Blog 12 Look up Gregor Mendel and his pea plant experiments Why does P1 look all alike and F1 looks very different?

In one experiment, Mendel cross-pollinated smooth yellow pea plants with wrinkly green peas. The organisms that are used as the original mating in an experiment are called the parental generation and are marked by P in. Every single pea in the first generation crop (marked as f1) was as yellow and as round as was the yellow, round parent. Somehow, yellow completely dominated green and round dominated wrinkly. Now he went on with his experiment and planted seeds from the all-yellow, all-round crop, achieved from the parent generation, and self-pollinated the grown up plants. Most of the second generation (marked as f2) of peas were yellow and smooth, but some were green or wrinkly. The f2 generation consistently had a 3:1 ratio of yellow to green and round to wrinkly. This happened because in order to show-up, a dominant trait needs only one trait unit from one of the parents, and the recessive one needs two, from both parents, in order to prevail, that is the reason why the ratio between occurrences of dominant traits and recessive traits is 3:1. The same explanation applies to the shape traits.

Blog 11 In the movie Gattaca parents were allowed to pick the traits of their babies, should we be able to do this? Why or why not?

          When looking upon this question, many things controversial topics arise. Especially the idea of elitism. Now, let us first look at the benefits of this topic. When we have genetically superior babies, they will all be strong and many will be close to perfect. The world will have a new generation of super humans. Now, when examining the downsides of this topic, we can see that if this were a reality, many humans would look alike, because the "perfect" gene structure would be very similar. So if it comes to that point, we might have a generation of super humans, but they won't be distinguished. How would one separate oneself from the rest of the group if EVERYBODY is the same? This is the ultimate flaw of genetic engineering super babies. So, I believe that we should not do this based on the pure opinion that, imperfections make us humans perfect.

Blog #10 Post a recipe for something made with fermentation Explain how fermentation helps make the food.

this fermented foods pickle recipe, you will need:

• 2-one gallon crocks or glass jars
• 4 lbs. of cucumbers
• 3⁄4 cup kosher salt
• 1 bunch dill weed
• 1 head of garlic, peeled
• 1 onion, sliced
• pinch of black peppercorns (optional)
• 10 grape leaves
• 1 gallon boiling water

First, wash your cucumbers and remove any remaining blossoms. Poke them with a bamboo skewer, inserting it a few inches into one end, but not going all the way through.

Slice the onions, peel the garlic and rinse the grape leaves.

Boil the water and dissolve the salt in it and set aside to use later.

Place 2 or 3 grape leaves in the bottom of the jar(s). Place as many cucumbers as will fit in a single layer on the grape leaves. Add 5-6 cloves of garlic, a handful of onion slices, a handful of dill weed, and a pinch of black peppercorns. Put another layer of grape leaves on top.

Continue layering in this way until the jar is full. Finish with grape leaves.

Pour the hot brine into the jar(s) until full. Use a chopstick or knife to poke down into the jar (around the sides) to remove air bubbles.

Find a plastic lid (called a follower) that you can fit into the jar by bending it, and that will expand to mostly cover the grape leaves on top.

Place a weight on top of the follower (We use a mason jar filled with rocks and water) to keep the pickles under the brine. They should be covered by at least one inch of brine once the weight is in place.

Let sit at room temperature for 3-7 days, checking daily for desired taste.

When they taste right to you, cut them into slices and store them in jars covered with brine and with lids on top, in your refrigerator. You've made fermented foods!

The process of fermentation not only helps to preserve food, it breaks food nutrients down into more digestible forms, improves the bioavailability of minerals, and creates new nutrients including B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and biotin). Fermented foods are also live foods, full of beneficial bacteria.

http://www.learningherbs.com/fermented_foods.html