Memorizing things are tedious but not to worry as for the biology assignment that I have done at the bottom in which after reading, I am sure that you all will be able to fully comprehend the entire different parts & system of a cell. Well, this is because for the following question 1, I have deliberately chosen the school as an analogy which would be effective as we come in contact with our school daily!!!
For Question 2, I would put cell walls on cells in human to help us visualize what it would be like for animal cells to have cell walls.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Assignment One: Cells
Question 1
(2. description of analogy)
The School Compound, consisting of many different parts, is separated from the exterior compound by fences. These Fences have many gates & guards stationed at certain areas allowing only certain substances to enter & leave the school.
The General Office is where important decisions are being made for the school to allow the entire school to function properly. Important Documents kept here are used as reference during decision making. After taking in Students, the Principal sends them out of the general office into the school compound where they receive education.
Students would normally go to their various Classrooms where classes for various subjects are found. Upon attending the lectures, the students gains knowledge & understanding. After which, they become Graduates & would travel to the Skilled University whereby they are constantly modified so as to be able to apply what they have learnt as skills needed to accomplish the jobs which they work as after leaving the school. After becoming Skilled Graduates, they would then leave the cell for jobs outside.
It would be impossible for the school to be totally clean & free of litter with such a big population. Fortunately we have the Electronic Dustbin invented by the Skilled University containing infinite digestive enzymes that metabolizes & detoxifies all waste.
Lastly, the supply of energy provided by the Power stations, is required for the entire school to function. Energy made in here can also be stored.
Legend
Nucleus ----- General Office
Nucleolus ----- Principal
Ribosomes ----- Students
Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum ----- Classrooms
Golgi Apparatus ----- Skilled University
Lysosomes ----- Electronic Dustbin
Plasma membrane ----- Fences
Mitochondria ----- Power stations
Protoplasm ----- School Compound
Chromatin ----- Important Documents
1st degree protein ----- Graduate
2nd/ 3rd degree protein ----- Skilled Graduate
Question 2
(C. If animal cells were to have cell walls, what might happen?)
Cellulose cell wall’s properties:
a) Made up of a very hard & strong protein-----cellulose
b) Strong to support cell allowing it to stand up without a
skeleton.
c) Protects the cell from injury.
d) Gives structure & regular/fixed shape
- Fully permeable.
If animal cells were to have cell wall:
a) Animal cells would be surrounded by cellulose & may even stand up straight by itself without a skeleton. Imagine how hard your soft & flexible skin can become if they have cell walls? Hard & strong enough to stand up on its own! If Adipoctytg which stores fat have cell walls would become unable to expand to 200 times its size to store fats!
b) We would be unable to move as the cell wall is too hard & rigid! It restricts our movement. If our skin cells have cell wall, we aren’t able to stretch & if muscle cells have cell walls, we can never move!
c) We are protected from minor injuries like cuts as it is thick & strong. Thus, we need not worry about injuring ourselves anymore as these cell walls protects us.
d) Gives us a fixed & regular shape. Hence, we may have rectangular or even triangular faces, nails, ears etc… Or maybe the shape of plants?
In conclusion, if animal cells have cell walls, animals would be like plants, rigid, regular, tough & strong and the specialized cells found in animals would lose its special function & cannot carry out its function. For instance the skin & muscle cells stated above.
(499 words)
(2. description of analogy)
The School Compound, consisting of many different parts, is separated from the exterior compound by fences. These Fences have many gates & guards stationed at certain areas allowing only certain substances to enter & leave the school.
The General Office is where important decisions are being made for the school to allow the entire school to function properly. Important Documents kept here are used as reference during decision making. After taking in Students, the Principal sends them out of the general office into the school compound where they receive education.
Students would normally go to their various Classrooms where classes for various subjects are found. Upon attending the lectures, the students gains knowledge & understanding. After which, they become Graduates & would travel to the Skilled University whereby they are constantly modified so as to be able to apply what they have learnt as skills needed to accomplish the jobs which they work as after leaving the school. After becoming Skilled Graduates, they would then leave the cell for jobs outside.
It would be impossible for the school to be totally clean & free of litter with such a big population. Fortunately we have the Electronic Dustbin invented by the Skilled University containing infinite digestive enzymes that metabolizes & detoxifies all waste.
Lastly, the supply of energy provided by the Power stations, is required for the entire school to function. Energy made in here can also be stored.
Legend
Nucleus ----- General Office
Nucleolus ----- Principal
Ribosomes ----- Students
Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum ----- Classrooms
Golgi Apparatus ----- Skilled University
Lysosomes ----- Electronic Dustbin
Plasma membrane ----- Fences
Mitochondria ----- Power stations
Protoplasm ----- School Compound
Chromatin ----- Important Documents
1st degree protein ----- Graduate
2nd/ 3rd degree protein ----- Skilled Graduate
Question 2
(C. If animal cells were to have cell walls, what might happen?)
Cellulose cell wall’s properties:
a) Made up of a very hard & strong protein-----cellulose
b) Strong to support cell allowing it to stand up without a
skeleton.
c) Protects the cell from injury.
d) Gives structure & regular/fixed shape
- Fully permeable.
If animal cells were to have cell wall:
a) Animal cells would be surrounded by cellulose & may even stand up straight by itself without a skeleton. Imagine how hard your soft & flexible skin can become if they have cell walls? Hard & strong enough to stand up on its own! If Adipoctytg which stores fat have cell walls would become unable to expand to 200 times its size to store fats!
b) We would be unable to move as the cell wall is too hard & rigid! It restricts our movement. If our skin cells have cell wall, we aren’t able to stretch & if muscle cells have cell walls, we can never move!
c) We are protected from minor injuries like cuts as it is thick & strong. Thus, we need not worry about injuring ourselves anymore as these cell walls protects us.
d) Gives us a fixed & regular shape. Hence, we may have rectangular or even triangular faces, nails, ears etc… Or maybe the shape of plants?
In conclusion, if animal cells have cell walls, animals would be like plants, rigid, regular, tough & strong and the specialized cells found in animals would lose its special function & cannot carry out its function. For instance the skin & muscle cells stated above.
(499 words)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Introduction
Well as for my biology assignment, I will be introducing all of you to some interesting fact about my favorite animal----- the CAT!!! Just below on the next post. Well we all know in biology, they use all those “chim-chim” terms but don't worry, I will try my best not to put so many “chim-chim” terms that you all don’t understand haha. So please enjoy =)
A common term used for this animal would be cat. But to be precise, a male cat is called “tom”, while the female “queen”. An immature cat is called a kitten. A clowder of cats refers to a group of them. Below shows a general anatomy of a cat:
Intresting fact in biology-----Cats
Reproduction
Cats are seasonally polyestrous (having many heat periods over in a year). During sexual reproduction, the withdrawal of the male cat’s penis,which has spines pointing backwards rakes the walls of the female's vagina resulting in ovulation.
Kittens in a little may have different fathers because cats are heteropaternal superecund (the fertilisation of two or more ova from the same cycle by sperm from separate acts of intercourse. Also refers to the instances of two different males fathering fraternal twins) having mate with more than one male during her heat period. As the female cat reproduce, her litter tends to gets bigger.
The 5 senses
(Sight) Cat's vision is superior at night but inferior in daylights. The tapetum lucidum in them reflects extra light into their retina. Cats have a visual field view of around 200° & can differentiate many colours of close range. This means that they are able to identify many more colurs in between colors. So there are many more colors that men cannot identify.
(Hearing)A cat’s ear is able to move independently, backwards, forwards and sideways to the direction where the sound is coming from when hearing for it!
(Smell) Cats sense of smell is 14 times stronger than ours as it has twice as many smell-sensitive cells in their nose as compared to man. Hence, they can smell things that we cannot!
(Touch) Cats have approximately 24 moveable whiskers all over it’s body even on its hind leg. These whiskers are so sensitive to even being able to detect the vibrations in air currents allowing a cat to know what’s near it without even having to turn to look at it. They also help detect shapes & activities of its prey! Though helpful, it is also irritating at times. When eating from a bowl the whiskers touching the side of the bowl transfers irritating sensation to the brain, making it diffcult to concentrate eating.
(Taste) Scientist found out that cats actually feed on plant. Due to mutation in an early ancestor of cats over the years, their sense of taste is being modified, causing them to ignore plants to a certain degree. Their high protein carnivorous diet which continues to stimulate their remaning taste receptors entice them to continue to feed on food rich in protein.
Additional intresting fact
Cats normally prefer high places (e.g. trees) What if they fall? Cats have this special ability known as “righting reflex” (to reflexively twist its body into a certain position using its sharp sense of balancing & flexibility). It always “rights” itself into the right position if it has the time to. This would explain why cats have a higher chances in surving almost without injury from the 10th storey rather than from the 2nd storey. Cats probably relax their ventral muscles & “flattened” their bodies to create more air resistance. Cats also move their hindlegs & rely on the conversation of angular momentum to land safely.
(490 words)
Acknowledgement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat
Cats are seasonally polyestrous (having many heat periods over in a year). During sexual reproduction, the withdrawal of the male cat’s penis,which has spines pointing backwards rakes the walls of the female's vagina resulting in ovulation.
Kittens in a little may have different fathers because cats are heteropaternal superecund (the fertilisation of two or more ova from the same cycle by sperm from separate acts of intercourse. Also refers to the instances of two different males fathering fraternal twins) having mate with more than one male during her heat period. As the female cat reproduce, her litter tends to gets bigger.
The 5 senses
(Sight) Cat's vision is superior at night but inferior in daylights. The tapetum lucidum in them reflects extra light into their retina. Cats have a visual field view of around 200° & can differentiate many colours of close range. This means that they are able to identify many more colurs in between colors. So there are many more colors that men cannot identify.
(Hearing)A cat’s ear is able to move independently, backwards, forwards and sideways to the direction where the sound is coming from when hearing for it!
(Smell) Cats sense of smell is 14 times stronger than ours as it has twice as many smell-sensitive cells in their nose as compared to man. Hence, they can smell things that we cannot!
(Touch) Cats have approximately 24 moveable whiskers all over it’s body even on its hind leg. These whiskers are so sensitive to even being able to detect the vibrations in air currents allowing a cat to know what’s near it without even having to turn to look at it. They also help detect shapes & activities of its prey! Though helpful, it is also irritating at times. When eating from a bowl the whiskers touching the side of the bowl transfers irritating sensation to the brain, making it diffcult to concentrate eating.
(Taste) Scientist found out that cats actually feed on plant. Due to mutation in an early ancestor of cats over the years, their sense of taste is being modified, causing them to ignore plants to a certain degree. Their high protein carnivorous diet which continues to stimulate their remaning taste receptors entice them to continue to feed on food rich in protein.
Additional intresting fact
Cats normally prefer high places (e.g. trees) What if they fall? Cats have this special ability known as “righting reflex” (to reflexively twist its body into a certain position using its sharp sense of balancing & flexibility). It always “rights” itself into the right position if it has the time to. This would explain why cats have a higher chances in surving almost without injury from the 10th storey rather than from the 2nd storey. Cats probably relax their ventral muscles & “flattened” their bodies to create more air resistance. Cats also move their hindlegs & rely on the conversation of angular momentum to land safely.
(490 words)
Acknowledgement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat
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