Unit 2 Reflection

During Unit 2, we learned about four main macromolecules: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbohydrates are rings of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen which bond to create sugars, such as monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides, and is used by plants and a main source of energy for humans. Lipids are large molecules such as fats and oils which contain long chains of carbon and hydrogen called fatty acid, containing a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail. They are used to store energy, break bonds, and used to make up cell membranes. Proteins are made of amino acids, that are chained together, and support the human body and speed up chemical reactions.
There are two types of proteins, structural proteins that make up our body such as kerratin and collagen, and enzymes that speed up chemical processes up in your body, being a catalyst and lowers activation energy in order to get more product in less time. Finally, nucleic acids are made up of thousands of nucleotides that are made of three components: sugar, phosphate and a nitrogen base. DNA, a nucleic acid, serves as a blueprint for making proteins. All these macromolecules work together in order to create and sustain life, to create a happy and healthy organism.

Sweetness Lab Analysis

1. We found that sugars that were monosaccharides were especially sweet, disaccharides were moderately sweet, and polysaccharides were not sweet at all. During the experiment, we taste tested a variety of sugars, and found that fructose a monosaccharide was the sweetest sugar with a score of 175, 100 being the standard sweetness on a scale from 0-200. Tasting maltose, a sugar found in beer, we found that it was semi-sweet at about a 75 to 100 sweetness. Finally, when tasting cellulose, a polysaccharide, there was no sweetness at all, and it came up with a score of 0. This data shows that proves our claim because the monosaccharides proved to be the sweetest and the polysaccharides were the least sweet.




2. Usually, monosaccharides are found in liquids or juices such as fructose, found in honey and fruits, and galactose which is found in milk. These are usually used as a source of energy for cells and organisms because they are the easiest to break down. Disaccharides are similarly mainly used for for energy because they are easy to break down, and are found in milk(lactose) and maltose(beer). Polysaccharides are used for energy storage in plants, and in humans they are used for energy and take a longer time to digest.

3. There are a couple of reasons why each taster could have given a different sweetness ratings for the same sugar. One is because of the way each persons taste buds are physically different from each others and react to foods a different way. Another reason is the fact that some people like the taste better than others and this caused them to put a different sweetness level. The final reason is that the person may grade on a different scale, for example, one person could have said that 150 was sweet while someone else claims that 150 was super sweet instead.



4. Taste isn't just "taste" its also smell, texture, and even temperature. These factors, the smell and texture, could be factors in why different people taste sugars differently. Another reason, is the fact that are tongues have different structure altogether. A common myth about the tongue is that there are different zones that taste different things, but this is completely wrong. Although this my this myth is not true, the side of the tongue can taste better than the middle. So, if someones tongue tastes something better or worse, it could alter the rating of the sweetness of the sugar drastically.

What is Biology? Collage

Jean Lab

In this lab we asked the question: What concentration of bleach is the best to fade color out of new denim material in 10 minutes without visible damage to the fabric. We found that the the best concentration of bleach was 50%, which provided the best fade of color without damaging the fabric. There was a significant color change in the 50% bleach, but didn't drain the color completely, and in addition did not damage the material very much. The 100% bleach drained the color completely while the 25% and 12.5% did not drain the color significantly. This data support our claim because it shows the perfect amount of bleach concentration in order to get the perfect color fade without damaging the denim.

While our hypothesis supported the data there could have been errors in our procedure. While we were bleaching all our denim squares at the same time, we could not take them all out at the same time, creating possible errors in the procedure. At the same time had some timer problems and we had to reconfigure to give us the right time to submerge the denim squares, therefore the squares may have been submerged a little to long or short. Due these errors, in future experiments I would recommend a more accurate timer and submerge less denim squares at a time, in order to get more accurate measurements.

This lab was done to demonstrate the scientific method and how we could use the scientific method in a real lab. From this lab I learned each step of the scientific method and what to do in each step in order to get an accurate and verifiable result, which helps me understand overall the concept of the scientific method. Based on my experience from this lab, I learned how to use and apply the components of the scientific method in an experiment to achieve accurate, verifiable results.