical reactions that keep living things functioning.

Chapter One Reading Journal

Questions:

What are the themes of Biology?
-There are said to be seven themes of Biology. The themes are: Evolution, New properties emerge at each level of biological hierarchy, Organisms interact with their environments exchanging matter and energy, Structure and function are correlated at all levels of biology, cells are an organisms basic unit of structure and function, The continuity of life is based on hereditary information passed through DNA, Feedback mechanisms regulate biological systems.

What is the Difference between Hypothesis and Discovery science?
-Discovery science is used when scientists make specific observations about the world around them and from those observations make assumptions about what would happen on a larger scale. Hypothesis based science occurs when scientists observe things ask questions about them and create experiments to help answer the questions.

Why is evolution so important to the themes of Biology?
- Evolution is said to be the core theme of biology because it accounts for the unity and disunity amongst living things. All species evolved from other species creating their differences but their ancestry tracing back also makes them similar.
Facts:
- Evolution is the core theme of biology
- Domains Bacteria and Archaea are prokaryotic and domain Eukarya has organisms with eukaryotic cells
- Eukaryotic cells have a membrane around the nucleus something that prokaryotes don’t posses
- All living things are connected through their evolutionary history and therefore common ancestry
- A theory is much broader and has much more evidence backing it up than a hypothesis






Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells are different in their size and in the presence of a nucleus in Eukaryotes. These cells are a good example of the theme of unity and disunity. The cells are clearly different in a few ways but they also share many similarities in that they both contain: plasma membrane, cytoplasm. DNA, and Ribosomes. This is a good indicator that the themes of biology apply even amongst the smallest pieces of it.

Summary: The themes of biology help us to better understand biology as well as to correlate the various occurrences. It helps us link different topics because all of the themes reoccur within the different topics and this helps us to group them together. Evolution is the overshadowing theme of all of biology and it provides a connection between all living things. Evolution accounts for the difference and similarities amongst organisms.

There are two types of scientific study Discovery and Hypothesis- based science. Discovery science comes to conclusions about general things after making specific observations. Hypothesis science asks questions and then develops experiments to explain observations. Effective experiments are created using control groups in order limit the number of variables affecting the results. Science is limited in that hypothesis must be testable and it must be possible to prove them wrong as well.

First Assignment of the Year

So here it is....I have created my bio blog for all things bio!