Sex Reflection

Coming into this unit, I though that I knew a lot about this subject. I was right. Although I skipped the whole unit (I attended only 1 class) I still took the unit test and got one of the better grades in the class. I did learn more deeply and specifically  about the hormones in both men and women. I learned more about what is inside the sex organs and what they are called, but overall I already knew what these things do. All in all, I enjoyed this unit as it was probably the first one I had some background knowledge on.

Is how we relate to people emotionally a gene?

A large part of how we relate to people emotionally may be hardwired into our DNA. A new study suggests that character traits such as being open, caring, and trusting are so strongly linked to a certain gene variation that a total stranger, simply by watching us listen to another person, may be able to guess whether we have the variation with a high degree of accuracy.

Previous studies have linked several personality traits to variations in this gene, which acts as a docking station (or receptor) for the brain chemical oxytocin -- often referred to as the "love hormone" because it plays a role in social behaviors such as bonding, empathy, and anxiety.

People who have two "G" variants of this oxytocin receptor gene tend to have better social skills and higher self-esteem, research has shown. Conversely, those with at least one "A" variant tend to have a harder time dealing with stress, worse mental-health outcomes, and a greater likelihood of being autistic.

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20320942,00.html

Gattaca movie review

In class, we watched the movie/documentary entitled "Cracking the Code of Life". What I find interesting is that very distinctive and rare diseases, can be caused by only one small missing nitrogen base (a letter). New technologies have been designed, and now it is faster for scientists to 'crack the code of life' or else called, identifly each DNA base, and give it a letter --- G: guanine. A: adenine, T: thymine, and C: cytosine. And imagine: just one letter out of the billions remaining, is missing, your organism may develop different types of rare diseases.

Fact: 50% of the cells in a banana, can also be found in our organisms.

Gattaca Review

In class we watched the movie "Gattaca" and it was basically about genetic engineering, and how people can be genetically engineered. IN the organization called "Gattaca", Jerome Morrow is being examined and set ready to fly to Titan, the 14th moon of Saturn. Bit there is just one problem, Jerome Morrow isn't the person you think he is. Itactually is a look-alike, Vincent Freeman, which always wanted to become an astronaut but was unable to, because he had a high risk of heart failure. Vincent and the actual Jerome manage to se up the whole plan, fake blood, fingerprints, urine and allw as just a cover up so that the one that really wanted was actually able to.

I think that this movie was really interesting, and educating, because it tells us much about DNA and how gnetics change the world. ALso it sets the technology and innovatins for further development and maybe one day, we can have more than just a movie with genetic engineering




G- guanine, A - adenine, T - thymine, C - cytosine. (the nitric bases of the DNA structure)

Mendel's Work

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian Scientist, that published a book, where he listed all the observations on his experiments. What he basically did, was that he crossed pea plants, and made a theory on inheritance. Using punnet squares and thousands of repeating experiments he conducted, he came to the end, and proved the theory.


Key Words

Heredity --> The passing of physical characteristics from parents to offspring

Trait --> a characteristic that an organism can pass to its offspring through its genes.

Genetics --> the scientific study of heredity.

Fertilization --> the process where a new organism begins to form when egg and sperm join.

Purebred --> organism is the same offspring of many generations that have the same trait. 

Hybrid --> organism that has mixed, different traits.


Crossing Pea Plants
1. To prevent self-pollination, Mendel removed the pollen-producing structures from a pink flower.
2. He used a brush to remove pollen from a white flower to another plant. He brushed this pollen onto the pink plant.
3. The egg cells in the pink flower were then fertilized by sperm from the white flower. After a time, peas formed in the pod.