Riccardo's Science Blog

Summary:  The energy pyramid shows how energy moves from one living organism to another. Each time you move up the pyramid only 10 percent of energy transfers. For example, grass makes its own food and has 100% of its energy. Then a rabbit comes along and eats the grass. The rabbit has 10% of the grasses energy. A hungry fox comes and eats the rabbit. The fox then has 1% of the grasses energy. Producers are living organisms that make their own food, such as grass. Above them are the consumers, (herbivores and carnivores) the living organisms that consume other living organisms to survive. Humans lie atop the energy pyramid with plants at the bottom. Plant are the foundation of the pyramid because they do not need to consume other living organisms. As you may notice, the pyramid gets a smaller area at each level as you go higher. This is because there needs to be a larger amount of plants and less predators. Everything above plants needs it to survive and so on until the to...

Image : Summary : The Punnett square is a diagram that is used to predict an outcome of how a pairs offspring will look. Every person has two alleles, and as they have a kid they pass down one of their two alleles. Depending whether or not you inherit two dominant, two recessive, or one of both, you will have a noticeable phenotype resembling one of your parents. For example if your mom is homozygous for her green eyes, and your dad is heterozygous for his brown eyes, there is a chance that you will get either brown or green eyes. We use Punnett squares to easily the possible combinations that the eye color will be.Your health is not only determined on what your mother does, but what you do after you are born. Your mom decided to eat very healthy while pregnant with you. The result is a perfectly healthy baby, but if after birth you have an unhealthy diet and only eat junk food, you will become obese and have other health issues in your life. A mutation is a change in geneti...

Summary:  A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. Since this involves the transfer of genes, GMOs are also known as “transgenic” organisms. Looking back to a previous blog ( My superhero project ) I briefly talked about a superhero based on the mantis shrimp. Well, some of you may have been wondering, how did this hero get these ability's? Well through the process of GMOs.  the technique involves an enzyme complex known as CRISPR/Cas9, found in many bacteria. CRISPR , is a short, repeated sequence of RNA that matches the genetic sequence the researcher wants to modify. It works in concert with Cas9, an enzyme that cuts DNA like a pair of molecular scissors. First, the CRISPR/Cas9 complex searches through the cell's DNA until it finds and binds to a sequence that matches the CRISPR. Then, t...