GATTACA Questions

Watching the movie GATTACA was pretty cool! I didn't get to finish all of it, but i think i only missed like 5 minutes of it. From what i saw it was different than most movies but it's crazy how the things that happened in the that movie happened.
Questions:

1. A Degenerate is someone that has lost moral, physical, or mental qualities. In the movie, Vincent was considered "invalid" because he had heart problems and he was not the same as everyone else that worked where he wanted to. Vincent was a borrowed ladder with Jerome, because he took over his profile to be able to live his dream.
2. I think he might have left his family, because Anton was definitely the "favorite" of the family, because he was "normal". Even in the beginning of the movie the mom wanted to name him Anton, but the dad said Vincent, and saved Anton for the "good" son.
3. The relationship between Vincent was kind of shaky. Vincent was into other stuff than Anton, and  I think that was one of the things that set them apart. Vincent wasn't "normal" like Anton was, and he wasn't as in good of condition. He was a very strong guy though, that always tried coming out stronger, wanting to prove Anton wrong.
4. When he said that, he meant that they werent looking for the Vincent/ Jerome that he now was, they were looking for the Vincent that he was. Untill his brother showed up,nobody had ever suspected of thought anyhting of it.
5. I would have to say that my favorite character was Jerome Morrow. He was a very strong man, and didn't want people to feel bad for him just because he was in a wheel chair. He was not ashamed of being how he was. He had to draw blood from himself everyday, and urine too. He liked to have a drink every once in a while too, but he couldn't because it would come out with acohol in his urine. He had to sacrifice things he liked to do too. If you think, he might of had to do everything by himself before Vincent was there to help him do things. If i had to tell him something, i would tell him that i look up to him for being as strong of a man as he was.
6. The doctor went along with the fraud, because his son was consodered as "invalid" too and he thought it was great that he was still going for his dreams just because he was considered "different". His son wanted to work at GATACCA and do what Vincent did. If i was the doctor i would have played along with it, because i believe that anyone should follow their dreams no matter how "invalid" they are considered.
7. Thinking about it, America will probably end up with that type of technology some day in the future. We already use many different types of technology like that like with all of the many crimes that they have today. Technology like that is used every day in America now.

DNA Structure

This is the front and back of a worksheet that we did in class that really helped me understand the structure of DNA.

      When you think of DNA you probably get confused right? I know i did, but once you learn about it and learn a little about the structure of it, it's really not too bad. It's pretty much just a pattern made up of four different parts which are called nucleotides. Each of the nucleotides is made up of a sugar or deoxyribose bound on one side to a phosphate group and bound on the other side to a nitrogenous base. The two classes of bases of nitrogen are called purines, and pyrimidines. The four bases that are in the DNA's alphabet are A which stands for adenine, C which stands for cytosine, G with stands for guanine, and T which stands for thyme. If there is one thing that i remember about all of this, it is that C and G always go together, and A and T always go together. DNA has two sides. These two sides are twisted together like a ladder, called the double helix. The hydrogen bonds between the phosphates is what causes the DNA strands to twist.  First of all DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. It forms chains of genetic material organized into chromosomes and gets passed from one generation to the other. DNA guides the cell in making new routines that determine all of our biological traits. So the reason you look the way you do, is because of your DNA, which we get from our parents.











<--------This is a picture of a DNA model that we made. It's pretty cool to be able to have the hands on experience on making one, and actually learning the parts of it and getting the hang of it.

This is a picture of a DNA model that drew while we were learning the structure of DNA and getting familiar with all of the parts that are in a DNA model. -----> 

DNA Extraction Lab

I had no clue it was this easy to extract DNA from something! It was a very quick and easy lab that didn't take long at all. First we measured out 1 gram of raw wheat germ into a 50 ml test tube. Then we got 20 ml of hot water and added it to the tube with the wheat  germ and stirred it constantly for about 3 minutes or so. Next we added about 1/4 teaspoon of detergent and stirred it about every minute for 5 minutes, without creating any foam. We then had to add 14 ml of alcohol very slowly at an angle into the test tube so that it would form kind of a separate layer on top of the detergent-water-wheat mix. After setting for a few minutes the DNA started rising and forming into clumpy, stringy, snot like strands in the alcohol level. At the top of the detergent and bottom of the alcohol level is where the DNA started to grow. The detergent did the job of busting up the cells, and as i said before, the alcohol brought up the DNA. DNA dissolves in water, but gets clumpy in alcohol and doesn't really dissolve, so that is why the DNA came up into the alcohol level.