What is Health?

     To me, being healthy implies being fit physically and mentally. I think I am good at maintaining a nutritional and social wellbeing, but I think I should work on exercising more, and stressing out less (which leads to sleeping more). If I can manage to fix my stress levels and exercising habits, I will greatly improve my health! I would like to learn some quick exercises that can keep my body fit, while not wasting time. This way, I will have more time to do my work (and reduce stress). Hitting two birds with one stone!

Unit 1 Reflection

Unit 1 Reflection

     Unit 1 was about the introduction to Anatomy and Physiology and histology (which is the study of tissues). We learned about the different kinds of anatomical terms used to identify locations of various parts of the body in relation to each other. The main theme of this year was that form fits function. We also learned about the form and function of four different kinds of tissues: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. Epithelial tissue covers a body surface or lines body cavities. Connective tissue fills space between organs and tissues and provides structural and metabolic support for other tissues and organs. Muscle tissue is composed of myosin and actin and exists in three forms: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle tissue. Nervous tissue transmit electrical signals from sensory receptors to effectors. We learned about how the different structures of tissues affected the specialization of each type of cell.
     We did a lab in which we were given the opportunity to look at different types of tissues under the microscope. This is a cross-section of a peripheral neuron.
     We also did a lab in which we learned about the different kinds of carbohydrates and how their structure affects their sweetness level. We tasted sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose.

     Something that I think I could work on becoming better at is recognizing different types of tissues on images from microscopes. Through practice, I think I will be able to become more efficient in recognizing them. For the next unit, I will complete the tests at the end of each chapter so I can make sure that I know all of the material.

     I want to become a neurosurgeon, so learning about these different kinds of tissue can make it easier to understand concepts in a college-level class, as I will know the fundamentals because of this class. 

Tissue Lab Relate and Review

9/3/15

Relate and Review

     Even though there are only 4 main different kinds of tissues, epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous, there are many subcategories. Today we looked at different types of tissues in each category. The tissue slide that stood out to me was the peripheral nerve cell. This stood out to me because over the summer I took a course in cognitive neuroscience at Berkeley. We looked at samples of nerve cells there as well. The difference was that these two slides of nerve cells looked completely different. This made me understand the diversity that can exist in the different categories of tissues. Another tissue slide that was interesting was the human cardiac muscle. The branching of the cells is unique to only the cardiac muscle cells as it is used to increase the efficiency of pumping blood throughout our bodies.

Neuron

Cell Specialization: Neurons

NERVE CELLS:

• https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/cells.html
• http://www.brainfacts.org/~/media/Brainfacts/Article%20Multimedia/About%20Neuroscience/Brain%20Facts%20book.ashx
• http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/10/07/the-amazing-neuron-facts-about-neurons/

     Neurons are used to transmit nerve impulses throughout the body. A neuron contains a cell body, dendrites, an axon, axon terminals, and synapses. This type of cell has the same organelles as regular eukaryotic cells. As shown in the diagram above, it has an endoplasmic reticulum, a Golgi apparatus, mitochondrion, and a nucleus. Neurons communicate through electrochemical signaling to send speedy responses to stimuli to the central nervous system so the body can elicit a response. Neurons are classified as nervous tissue. I think that neurons are the most important kind of cell in our body because they make us aware of stimuli and our surroundings. Works Cited Here

Works Cited

Cell Specialization

• "Neuroscience For Kids." Cells of the Nervous System. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Sweetness Lab

     Today, in my Anatomy and Physiology class, I got the chance to taste eight different kinds of sugar: sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose. We had to rate the different sugars on a scale of 0-200 with the sucrose being used as the control baseline for rating the sweetness. The sweetest carbohydrate was glucose. It had the least amount of rings, and it had a relative sweetness of 100. Because it had the smallest number or rings (it was a monosaccharide), it had a higher sweetness. I noticed that as the number of sugar rings increases, then the sweetness level will go down. They are inversely related.
     All of the people in my group gave mostly the same ratings, but there were a couple that we had disagreed on. For monosaccharides, it is easier to taste the sweetness from it because it is easier for the taste buds to recognize the sugar. The simpler the carbohydrate structure is, the easier it would be for cells and organisms to use it.
      I had thought that the sucrose, glucose, fructose, and maltose would be sweet, while the lactose, starch, cellulose, and galactose would not be sweet. After conducting the experiment, I found that the carbohydrates with the highest sweetness was sucrose, glucose, fructose, and maltose. My hypothesis was proved correct because these four carbohydrates were all monosaccharides, meaning it would be easier to taste the sweetness.