wordsworth

So I started watching some videos about caner. The class I thought I would take about cancer did not actually work out. Turns out that I had to buy that book, the links did not go to anything I could read. Anyway that is not really a problem because the biology class I was going to take has videos about cancer! So I still get to learn about it! I think it is also better this way because reading textbooks can get kind of boring and I tend to get tired. Which is a thing that I hate happens but it does. Anyway, the videos are pretty great actually. From the first video I have learned a lot about cancer. Apparently there are at least 250 different types. They connect epithelial tissue, connected tissue, and blood cells. Cancer is considered a “genetic disease” but not because it is inherited. Granted, there are cancers that are inherited, but apparently most are due to genetic alteration that happen within a cell. There are also chromosome alterations that cause cancer. Sometimes there are too many chromosome pairs, called aneuploidy, and sometime there is a chromosome abnormality that causes multiple pieces to combine into one chromosome. I do not know why I find it fascinating but I do. Not as much as psychology but I still like it.

Alright so the last couple videos I watched dealt with proteins. I did not realize until now how much proteins really do for the body. Apparently they do everything; they make up the structures of the cell, the enzymes. They also function in defense and the movement of the cells along with other things. Thought the one thing they are not involved in is hereditary information. They are very complex though, made of groups of amino acids usually called peptides. The chemical structure involves an alpha Carbon surrounded by four different functional groups. Three of these groups stay the same for each amino acid.  The fourth group is usually labeled R, called the side chain, and can be polar, non-polar, or charged. I think it is all pretty interesting. Gives a person a bit of perspective on the human body. I mean there is so much complexity.  I mean the second video I watched was thirty minutes long talking about the different forms of the amino acids, specifically the R chain. There are so many different varieties. I have a handout that only talks about twenty of them. Each variety have a different function. Each peptide has at least three amino acids, meaning 20^3 combinations.

Either way this is so fascinating. I mean I enjoy learning about it a lot. I just do not think it all sinks in. There is so much vocabulary. Anyway, I am glad that it fascinates me. That means that I am willing to watch all the videos through and through.

So I realized why biology was so hard before. Endless vocabulary, literally so much. I mean lipids alone are so complex. There are multiple varieties and those varieties have varieties. The most interesting to me where the triglycerides. Triglycerides are made up of glycerol and fatty acids. They tend to spontaneously make up the membranes of cells. There are two types of fats that I learned about, Saturated fats and Unsaturated fats. The saturated fats have no double bonds and can pack together tightly, leading to a high melting point. These fats are pretty bad for you and it’s a good idea to stay away from them. The unsaturated fats are divided into two separate types, the CIS and the Trans fats. The CIS contain double bonds, allowing them to pack together poorly and have a low melting point. These fats are better for your body and can even be good. The trans fats seem to be the worse and behave just like the saturated fats. During the class the teacher showed a picture of where to find the fats on the back of the container. So today when I was eating cream cheese I looked on the back to see what fats are in it. There are apparently zero trans fats in cream cheese, which is good since that is the worse kind. I did not pay attention to the other types. Also the drink that mom likes has zero total fats. So that is nice. Anyway, I think I might start paying attention to that more. Should be interesting to see what I can find out. I wonder how much fat is in butter. I bet there is a lot. But I like butter way to much to give that up. If I gave up butter that would mean vegan baking…. Nope I am definitely not going there. Moral of the story: Biology has made me love baking all the more.