Aerobic respiration (Post 10)

Hi there everyone, today I will be talking about aerobic respiration.

What is aerobic respiration?

Aerobic respiration requires oxygen in order to generate energy.

Here is the word equation for aerobic respiration-

Glucose + Oxygen + carbon dioxide -> carbon dioxide + water + energy

The process is actually much more complicated than shown above. Aerobic respiration is actually carried out in a series of steps.



Each step is catalysed by an enzyme. The mitochondria in the cells are actually "factories" containing this enzymes. Thus, the mitochondria are very important in erobic respiration.

Green plants and most animals, including humans, respire areobically. These complex organisms need a lot of energy to survive. Some of the processes include-

-cell division

-transmission of nerve impulses or messages

-the synthesis of proteins from amino acids

Microbes eating BP oil without using oxygen (Post 9)

Hi there everyone! Today, I will be reviewing an article about the BP spill and how its oil-eating microbes are not consuming up too much oxygen.

So, as most of us should know, one of the most disastrous oil spills of the century happened a few months ago of the gulf of Mexico. In July, BP was able to cap the well that was spewing out tonnes of oil. However, there still remains the after-effects of the spill and how the oil is going to be cleaned up.



As a result, BP decided to use massive amounts of chemical dispersants deep underwater to break up the oil before it reached the surface.

It was to make it easier for oil-eating microbes to do their eat up the oil. But the risk was that the microbes would use up the oxygen in the water and cause a dead zone, which was a place where fish could not survive.

Luckily, the oil-eating microbes did not take up too much oxygen and create a dead zone. One reason that oxygen levels didn't drop too low was the natural mixing of water in the Gulf, which kept bringing in oxygen from other areas

There has also been the problem of whether the dipersants would have any long term effect on marine life and its toxicity.

In conclusion, I hope that BP could clean up the oil spill quickly and let the coastal communities and animals return back to their normal lives.

Term 2 reflection (Post 8)

Hi there everyone! Today, I will now be talking about my term 2 reflection. After 1 term of studying in Hwa Chong, I have learnt that science is not as easy as it seemed to be in the first lesson. Coupled with all the tests, assignments and projects, science is really turning out to be not so easy.

However, I still like science as it was one of my favourite subjects since primary 5 and I am very interested in it as well.

So, in term 2, we learnt about the kinetic particle theory (KPT). This topic left a deep impression on my mind as the first lesson on it was when a few teachers came to watch us and there was even a video camera filming us!!


Above is the diagram of the states of matters. The first from the left is solid, second is liquid and third is gas.

Besides learning about the kinetic particle theory, I also learnt about elements, compounds and mixtures.

Elements are pure chemical substances consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Common examples of elements are iron, copper, silver, gold, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. In total, 118 elements have been observed as of March 2010, of which 92 occur naturally on Earth.



Compounds are pure chemical substances consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together in a defined spatial arrangement by chemical bonds.

Mixtures are two or more substances mixed together but not chemically bonded/combined.

In conclusion, I still like science even though its harder as I have a huge interest in it. Hoping for more science lessons soon!!!!!!

Reflection for term 1 (Post 7)

Hi there everybody! Today, I will write about my reflections for term 1 & 2. In term 1, as we were very very new to the school, I was pretty blur in getting my way around Hwa Chong, but with the help of my friends, we made it ALIVE to the lab!! (just exaggerating :P) When we got there, I was amazed by the number of equipment and the number of labs there.



On that day, we learnt many things and were introduced to many of the lab equipments. We also learnt how to read the different signs on different things, like the explosive sign and radiation sign. Besides that, I learnt more about conical flasks, beakers,etc... Below is the image of the laboratory equipment.

On that day, we also learnt about bunsen burners and its uses. One of the most interesting thing I learnt about bunsen burners was its long history. At first, I thought that bunsen burners was just named randomly but now I now that it is named afer Robert Bunsen in Germany, University of Heidelberg, in 1854- 1855.

Also, another thing interesting was a strike back occuring from a bunsen burner. Here is a pictures of a bunsen burner.



A strike back occurs when you open the air hole fully and a green flame will come out. It will also produce a loud noise.

Besides all this, we were also taught to use conversion and other equipment to measure things.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I like science lessons very much and am looking forward to more of this lessons.:)

Skin transformed into stem cells (Post 6)

Now, as a follow up to my postings about stem cells and stuff, I will now report on a interesting news atircle from BBC news. This article is about human skin cells have been reprogrammed by two groups of scientists to mimic embryonic stem cells with the potential to become any tissue in the body. Below is the diagram of how skin cells are transformed into other cells, compared to therapeutic cloning.



This breakthrough meant that such research is no longer dependent on using cells from human embryos, which has proved highly controversial as some people question the point of sacrificing human embryos for the sake of scientific research.

Until then only cells taken from embryos were thought to have an unlimited capacity to become any of the 220 types of cell in the human body - a so-called pluripotent state.

This breakthrough was discovered by Japanese researchers. As a result,they used a chemical cocktail containing just four gene-controlling proteins to transform adult human fibroblasts - skin cells that are easy to obtain and grow in culture - into a pluripotent state.

The cells created were similar, but not identical, to embryonic stem cells, and the researchers used them to produce brain and heart tissue.

Using skin cells should mean that treatments could be personalised for individual patients, minimising the risk of rejection.

In conclusion, I feel that the discovery of being able to use skin cellls for research is a breakthrough and that more of this findings should happen in the future. Go, scientists and researchers!!!! :)

Here is the original URL : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7101834.stm

Stem cell research Pt 2 (Post 5)

Hello everyone, welcome back to part 2 of the stem cell research. I decided to put it into 2 parts as it is too long to be put into one post.

Now, I will be talking about adult stem cells. There is a rather simple diagram explaining stem cells below.



As you can see, it is, simply to put it, extracting stem cells from bone marrow and using the bone marrow to make into different cells and sometimes use it to treat leukemia.

In depth, most adult stem cells are lineage-restricted (multipotent) and are generally referred to by their tissue origin (mesenchymal stem cell, adipose-derived stem cell, endothelial stem cell, etc).

Adult stem cells are rather successful as they have been used to treat leukemia and related bone/blood cancers through bone marrow transplants succesfully for many years. Adult stem cells are also used in veterinary medicine to treat tendon and ligament injuries in horses.

In conclusion, after posting this 2 blog posts and gaining more knowledge about stem cells, I have learnt that even though stem cells are very useful, there are ethical issues plauging it. For example, embryonic stem cells are derived from an early stage embryo, which wold mean a very very young baby. Many people don't see the point of saving a live but sacrificing another.

So, I hope that there would be a more ethical way of obtaining stem cells, like through adult stem cells, in the future. :)

Stem cell research Pt 1 (Post 4)

Hi there everyone! Today, I would like to talk about stem cells. Firstly, I would like you to know what stem cells are.


This is a diagram of how stem cells work.

Now, let me talk to you about the definition of stem cells. Stem cells are cells found in all multi cellular organisms. Also, they are characterized by the ability to be able to be renewed into different cell types.

As such, stem cells are especially useful as they can act as a repair system for the body and replenish specialised cells which have been damaged or destroyed.

Now, let me talk about the history of stem cells. The term "stem cells" was proposed for scientific use by Russian histologist Alexander Maksimov in 1908. The first bone marrow transplant within two siblings happens subsequently 6 decades later in 1968. And finally in 2006, Scientists at Newcastle University in England create the first ever artificial liver cells using umbilical cord blood stem cell.

There are a few typesof stem cells but I will be talking about 2 types this time- embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.Below is a picture of embyronic stem cells.



Embryonic stem cell are cultures of cells derived from the epiblast tissue of the inner cell mass of a blastocyst or earlier morula stage embryos. A blastocyst is an early stage embryo—approximately four to five days old in humans and consisting of 50–150 cells.

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent and give rise during development to all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm. In other words, they can develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body.