Monday, October 25, 2010

Tell me about the cat cry baby....

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What is the cat cry syndrome? This is a human disorder caused by missing a piece of chromosome 5. The syndromes name is based on the infants cry, which is high-pitched and sounds like a cat. It is also known as cri du chat syndrome. Some of the most common symptoms are cry that is high pitched, downward slant to eyes, low birth weight and growth, abnormally shaped ears, mental retardation, partial webbing of fingers and toes, small head, small jaw, and wide-set eyes. This disorder accounts for up to 1% of individuals with severe mental retardation. Most common human deletion syndrome varying between 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 50,000 births. There are no specific treatments that are available with people with this disorder.  Parents of a child with this syndrome should have genetic counseling and a karotype test to determine if one parent has a rearrangement of chromosome 5. Some complications that arise are inability to care for self and function in society. Majority of patients die in an early childhood, but some survive into adulthood while exhibiting an IQ below twenty. Parents can try to avoid this condition from happening by going to talk to their doctor. I give credit to all families out there with a child who has cat cry syndrome, and give them hope for the future that one day there will be a cure.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010


        There is a confusion amongst us that people think that they have had an vaccination for hepatitis c, but I am here to tell everyone the truth among all the hesteria. Hepatitis c is a liver disease, which a more broad definition is the inflammation of the liver. It is caused by the hepatitis c virus, and viruses are germs that can be spread through other infected people. Who can get hepatitis c? anyone can get it, but there are some people who have a higher risk to catch it. These people would include those who were born with a mother with hepatitis c, those who have had more than one sex partner in the last six months, a history of std’s, and those that use illegal injection drugs. People ask how could I get hepatitis c? this would happen through contact with infected person’s blood, sex with infected person, being tattooed or pierced with an unsterile needle, getting an accidental needle stick, using someone else’s razor or toothbrush who has the disease, and sharing drug needles.  Do not think that you could get the virus through shaking hands, hugging, or sitting next to anyone infected with hepatitis c. what are the symptoms? Some people do not show any symptoms until the virus causes liver damage, which shockingly can take up to and even longer than ten years. There are some people who could have mild symptoms like jaundice of the skin, swollen stomach, easy to bruise, loss of appetitie, light-colored stools, or even dark urine. Hepatitis c becomes chronic when a person can not get rid of the virus. There is currently NO VACCINE agianst the hepatitis c virus. It is estimated that between 270 and 300 million people worldwide are currently infected with hepatitis c.                                                                                                                  
http://www.hepcnet.net/hepatitiscfaq.html

Monday, September 13, 2010

Red Rain

     On July 25th 2001 in Kerala India it started to rain, but not the typical rain that world usually watches fall down from the sky. The rain that was falling in India was “red.” According to Godfrey Louis and Santhosh Kumar, “ the red colour of the rainwater is due to the mixing of a particular type of microscopic red particles having the appearance of biological cells. This is confirmed by microscopic examination of the rainwater samples collected from various locations seperated by more than 100 kilometers. “ the redrain particles have an appearance similar to unicelluar organisms, and have a thick cell envelope. During experiments on the redrain cells no nucleus could be found.” Other interesting facts about this redrain water is that its cell-like particles do not have any flagella as found in many algae cells; and the particles are very stable agianst decay over time.” ( Kumar, Louis, 2006). The cell also has a visisble mucus, carbon and oxygen, but no DNA or RNA were found in the redrain cell particles. Theories of the redrain were it came from a meteor falling to the ground and even as far as exterrestial.




Hypothesis: Red Rain can grow and develop.



Experimental group: a single redrain particle left in a sample bottle for 5 days



Control Group: a large amount of redrain particles left in a sample bottle for 5 days



Independent Variable: the presence or absence of growth and development



Dependent variable: the presence of the redrain particles growing after five days



According to my experiment, I think that red rain can develop and grow. After five days the red rain was growing without being with other particles of red rain. I believe that could have occured longer than 60 days after the meteor. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Red_rain_in_Kerala