Last one!

Ok so I wanted to end these blogs talking about our last and most interesting topic, pregnancy. Pregnancy can be divided into three trimesters. The first trimester: weeks 1-12. The second trimester: weeks 13-27. The third trimester: weeks 28-42. First Trimester: This trimester is the shortest trimester of the pregnancy. It is best to terminate pregnancy during this time because it is the safest time for the mother. Many women do not know that they are pregnant until they miss their first period (after 4 weeks). The baby is not an inch long at this time but a tremendous amount of development takes place during this trimester. Second Trimester: The baby is starting to look for like a child during this trimester. The mother can begin to feel the baby moving around in her stomach. Prenatal care is The second trimester of pregnancy is a fun time! Feeling your baby move, starting to wear maternity clothes and of course, the end of morning sickness make this a very special time. It's also the time of a lot of prenatal testing and growing questions about birth and parenting. Third Trimester: The third trimester of pregnancy requires seeing a doctor a lot more frequently. Many women get placed on bed rest to assure that the delivery does not occur prematurely. Many women suffer from something known as Braxton Hicks contractions. They are contractions that mimic the ones that women get when it is time to have the baby. Doctors suggest light walking and even sex to induce labor. I hope these fun facts have been helpful. Happy Holidays, God bless.

The immune system

Immune system: Interacting white blood cells that defend the body through self/nonself recognition, specificity, and memory. Disease: A disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, esp. one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury. T cells: antigen receptors ignore the body's own cells yet collectively recognize at least a billion specific threats. B cells: formed in a primary response are set aside as memory cells for future battles with the same antigen. Immunity: The body's overall ability to resist and combat any substance foreign to itself. infection: Invasion and manipulation of a pathogen in a host. Disease follows if defenses are not mobilized fast enough; the pathogen's activities interfere with normal body functions. Inflammation: Process in which, in response to tissue damage or irritation, phagocytes and plasma proteins, including complement proteins, leave the bloodstream, then defend and help repair the tissue. Occurs during both nonspecific and specific (immune) defense responses. Innate immunity: The body's inborn, reset immune responses, which act quickly when tissue is damaged or microbes have invaded. Interleukin: One of a variety of chemical communication signals - secreted by macrophages and helper T cells- that drive immune responses. Antigen Presenting: A type of cell. A macrophage or other cell that display antigen-MHC complexes at its surface and so promotes an immune response by lymphocytes. Adaptive immunity: Immune responses that the body develops in response to antigens of specific pathogens, toxins, or abnormal body cells.

almost done!

Ok folks, I'm a little late but I would like to talk to you, in brief, about the respiratory system. When we breathe in the diaphragm contacts, the lungs expand, and the ribs expand. The Alveoli expand too. The alveoli are •"any of the many tiny air sacs in the lungs where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place." In this gas exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged. When a person is hypoxic: they need are so they hyperventilate. When a person is under water for long periods of time, they develop a condition called Nitrogen narcosis or "raptures of the deep." There is too much nitrogen in the blood and they need to slowly come back up to surface to allow time to decompress. When a person is also underwater they may develop something called decompression sickness or "the bends." This is the reason why it is hard to walk upright after coming out of the pool. All these conditions are cased by a change in atmospheric pressure. Have a great week!

This week!

Good evening guys! This weeks blog is coming from the information that I learned today and on Tuesday! So this is fresh and hot off the presses. COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Types of these diseases include C:Cystic Fibrosis B:Bronchiecasis A: Asthma B: Bronchitis E: Emphysema Types of restrictive lung diseases include: Sarcoidosis, pneumonia, and Pneumoconiosis The parts of the digestive system include: Mouth (oral cavity) Pharynx: the entrance to the tubular art of the system that moves food. This is also the entrance to the respiratory system. The epiglottal closes up to prevent food from entering the lungs. Stomach: The muscular sac that expands to hold food. Small intestine: digestion occurs here and the absorption of vitamins, sugars, and proteins Large intestine: absorbs water Rectum: The "holding cell" for feces Anus: The cavity used to expel feces God bless you and Happy Sabbath!

A Double Feature!

Good afternoon! This week's blog is going to be a little longer than most. I was on a tour with my choir last week, and I was unable to write. So we started a new unit about immune systems. The immune system has a lot of key terms that you must understand to see how it functions. The immune system is: Interacting white blood cells that defend the body through self/nonself recognition, specificity, and memory. T and B cell antigen receptors ignore the body's own cells yet collectively recognize at least a billion specific threats. Some B and T cells formed in a primary response are set aside as memory cells for future battles with the same antigen. Immunity: The body's overall ability to resist and combat any substance foreign to itself. infection: Invasion and manipulation of a pathogen in a host. Disease follows if defenses are not mobilized fast enough; the pathogen's activities interfere with normal body functions. Inflammation: Process in which, in response to tissue damage or irritation, phagocytes and plasma proteins, including complement proteins, leave the bloodstream, then defend and help repair the tissue. Occurs during both nonspecific and specific (immune) defense responses. Innate immunity: The body's inborn, reset immune responses, which act quickly when tissue is damaged or microbes have invaded. Interleukin: One of a variety of chemical communication signals - secreted by macrophages and helper T cells- that drive immune responses. Antigen-presenting cell: A macrophage or other cell that display antigen-MHC complexes at its surface and so promotes an immune response by lymphocytes. Adaptive immunity: Immune responses that the body develops in response to antigens of specific pathogens, toxins, or abnormal body cells. I want to talk to you guys about the lymphatic system as well!!! The lymphatic system works with the cardiovascular system by picking up fluid that is lost from capillaries and returning it into the bloodstream. The lymphatic system's major job is the body's defense. The lymph vascular system does three things: "drainage, delivery, and disposal." The vessels in the system are drainage channels. Water and solutes that get leaked out of the capillary beds are returned to the bloodstream. The fats that have been absorbed from the small intestine also get delivered to the bloodstream. The cellular debris from body tissues go to the lymph vascular systems disposal locations, the lymph nodes. Lymph capillaries merge into larger lymph vessels. These vessels are like veins, they have smooth muscles n the walls of the valves that prevent backflow. They make up collecting ducts that work to drain in to veins found in the lower neck. This is how the lymph fluid is returned to circulating blood. The movements of skeletal muscles and the rib cage, when you breathe, helps move fluid through these vessels. This is a similar process for veins as well. That's all folks! And of course all this information was taken from my textbook that I cited on my first Blog post.

Week 6

Hello again folks! We were not required to make a blog last week, thus I took a break. This week we did a lab that I would like to tell you about. We found out our blood types! Yup, we had to poke ourselves (with sterile glucose checking monitor thingies) and run tests. Let me tell you more about this lab. The first part of the lab required us to figure out our blood types. We were to observe how the blood reacted to the reagents and identify any clotting. The second part of our lab was to locate and try to manipulate the heartbeat of a fish. This lab pertained to the circulatory system or the cardiovascular system. The both parts of the lab had to do with blood which is a major part of the circulatory system. The circulatory system is “the system that circulates blood and lymph through the body, consisting of the heart, blood vessels, blood, lymph, and the lymphatic vessels and glands (Oxford Dictionary)”. The circulatory system is very important for life to be sustained. It is important to know how that system can be repaired or damaged. The labs we did dealt with those variables that could either hurt or help the circulatory system. The first part of the lab sought to identify our blood types, thus identifying the blood type we could need in case of a transfusion. The second part used fish to show how certain substances can dramatically increase the blood flow and heartbeat. Too much of an increase can cause cardiac arrest. So, as you can see this lab was very practical. My group used Redbull and nicotine as our substances. You could see the sudden, dramatic increase in the activity of the fish. I hope you learned something! Bye

Hola folks! This is week four of biology and I have a few new things to share with you. I have decided to focus on parts of the Eukaryotic Cell. We did go over parts of the skeleton on Monday, but I'll save that for next week. Lets get to it. I'll simply give you the definitions and what they do.

Cytoskeleton: Structurally supports, gives shape to cell; moves cell and its parts

Mitochondrion: Energy powerhouse produces ATP by cellular respiration

Centrioles: Social centers that produce and organize microtubules. This organelle has no cell membrane.

Plasma membrane: Controls the kinds and amounts of substances moving into and out of the cell.

Nucleus: Protecting, controlling access to DNA

Ribosomes: This organelle has no cell membrane. Attached to rough ER and free in cytoplasm Sites of protein synthesis.

Rough E.R. (edoplasmic reticulum): Modifies new polypeptides chains

Smooth E.R.: Makes lipids, degrades fats, inactivates toxins

Golgi body: Modifies, sorts, ships proteins and lipids, for exports or for insertion into cell membranes

Lysosomes: Digests, recycles materials

 
Of course all this was found in my textbook that I did cite the first week of my blog. Have a great weekend!!

Week Three

I want to thank you 19 wonderful people who took the time out to read my scattered thoughts last week. I really appreciate the support :) Ok now I am open to all comments for clarification, rectification, complementation. SO this weeks I have to take a different approach on the blog. I have to be more investigative. We did a lab this week that displayed the results of osmosis and diffusion. Before I continue, I clearly have to define these terms for you. Osmosis is: the tendency of water to move across a cell membrane in response to a concentration gradient (osmosis is a type of diffusion). Diffusion is: the net movement of molecules (or ions) down their concentration gradient (that is that whole concept of something moving from a high concentration to a lower one). We did a lab on Tuesday and it explored these types of diffusions. It also asked a question that integrated the lab with real life. The question was about a disease called Cholera. I, being Haitian, am very familiar with this disease. There was an epidemic of cholera that hit my country after the earthquake. What is cholera? Well according to some credible resource on Google, cholera is: an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies and causing severe vomiting and diarrhea. Medical News Today says that approximately 3-5 million people are affected world wide. Cholera has a death toll of about 100,000-130,000 deaths a year since 2010. Since cholera is mainly deadly because of the large amount of diarrhea and dehydration that occurs, it reminds me of our lab. In the lab there was sucrose in iodide and iodide in sucrose. Each of them had different reactions to the solvent. There was a beaker where most of the water had drained from one of the dialysis bags. I can imagine that this resembles the inner organs when they are lacking water. I attempted to make a connection with osmosis during a lab to a real life disease that displays the results in the lab. I hope it worked! Have a great weekend.

Week Two

Well, week two was a bit more confusing. I am really starting to worry that I won't be able to understand this class. I followed the best I could. As the information began to get more complicated, I got sick. This blog is not to trouble you with my issues, so I will continue with the little bit of information that I think I understand.
The Metabolism consists of two parts.
Catabolism and Anabolism. Catabolism is the process dealing with breaking down.
Anabolism is the process dealing with putting together. Now oxygen plays an important role in the metabolic process. Oxygen helps to make ATP. What is ATP you may ask? It is a nucleotide that links reactions that produce energy to reactions that require energy. ATP is very important as you can see. Don't ask any questions, because that's all I have folks!
Let's talk about the body a bit more. Human blood maintains a Ph. of 7.3-7.5. Acidosis in the blood can be toxic. It is when the blood is below 7.0. Now what does that mean practically to you and me? It means a coma, and then a sure death. Alkalosis is when the blood ph. is at a level of 7.8 and above. Pretty much...death. Ok, now we have buffers in our stomachs to protect us against these heavy acids. An example of a buffer is: MUCUS! Yup! That nasty green stuff is protecting the lining of our stomachs.
Ok, last thing I have to say is that acids and bases are both ions. What does that mean? Stay tuned while I go find out. Until next week folks!

My First Week In Biology

My name is Andjie. I am a senior social work major. I am in this class because it is recommended for my major. This first week has been great, although I feel a bit overwhelmed. There has been a lot of information presented to us. The professor is an expert in her field. She is energetic and presents the information in a way that does not make me want to fall asleep. The topics that have been presented to us this last week include: an introduction, learning about human biology, and the chemistry of life. So, I thought I’d present to you a few terms that I’ve either learned, or has been redefined to me to fit the purpose of this class. Lipids: A greasy or oily compound of mostly carbon and hydrogen that shows little tendency to dissolve in water, but that dissolves in non-polar solvents. Proteins: A large organic compound composed of one or more chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds. Carbohydrates: A biological molecule built of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, usually in a 1:2:1 ratio. All cells use carbohydrates as structural materials, energy stores, and transportable forms of energy. The three classes of carbohydrates include monosaccharide, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Glycerol: A three-carbon molecule with three hydroxyl groups attached; together with fatty acids, a component of fats and oils. Glycogen: A storage polysaccharide that can be readily broken down into glucose subunits. I got all these definitions from my science book. "Human Biology" 10th Edition Authors: Starr and McMillan