20 questions about Life

In the article I had read about the 20 big questions in science, I found the 15th question to be the most interesting. The idea that people are trying to program robots with minds bigger than robots with A.I ( Artificial Intelligence ) is amusing. The hypothesis for this question would be how they could make robots that could do more than a task they were made for. Based on the 20 big question in Science, I have formed my own 20 questions that I have yet to answer:

1. Am I lucky or not?
2. How do I find happiness?
3. Is passion better than happiness?
4. Is Music better than nothing?
5. Why is Music so helpful?
6. Why are people so annoying?
7. Can I make my parents happy?
8. Can I make it through High School?
9. Is Band better than Orchestra?
10. Can we become environmentally friendly?
11. Is the world going to end?
12. Is Biology fun?
13. Is there a jacket that's really warm?
14. Is Hearthstone gonna be Number one popular game?
15. Is food gonna run out in Earth?
16. Will I make it into college?
17. Can I stop typing this?
18. What is the purpose of this blog post?
19. Why do I have to write 20 questions?
20. Why am I writing this anyways?

Identifying Questions and Hypotheses

Link to Source: ¨Galileo's experiment¨

In the experiment that I am research, I am studying the old experiments of Galileo. In the experiment that he is doing, he drops two balls, with different weights, from the leaning tower. He wanted to know if falling objects are dependent upon their mass. Through this idea, he made  a hypothesis where bodies of the same material falling through the same medium would fall at the same speed. This hypothesis was based on the ideas of Aristole's theory of gravity, where he believes that the heavier object would fall faster than the lighter one. If the heavier object is dependent on their mass, then it would fall faster than the lighter object. The results of this experiment disproved this theory, when both objects were found to have landed at the same time.

Unit 2 Reflection

After studying the many sections of Chapter 2, I had found out about many things. This chapter was a small review on what would be coming up later in the future. Such things would be on atoms, elements and others, which are reviewed on this chapter. In section 2.1, we began learning about the atoms in our body, how they function, and what they look like. Through Section 2.2, we learned how water's many uses by being polar and having many hydrogen bonds are used in mixtures and suspensions. On Section 2.3, we found out how the element Carbon was used in both our body and in other beings, and its many functions that are build the human body. Finally, in Section 2.4, we found out about the process of Chemical reactions, how enzymes help the process, and the many parts that begin and end the reaction. In the many vodcasts, we had watched and learned from, many of them were more detailed on the 4 sections of chapter 2 in the textbook. The first vodcast introduced the same things as section 2.1 in the textbook. It included an explanation about the nature of matter, water's many properties, and the pH scale, which include acids and bases. The next few were based on the things that the element Carbon was used for, Macromolecules, which include Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, Nucleic Acids. They listed the structure of the macromolecules, its functions, and its relationship with other macromolecules.  The last vodcast was about the enzymes that sped up chemical reactions. Its mentioned its many structures, and its effects that causes chemical reactions to speed up. This is a quick reflection that I made, and I hope this could be useful for others that read this.

Cheese Lab Conclusion

Class Data	Time to Curdle (Minutes)
Curdling Agent:	Chymosin	Rennin	Buttermilk	Milk (Control)
Acids	5	5
Bases
Cold
Hot	5	10
Temp. Control	15	15
pH Control	15	10
Average of Controls

Derek Fung P5

9/18/15

Cheese Lab Conclusion

In the Cheese Lab, we were looking for the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese. From the results we gathered from everyone doing the lab, we found that the one with Rennin, in an acidic and hot environment, was the most effective at producing curds. The evidence we found in everyone’s experiments, which is shown in the graph above, is proof that the one in a hot environment produced more than the cold environment. The same goes when comparing the Acidic environment results to the Basic Environment. The reason for this is that when the substrate is put in a cold environment, the amount of activation energy needed to create products increase, due to the cold changing the shape of the substrate. When the thing is put in a basic environment, this also slows down the process, due to its effect on the active site. Because of these effects, there were no results produced when they were put in those environments.

During this lab, there may have been errors produced by others or by my group. Some of those errors I believe may have affected the results of the graph. One I believe is that we may have miscalculated the amount poured in when we were adding milk to the test tube and our enzyme. The effect of this could make it so that if there was too much enzyme, but too little substrate, then the effects would happen faster. Same goes for the opposite, where there is too little enzyme, and too much substrate, resulting in a very slow time. Another error that could have caused problems is the time. When people were pouring the enzymes in the test tubes, they may have not put the test tube in the required location in time. The time after the enzyme was inserted into the tube and the time before the test tube was put in their environment could affect the results. For example, the enzyme would have already began making curds before it was put in their environment, giving the subject a head start in the process. My suggestions when doing this lab is by being observant when pouring the milk and enzymes, and making sure when the enzyme is inserted into the tube, put it into their environment immediately, and don’t forget to check the time!

The purpose of this lab was to study the process of chemical reactions on milk to cheese. This is related to the many lessons on chapter 2, which we did in class, and also about activation energy. This same experiment could be reapplied to other things, such as knowing the amount of activation energy needed or, the process of chemical reactions.

Sweetness Lab

Derek Fung P5

Sep. 14, 2015

Sweetness Lab Analysis

The problem we were trying to solve was how the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste/sweetness. When we tasted the carbohydrates, I found out that the monosaccharides, carbohydrates which have one ring, were very sweet, while the polysaccharides, which has three rings or more, were very bland and not so sweet, and the disaccharides, which have two rings, vary between being sweet and bland. Some of the carbohydrates we tasted and found sweet were Glucose, Fructose and Galactose. All three of these carbohydrates are monosaccharides, and most of them were found in plants, except Galactose, which is found in healthy living beings. The polysaccharides, which are Starch and Cellulose, is found in energy producers such as plants, and are also found in staple food items. The Disaccharides, which include Maltose, Lactose and Sucrose were different in sweetness. While Lactose and Sucrose were listed in between the bland carbohydrates and the sweet ones, Maltose was listed as very bland, blander than the polysaccharides. Another observation was that the sweet carbohydrates had a granular texture and had a white color, while the ones in between sweet and bland were powderly and also has a white color, and Maltose, the blandest of the carbohydrates we tasted, had a solid texture on it and a brown color. All this evidence shows how monosaccharides are the sweetest among all the carbohydrates and that most polysaccharides were very bland.

The structure of these carbohydrates simply amaze me, to know that it can be used differently by the plants that produce them, from the building blocks of the plant, to how it produces energy. The results others that have gotten from this experiment would be different than the ones you see here. A few reasons are that we might think that one is sweet, but the same one is bland in another person’s view, some people might have not tasted enough of the sample to make sure, or that they might have tried to be as exact as possible in the scales, instead of rounding it. People believe in what they taste through their taste buds. People could mistake some food as not sweet, or spicy, or anything. The taste buds have many enzymes that react to certain flavors. When people first drink beer, for example, they get a bad impression of it due to it giving off a bitter taste. Later on, this effect would pass away though, but this shows how the taste bud changes overtime.

Carbohydrate	Type of Carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness	Color	Texture
Sucrose	Disaccharide	100	white	granular
Glucose	Monosaccharide	155	white	granular
Fructose	Monosaccharide	195	white	granular
Galactose	Monosaccharide	105	white	powderly
Maltose	Disaccharide	65	brown	solid
Lactose	Disaccharide	90	white	powderly
Starch	Polysaccharide	75	white	powderly
Cellulose	Polysaccharide	70	white	powderly

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