20 Questions for the Future

The question that I was interested in was, "What makes us human?" The reason that this interested me was when I read the passage, I saw that the human genome is 50% identical to a bananas and this seemed very interesting to me that we are like bananas. The hypothesis for this question is, if language, looking in a mirror etc does not differentiate us from other animals anymore, then maybe our culture does.

1. Is there life on other planets in our solar system?
2. How were humans created?
3. Why is global warming occurring?
4. Will there ever be a time when time travel is possible?
5. Why is there so little water in Africa?
6. Will the drought in Africa ever end?
7. What is the smartest animal?
8. Will there ever be flying cars?
9. What is inside a black hole?
10. What is beyond space?
11. Will there ever be a space station that can bring anybody up into space?
12. What will the most popular sport in the 22nd century?
13. How will the technology change in the coming years?
14. Will the population increase or decrease in the next 100 years?
15. Will there be a World War 3?
16. Will Barcelona and Real Madrid still be the best soccer teams in the world in 10 years?
17. Will India and China still be the leaders for the amount of people in each country?
18. Will robots ever be apart of our everyday life in the future?
19. Who will be the best player in the world for soccer in 10 years?
20. Who will be the next president of the United States?

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

Study on how a soccer ball curves

MIT news decided to make a study on how a soccer ball can curve. The experiment that MIT news did revolved around the question of "How does a soccer ball swerve?" After the 2010 world cup, researchers figured out that the jabulani, the ball used for that tournament, had a smoother surface to it, thus making the curve of the ball harder to control. Since scientists knew about this information, they can up with a hypothesis, "If the soccer ball has a rough texture, then the soccer ball will have more control over the curve."

The link to the study is below:
http://news.mit.edu/2014/explained-how-does-soccer-ball-swerve-0617

Unit 2 Reflection

Unit 2 was all about molecules and their forms. Also we learned about the pH scale and why some things acidic and others are basic. Finally we learned about the four main macro molecules along with the basics of enzymes. When learning about molecules, we first learned about the basic unit of matter, the atom. From there we expanded to molecules and how these atoms can make bonds with each other. We learned about covalent bonds and ionic bonds and how these differ from each other. Next we learned about the pH scale, which is a scale based on the amount of H+ a solution has. The pH scale is a scale between 1-14 with 1 being very acidic and 14 being very basic. Moving on, we learned about the structure and functions of the 4 big macro molecules, which are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbohydrates have a ring shaped structure made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Carbs are used mainly for energy and plants use them to build cell walls and for energy storage. Lipids are made up of amino acids, which consist of chains of hydrophollic and hydrophobic which are phosolipids. Lipids main function is for energy storage. Next we have Proteins which are made up of chained up amino acids. Their function is to support the body, help cells communicate, speed up chemical reactions and to let things in and out of cell membranes. Nucleic Acids are made up of nucleotides, which are sugars, bases, and phosphates. Their function is that they are the source of info of our characteristics. Finally we learned about enzymes and activation energy. Enzymes are biological catalysts that help speed up the process of chemical reactions by decreasing the activation energy needed to proceed with the reaction. Also, we learned about activation energy and how enzymes affect the amount of activation energy needed for a chemical reaction. My strength for this unit was the 4 big macromolecules because of the fact that I learnt about the macromolecules before. A weakness that I had was the concept of polar and nonpolar.
Lipid Structure
Carbohydrate StructureProtein Structure
Nucleic Acid Structure

Cheese Lab Conclusion

Cheese Lab Conclusion

By Akshat Patwardhan

Period 6

In this lab we asked the question, “What are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese?”. We found that chymosin, when hot and acidic, is the best condition and agent for making cheese. When we tested the evidence we found that the chymosin created curdles in 5 minutes. Even though the renin and buttermilk curdled in the same amount of time when acidic, chymosin beat both of them when it was basic. Chymosin curdled in 20 minutes when it was basic and buttermilk and renin did not even register during the 35 minute period. Also, chymosin and renin both tied on the times for the hot temperature test, which was 5 minutes, and the cold temperature test, which did not curdle in the time allotted, so the basic test was the factor that made chymosin the most optimal curdling agent to make cheese. This data supports our claim because this shows that the warm and acidic environments are the most effective when trying to make curdles.

While the data shows that chymosin is the best curdling agent, there could have been some errors. One error could be that the times of when the curdling agents made curdles could have been inaccurate because of the fact that we had to check for curdles every 5 minutes. The problem is what if the curdles formed in between the 5 minutes and we did not notice. This proves that the timings of when the different agents curdled could be inaccurate. This would affect the data because then the data with the timings would be off and then we would not know which curdling agent really was the fastest. Another error would be the number of layers the person was wearing while trying to make the curdles. This could be a problem because when we put the test tubes in our armpits to warm them, some people were wearing more layers than others. When you put on more layers, there is a possibility that the environment would be warmer than a person who is just wearing a t shirt. The effect of the number of layers a person wears would be that one test tube would be in a warmer atmosphere than the other test tubes causing the test tube in the warmer environment to have a better time because the enzyme will work faster to create curdles. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend that everyone would wear the same amount of layers and that the timings of when to check for curdles would be shorter. For example, everyone should be wearing 2 layers and they should check for curdles every minute.

This lab was done to demonstrate and learn about the optimal conditions and curdling agents of making cheese. Also we learned about the different types of enzymes that make the cheese making process go faster, along with the conditions in which they work best in. Through this lab, we learned the concept of denaturing, the pH scale and its significance, and lastly we reinforced the idea of activation energy and how enzymes affect it. Based on my experience from this lab, I could apply the knowledge I have gotten from this experiment and use it for future experiments by putting the enzymes in the environment that suits them the best so that they can perform to their full potential.

	Time to Curdle(Minutes)
Curdling Agent:	Chymosin	Rennin	Buttermilk	Milk (Control)
Acid	5	5	5
Base	20
ph Control	15	10
Cold
Hot	5	5
Temp Control	10	10

Sweetness Lab Conclusion

Akshat Patwardhan

Period 6

9/11/15

Sweetness Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question, "How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste(sweetness)? This supports our hypothesis, if simple sugars(monosaccharides) taste sweet, then fructose will taste the sweetest. We found that fructose does in fact taste the sweetest with a rating of 130 out of 200. Our scale for the degree of sweetness was 0 - 200, as 0 being very bitter and 200 being very sweet. The other monosaccharides that we tasted were galactose and glucose. However, even though these were monosaccharides we thought that fructose was still the sweetest, as it is the sugar that is naturally found in fruits. Also the dissacharides were around the 80-100 mark and the polysaccharides were both given a rating of 20. This data supports our claim because we realized that the more rings that a carbohydrate has the less sweet it is. Therefore fructose, a monosaccharide, is going to be the sweetest. The structure of the different carbohydrates could have an affect on how they are used because the more rings that the carbohydrate has, the more energy is stored which could affect how much energy is released to the organism. Some reasons why the rating of the sample could be different for different tasters is the amount of sweet a person eats, which means that if a person eats a lot of sugar and sweets, then the sugar ratings could be lower than the average person. Also, another example could be if a person eats a lot of spicy food, and does not incorporate much sugar into their diet, their ratings of the monosaccharides could be much higher since the person's taste buds have a different scale of sweetness. Lastly, if a person at something bland at first and then eats something sweet, then the rating of the sweet would be different because the bland flavor would be a factor in the rating. Students could give different ratings based on how we taste things because of the place where the person puts the sweet on. For example, if you put the sweet on the tip of your tongue, you will get a different degree of sweetness than putting the sweet on the back or sides of your tongue. The tastebuds on your tongue, like the ones on the front, side etc, will give you different sweetness ratings.
 

Carbohydrate	Type of Carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness	Color	Texture	Other Observations/Connections to Food
Sucrose	Disaccharide	100	white	granular	tastes a little like the sweetness of a carrot
Glucose	monosaccharide	110	white	more grainy, didn’t dissolve as fast	Tastes less sweet than sucrose
Fructose	monosaccharide	130	clear	crystals, very sweet	tastes like regular sugar
Galactose	monosaccharide	80	white	smooth	milkish taste
Maltose	disaccharide	100	brownish, yellowish	as crunchy as sugar can get	toffee taste
Lactose	disaccharide	80	white	smooth, compact	tastes same as glucose
Starch	polysaccharide	20	white	powdery, smooth	tastes like flour
Cellulose	polysaccharide	20	white	powdery, smooth	also tastes like flour

What is Biology?