Biology Is Cool!

BiOLOGiCAL BREAKTHROUGH: Eases Spine Fusion Surgery

2008-05-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

Eases Spine Fusion Surgery

Nov. 7, 2001 -- New technology, using genetically engineered messengers, made spine fusion surgery less painful and more likely to succeed! Normally, these messengers exist in bone and other tissues and are called bone Morphogenetic proteins, or BMPs. But when BMPs are placed in the body, they attract stem cells, which then are able to turn into bone cells. Researchers wanted to find out if BMPs could help the body form new bones and avoid the need for painful hip-bone grafts that are currently needed for spine fusion surgery. Spine fusion surgery is used to treat people with severe back pain due to worn-out vertebrae (due to arthritis or injury) usually in the lower part of the spine.

Spinal fusion surgery has typically required removal of bone from the hip to be used as a graft to fuse the vertebrae together, which would relieve pressure on the spinal nerves. These bone grafts currently consist of bone taken from the hip in a separate operation, often causing long-term hip pain. Matthrw F. Gornet, and colleagues from the Missouri Bone and Spine Center, looked at whether BMP could be used in place of bone grafts at 16 different spinal centers. The 279 people in the study underwent the least traumatic form of spinal fusion surgery, and less pain, in which the surgeon operates on the back through a relatively small cut in the abdomen. Half the people got the BMP-loaded frame, and half got frames loaded with hip bone grafts. The people who received natural bone grafts did better than expected. About 89% of them had complete spinal fusion. But those getting the BMP material, called "InFUSE," did even better. About 95% had complete spinal fusion.

My feelings upon this surgery are simple, I think that this is a great way to have a spinal fusion surgery, less pain and less traumatizing. It's definitely better than having to have a HUGE gash in your back! I predict that the people who will be getting this surgery will end up having better lives because they would get rid of the pain.

Bio Entrepenuerial idea

2008-05-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

Pain-Be-Gone

A product that people would buy is something that relieves pain or soreness after working out. It should called PAIN-BE-GONE. It can be a tasty powder that you can put in your water or energy drink after working out. Or some sort of substance you can put in your food that you will eat after working out. This substance should help relieve pain or soreness so that the next day when you get out of bed, you're not in pain. I predict that all the athletes would use this and would make them feel much better after their workout or their game (football, baseball, track, basketball, etc.)

Bio Entrepeneurs

2008-05-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Gas-X Extra Strength

Generic Name: Simethicone Capsules and Tablets (sih-METH-ih-cone) Brand Name: Examples include Gas-X Extra Strength and Mylanta Gas Relief Maximum Strength

This medicine relieves symptoms in your digestive system(pressure, bloating, gas, etc.). This pill works by breaking up the gas bubbles and making it easier to eliminate them.

SIDE EFFECTS:

The side effects are: getting----> rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue.

My Opinion

My feelings about his product is that it really does work, a lot. Sometimes, I get pain in my chest where it feels as though gas is crowding around my heart and squishing it. It makes it harder for me to breathe and the pain increases. So I take this pill, and it goes away, it's AMAZING!!!

Click Here

Notes on EYE Lecture

2008-04-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

April 17, 2008, the students (and i) of Mr. Olson's class had a guest lecturer. Her name was Dr. Pamela Fong and she is an optometrist. Optometrists examine people's eyes to make sure that they're eyes are healthy and also to find out if they can see well or not. Dr. Fong has taught us that people who are near sighted, which we call myopia, have corneas that are too strong. Also, people that are far sighted, hyperia, have weak corneas. Another eye sickness is Astigmatism, where the corneas are aspheric.

The structures of the eye and what they do are as follows: The tough, clear, covering over the front of the eye is the cornea. The colored portion of the eye - opens and closes to monitor amount of light that enters the eye is the iris. The clear disk which focuses light rays into a sharp image is the eye's lens. The nerve that carries information from the eye to the brain is the optic nerve. The opening into the center of the iris is the pupil. The lining of the eye which contain millions of light-sensitive cells called rods and cones is the retina. The clear, colorless transparent jelly that fills the eyeball behind the lens is the vitreous humor. The fluid that fills the space between the lens and the cornea is the aqueous fluid. The dense fibrous opaque white outer layer of the eyeball, except for the cornea, is the sclera. The place in the black of the eye on the retina with only a few light-sensitive cells is the blind spot.

I have learned that everybody has unique sets of iris's and retinas. everbody's iris has different patterns. No one's iris has the same pattern. Our eyes are like cameras, we have our own lenses and "camera system." Also, everyone sees things differently, and interprets vision differently as well. Dr. Fong also taught us that the macula has the highest concentration in the eye(seen in the back of the eye). I also learned that our blind spot is the optic nerve. Our Vitreous Humors are different colors, depending on what color hair you have. EX: blond people have lighter Vitreous Humors than brunettes.

In the Eye Dissection lab, i have learned that the black fluid that leaked out of the eye when we cut it is pigments. I also learned that, when a eye lens is hard that means that the person is old. The scleria in the eye i dissected was thick. Inside the eye, the colors blue, green, and yellow were lining the retina. This lab was very interesting and I thank Dr. Pamela Fong for teaching us about our eyes.

Fruit Bats

2008-02-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Domain: Eukarya.
Kingdom: Animalia.
Phylum: Chordata.
Subphylum: Vertebrata.
Class: Mammalia.
Order: Chiroptera.
FAMILY: PTEROPODIDAE

Fruit bats are flying animals that you find living in the forests of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Did you know that Fruit bats are sometimes known as Foxes? Yes they do, they are called this because of the shape of their face. There are currently about 166 species of Fruit bats. These bats live in huge colonies called "camps." Fruit bats are nocturnal, which means that they are most active at night, animals that rest during the day by hanging upside down by their feet from either a tree branch to a cave.

Fruit bats devour fruit and plants. Each plant these animals visit while getting food, they are also pollinating the plants that they are flying to. As the the people from the sight, EnchantedLearning, say, "In addition, they disperse the plants' seeds as they eat. Many plants, including some avocados, dates, mangos, and peaches, are dependent on these bats for either pollination or seed dispersal."

Fruit bats are actually pretty large bats, but that doesn't mean that you wouldn't find a small one. Their body is furry, their long fingers covered by thin skin are their wings. The male Fruit bat and female Fruit bat look almost alike. Fruit bats have five toes on each feet, making a grand total of 10 toes. But, these animals have week legs and don't walk quite well, like all bats. From Africa, The Livingstone's Fruit Bat is one of the largest fruit bats. It has a wingspan of up to six feet. From the countries of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, New Guinea, The Solomon Islands, and northern Australia, The long-tongued fruit bat, is one of the smallest fruit bats. It has a wingspan of 5-6 inches.

Fruit bats usually drinks fruit juice from the fruit that they eat and flower nectar. Fruit bats chew on the fruit, spits out the seeds from the fruit, peel the fruit, then pulp. Like other bats, Fruit bats use the sense of smell to find their food, fruit, and/or nectar. Although Fruit bats have large eyes and can see quite well, Fruit bats do not use sight as their primary sense. They use their eyes during the day and sense of smell at night.

Sites I have gathered information from:
Fruit Bats
Long-Tounged Bat
Fruit Bats are not 'blind as a bat'

Down Syndrome.

2007-12-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

Down Syndrome.

My blogger assignment will be on Down Syndrome. First of all, Humans normally have 46 chromosomes in our bodies, these chromosomes are in 23 pairs. 22 pairs are alike in both men and women, which are called the "autosomes." The last pair(23rd) are sex chromosomes(X and Y).

Human cells divide in two ways. The first way is ordinary cell division, which is Mitosis, by which the body grows. In this method, one cell becomes two cells which have the exact same number and type of chromosomes as the parent cell. The second method of cell division occurs in the ovaries and testicles, which is Meiosis, and consists of one cell splitting into two, with the resulting cells having half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell. So, normal eggs and sperm cells only have 23 chromosomes instead of 46.

Many errors can occur during cell division. In meiosis, the pairs of chromosomes are supposed to split up and go to different spots in the dividing cell. This event is called "disjunction." However, occasionally one pair does not divide, and the whole pair goes to one spot. This means that in the resulting cells, one will have 24 chromosomes and the other will have 22 chromosomes. This accident is called "nondisjunction." If a sperm or egg with an abnormal number of chromosomes merges with a normal mate, the resulting fertilized egg will have an abnormal number of chromosomes.

In Down syndrome, 95% of all cases are caused by this event: one cell has two 21st chromosomes instead of one, so the resulting fertilized egg has three 21st chromosomes. That's why they call it Trisomy 21. Recent research has shown that in these cases, approximately 90% of the abnormal cells are the eggs. The cause of the nondisjunction error isn't known, but there is definitely connection with maternal age. Research is currently aimed at trying to determine the cause and timing of the nondisjunction event.

I found my research at this website. CLICK ME!

Cancer Will Come Back, Just Like It Came Back For My Cousin...

2007-10-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

There are more than one-hundred different types of CANCER. Follow me! These are the different types of CANCERS that you can get:
~CARCINOMA- CANCER that begins in the skin. It can also begin in tissues that line or cover internal organs.
~SARCOMA- CANCER that begins in connective/supportive tissues such as bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, or blood vessels.
~LEUKEMIA- CANCER that starts in tissue that forms blood, such as the bone marrow. It produces large numbers of abnormal blood cells and enters the blood.
~LYMPHOMA and MYELOMA- CANCERS that are made in the cells of the immune system. ~CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM CANCERS- CANCERS that are made in the tissue of the brain and/or spinal cord. Research shoes that there is a maximum of 100,000 victims diagnosed with CANCER per year. That's a lot of people! Follow this link to learn more. In fact, my cousin, AnnaMaria Kakis, died two years ago at the age of 19 years old. She suffered from LYMPHOMA. She had it ever since she was born. Then it left her for good, or so we thought. Turns out, she was in remission. So, make sure that if you have CANCER to get it treated as soon as possible, even if you think it's going away. It will come back, just like it came back for my cousin...

Lucifer The Snail<3

2007-08-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

hi, I'm Irene Mavroudis. I am in Mr. Olson's Biology Class at Mills High School. We did a experiment on snails. I got teamed up with Brittany and Maeyra. We names our Snail, Lucifer. He was small and cute. I fed him lettuce and we noticed that it had black teeth/mouth. We placed him on a concave lense of some type and pointed him near the light and looked at the bottom of the lense and saw wave-like movements under his foot. This is what allows him to move. We also noticed that at the end of his antenna-like eyes, there was a tiny, black dot...which was his eye. I hope that Mr. Olson gives us more fun experiments to do!!!