GENE CONTROL VIDEO

1) Why did the German scientist decide to study the fruit flies at the larval stage?

The german scientist decided to study fruit flies because they are fast breeding insects, but unlike most scientist she decided to study the fruit flies at a larval stage so they could see it growth and determine the exact moment when something went wrong.

2) How does the mother fly activate the control genes?


By leaving  chemical messages that activates during the larval stage.


3) What is the role of control genes?


Control genes controls the activity of many other genes and also they control when and how some specific genes are expressed.


4) Which of the two species are closer to humans?

In this cases it would be fishes, beacuse they have control genes and body plans closer to our own.

The embryo takes shape

We have start looking at the topics of gametes, embryos and pregnancy. To understand better all these topics we looked at a video in class that explains how and in wich way human beings are born. Based on the video I will answer some questions.

1) What directs the sequence of events that turn a blob of cells into an embryo with specialized tissues and organs?

It´s a process called gastrulation that turns a blob of cells into a embryo, this process divide cells intro three layers, each with a specific function.

2) The narrator says that “cells talk to each other.” What does that mean? .

This "communication" between cells is actually that chemicals sings or  chemical process of a cell can trigger a reaction in a nearby cell.

3) How do cells in different parts of the embryo become different kinds of cells and organs?

In each of this cells, different genes or DNA activates, making each cell produce something different


4) What kinds of proteins are found in different cells and organs?


Crystalline:  related to the lens of the eye.
Collagen:  related with tendons, bones and skin.
Keratin:  related with hair
Haemoglobin:  Transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body

5) What tells the cells which kinds of proteins to make?


The DNA and genes that are activate within each cell.

6) What is the relationship between DNA, genes, and the proteins that are produced in cells?


They are all related because DNA contains the genes that when activate tell each cell what proteins to produce in order to accomplish a specific function that help our body to work properly.

Biogas

Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxigen. It is a renewable energy source, like solar and wind energy. Furthermore, biogas can be produced from regionally available raw materials and recycled waste and is environmentally friendly.n

Biogas starts being acknowleded worldwide as one of the most upfront technology for upgrading waste to valuable fertiliser and renewable energy. It can be used to power motor vehicles.  In the UK, for example, biogas is estimated to have the potential to replace around 17% of vehicle fuel.



-What is the process of biogas production?

Biogas is the end of a complex process of aerobic descomposition, By the end of the process Biogas is mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide.. In the standard process of biogas production, the bioorganic material is processed before being fed into the biogas plant. The plant consists of a mixer, two digesters and a gas storage. The digesters are also called fermentation tanks and are the crucial components of the plant since they provide the anaerobic conditions in which the bacteria generate biogas. The substrates have to be constantly heated and stirred in order to ensure their homogenity and the consistent discharge of gas. The gas holder is normally an airproof steel container that, by floating like a ball on the fermentation mix, cuts off air to the digesters (anaerobiosis) and collects the gas generated. In one of the most widely used designs, the gas holder is equipped with a gas outlet, while the digesters are provided with an overflow pipe to lead the sludge out into a drainage pit. 

-Is it Biogas a sustainible energy resource?

The production of biogas is sustainable, renewable, carbon neutral and reduces the dependency from imported fossil fuels. Often operators or beneficiaries of biogas plants are able to become fully energy self sufficient. They produce the h eat and eletricity they consume.The use of biogas supports the objectives of the European Union of 20 % of renewable energy by 2020. Other positive facts, include: 

-Establishing a decentralised energy supply

-Providing high quality fertilizers

-Reducing unpleasant local odours

-Strengthening regional economies and creating added value

Although, on the other hand we can see that the methane contained within biogas is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.Therefore, uncontained landfill gas, which escapes into the atmosphere may significantly contribute to the effects of global warming. In addition, landfill gas impact in global warming; also volatic organic compounds (VOCs) contained within landfill gas greatly contribute to the formation of smog.

Question to reflect about:

Do you think that biogas could be use as a sustainable way to produce energy in chile? 

VIDEOGAMES AND ISOLATION

One of videogames mayor problems is that they cause isolation from society, causing severe problems in almost every aspect of a person’s life, specially it´s social abilities. This happens specially in the case of people addicted to videogames, wich are about 12% of polled online gamers according to the BBC. This people might have important problems in their future that must be try to be avoid in order to have a better and more healthy life.

To begin with, we need to look out how and why videogames cause people to isolate from society. To understand imagine a kid with a TV and a console in his room to which he can access every time he wants and added to the fact he have  really addicting and fun videogames to play. The analysis of this situation is simple; he won´t get out of his room as he is going to prefer playing inside his room, rather than doing a sport, playing at park, or simply, speaking to others. The last is cause because games are interactive and the kid takes the role of the main player in most games, leaving to “interact” with programs, not with real people. In the long term, the boy will feel more comfortable “interacting” with a videogame rather than people, because it is far more simple and it doesn´t even require you to get out of your room. This has been proved by a studie from the University of Rochester, that conclude that many games satisfy basic pshycological need, and player often play because of the ingame rewars, freedom and a connection to other players. 

After we have just explained how and why videogames isolate people, the consequences of it are pretty obvious. The kid or grown up that plays videogames too much will have problems to establish relationships as he will become more shy and quiet. He will loose contact with reality, causing severe problems with how he develops and interact with society, and more importantly as a result of playing too many videogames and get isolate, is that the person affected by this problem will end up alone, without any type of real and solid relationships. If we get back to the example of the kid, imagine that he plays compulsively every day, he will not be interested in  entabling new relationships, as such he will gradually start to lose his “soft” abilities, specially his social abilities, this might not affect him at a beginning or if he is a child, but when he has to get to university for example, the lack of social abilities will really matter and as a result of not being able to socialize with others, he will isolate more, eventually fall into depression and then maybe even worse things. 

Finally, we need to focus on what can be done to prevent or to control this severe problem. I want to say here that playing videogames occasionally is not something bad, all the problems come when the user doesn´t know when to stop and they lose the whole day doing nothing but playing.  The solution to this problem is to organize your time, put a time where you can play videogames, another for doing a sport, for hanging out with friends, etc.. By organizing your time and getting out more, you will have much less problems to stop playing. If your kid is the one addicted  to videogames, try to reduce the amount of time he spends playing videogames, different studies recommend that a maximum of 1 to 2 hours a day, by no way he can have access to videogames in his own room, and you must encourage him to make new friends and spent as much time as possible playing games outdoors. As a last tip, remember that determination and self-control are the key to free yourself from videogames and start to have a normal and sociable life. 

GLOGSTER

To support my upcoming presentation about how videogames cause isolation, I prepared a glogster to have a more interactive way of presenting my topic.

Link to glogster: http://matias96.edu.glogster.com/videogames-cause-isolattion

Based on the video PLAY, we where told to select a topic for our oral activity.I think that looking after loking at this video the topic I want to focus about is how videogames isolate people from society.

 I found the following informaton for my topic, although I will still use more info as I found it:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/negative-potential-video-games/
http://www.debate.org/opinions/does-the-amount-of-time-a-child-spends-playing-computer-or-video-games-affect-his-or-her-social-development
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/12626/1/Video-Game-Addiction--A-Serious-Issue-Among-Children.html

Finally, I choose a speech, so I will provide arguments about how does videogaming cause isolation

 Quote analysis

In this entry I will analyse the following quote:

“Advertising is everywhere you look, whether it is in the newspaper you pick up daily or on that billboard you see while driving down the highway. Some people may say that they are not in fact influenced by the advertising that is thrown at them each day, and that they do not fall into it, but everyone does.”


This quote is a very important observation of how advertisement works, it is always trying to catch your attention, leaving you ta message, from convincing to buy a Coca-Cola to political advertisement. That fact combined with globalization, makes advertisement a very powerful weapon for convincing people, even those who claim that they are not influenced by Advertising. The question in my opinion is why we can`t leave free from the influence of advertisement? I think it is because we, humans, are social in the sense that we interact with the evironment and with our own kind everyday, everytime, we can`t live islate. This makes every human responsive and sensible to the evironment, in this case to mass media that is everywhere we turn around to look.

In according to last paragraph, we can and we should conclude that even those who claim to be "smarter" and not to be affect in their decisions my advertising are just lying to themselves because media is part of our actual evironmment and we are sensible to it in a conscious or unconscious way.

Adds leave an image and a message to costumers and people in general, whether to promote or to convince no to buy or do something, and that message get to our minds and we then make a positive or negative response to the add, so media actually affects and influence everyone because we are humans, we are sensible to our evironmment and to the different product that are being showed in adds.