Acid Lab

Acid.....no we didn't huff it... it's biology people!!! geez...

Our lab was pretty fun our hypothesis was totally wrong though. It made me think about name brand stuff that we buy. You see, our hypothesis was that the name brand acid medicine will work better than the cheap stuff. We came to find that they both work just about the same, the only difference between the name brand rolads and the cheap brand was basically the name and picture.  Hmmm, I wonder how much money a person spends more buying the name brand things when the cheaper brand works just the same. I found it interesting though how the milk of magnesia seemed to work better than the solid rolads. Is this because a liquid can break down something better and faster than a solid??? I wonder if the acid in your stomach was different that the solid acid pill would work better??? hmmmm......

Article

This article was very interesting to me. The thing about it that stood out to me was how Heath and his colleagues accidentally figured out a technique to pin down moving molecules. It made me think that most scientists discoveries are found by accident. Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a lightening storm not knowing what would happen and he discovered electricity. But back to water experiments, Heath and his crew did various experiments with water using tools such as shrink wrap and a sheet of carbon. I never really realized how water is so important and how it can do so many things. Yeah, of course, I always thought of water as a great thing because it keeps me hydrated so I don't die after doing various work-outs in women's fitness. But I never truly thought of water in molecules or being able to have "layers". It's amazing how water can have so many "jobs" it seems to me like it's basically what keeps this world alive and moving!! What I'm curious about now is why is water the only liquid that can do these amazing things like hold on to string or be able to bubble over a penny. Why is it that water can keep a tree alive or be able to hold a water bug. Thinking back to the penny experiment, alcohol only held on to the penny for about five drops then it spilled over. But with water the penny held 48 drops! Thats amazing to me, so my question is, "can other liquids have properties or is it just water"?

Properties of Water

 This week the class was learning the properties of water, personally I didn't know one thing about the properties of water. So when we did a lab on water and how it "stuck" to the string, wax paper, and penny I noticed that the water wasn't "sticky" there had to be something more to it. When Tonya and I did the first experiment we tried so hard to get the water to "stick" to the string. I thought: "This is never going to work" until I thought that we needed to put the string vertically and pour the water so that the water will stay on the string. Once we did this the water finally stuck to  the piece on string. Now at that point I was too excited to think about why the water did this. I later found out that the water stuck to the string because water molecules are cohesive and adhesive which means they cling together to transport the water. Now that the world made sense again I was still curious. I wonder if it matters if you had multiple strings to transport water if it would make a difference in the speed the water would move. With one string the water seemed to be slow when it traveled. Would three of four pieces of string hold more water therefore increasing the speed in which it travels? Hmmmm..... ???

Control your Placebo or you will be double-blind!! :P

So, today and yesterday in class we had to find a double-blind study that caught our interest. Being a female of course I typed in "Double-blind, placebo women". Immediately, I found a topic that caught me eye it was a study to test a medicine for Schizophrenia in women. I first learned what a double-blind study was because I was completely clueless to what this study was. I had come to learn that in a double-blind study they have a variety of people some of which they give a sugar pill to and the rest the actual medicine. I thought to myself: "Why in pete's sake would they do that"? Well, i came to find that they did this so that the drug would be more effective to the people, the personnel's would get a point blank picture of how the drug worked and what effect it had on the patients. There is also many requirements you have to meet when you would like to participate in a double-blind study. In the study I was reading about the women had to have Schizophrenia and be the age of 40 years old. Thank goodness for the internet or else I would have never learned about a double-blind study!

2.1 Chemical elements... sounds boring but really... it's very interesting!!

So, I thought I would crack open the Biology book today in class, I mean I would have to sometime right? I decided to read the second chapter which Mr. Ludwig announced would probably be a good chapter to start on. I read trough 2.1 which discussed first what matter is, it turns out that matter exists in all three elements of solids, liquids, and gases. Matter is composed of naturally-occuring elements, 92 to be exact, these elements are made up of tiny particles called atoms. It's crazy how such a small particle can contain more tiny elements. Hmmm, I guess you learn something new every day!