Month: June 2019

In order to understand the function of the small intestine we put glucose solution in cellophane paper. We had to put the cellophane paper in a beaker filled with hot water, then, to see how much  glucose solution their was in the water we dropped some drops of a substance that would let us know how much glucose was spilled. If the water turned green there was no glucose, if the water turned orange it meant that glucose was present.

At our biology class we learnt about sickle cell anemia. This is the work I did:

3 ideas:

1. Sickle cell anemia is a mutation in haemoglobin alleles that change the shape of blood cells.
2. People with sickle cell anemia feel tired and short of breath because Hbs (sickle cell anemia allele) doesn’t deliver oxygen efficiently, and because the blood cell gets stuck in the capillaries due to the unusual shape, the person feels pain.
3. Nowadays most of the population has Hba Hbs alleles because Hbs Hbs people died of sickle cell anemia and Hba Hba people died of maleria.

Our biology teacher asked us to take notes on the moth population has changed, sickle cell anemia and antibiotic resistant bacteria. Here are my notes:

Moth population

Before the industrial revolution in England the white winged moth population was far greater than any other computed moths. This was due to the fact that they were able to camouflage to linchen trees, which are similar to their wings (white with linchens ), but when the industrial revolution took place and the smoke tainted the trees, the moths who had a mutation along the way, making their wings black were able to survive. The black winged moth population increased while the white winged moth population died out.

Sickle cell anemia

The normal allele for haemoglobin is “Hba”, but there’s a mutation (Hbs) that changes the shape of the blood cell, preventing it to move in the capillaries. People with Hbs alleles feel tired and short of breath because Hbs doesn’t deliver oxygen efficiently, they also feel pain because blood stops flowing naturally.

Hba Hba=normal haemoglibin.

Hba Hbs= mix of normal haemoglobin.

Hbs Hbs=sickle cell haemoglobin.

A long time ago in areas of Africa with malaria people with homozygous Hbs alleles would die early because of sickle cell anemia so they weren’t able to reproduce. People with homozygous Hba alleles died early because of malaria, but the population with heterozygous alleles survived. This means that they were able to reproduce and pass down the Hba Hbs alleles. Nowadays most of the population is Hba Hbs.

Antibiotic resistance: 

Sometimes there is a mutation in a bacteria that allows it to survive the antibiotic and reproduce, causing a population of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The more a person uses a certain antibiotic the higher the chances of a bacteria to survive the antibiotic.