What is Life?

1.) A plant and a mouse are placed in a sealed container with a watering system. For a period of time, both will survive. Explain what the two organisms can provide for each other in order to allow them to survive temporarily.

The mouse releases CO2  which will help the plant survive in the box. The plant releases O2 that would help the mouses breath in the container.

2.) It is possible to measure the rate of the "photo" reactions in plants by measuring O2 levels produce by chloroplasts. If bicarbonates solution, a source of CO2, is provided to the plants, the rate of the "photo" reactions increases.

a.) Explain why measuring O2 levels provides an indication of the rate of the "photo" reactions.

During photosynthesis when splitting of H2O molecules oxygen is released. So if there is a lot of oxygen that means that photosynthesis is occurring faster.

b.) Being as specific as possible, describe how the plants will use the CO2 provided by the bicarbonate solution.

CO2 is captured by an enzyme which is attached to an organic molecule. This is than converted to a sugar called G3P which is than converted into more sustainable sugar. The rest of the G3P is made into a new organic molecule.

c.) Propose an explanation of how increasing the CO2 source for the plants will affect the rate of the "photo" reactions.

By increasing CO2 the plant might take in an grow faster, but I still don't really understand how it can effect the "photo".

3.) Some plants grow much more quickly than others. For a plant that is growing at a rapid rate, propose a hypothesis as to whether cellular respiration or photosynthesis is occurring at a faster rate. Justify your hypothesis.

Photosynthesis is occurring in a fast rate because the plant is growing in a fast rate. Photosynthesis is the way of making food for the plant to fuel its self. Cellular respiration occurs when it has sugars to breakdown, there is no way cellular respiration to occur faster than photosynthesis since photosynthesis is making hte sugar for it to break down. 

Book Review:The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The Omnivores Dilemma is a very indulging book to read. It incorporates various food and health subjects that you might find interesting if you are a person whom wants to know more about where food comes from as well as the pros and cons over this matter.  I enjoyed learning and exploring new findings that were in relation to what I ate every day and the kind of meals that I picked out to be “healthy” for me.  Reading further into the book I realized that I could prove everything that I had read from only taking food labels and reading its details on the back proving that everything said in the book was 100% accurate, and personally my preference in books have to be based on quality not quantity. This book kept me entertained and well guided with each page that I read. Each page was filled with opinions from the author and I appreciated his well-written evidence that supported his theories and analysis. There weren’t just a bunch of statements that all of a sudden appeared in the book and you were supposed to believe in them. He pretty much convinced me into believing his reasons towards why we weren’t paying much attention to what kind of meals we ate, and what had brought us to them.  

Likewise understanding his findings was complicated and they were filled with various factors that had to be explained in depth in order for him to convey his message. This was a bit challenging for me and made me a little confused while I was following the theme of the book. Comprehending every little detail that is explained was complex and frustrating; however, as you keep on reading further and further into the book you are going to sense that you had to know all that so that you wouldn’t have questions at the end of each section of the book. This goes along with how the authors writing style is perceived and maintained. Michael Pollan is a very famous author whom knows what he’s doing and has accurately researched all the subjects that are being talked about in his book. In additions to that he has evidence supporting his every thought, which I think is something that captures the reader, making every statement valuable and efficient. He gives many versions of his own opinions and what he thinks regarding the subject, as well as analyzing situations and explaining what he thinks about each one. His writing style is unique and many people might agree that he writes what he thinks based on his experience and research.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is set up based on how stable our food chain is, and why our diet has changed over time. Pollan looks at long term implications of eating a highly processed diet. The three main sections of the book consisted of, Industrial: Corn which basically talked about food coming from the farm to the dinner table and how now in days we have so many processed foods that contain various types of chemicals that make each one taste different even though it’s supposed to be the same. For example farmers back then grew normal crops that took a while to produce but they did it naturally and it was considered normal for everyone, but now you have people growing as much products in a more rapid way for a larger consumer which is us. And the consequences of it all are having forgotten how a natural product tastes like without calling it a processed food. The methods used for processing foods include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration, and aseptic processing. All of these effects are indeed something we see that is made of our food which we eat every day, and as bad as it seems we consider ourselves to rather go into the more “healthier” side which is supposed to be more effective and not contain any chemicals, but as a matter of fact even going “organic” is something you have to really think about before committing.

The book then follows towards the wild side where he focuses mainly on the business of animals. The reason for feeding cows corn is a way so they can make more money and sell the meat for lesser prices at the store. It’s always about business and how to make more profit over spending less than what the value of the item is really worth. Companies who do these types of things only think about their benefits and how they have a say in what we eat and can afford considering that now a days it’s cheaper to get processed foods that fill you up, then the organic foods that cost more and are harder to find. The economic situation is something that we are all suffering with having to make cuts and rank the prices higher in order to gain business, but that just proves that it is pushing us to buy cheaper, faster, and unhealthy meals to feed our family, but it all comes with a price that is likely to make us feel happy at the moment but later on suffer the consequences.

Lastly comes the part in which you have to make a decision. When you can eat just about anything nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will obviously be a struggle every day, where you never know what kind of option you’re going to choose from. With this, Pollan gave good examples about different types of animals that ate differently. The Koala doesn't worry about food, he just chews and leaves. Rats and humans have bigger issues. In a large part of the first section in the book deals with the central role that corn plays in our modern industrial food production. Corn, or some corn byproduct, has worked its way into almost every processed food item that we eat, including most of the beef sold in the US. Considering that cows don't naturally eat corn, and in fact cannot digest corn well without help, corn has the advantage of getting cows fat quickly and adding "marbling" to the beef, but only with the help of drugs and vets. This cuts in to the price tags judging by how full the cows are, and how satisfying they are going to make you.

     In conclusion to what I think about the book this book is simply described in a rating of five stars. I just think that the book speaks for itself and describes every aspect of ways humans have evolved from eating various types of foods. Everything from Nutrition facts to the way we choose our foods today has made this book unique and strictly focused on a subject that relates to everyone. Everyone is included and described in its own way but it’s up to you, the reader, to complete this book and see how it affects you about how the author describes food and everything that comes with it such as, animals, organic, processed, etc.  

Entry 4: The Book's Structure

“But imagine for a moment if we once again knew, strictly as a matter of course, these few unremarkable things: What it is we’re eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table. And what, in a true account, it really cost. We could then talk about some other things at dinner. For we would no longer need any reminding that however we choose to feed ourselves, we eat by the grace of nature, not industry, and what we’re eating is never anything more or less than the body of the world.” pg. 411

Getting towards the end of the book was really fascinating. I had become aware of so many problems that we as a community were having about how to identify ourselves and others based on what we eat, and where it all came from. Somehow the message of the book is so powerful to me and conveys a sense of willingness to accept that I have no clue of what I’m eating every day. I just know that it’s delicious and sometimes cheap. Therefore, I chose this quote because of its direct evidence referring to topics about why we eat the things we eat. The context of this quote is written to ask the reader questions that are led to basically answer them.  But not only that, the author meant to base the answers on what they learned from reading the multiple sections of each type of category. Michael Pollan has made his understandings clear within our own answers and defined what the main factors of being an omnivore are. Concluding to this, we happen to see nature as a machine adjusting it to our own advantage and making sure that we get what we want. We seek new ways to speed up production and in order to do it we put in various chemicals that not only harm the environment but fail to give us the same taste or texture that maybe an “organic” piece of food would have. Going along with that, there are also many wrong decisions that people tend to make when it comes time to produce food starting from the bottom of the food chain. An example of this mistake would likely be having artificial manure leading to artificial nutrition, artificial food, and artificial animals resulting in artificial men and women as well. This was stated at the beginning of the book and followed through all the way until the end. Reading about this brought me back to an article that I was reading the other day while I was researching nutrition facts. It was an article about examining reactions and interactions as chemical components were undergoing processing, packaging, storage, and digestion. Their overall intent was to explore new analytical techniques and understand advances in bioactive research, at least that’s what they stated as an overall result. Their research demonstrated most of their accuracy within their charts and described different components that went along with these different types of stages. Likewise I thought this quote was really beneficial to me in a sense that I got to expand my knowledge and create my own answers and perspective towards why I eat the food I eat. 

Entry 3: Authors Persona, Tone, & Intended Audience

"You are what you eat is a truism hard to argue with, and yet it is, as a visit to a feedlot suggests, incomplete, for you are what you eat eats, too. And what we are, or have to become, is not just meat but number 2 corn and oil." Pg. 84

I found this quote while I was reading through where I had stopped last time, and as soon as I finished the first part of the page I was on, I suddenly went back to read this quote again. When I read it to myself again I felt that it summarized half of what the message of the book might have been trying to reveal all along. I know that I have a long way to go in order to finish the whole book, but this quote made me see many of the different aspects that this book had to offer. One of them was identifying yourself with what you eat and how it will affect you on the outside as well as in the inside. It sounds really weird but makes a lot of sense when Michael Pollan puts it out in a certain way that you can actually relate to, and as well as demonstrating the different foods that vary with your looks. This quote mainly focused on the fact that cows weren’t meant to be stuffed with corn and oil to be healthy and strong. The reasons why they started being feed corn and oil was because farmers were looking to make their cows grow faster to an extent that they didn’t care how they managed to treat the cows, they only pleased the demand of larger produce markets that demanded meat and other produce faster. With this being said, people started becoming of what they ate. For instance a lot of people who ate meat or milk out of cows or other animals that were repeatedly feed corn and oil, were only stuffing themselves with this type of food as well. So instead of a cow stuffed with corn and oil, we became humans stuffed with corn and oil.I found an interesting article about how scientists are now experimenting with cows and other types of animals that serve us as food and produce more food. I found this result and saw it in a perspective that matched my quote which was making our food replicate and be the same so what we eat will have positive benefits to how we look and feel which is proteins and other stuff like that, but in other cases the outcome could be that the negative sides will double and never end. For example when I was reading the article that I found from genetic engineering, it stated that scientists were going to test out an experiment to see how fish can be mutated and be formed in a rather more perfect way, as they call it. Their goal was to make healthier foods but, what’s next genetically engineered humans?

Entry 2: Thesis/Purpose

“This corn-fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass.” Pg. 75

I liked this quote because it had a lot of meaning to everything that was explained throughout the book, even though it talks about the meat and why it’s bad, there is also the part where it says that it’s cheaper and that caught my attention. It makes sense in the way that I see why people choose to eat these foods. The reason for feeding cows corn is a way so they can make more money and sell the meat for lesser prices at the store. It’s always about business and how to make more profit over spending less than what the value of the item is really worth. I think that the companies who do these types of things only think about their benefits and how they have a say in what we eat and can afford considering that now a days it’s cheaper to get processed foods that fill you up, then the organic foods that cost more and are harder to find. The economic situation is something that we are all suffering with having to make cuts and rank the prices higher in order to gain business, but that just proves that it is pushing us to buy cheaper, faster, and unhealthy meals to feed our family, but it all comes with a price that is likely to make us feel happy at the moment but later on suffer the consequences. My reaction to the meaning of this quote that I chose in my personal experience has been to grow up with these kinds of foods and seeing them wherever I go. Sometimes I wonder how there could be so many fast food restaurants that make billions upon billions of dollars every day just by having people consume their processed burgers, and meat, and anything else that might contain some product that has been grown “modernly”. I sometimes want to think that people have the choice to live a life where they can choose what to eat and for it to be healthy for them as well. But, there’s always that one obstacle that makes that impossible to some of us like me and my family. I consider my family as middle class, and I can totally relate to this in a sense that makes me mad because my natural reaction towards the processed foods is that I love them and they taste so delicious, but when I really think about what is in my meat I get frustrated and see that if I compare the prices against processed foods and organic foods, the organic foods should be cheaper shouldn’t they? I have never got this comparison in full understanding.

Entry 1: Authors credibility and background

“The organic apple or the conventional? And if the organic, the local one or the imported? The wild fish or the farmed? The trans fats or the butter or the “not butter”? Shall I be a carnivore or a vegetarian? And if a vegetarian, a lacto-vegeterian or a vegan?” Michael Pollan from The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pg.5 Commentary I chose this quote because as I started reading this book I liked how it had an introductory chapter that made you question yourself about what type of food you eat. I also liked the reasons why the author was writing about what type of foods mean in our everyday lives. Now in days we have so many processed foods that contain various types of chemicals that make each one taste different even though it’s supposed to be the same. For example farmers back then grew normal crops that took a while to produce but they did it naturally and it was considered normal for everyone, but now you have people growing as much products in a more rapid way for a larger consumer which is us. And the consequences of it all are having forgotten how a natural product tastes like without calling it a processed food. The methods used for processing foods include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration, and aseptic processing. All of these effects are indeed something we see that is made of our food which we eat every day, and as bad as it seems we consider ourselves to rather go into the more “healthier” side which is supposed to be more effective and not contain any chemicals, but as a matter of fact even going “organic” is something you have to really think about before committing. In regards to this topic I also have a connection that I had with the quote and which was during my recent trip to the store with my mom to buy groceries where I realized that not a lot of the things my mom was putting into the cart were easy to read in the back of the ingredients section. As I looked through many other products they also had weird ingredients that I couldn’t even pronounce. This also made me think back into sophomore year when I had chemistry and my teacher had told us a phrase he used in his everyday life which was, “Like I always said, try to not drink or eat anything that contains something that you can’t even pronounce.” And this really makes sense to me relating it back to the significance of my quote. Even before I had found my quote everything that had been said was leading up to what my quote meant. For example it made statements about how us humans have a variety of options that are either likely to be healthy or sufficiently satisfying. Even sometimes by giving us too much of a variety of options, people tend to choose the most incorrect one. However, maybe my quote will open a new subject towards the history of what might be the reasons of food production. There has also been a lot of food production stories on the news that cover the meaning of my quote and state various opinions of how they think people choose what to eat by looking at where it came from, or how it was grown. They explain the pesticides they use to kill any harm from the product that they are growing, but they also explain the bad effects of it.

Research Activity For Senior Project

Describe your topic. Ethnobotany is the study of particular indigenous plants that are used as remedies and beneficial towards health in general within different cultures and regions. Specialized people who are commited to researching these types of plants are called Ethnobotaits, they look further into the ways of using the plants for such things as food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting, and religious ceremonies. They are mainly known for curing illness and being used as medicine. What is it about this subject that interests you? Be as specific as you can. If you have multiple reasons for wanting to explore this subject, include all of them. My interest in medical plants is very simple. I am interested in knowing what causes the growth of medical plants and what benefits do they have in having all these natural curing nutrients stored inside of them. I am also curious about the kind of effects that they have to nature other than helping us with health issues, but what do they offer mother nature as well. I also want to know what I might stumble upon while researching this topic. Research projects that have already been done and summarize the researcher's findings/results. Well, one research project that I came across as interesting used Ethnobotany as their primary subject of research and also involved medical plants that are commonly used around the world. It seemed quite interesting because it explored different cultures and their beliefs in these magical healing plants.

Initial Plant Research

Carrot

a. The carrot is a vegetable plant. 

b. The carrot comes with wholesome health benefiting compounds such as betacarotenes, vitamin A, minerals, and anti oxidants. They are exceptionally rich a rich source of carotenes and vitamin-A. a 100 g fresh carrot contains 8285 µg of beta-carotene and 16706 IU of Vitamin A. With this said studies have found that flavonoid compounds in carrots help protect from skin, lung and oral cavity cancers. 

c. The growing season for a carrot in San Diego is year round. The weather isn't to harsh and it could survive some cold here and there since San Diego is always sunny, and that's exactly what a carrot needs, sunshine. To be precise it needs at least 6 to 8 hours of sun daily, so it is recommended to be planted in a sunny area. Also, the seed when planted does not have to be frozen, it could be planted normally. However, the smallest thing could go wrong when preparing the soil, so we have to be aware of the smallest rocks and little twigs that we have to get out. 

d. It will take about 2 to 4 months for the carrot to go from seed to harvest. I think this will make sense if we start now and see results in mid April. 

e. It would take a 4 by 5 foot area which will give us about 10 carrots per week for 1 or 2 months. Each seed should be planted at least 1 inch from each other in rows. 

f. Potting soil would be perfect when planted on a raised bed. 

g. When planted it should get at least 1-2 inches of water down in the soil. 

h. The best companion plants for the carrots are, tomatoes, alliums, and onions.

Pest Management
Some of the most common pests in carrots are
wireworms
vegetable weevils which have the most effect produce quality. 
Other pests that chew directly on the entire leaf are, caterpillars
parsleyworm
yellow woollybear
vegetable leafminer
vegetable weevil
larva. 

http://ipm.ncsu.edu/ag295/html/carrotkey.htm

Collard Greens 

a. The collard greens are a vegetable plant.
b. Wonderfully nutritious collard leaves are very low in calories (provide only 30 cal per 100 g) and contain no cholesterol. However, these greeny leaves contain very good amount of soluble and insoluble dietary fibre that helps control LDL cholesterol levels and also; offers protection against hemorrhoids, constipation as well as colon cancer diseases. Widely considered to be healthful foods, collards are rich in invaluable sources of phyto-nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties, such as di-indolyl-methane (DIM) and sulforaphane that have proven benefits against prostate, breast, cervical, colon, ovarian cancers by virtue of their cancer cell growth inhibition and cytotoxic effects on cancer cells.
c. They are best harvested in November all through April. They could also be grown from the seed and San Diego's weather is not going to harm the process of it's growth in any way. 
d.  It will take about 55 to 75 days to go from seed to harvest. I think we will have enough time to plant it in time. 
e. A 4 by 5 foot area will give us a bunch of collards per week for the entire harvest. They are going to be planted in rows which are 16 inches apart and there is going to be a seed 4 inches apart inside the rows. 
f. They can grow in mostly all soil types but it has to be well in nutrients and draining. 
g. When first planting you should water it 1 to 2 inches down into the dirt. 

Pest Management
Some of the most common pests found in collard greens are best known as 
cabbage loopers 
cabbage whiteflies
diamond-back moths
And sometimes some bugs come around as well, such as 
flea beetles
harlequin bugs.

MLA: eHow. "Common Pests for Collard Greens."

Cauliflower a. It is a flower-vegetable plant
b. It is very low in calories. 100 g of the fresh cauliflower head provides only 26 calories. Nevertheless, it comprises of several health-benefiting antioxidants and vitamins in addition to be very low in fat and contains no cholesterol. Its florets contain about 2 g of dietary fiber per 100 g; providing about 5% of recommended value. Cauliflower contains several anti-cancer phyto-chemicals like sulforaphane and plant sterols such as indole-3-carbinol, which appears to function as an anti-estrogen agent. Together these compounds have proven benefits against prostate, breast, cervical, colon, ovarian cancers by virtue of their cancer-cell growth inhibition, cytotoxic effects on cancer cells.
c. The growing season for this plant is year round, but it's very delicate and does not tolerate if the weather is too hot or too cold. So we have to be very careful and have an advantage that San Diego doesn't get too hot or cold like in other places. 
d. sprout within five to 10 days when the soil temperatures are at least 65 degrees.
e. A 4 by 5 foot area will give about 5 heads of cauliflower. 
g. Water thoroughly at least 1 to 2 inches down in the soil. 

Pest Management
Flea beetles
Cabbage maggots
Caterpillars
Cabbage loopers
Cabbage worms

such as aphids and flea beetles—tend to attack cauliflower more in spring than in fall. Cabbage maggots, sometimes called root maggots, can also be a serious problem. Caterpillars, such as cabbage loopers and imported cabbageworms, are other common cauliflower pests. 

Dirt! The Movie

1. How do most Americans react to the idea of children playing in dirt? Why do you think they react that way? From what I've seen recently, most Americans don't like the idea of their children playing in dirt because they have the idea stuck in their head that there are a lot of bugs and bad stuff hiding in the dirt. Maybe they react this way because they only see the appearance of the dirt and may not have much knowledge about what dirt really contains in it. In the movie, I noticed that one of the experts on dirt mentioned that he didn't understand the children now in days who don't want to play in dirt or their parents who don't let them because he states that the generations before us grew up in the dirt and it was filled with life.

  3. What is your reaction to hearing about the number of farmer suicides in rural India over the past decade? (The film reports there were 200,000.) If such a thing occurred in this country, what do you think would happen? My reaction to hearing this sadly but true statistic is very disappointing because it shows how much money and power can definitely influence people in such ways as to commit suicide and come to those extreme measures just to get out of a situation in which money and power as well as sustainability has been greatly fought for. If this such thing were to happen here, I think in my opinion everything would just go downhill. It would just come to show that people care more about how to make things fast in order to gain the money they need, but instead the outcome is far worse than expected because during the process a massive amount of natural resources will be cut off, and that would be irreversible.

  7. Keeping in mind the hummingbird story told in the film, do you think doing the best you can is enough to preserve the health of the planet, even if millions of people do their best? What responsibility do governments have to help maintain a healthy planet for future generations? To be honest hearing the hummingbird story really impacted me, not only from the message it gave out but also how the lady was telling it. She had such hope and strength when she was telling the story that it almost made me feel like I wanted to be like the hummingbird as she felt the same way. Maybe the best I can do might not be enough to preserve the health of the planet, but it will bring me satisfaction to know that I tried and was a part of something so beautiful as to continue the cycle of the dirt and later on see what it becomes. As far as to what the government needs to in order to maintain this planet healthy for future generation to come, I think they should encourage programs that give back to the community. Such as the ones in the movie that had kids from schools making their own gardens, and prisoners helping out by planting and cultivating the dirt. Things like those are what the government should encourage and expect form us.