Foxconn is a manufacturer and it has many clients including major American, European and Japanese electronics and information technology companies.
At Foxconn's Longhua facility in Shenzhen, 240,000 people live and work here. 50,000 of them live in shared dorm rooms.
On this large campus are fast-food restaurants, banks, cafes, grocery stores, a wedding photo shop and an automated library. There is also locations for physical activity such as basketball courts, tennis courts, a gym, swimming pools and a soccer stadium that is conveniently located in the center of this enormous manufacturing center.
This large facility even has its own radio station named "Voice of Foxconn".
Treated like a city in itself, there is a fire departments as well as a television station provided by Foxconn.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
DNA Extraction Lab
In my biology, as a continuation of our intoduction to DNA, we performed a DNA extraction lab. We used the following ingredients in the extraction lab: Wheat, water, detergent, alcohol. We made a sort of "what germ soup" at the bottom of the test tube, it is a mixture of wheat and water. As you can see from the photographs, this soup is milky looking with the wheat settling at the bottom. After mixing the wheat and water, we added the detergent. The detergent turned the mixture a more yellow color and the solution looked a lot thicker than before adding the detergent. The detergent separates all the oils out of the wheat, this includes the DNA. After we added the detergent, we then also added 14ml of alcohol, we did not mix at all once we added the alcohol. This caused a DNA precipitate to form, below is a photograph of this precipitate, it is the white top layer.
After waiting about 10-15 minutes, the DNA began to float to the top of the alcohol. You can see this occuring in the photograph below:
The DNA that you are seeing in the test tube is from the wheat of coarse, the DNA is only made visible by the alcohol added, however, the detergent is what ultimately separated the DNA out of the wheat in the first place. The DNA is interesting, it looks like white fibers floating as you can see.
This lab is a great introduction to simple DNA extraction.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
In Sickness and In Health: A Webquest
This web quest continues our study on genetics and reproduction in my biology class. Below is a human pedigree that I created for a couple's family. You can find the information on the the couple's family in the link below:
The couple is Greg and Olga, as you have read, both of their families have a few genetic diseases. To see if the couple could have a normal child, I have created the human pedigree below. To be clear in my pedigree. F stands for Father and M stands for Mother.
Based on this pedigree, I can assume that autosomal dominant disorders skip generations. As you can see, Olga's uncle(who has hemophilia) married her aunt on her father's side who is unaffected by any type of genetic disorder. They had two children that were also unaffected by any type of genetic disorder. However, one of these two children married and had a son, that son had hemophilia just as Olga's uncle does. This is a clear sign of hemophilia skipping generations. Also based on that information, I can assume that Greg or his Mother could be carries of the gene that causes myotonic dystrophy. If Olga's uncle had children that showed no sign of hemophilia and then passed hemophilia onto their son, then one of the parents(related to Olga's uncle) must have passed hemophilia onto their child. Based on that information, it is very possible that Greg or his mother are carriers of the gene that causes myotonic dystrophy. It is obvious that Greg's aunt and uncle are homozygous for the myotonic dystrophy gene. It has been passed down through generations, skipping or not, it still has been passed down, and could possibly pass down to Greg and Olga's children. Greg and Olga's child is also at risk for Factor VIII Difiency, since Greg's brother has that disease. The possibility is at a 25%.
Because Myotonic dystrophy symptons sometimes do not show up until after age 50, it is very likely that Greg's cousin has inhertited the MD gene. The possibilty is a 50% percent chance.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Mitosis Lab
In my biology class, we did a lab on mitosis to evaluate the percentage of cells that are in interphase, the ones that are in prophase, the ones that are in anaphase and the ones that are in telaphase.
Mitosis is the division of cells, and in this division of cells are 5 phases(as listed above). Here is a brief description of each:
Interphase: This is the phase that begins the cell's division. About 90% of the cell's time dividing will be spent in this phase. In this phase, the DNA synthesizes, once the cell has synthesized the proteins, the cell will continue to increase in size.
Prophase: In this phase, the chromosomes will condense into discrete chromosomes. The nuclear envelope also break here and and spindles to form at opposite poles. In this phase, the chromatin fibers will form into chromosomes that have chromatids that are joined at the centromere.
Metaphase: This is the phase where the spindle fully develops and the chromosomes align at the metaphase plate. Also, the nuclear membrane disappears in this phase.
Anaphase: At the beginning of anaphase, the sister chromatids separate and move to opposing ends of the cell. Spindle fibers inside the cell begin to lengthen in preparation for telephase. By the end of anaphase, each pole will contain a complete set of chromosomes.
Telaphase: In this phase, the chromosomes are cordoned into new nuclei in emerging daughter cells. At this time, the spindle fibers will continue to lengthen. The new nuclei forms at opposing poles. Cromatin fibers form from chromosomes uncoil, this is the end of mitosis.
In my biology class, we got to look at these 5 different phases physically through a microscope. I thought it was really interesting, it was nothing like I envisioned it to be. Also, looking at pictures provided online by my teacher was really different from looking through the telescope.
Onions have much larger chromosomes than most plants, so it is easy to see how a cell divides in the process of mitosis at the root of the onion. Our class separated into groups to do this lab, at first we studied a small field online. A cell is at rest in interphase; we recorded how many cells were in each phase. We used that data to make percentages and create charts to help us compare data to an actual onion root that we, ourselves will study under the microscope.
This is a chart that I created for the online field that we studied. The chart tells us that 55.5% of the cells were in interphase, 27.8% of the cells are in prophase, 2.3% of the cells are in metaphase, 5.5 of cells were in anaphase, and 2.7% of the cells are in telophase. As you can see, most of the cells were in interphase in the field studied, and most cells were not in metaphase. Also, my recordings did not come out to a complete total of 100%. With some help from my teacher, I was able to create a pie graph that came out to a total 100% (below).
I know its a little hard to read. Just to be clear; 96% of cells are in interphase, .02% of cells are in prophase, .009% of cells are in metaphase, .006% of cells are in anaphase, and .008% of cells are in telophase. To compare percentages easily, here is a pie graph:
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Eugenics
In my biology class, we are studying genetics and the origins of the study of genetics. We were given the following link to explain the social and scientific origins of eugenics. I did do some of my own research on the topic, I will include the links below:
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/
http://www.naturalnews.com/035185_Australia_sterilization_children.html#ixzz1oXcYBif5
Eugenics is the study or belief of improving human qualities by discouraging or encouraging human reproduction. It is the idea that traits passed down through parents or traits mixing through parents could improve human qualities overall. Mendel believed each visible trait was governed by a pair of factors, one member of each gene pair from the mother and father.
As far as social origi1ns, eugenics developed in a period following the Civil War. Cities and industry began to expand at this time. There were many social and economic inequalities, many had tried to explain these inequalities, however by the end of the century, these ideas didn't matter because of new, arising issues. Birthrate was declining. New ways of solving these problems developed: charity, social work, and religious institutions. These actions helped a little with the problems occurring at this time. However, people began to turn to science as their last hope. Genetics explained human social problems like pauperism, feeblemindedness, alcoholism, rebelliousness nomadism, criminality, and prostitution. Many scientists supporting eugenics claimed that society paid a high price for these defective individuals to be cared for by the state. Immigrants were seen as mischievous troublemakers at this time. Many scientists believed that their behavior was connected to their genes. They decided on selection immigration restriction. Eugenics was considered to many, a solution to the combined problems. It placed cause on the defective germ plasm of people in differentiating ethnic groups, and not the structure of society itself. Eugenics has solid scientific proof that blames the victims for their own problems. And because of that, eugenics held a lot of weight in this time period.
As far as scientific origins; By 1883, Francis Galton coined the term eugenics. He perceived the philosophy morally and encouraged the healthiest people to have children. This idea is called The Galtonian ideal of eugenics and is termed positive eugenics. There is also a negative approach in which the least healthy are separated from society in order for the healthy to breed and preserve the healthy people. The negative approach was favored by the United States, Germany, and Scandinavia. There were concerns about environmental influences that would damage heredity and that this would cause ill health, early death, insanity, and defective offspring. These concerns formed the degeneracy theory in the early 1700s. This theory was strong throughout the 19th century. Masterbation was presented in medical schools as the first biological theory for degeneracy. This idea drove Harry Clay Sharp, a prison physician, to do vasectomies on prisoners in Jefferson, Indiana in 1899. Sharp's medical colleagues advocated this idea, this led to the Indiana law that mandated compulsory sterilization of "degenerates". This law was enacted in 1907 and was the first eugenic sterilization law in the United States. As previously stated, many scientists believed that bad environments caused degeneracy. Bendict Morel believed that poisoning by mercury, ergot, and other toxic substances in the environments caused degeneracy. Richard Dugdale is a socialist who believed good environments make degenerate people into healthy people again. This idea was challenged by August Welsmann, he had a theory o germ plasm that was convincing to most scientists. It is a theory that changes in the body tissue had no effect on reproductive tissue. As the 20th century began, Welsmann's ideas were absorbed by degeneracy theorists, these theorists supported the negative eugenics model. There were many scientists who strongly disagreed with eugenics and ignored it completely. The contributions to genetics made by these scientists were quickly viewed by eugenicists, the eugenicists took interest in Mendellan's analysis of pedigree humans, plants and animals. Agricultural eugenics supported and provided the favored negative model for eugenics.
Today, eugenics is still an issue in countries around the world, though it may have began in the United States, the idea of sterilizing a deficient human to improve the overall human race is still a big idea and concern in many countries.
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/
http://www.naturalnews.com/035185_Australia_sterilization_children.html#ixzz1oXcYBif5
Eugenics is the study or belief of improving human qualities by discouraging or encouraging human reproduction. It is the idea that traits passed down through parents or traits mixing through parents could improve human qualities overall. Mendel believed each visible trait was governed by a pair of factors, one member of each gene pair from the mother and father.
As far as social origi1ns, eugenics developed in a period following the Civil War. Cities and industry began to expand at this time. There were many social and economic inequalities, many had tried to explain these inequalities, however by the end of the century, these ideas didn't matter because of new, arising issues. Birthrate was declining. New ways of solving these problems developed: charity, social work, and religious institutions. These actions helped a little with the problems occurring at this time. However, people began to turn to science as their last hope. Genetics explained human social problems like pauperism, feeblemindedness, alcoholism, rebelliousness nomadism, criminality, and prostitution. Many scientists supporting eugenics claimed that society paid a high price for these defective individuals to be cared for by the state. Immigrants were seen as mischievous troublemakers at this time. Many scientists believed that their behavior was connected to their genes. They decided on selection immigration restriction. Eugenics was considered to many, a solution to the combined problems. It placed cause on the defective germ plasm of people in differentiating ethnic groups, and not the structure of society itself. Eugenics has solid scientific proof that blames the victims for their own problems. And because of that, eugenics held a lot of weight in this time period.
As far as scientific origins; By 1883, Francis Galton coined the term eugenics. He perceived the philosophy morally and encouraged the healthiest people to have children. This idea is called The Galtonian ideal of eugenics and is termed positive eugenics. There is also a negative approach in which the least healthy are separated from society in order for the healthy to breed and preserve the healthy people. The negative approach was favored by the United States, Germany, and Scandinavia. There were concerns about environmental influences that would damage heredity and that this would cause ill health, early death, insanity, and defective offspring. These concerns formed the degeneracy theory in the early 1700s. This theory was strong throughout the 19th century. Masterbation was presented in medical schools as the first biological theory for degeneracy. This idea drove Harry Clay Sharp, a prison physician, to do vasectomies on prisoners in Jefferson, Indiana in 1899. Sharp's medical colleagues advocated this idea, this led to the Indiana law that mandated compulsory sterilization of "degenerates". This law was enacted in 1907 and was the first eugenic sterilization law in the United States. As previously stated, many scientists believed that bad environments caused degeneracy. Bendict Morel believed that poisoning by mercury, ergot, and other toxic substances in the environments caused degeneracy. Richard Dugdale is a socialist who believed good environments make degenerate people into healthy people again. This idea was challenged by August Welsmann, he had a theory o germ plasm that was convincing to most scientists. It is a theory that changes in the body tissue had no effect on reproductive tissue. As the 20th century began, Welsmann's ideas were absorbed by degeneracy theorists, these theorists supported the negative eugenics model. There were many scientists who strongly disagreed with eugenics and ignored it completely. The contributions to genetics made by these scientists were quickly viewed by eugenicists, the eugenicists took interest in Mendellan's analysis of pedigree humans, plants and animals. Agricultural eugenics supported and provided the favored negative model for eugenics.
Today, eugenics is still an issue in countries around the world, though it may have began in the United States, the idea of sterilizing a deficient human to improve the overall human race is still a big idea and concern in many countries.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Photosynthesis Lab
In this lab, we didn't actually perform the lab ourselves, our class only observed. We learned about BTB. BTB is a solution that is blue green in light alone, however, when carbon dioxide is present it turns a yellow color. BTB will also turn also yellow if it is left in the dark for 3 hours. Water mixed with BTB keeps it at a neutral PH which means the color of the BTB will stay at blue green. We took fish respire and added sugar with O2 and CO2 and H2O and this turned into CO2 in H2O which is an acid and this made the BTB turn a yellow color because of the presence of the carbon dioxide. We discover that the fish respire gives off sugar and oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. Elodea is a plant that is pale blue green in the light and yellow when it is left in the dark for 3 hours. This is a plant that is constantly is desperation and it gives off carbon dioxide and BTB which makes it yellow and blue green. This plant picks up carbon dioxide and stays blue green instead of turning yellow.
Above is a photograph of Elodea. As you can see, this Elodea plant is a yellowish green. This plant has most likely been in the dark for awhile, as the blue color is not present.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Cancer
In the beginning of a human's life, the cells in the body grow quickly to allow a person to grow. As a human gets older, the reproduction of cells slows. The cells grow, divide, and then die normally.
There are several different types of cancer, as mentioned previously. However, there are a few common types of cancer im sure that you are aware of. I will go over 4 of the most common forms.
Skin cancer is one the most common types of cancer in the world. This type of cancer affects more than one million people a year. Skin cancer occurs to the cells in the skin, or anywhere on the body. It is mostly caused from deadly rays that come from the sun. There are several different forms of skin cancer. Skin cancer is most commonly found in ederly people or people with compromised immune systems.
Lung cancer strikes the cells inside the lining of the lungs. There are two types of lung cancer: Small cell and non-small cell. Small cell cancer is commonly found in men over women. Small cell cancer is usually due to cigarette smoking and is rare for people who do not smoke. This is the most aggresive form of lung cancer and starts in the breathing tubes or center of the chest. The cells in small cell lung cancer are very small but produce much more rapidly than non-small cell lung cancer. These rapidly growing cells produce very large tumors. These large tumors metastasize to other parts of the body(commonly the brain, liver, and bones). Non-small cell lung cancer grows and spreads much more slowly than small cell lung cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer for a woman to develop. This cancer begins in the tissue of the breast and can spread to other areas of the body. There are two types of breast cancer. The first type is called Ductal Carcinoma breast cancer. This type of breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer and is the cause for approximately 80% of all breast cancer. Ductal means that the cancer began in the milk ducts. Carcinoma refers to cancer that begins in the tissue. Altogether, it means cancer that has broken through the ducts and has spread to the breast tissue. This type of breast cancer can spread to the lymph nodes and to other parts of the body. The second type of breast cancer is Lobular Carcinoma breast cancer. In this type of cancer, the cancer cells have broken out of the lobule and have began to spread to other areas of the body. This type of cancer makes up a small percentage of breast cancer and usually forms lumps in the tissue of the breast.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men, mostly over the age of 50. It is rarely found in ment below the age of 40. The prostate gland is apart of the reproductive system in men and is located at the base of the bladder near the rectum. This cancer develops in the tissue of the prostate gland. African americans, all men older than 50, all men who have a father or brother with prostate cancer, all men who frequently consume alcohol, farmers, men who have a high fat diet, and painters are all at risk for developing prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is not commonly found in people who are vegetarians.
Cancer is a group of over 100 diseases that occur when the cells begin to grow rapidly and out of control. The cells will grow and, at times, invade tissue. This is something that normal cells cannot do and is a clear indication that there is cancer in the body. The cancer cells become the way the are because of damage done to the DNA. When cancer cells divide, those cells will have the same damaged DNA. Besides obvious reasons like smoking for lung cancer, doctors struggle to find reasons as to why the DNA might have become damaged. No clear cause is ever found.
Cancer also spreads, however, the cancer is named after the place where it began. For example, if cancer that began in the breast spreads to the liver and causes serious damage there, it is still considered lung cancer because that is where it began.
In most cases with cancer, the cells will form a tumor in the tissue. However, in leukemia, a tumor rarely grows. Instead, leukemia involves damage in the blood and blood organs.There are several different types of cancer, as mentioned previously. However, there are a few common types of cancer im sure that you are aware of. I will go over 4 of the most common forms.
Skin cancer is one the most common types of cancer in the world. This type of cancer affects more than one million people a year. Skin cancer occurs to the cells in the skin, or anywhere on the body. It is mostly caused from deadly rays that come from the sun. There are several different forms of skin cancer. Skin cancer is most commonly found in ederly people or people with compromised immune systems.
SKIN CANCER CELL
LUNG CANCER CELL
BREAST CANCER CELL
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men, mostly over the age of 50. It is rarely found in ment below the age of 40. The prostate gland is apart of the reproductive system in men and is located at the base of the bladder near the rectum. This cancer develops in the tissue of the prostate gland. African americans, all men older than 50, all men who have a father or brother with prostate cancer, all men who frequently consume alcohol, farmers, men who have a high fat diet, and painters are all at risk for developing prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is not commonly found in people who are vegetarians.
PROSTATE CANCER CELLS
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