The Human Genome Project -- Blake Werab

I. Introduction

The Human Genome Project is one of the most critical and recent discoveries of this generation. The human genome of each person is different, besides identical twins like myself, and it is the map of all our genes and DNA which makes us, us. So basically the goal of this project is to find the sequence of base pairs that make up an individual's DNA and map the genes of the human genome. It is like our karyotyping exercise we did which is the human genome. The human consists of about 3 billion DNA chemical base pairs or letters (T,A,C,G). In this project, scientist would look at the base pairs and see if they could come up with the correct or accurate genome for that individual.
Figure 1:

II. Discovery

At first, this project was supposed to be run by James D. Watson. Watson then got in an arguement with his boss and was forced to resign. After this the project was given to one of the famous geneticists Francis Collins. Francis Collins studied at Yale University and studied the human genome. The United States Deparment of Energy began the Human Genome project in about 1990 and this was expected to take about 15 years. With a great team by his side, Collins had a rough draft by 2000 and was saving the department money. The human genome project is still continually being added onto today and the discovery of this project was and is a major breakthrough in genetics and can explain genetic reasons for unknown and rare disorders.
Figure 2:

III. Biography of Founder

Francis Collins was born on April 14th, 1950 on a small farm in Virginia. He was home-schooled until about the 7th grade and he later attended Robert E. Lee High School. He is the youngest of his four siblings, all being boys, one being Dr. Fletcher Collins. Collins had no interest in biology and moved on to recieve a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Yale University in 1974. He found his love of DNA and RNA (Nucleic Acids) in a biochemistry class during his studies. Collins is also well-known for what he calls "positional cloning". Positional cloning is like gene hunting or looking for genes that are diseased without knowing what the abnormalities might be. Collins' team found a new approach towards genes that are the cause of cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, and neurofibromatosis. In 1993 he accepted an invite to become the leader of the Human Genome Project. A working draft of the human genome was made in 2000 and Collins was very happy to the fact it was ahead of schedule and under the budget line. Collins believes that this project can help find the cures to killer diseases such as heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes.

Figure 3:

IV. Impact on World/Humanity

The Human Genome Project basically made a map of all the base pairs in one individual's DNA. This is very critical in seeing if this person has a disorder or disfunction and what I disagree with, changing these genes to create the "perfect baby". Now I am not saying if my child, god for bid, had a deadly disorder that they can cure then I would have them cure it in a heartbeat, but if it were to just change the babies eye color then I disagree with it. The Human Genome Project is one of the most interesting topics because the genome maps out all of the genes of a human being and to find out this information is unbelievable. Also, to know all of the base pairs of your own unique DNA (besides identical twins) is pretty cool and it is a very interesting and new discovery.

V. Journal Article Review

This journal article, written by Virginia Miller, is a great example on how people can be helped by the discovery of the Human Genome Project. It gives examples of peoples everyday lives and shows how this project will help not only the patient, but also the patient's family. It also describes how this project can help financially with the healthcare of the patient's family and how it can even find a cure for the patient's disease, in some cases. This project is also good for the families to find out or test to see if their upcoming baby may have a deadly disorder that can only be cured in the prenatal enviorment. Then they can cure this disoreder and have a hopefully healthy baby. If the parents use this project to see what color eyes their baby will have, then I disagree because their eye color is not a matter of life and death and they can wait 9 months.

Journal Article: http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5025554148

VI. Videos

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rLbDfu4FWs

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuUpnAz5y1g

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhoVcL7Ssmk

VII. References

1) http://www.biosino.org/bioinformatics/The%20Human%20Genome%20Project%0fLessons%20from.pdf

2) http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/285/5/540.abstract

3)http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml

4) http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/about.shtml

5)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins= For biography of Francis Collins

The Television by Nico Moschetto

I. Introduction

The television has a great variety of opportunities for the average family, like being informed by the latest news, instantly, or having a favorite entertaining program, or in some cases weight gain (or loss if you count excercise shows). it is also famous for its nickname 'The Idiot Box" by many mindless viewers who live their life by the T.V. This in many cases causes brain melting, overheating, or complete loss under extreme circumstances. In all seriousness, the T.V. has been around since the early 1900s and has gotten the world hooked on some of their favorite tv shows, sports, news, and all kinds of other things since its discovery. the theory had been played with years before, but nobody quite perfected so that it could be sold in stores until about 1948 when the old fashoned "bunny ears" T.V. antennae was invented by Louis Parker.


figure 1

II. Discovery

No one person discovered the television itself. The idea of having moving pictures on a screen was first played with in 1884 when German scientist Paul Nipkow developed a rotating disk technology to transmit pictures over wire. It wasnt until 1953 when the first color T.V. was invented and approved by the FCC to be sold in stores. This color T.V. was first designed by a company by the name of RCA. RCA also released a cable television in the 1940s but it would have been commonly known then as the community antennae television or CATV. With the T.V. you would always expect it to come with a remote control right? wrong. until 1956, if you had a T.V. you had to change the channel in a way we now call "the old fashoned way" by using the dial on the T.V. Come to think of it, now a days, I can't even find the channel flipper on the new T.V.s anyway! Hope i never lose the remote. Children's programming emerged in the 40s but never started to pick up until the 50s when the greatly remembered shows like "Buffalo Bob" Simth's Howdy Doody time showed up and stole the old era children's T.V. spot. Currently, we now have very high technological televisions in our home and just recently, all networking was switched to digital broadcasting, which meant that all old fashoned antennae T.V.'s will no longer work. We now have High Definition television and special movie channels where you can rent the movie right on your T.V. screen through an easy selection process and a small fee. The T.V. has blown up in the face of not only the American people, but people across the world as well. Presently, there are very few Americans or Europeans without a television set in their home.
 
figure 2

III. Successes in the World of Television

There were many contributors to the invention of the television, but no one person has gotten credit for the invention. Although, many broadcasting networks have made quite a living of the invention of the television, for example, Robert Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company which owns ABC made $57 million dollars so far as CEO of the company. There are many other people involved in the world of T.V. as we've seen many fads in the era of popular television, like the japenese Animae series we have all seen since the 90s like Pokemon and other smaller T.V. shows of the same category. The point is, if your involved in the world of T.V. odds are your in good shape as long as the ideas are fresh and the people are satisfied.

IV. Impact on the World

The impact that T.V. has had on the world has been a ginormous one. since it got its start in the 50s it has blossomed into one of the household essentials of the modern family. Cable television companies have thrived off our need for a greater thrill, laugh, or cry, while watching this box of magic throw pictures on the screen for more than half a century. The T.V. is an idea that has been improved many times throughout history and I don't see the innovation stopping any time soon.

V. Journal Article Review

 "History of Television" was a great article to read. It explained a lot of the history in chronological order and made things clear to understand. The article was very informative for even a simple minded person like me. Overall i enjoyed this atricle the most because of its history of the television networks was enjoyable. This was an extremely helpful article in my project.

VI. Youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6O_I9l1kok

Sources

http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/kidactivities/a/children_tv.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Iger

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm

The Bicycle by Kelby Fruecht

I. There are many things that we use almost every day that we never seem to think about. Many of these things are very useful in our lives. One invention that I believe is most used and looked over is the bicycle. Bicycles are used by countless groups of people and things like BMX, Pro Cycling, X-games, recreation, and even as a means of transportation.

II. The documents and creation of the 1^st bicycle was in Germany in 1817. They called it a Draisine. The Draisine was very different from the bike we know today. It had no pedals and you move it by pushing your feet on the ground. It was given many names like strider or velocipede, but as the design of the idea changed over the years, the word bicycle seemed to have stick there on. Surprisingly the word “bicycle” was devised by the French 43 years later in the 1860’s.

Between 1820 and 1860, there were many developments being made to make human-powered machines. The goal was to make transportation more efficient and practical. The idea of balancing on two wheels was dismissed and so all the designs had either 3 or 4 wheels. The problem with these designs was that they were extremely heavy and most of them proved to be less efficient than even walking!

In 1870, the Frenchman Eugene Meyer was credited for inventing the high bicycle. The improvements enabled the rider capable of higher speeds based on how long your legs were.

Soon after, the bicycle that we know and recognize today was invented. The interesting thing was that it was actually called a “safety bike” because in the 1880’s and 90’s, the safety bike changed the way bikes would be forever. Before the creation of the safety bike, the bicycle was considered to be a recreational thing for men because the previous configurations and designs of the bicycle were so dangerous that most women and kids didn’t ride bicycles. Once the traditional design of the bicycle was invented, everyone started riding bikes and it became a huge sensation around the world.

III. The inventor of the first successful traditional (safety) bicycle was John Kemp Starley. He was born in 1854 and was an English inventor who industrialized the bike and became know as the creator of the modern bicycle. He grew up being the son of a gardener. In 1872, he moved out of the house to work with his uncle building Ariel cycles. He started his own company as a partnership with a cycling enthusiast William Sutton, the company was named Starley & Sutton Co. After making kids tricycles for a year or two, the struck gold when they made the safety bike for all ages in 1889.

They became the first bicycling company in the world to mass produce and export bikes. After much success, their company became know as the Rover Cycling Company. Then suddenly in 1901, John Starley passed away, leaving the company with William Sutton. Interestingly enough, as the years went by in the 19^th century and the world started to go into the automobile era, the Rover company switched from doing bikes to motorcycles and cars. If you notice how the name Rover rings a bell? Well, this company that made the first ever modern bike, is the same exact company as Land Rover today.

IV. The creation of the bicycle has had a tremendous impact on the world. It opened the way for the later invention of the motorcycle and changed the way many people live, especially in countries where there is no gas or where the gas is too expensive, it has given people a means of transportation for just about anybody. Also, the bicycle has paved the way not only for transportation, but for fitness too. The bicycle has such a great impact on the world and it continues to this day.

V. The article titled “Rover – How it Began” was a well written synapsis of John Starley’s rise to making the Rover Cycling company. It explained how he rose to the top and became the number one bicycle company during the early 1900’s.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_bicycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kemp_Starley

http://www.rover.org.nz/pages/histpic/hind1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_Company

The Invention of the Electric Guitar By Jay Jenkins

Introduction:

Today we are so focused on our IPods and burned CD’s but we rarely take a minute to recognize the roots of these sounds. For the most part a lot of what music is happens to come from the electric guitar. This breakthrough of an invention came in 1932 and was invented by George Beauchamp.

Discovery:

The electric guitar was first manufactured in the 1930’s. The earliest electric guitars had small sound holes on them. These types of guitars are still quite popular but not as popular as the new models. There are many types of electric guitars such as Solid Body, String-Through Body, Solid-Acoustic, Semi-Acoustic, Chambered, Electric Acoustic, Seven string, Eight and nine string, Ten string, Twelve string, 3rd bridge and double neck guitar. All these types of electric guitars are very different from acoustic guitars. Acoustic guitars, which have hallow bodies are used another way. Both acoustic and electric guitars convert their sound by just simply playing the strings but the electric guitar needs to be hooked up with special audible equipment like guitar amplifiers oppose to the or it would not be loud enough to perform with. Acoustic may be more natural playing but electric guitars in most cases are more upbeat and better suited for songs in the category of rock, jazz and the classics.

Biography:

There are many people who had the idea of constructing inventions such as the electric guitar but the man who made the first successful instrument of this sort was George Beauchamp. Beauchamp was born on March 18, 1899. He was born and raised in Coleman County, Texas and grew up playing the violin and the lap steel guitar. As he got older these instruments inspired him to experiment with the idea of creating instruments. Beauchamp tried to invent the electric lap steel guitar and then went on to create the electric violin and eventually the first successful electric guitar. Beauchamp was involved with music nearly all his life until he died of a fatal heart attack on March 30, 1941. He was a brilliant inventor of musical instruments and gave a gift to the musical world through is creation of the electric guitar.




Impact On World/Humanity:

 The Electric Guitar has without a doubt changed the world for the better. It has impacted the way we listen to music. It is a great addition to most songs we hear. Music inspires us and the electric guitar creates a sound that gets us out of our seats, pumps people up and makes us want to go out and do something with our lives. The electric guitar made the way for music like Rock, Jazz and many others. These types of music have influence lives everywhere around the world. Famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix would have never had gotten the chance to change the world with their music if not for the electric guitar. It is safe to say that the electric guitar has left a mark on the world today.

Journal Article:

In the Journal Article, “A Brief History of the Electric Guitar”, it describes all the types of electric guitars and what makes them different and how they are built. It says how popular the solid body electric guitar type is compared to others. Rollin’s also explains how the breakthrough of the electric guitar jumpstarted bug bands in the 30’s and 40’s.

Bellis, Mary “History of the Accoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar” Dec. 2010
<http: a="" gstartinventions="" guitar.htm="" inventors.about.com="">

Rollins, Gary “A Brief History of the Electric Guitar” Jan. 2010
<http: ?a-brief-history-of-the-electric-guitar&id="439356" ezinearticles.com>

Lollar, Rick “History of the Electric Guitar” Feb. 2005
<http: frontier="" hfair="" index.htm="" http://www.ricklollar.com/="">

Brain, Marshall “How Electric Guitars Work” Jul. 2002
<http: electric-guitar.htm="" entertainment.howstuffworks.com="">

“Can you hear me now?”

Cell Phones, By Sarah King

Introduction:

The cell phone originally was introduced in the 1970’s, and they were about the size of a car battery. Dr. Martin Cooper from Motorola was the first person to show a mobile phone. Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile cell phone in 1973. By 1990, 12.4 million people worldwide had cell phones.

Discovery:

The first call placed from a cell phone was from a car in St. Louis, Missouri on June 17, 1946. However, this system was too impractical from what we consider a mobile handset today. The equipment weighed 80 pounds and the service cost around $337.33 today.

The first commercially automated cell phone service, 1G, or first generation, was launched in Japan, and within five years grew to a nationwide service. In 1991 Finland introduced the first “modern” network technology, on digital 2G, or second generation. In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G, or third generation was again in Japan.

Today, cell phones are quickly advancing to 4G, or fourth generation. In December, 2009, Sprint began advertising the first 4G cell phone. Future advancements for the mobile phone are close on the horizon, as prototypes are being built and tested daily.

Investigator:

Martin Cooper was born December 26, 1928. After World War II, he left the Navy and in 1954 was hired by Motorola to work on their mobile communications project. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call in public. This phone connected Cooper to the base station on the roof of the Burlington House across the street from a hotel where Cooper was supposed to later hold a press conference. Reporters and passer-bys watched as Cooper dialed, help the phone to his ear, and spoke to Dr. Joel S. Engel. After demonstrating the cell phone prototype, Cooper allowed some reporters to call anyone they wanted to show how well the cell phone could work.

Impact:

Cell phones have become a norm in today’s society. When the cell phone as first introduced, it was simply a way to make calls on the go an communicate between people. Today, it has become a way to surf the net, check emails, play games with friends across the globe, and to create and identity for yourself, to name a few functions. Users can choose a background, a ringtone, and personalize voicemails and contact pictures. Cell phones can help to make everyday lives easier by making things such as emails and business information accessible on the go.

But with all the pluses, are of course negatives. Because cell phones have become part of us, many people don’t think twice about using cell phones while driving, increasing the numbers of fatal accidents. Cell phone users need to be more cognicent of where cell phones are used. Noise pollution is also an issue. In 2003, cell phone conversations totaled almost 830 billion minutes. Today, certain places are banning cell phones and asking people to silence their cell phones.

Review of Journal Article:

In the journal article “Cell phone Induced Failures of Visual Attention During Stimulated driving, it examines the results of how talking on a cell phone affects simulated driving. The findings of the study are that using a mobile phone while driving distracts the driver from fully being able to focus on the road, and drivers who used cell phones were more likely to look directly at a road sign or such and not remember it later.

Bibliography:

Javadi, K. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.askkia.com/articles/societal-impact-of-wireless-technology-on-society.html

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/wong/visualattention.pdf

Nash, J., & , Initials. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/content/cell-phone-history-a47053

DNA Testing--David Prue

DNA Testing

I. Intro

DNA testing is a technique used by scientists to identify individuals by their respective DNA profiles. DNA profiles are sets of numbers that reflect a person's DNA makeup, which can also be used as the person's identifier. Although 99.9% of human DNA is the same in every person, enough of the DNA is different to distinguish one individual from another. Alec Jeffreys discovered it in the 1980’s. Since then criminal investigation has been revolutionized.

II. Discovery

On September 10, 1984 Jeffreys made a monumental discovery. He noticed the difference between DNA. He first tested his technique on a double-murder case. Because of DNA testing Colin Pitchfork was convicted of the murder. Without this method another man would have been incorrectly persecuted. Since then DNA testing has taken place in numerous cases, leaving no doubt who is innocent and who is guilty.

III. Biography of Inventor

Alec Jeffreys was a scientist from the start. He was born on January 9th, 1950 in Oxford, England. When he was eight years old, his father gave him a small chemistry kit. When he got a little older, his father gave him a telescope. Finally, when he turned twelve, his gave him a dissecting kit. He actually brought home a dead cat and dissected it. When Jeffreys got older he followed his passion of science and got a degree in biochemistry. It was because of his studies that he discovered DNA profiling.

IV. Impact on World/ Humanity

DNA testing has had a huge impact on crime fighting and criminal justice. DNA testing has been the silver bullet for crime fighting. All that is need is a fingerprint, a single strand of hair, or even a drop blood. Because of this, narrowing down suspects is very simple. This way, innocent people are not accused and the criminals can be brought to justice.

V. Journal Article Review

This article was incredibly helpful in finding information. It helped me truly understand what DNA testing is all about. It showed the good and bad sides of it. It tackled the fact that it was incredibly useful for solving crimes and asked the question of whether or not it was an invasion of privacy.

VI. Videos

This video is Alec Jeffreys talking about DNA testing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jmB1SuK-Vo

Joseph Neuberger comments on proposal for mandatory DNA sampling of those individuals charged with a criminal offence in the City of Toronto. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBstIzITiVs

VII References

Science hall of fame http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/235.html

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Jeffreys; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_profiling

Harlan, Leigh M. (2004) When Privacy Fails: Invoking a Property Paradigm to Mandate the Destruction of DNA Samples. Duke Law Journal, Vol. 54

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBstIzITiVs; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBstIzITiVs

Rainbow- Lisa Dunleavy

I. Introduction

Every time it rains, I find myself looking at the sky in search of a rainbow. It's amazing to see something so wonderful and beautiful and to realize that it's merely an optical illusion! Science explains the beauty and magic of rainbows in a simple way. There are two components that are necessary for a rainbow to occur, sunlight and water.

II. Refraction

The first step in understanding a rainbow is refraction, the "bending" of light. Light bends because it travels at different speeds when it is in different mediums. So when it goes from one medium to another, the change in speeds causes the light to change direction. To help understand this, the cart example from How Rainbows Work might help. If you are pushing a shopping cart down the street, the road being one medium, and you go at a constant speed, if the right side of the shopping cart hits grass, that side will slow down while the other side on the pavement will still go at the original speed. The cart travels at different speeds for different mediums (pavement to grass) and when it does, the cart turns to the right.

Image 1- cart example

This is the same way with light as in goes through a glass prism. One side of the light waves hits the prism first and is slowed down, this makes the light bend at the collision of the air and the glass prism. Some of the light does reflect off of the glass prism, but most of it goes through it. Then, as the light goes out of the prism, one side of the light speeds up quicker than the other causing the light to bend again.

III. Dispersion

The light not only goes through refraction, but dispersion as well when it goes through the glass prism. Before we talk about dispersion, it is important to know that different colors have different frequencies. When different colors go through matter, they travel at different speeds. Dispersion happens because slow-moving colors when they hit the glass prism bend sharply, where as fast-moving colors don't bend as sharply. This creates the dispersion of colors, the colors are separated by their speed. If the light bends them twice like in a prism, it is easier to see the dispersion of the colors. Rain water disperses the colors the same way as the glass prism.

Image 2- light refraction and dispersion

that takes place with a glass prism.

IV. Rainbows in Nature

Rainbows in nature go through a similar process as the glass prism. When many rain drops are together and the sun hits them a low angle, it creates a

rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple). When the sunlight from the air passes into a rain drop, just like in the glass prism, the

different colors slow to different speeds (determined by their frequency). These different colors then bend at different degrees (violet, the closest to the

ground bends at the sharpest degree). Some of the light is passed through the rain drop back into the air and the rest of the light is reflected backwards.

So every raindrop disperses this white light (from the sun) into the colors of the rainbow. There are different color bands because each raindrop from

the group of raindrops that were reflecting the suns light, reflect one color. This means that each color that we see is coming from a raindrop and every

raindrop is reflecting one color.

Image 3- The process a raindrop goes through when

it is hit by sunlight to create a rainbow

The different heights of the raindrops determine what color will be reflected and that will be seen by the observer. The angle that the raindrop is reflected down to your eye determines the color that you will see.

V. Cool facts about rainbows

- Next time you are looking at a rainbow, look where the sun is. Have you ever noticed that the sun is in the opposite direction of the rainbow (behind you if you are looking at a rainbow) and that the raindrops are falling in the direction of the rainbow.

- Did you know that two people can never look at the same rainbow? (excluding a picture) Actually, each eye sees a different rainbow than the other. This is due to the fact that a rainbow is a, "distribution of colors with reference to a definite point...," Humphreys.

- How far away a rainbow is can be determined by the distance of the raindrops, the closest and the furthest raindrop.

VII. Journal Article Review: Metamagnetics with rainbow colors

This journal article talks about the mathematics involved in finding the width of the bands of the rainbow and the atoms that make up a rainbow. It talks about

the wave lengths and how it corresponds to the width of the bands of the rainbow. It shows graphs on the amount of light that is reflected compared to the

amount of light that just passes through the rain drops in comparison to the wave length. Lastly, it talks about the importance of magnetics and geometry in

understanding the details of the formation of a rainbow.

VIII. References

About Rainbows. (n.d.). NCAR Education & Outreach Homepage. Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/

Cai, W., Chettiar, U., Yuan, H., Silva, V. d., Kildishev, A., Drachev, V., et al. (2007). Metamagnetics with rainbow colors. Birck Nanotechnology Center, 11.

Harris, T. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "How Rainbows Work". Howstuffworks "Science". Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/rainbow1.htm

Kansas Tornado Chasers WHY PAGE. (n.d.). New Page 1. Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://www.tornadochaser.com/to

XI. Images

Image 1, 2, 3:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/rainbow1.htm