BioSec 2012: Elizabeth

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Elizabeth's BioSec Notes

(Organized by class dates) Brain dumps, useful insights, points of confusion, it's all here.

Jan 25

Class readings:

Chapter 2: Origins of Life Chapter 3: Selection, Biodiversity, and Biosphere

In-class notes:

  • Chemistry Review
    • energy difference between reactants and products in a chemical reaction
    • however, you need an input of energy to begin the reaction
  • a catalyst changes (lowers the energy needed to reach the intermediate state, making the reaction more likely to take place
    • the catalyst is unchanged in the process
  • Biological catalysts are enzymes (proteins) that hold the reactants and situate them in such a way that the reaction can happen more easily
    • enzymes move the reactants around
    • enzymes can have crystalline structure
  • cell logic is built on pattern-matching
    • enzyme is looking for the reactants that fit its receptors
  • ATP: Adenosine Triphosphate
    • energy carrier/source for cells
    • universal resource, used by all cells
  • ADP: Adenosine Diphosphate
    • similar to ATP, but has one fewer phosphate group
    • has lower energy than ATP
    • the cell expends energy to turn it into ATP
    • then the cell breaks up the ATP to use the stored energy
  • Eukaryotic cells vs. Prokaryotic cells
    • in eukaryotic cells, the genetic sequence isn't simply copied from DNA to RNA. Instead, parts of different sequences are picked and chosen and edited into proteins.
    • this means that a lot of the information in the DNA is there to control and regulate how parts are edited and assembled.
  • Because of how evolution works (building on what already worked), understanding how a system works is equivalent to understanding its history, and why it is the way it is.
    • however, it can be hard to know where stuff came from, and what came first

Jan 27

Feb 1

Class readings:

Chapter 6: Cellular Respiration Chapter 7: Photosynthesis

In-class notes:

Both chapters address how cells make ATP and other byproducts.

  • not a lot of discussion about how the two processes fit together (I mean, photosynthesis is the more important because it creates the glucose for cellular respiration to use?)
  • much of the in-depth chemistry was confusing
  • In Ch 7, I didn't fully understand the last section about photorespiration and how plants avoid it
    • what is the problem, really?
    • I understand that the C4 cycle resolves it

Possible application-y thoughts

  • both photosynthesis and cellular respiration involve a lot of cyclical processes (like loops, I suppose) that transform one product into another
  • the cellular structure model seems like it could be applied to computers (and is similar to what exists), but maybe the metaphor could be extended to be larger?
  • what would ATP map to in the computer world? Information output?
  • It seems that the processes are finely tuned so that most of the by-products (except energy lost in heat) get used - is there a moral in that story?

Feb 3