Cell Structure

I got these questions off out practice quiz (BIO111, Topic 4, Cell Structures (Ch. 4) Practice Quiz)

I figured if I can take the practice quiz why cant I post it in my blog too!!! :)


Q ... 1. Grana, thylakoids, and stroma are all componets found in.
A... Chloroplast     (I got this one right)   :)

Q... 2. All of the following are part of a prokaryotic cell except.
A... an endoplasmic reticulum                    (I got this one right) :))

Q... 3. Which sturcutres carry out cell movement?
A... Microtubules and microfilaments     (I got this one right)  :)

Q... 4. A cell has the following molecules and strucutres: enzymes, DNA, ribosomes, plasma membrane, and mitochondria. It could be a cell from
A... A plant or an animal      (I got this one wrong) :(

Q... 5. Which organelle makes protines using coded instructions that come from the nucleus?
A...  Ribosome   (I got this one right) :)

Q... 6. Eukaryotes usually contain
A... a nucleus...genetic material... and specialized organelles.   ( I got this one right) :)

Q... 7. Which of the following are capable of convering light energy to chemical energy?
A... Chloroplasts (I got this one right ) :)

Q... 8. Which organelle converts the chemical energy stored in food into compounds that are more convienent for the cell to use, such as ATP?
A... Mitochondrion ( I got this right )

Q... 9. Which structure is the site of the synthesis of proteins that may be exported from the cell?
A... Through ER   ( I got this one wrong but I knew I made a mistake ) :(

Q... 10. Which cell structure contains the cells genteic material and controls many of the cells activities?
A... Nucleus ( I got this one wrong)

Defnitions of  the answers above ^^^ I only defined specific words I was confused on...
 I got these from (Dictionary.com)

- Chloroplast is a plastid containing chlorophyll.
-Endoplasmic Reticulum is simply a network.
-Microtubules are hollow cylinderical structures in the cytoplasm of most cells, involves shape and transport.
-Ribosome is a small organelle occurring in great numbers in the cell cytoplasm... Functioning as the site of protein manufacture.


Most of this I covered before this class. When I covered it the first time I really enjoyed it... This time I was kind of board because I knew most of it... This pre test was a good review and gave me a good idea for my post on research ... Check it out!!!

Membrane Structure

Cell membranes are composed of many phospholipids. Phospholipids are made up of two parts... ( the head and the tail ). The head is hydrophilic- 'loves water'. The tail is the opposide it hates water and it is called hydrophobic. A hydrophobic phospholipid consists of 16 to 18 carbon; they also contain small amounts of oxygen. These opposing parts of the phospholipid makes up the main structure of the cell membrane. If you comnine many phospholipids this makes up a cell membrane. Fatty acids are usually 16 to 22 carbons long. There are two types of fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids have no carbon to carbon double bonds. Unsaturated fatty acids have one to three double bonds along the carbon chain. Fats are storage for energy and insulating molecules. Fats contain twice as much energy as carbohydrates which means we could survive off fatts longer then carbs. Unsaturated fat have fatty acids, saturated fat has none...


I will later post a picture that my peer group and I drew of  membrane structure...

Osmosis Lab

In our 6th hour class we did a diffusion and osmosis lab. In this lab we had a solution of glucose and starch and placed it inside a bag of dialysis tubing. In a cup with iodine and water, but first tied off the ends tight to make sure they woulnt mix. After a half hour passed we checked the glucose level of the water in the cup and it came out negative. Over the weekend we let the membrane tube sit in the cup, and the results were that the fluid inside the membrane tube leaked into the cup with iodine and water. The iodine from outside the dialysis tubing also leaked in, because it  turned a different color from mixing with the starch. When we tested both the liquid in the cup and membrane tube, they both had a high level of glucose, that was definitely positive.

The group I was in and I decided to do another version of the lab and weigh the substances so we could see what left and went into the dialysis tubing. We did four different cups with the substances and water mixed in the dialysis tubing. The four different substances were corn syrup, sodium acetate, antacid tablets, and sodium bicarbonate. We weighed them three different times to make sure the results would come out accurate. The first time we weighed them, we weighed before we put them in the cup of water and cup one with antacid tablets weighed 13.43g, and the 4th cup with sodium bicarbonate weighed 11.66g. An hour later we weighed them again, and the 1st cup weighed 14.74g, the 2nd cup weighed 23.09g, the 3rd cup weighed 15.88g , and the 4th cup weighed 12.09g. We also did the same thing the day later. Cup 1 was 14.23g, the second cup was 16.23g, the third cup was 8.47g, and the fourth was 11.46g. As you cna see when we weighed them the hour later, they were at their highest, because thats the time when the water goes through all the little pores in the ddialysis tubing, and water moves very quickly because it dosent have very big molecules, so that is what made that possible. Over night and part of the next day is when the other substances started coming out slowly because they have bigger molecules than the water and are more dense, so it takes longer for them to go through the tubing. The sodium acetate collected the most water out of all of them, because the molecules of the acetate went through the pores in the membrane easier than all of the substances. Now that we did the lab again in a different way we really saw the diffusion and Osmosis come out in the experiments.

here is a Graph of the data we found out in our lab:

Microscope test!!!

In anatomy we had a test over how to properly use a microscope! This helped me in biology I got a 100%on the test!! I went a little over the limit by asking Mr. Ludwig to help me learn how to use the higest power and the oil on the lense, it was pretty neat how close you can view some things!!