Blood Cells

There are two kinds of blood cells: red and white.

Red blood cells (erythrocytes or RBC's) contain hemoglobin, a iron-rich protein that allows the red blood cell to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. Red blood cells look like biconcave disks with a flattened center (much like a doughnut). Red blood cells have no nucleus, which allows the flexible cell to fit through various blood vessels with ease. Travelling through small blood vessels results in cell membrane damage. This damage cannot be fixed when a nucleus is absent. The blood's tissue is classified as connective tissue because it contains a matrix. The fluidity of the blood as a whole is the matrix, but is commonly called the plasma. When the circulatory system brings blood into the lungs, oxygen attaches to the hemoglobin protein. This oxygen is then released when around cells. The hemoglobin then picks up carbon dioxide or other waste gases to transport them away from the cells. Red blood cells have an average lifespan of 120 days, but bones are constantly creating more. Bone marrow fosters red blood cells which have to go through a seven day maturation process before being released.

White blood (leukocytes) cells are vital to maintaining the immune system. They defend the cell from infection and prevents death. While fighting an infection, the white blood cell creates more and more cells for additional support. However, white blood cells only make up 1% of all blood cells. In fact, every healthy mature white blood cell has 700 mature red blood cells.


Sources:

"The Franklin Institute." Red Blood Cells. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

"American Society of Hematology." Blood Basics. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

"Blood - Texas Heart Institute." Blood - Texas Heart Institute Heart Information Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

How Sweet Is It?

Today in class, we tried 8 different kinds of sugars in order to determine sweetness level. We made predictions beforehand and sucrose was used for scale at 100. I predicted that I would only taste sweetness in sucrose, glucose, and fructose. I think that the fewer number of rings indicates a higher sweetness level because the sugars with one ring typically had higher sweetness levels. Fructose, which I  personally found to be the sweetest, was structured with only one ring. I also noticed that the more chain-like the carbohydrate was, the more powdery the substance was. The more granular a carbohydrate was, the more sweet it was. I've seen many of the sugars that I've tasted in foods outside of the science classroom. For example, I have consumed high fructose syrup in bread and ketchup and other sweet foods. I have also had milk and ice cream, both of which contain lactose. Although I haven't had beer, the sugar maltose is used to process this alcoholic drink.

Have you ever wondered how people taste sweetness? Well, the consumed sugar triggers a sweet receptor protein and this sends a signal to the central nervous system. Sucrose, glucose, and fructose all have different sugar receptor pathways when signals are sent to the brain. The sense of sweet taste is actually closely linked to the endocrine or hormone producing part of the brain and nervous system area. Also, people have varying amounts of taste buds on the tongue. This will result in a differing amount of signals being sent to the brain when sugar is consumed.

Source:

How Does Our Sense of Taste Work? U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Works Cited