Hammy's Desire To Survive by Gracie Bourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d Biology Assignment #8 en-us 2017-11-05 21:00:36 UTC 2024-06-02 20:41:16 UTC hello@padlet.com 1 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203683905 Here, our story starts with a hamburger named Hammy. Hammy was full of carbohydrates, protein, and lipids. Hammy, as he might have had the build of any regular hamburger, had something that other hamburgers didn't have, he had the desire to stay alive throughout a hard and deadly journey he knew he would soon be encountering. ]]> 2017-11-05 21:02:01 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203683905 2 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203683943 Hammy knew this journey would end badly for him...the other hamburgers called it the “un-assembly line”. Here, scary stories had been told to Hammy that when he entered this journey, he would end up with all the other foods. This didn't sound to bad for Hammy, he liked making new friends but he was warned that this would not be a ‘friendly’ encounter but a deadly one and when he was done he would be mushed up into one ball of all of the gross things that he was made of. The “beast”, as the other hamburgers called it, would take all of the nutritious things out of him that the beast needed for survival and put him back into his most basic molecular form. When the beast was done with all the gross things inside of Hammy, he would be removed from the body. The beast sounded very selfish to Hammy but Hammy had no choice but to be taken by a beast one day. Just like every other day and every other great hamburger of Hammys time, he sat in the glass container just waiting to be sold. Days went by and Hammy soon became extremely anxious for his life...literally. He knew that one day soon he would be chosen by a beast and have to go through the journey through the un-assembly line. 

]]> 2017-11-05 21:02:17 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203683943 3 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203683990 One morning, Hammy was in the glass, as usual, when all of a sudden his life changed. He looked up and saw a beautiful beast walk into the store. It was almost like the whole world went on pause when she smiled. She looked so majestic and beautiful he just couldn’t look away. He felt a warm and fuzzy feeling inside of his meat and, right at that moment, he knew she was the one...the one who would take him, the one who would choose him. He had been anxious before but now he was excited for the beast to try to digest him. Hammy had always liked a challenge.

]]> 2017-11-05 21:02:42 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203683990 4 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684048 She walked up to the glass and pointed at him...wow, he thought, it's my turn. A big man grabbed him and wrapped him up in paper, then placed him in a bag. The beautiful beast grabbed the bag, paid for him, then walked out of the store. This was the start of his new life. 
Hammy had never seen the outside world before. He was shocked by the beauty of it. The beast sat down on a wooden bench that had been placed outside of the Hammys home, the restaurant. 
“Yum,” the beast proclaimed. 
Excited to do the impossible, Hammy looked his very best for the beast. The beast leaned in and took a bite of Hammy…

]]> 2017-11-05 21:03:19 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684048 5 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684087 The first step in Hammys journey was the pass through the face hole, or sometimes he had heard it referred to as the mouth. Hammy thought this would be an easy obstacle to pass because it was only the first step. Little did Hammy know that he would be chemically and mechanically broken down. The mouth contained teeth that would cut and grind food into small pieces then the saliva would begin to chemically break down the food. The salivary amylase broke down Hammys carbohydrates into smaller sugars. This begins the digestive process by breaking down the starch that was being chewed. The glads in the mouth start secreting saliva. The amylase didn't do much for meat and cheese but all Hammys sugars were being broken down..

]]> 2017-11-05 21:03:38 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684087 6 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684153 Hammy was unsure how he could make it through this. That wasn't all though, the pharynx was next on the list. It moved Hammy down from the mouth towards the esophagus in a process called swallowing, so Hammy had heard before. He tried his best to stay in the beast's mouth but the pharynx had a pressure so strong that he couldn’t resist it. He hoped that there would be another way to escape somewhere else. The pharynx moved him to the esophagus. Hammy knew this was the “tunnel”. Yes, THE tunnel...the one is all the stories he had heard. The tunnel that took you to the stomach. Peristaltic waves pushed him through the tunnel so he had a hard time resisting it. The tunnel was roughly 8 inches long and lined by mucosa (moist pink tissue). He knew he was making it to the end of the tunnel because he was coming close to the sphincter. He had heard stories about one hamburger who was able to get out of the beast by opening the sphincter, which allowed the acids from the stomach to get into the esophagus, meaning heartburn would occur and bring the beast to pain. Hammy tried to open the sphincter but he was unable to. I bet there is still another way, Hammy thought. ]]> 2017-11-05 21:04:03 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684153 7 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684216 Next on the list of places was the stomach. Hammy splashed into the main exocrine product of the stomach called gastric juice. Hammy knew that the nerves in the submucosa would be able to detect when he was present and initiate the release of a hormone called gastrin. Gastrin is released into the bloodstream and transported to gastric cells in the stomach, where it stimulates the release of gastric juice. Each gastric gland secretes only a tiny amount of gastric juice, but there are millions of glands. Gastric juice is mostly made up of mucus, but also contains acid and digestive enzymes. The mucus, a slippery secretion that coats and protects the lining of the stomach from acid and digestive enzymes. The acid present in gastric juice is very strong; it normally ranges from pH 2.0 to pH 3.0. The hydrochloric acid present in gastric juice converts pepsinogen to its active form, pepsin, which begins the breakdown of proteins into separate amino acids. Secreting the inactive enzyme pepsinogen is a safety mechanism that prevents damage to the stomach tissue. If gastric glands were to make pepsin instead of pepsinogen, the stomach would digest itself. Hammy tried to grab onto the wall but he couldn't because it was lined with mucus. Hammy thought that if he would be able to get rid of the mucus, he would be able to get the stomach to digest itself by its own digestive enzymes...this was also unsuccessful. Hammy started to get dizzy because of smooth muscles of the stomach-turning him around and around. They produced contractions known as mixing waves that mix the boluses of food with gastric juice. Hammy began to get mixed in with the gastric juice to produce a thick liquid known as chyme. To add, gastrin is released and increases the activity of the stomach by stimulating increased gastric juice production, muscle contraction, and gastric emptying through the pyloric sphincter. At this point, Hammy was starting to go back into his most basic molecular form, like what he had been warned by the other hamburgers...although he was broken into tiny pieces, he still had energy. As he was pinning around thinking, he started to remember some of the stories that had been told to him….he knew what awaited him next.


]]> 2017-11-05 21:04:39 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684216 8 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684468 There had been stories about the next place...he had had nightmares about the next place...but little did he know how deadly it would be….it was called the small intestine. Hammy looked ahead of him and saw 6 meters (roughly) of what looked like torture. It was a long, narrow and coiled tube that ran from the stomach to the large intestine. As he entered the long tube he could feel the nutrients and energy being sucked out of him. He knew the small intestine's job in the beast body was to digests and absorb the nutrient, including protein, lipid, and carbohydrate. The small intestines had three regions: duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. He tried to think through what he could do...although, he didn’t have much time before the enzymes would come. Hammys chyme was mixed with bile salts from the liver and pancreatic juice from the pancreas to complete its digestion in the duodenum. Hammy knew that when food enters the duodenum, the pancreas released enzymes to help break down fat, protein and carbohydrate. The pancreas was the main place that Hammy would be converted into energy to regulate blood sugar in the beast. The gallbladder concentrates and stores bile that is produced by the liver and drains the waste products from the liver. The liver regulates the composition of blood and amounts of sugar/proteins. It detoxifies and metabolizes chemicals and drugs, as well as makes proteins for blood clotting. The gallbladder released the bile, which has been produced by the liver, to help further break Hammys fats down into a form that can be absorbed by the intestines. The gallbladder helps break down fatty stuff. Bile salts are squirted out into the small intestine. Bile is an emulsifier, it takes hydrophobic fat molecules and breaks them up into fatty acids and monoglycerides (which can be absorbed by the tissue). Hammy was in a fairly fat-rich chyme so a hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) was secreted by special cells in the mucosa of the duodenum and released into the bloodstream. This hormone signals the pancreas to secrete a variety of substances, including ones that control the pH of the intestine and enzymes that are needed for lipid, carbohydrate, and protein digestion. As Hammy struggled to keep all his parts together, his proteins started to be digested by other enzymes. The beats’ pancreas released trypsinogen, which is an inactive form of a protein-digesting enzyme called trypsin. The trypsinogen traveled from the pancreas to the duodenum where Hammy was. Once it reached the duodenum, an enzyme called enterokinase converted it into active trypsin. Trypsin continued the work on Hammy that had been begun by the pepsin in the stomach, further breaking down any partially digested proteins that remain. Other protein-digesting enzymes help break the short protein chains into single amino acid molecules. Next, nuclease came and started to break down the bonds between Hammys nucleotides and nucleic acid. Throughout Hammys time in the small intestine, secretin, a stimulator in the pancreas that releases bicarbonate ions (HCO3) came and neutralized the acidic chyme and raise the pH from about pH 2.5 to pH 9.0. Secretin also protected the small intestine from stomach acids, as well as acted as a digestive rate regulator and prevents more food from entering the duodenum from the stomach until the current batch is digested. By this time, Hammy had become extremely tired and all his energy was drained from him.  As Hammy was moved through the long tunnel he felt the little villi in the jejunum and ileum absorb water and nutrients. His chyme slowly passed through the small intestine by waves of smooth muscle contraction known as peristalsis. It took many waves of peristalsis over several hours to move his chyme to the end of the ileum.

]]> 2017-11-05 21:06:28 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684468 9 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684537 Hammy had thought a lot in the small intestines. He thought about his life and his purpose. He was told by the other hamburgers that in the depths of his last moments he would know what his purpose on this earth was...he would soon find out why he was created, like every other great hamburger of his time. The desire to stay alive didn’t leave him though, he fought hard, like a great warrior. ]]> 2017-11-05 21:07:02 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684537 10 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684596 Next, he was to journey through the large intestines and colon. The large intestines would suck out the nutrients that still remain in Hammy that had not been absorbed in the small intestines. Hammy had heard that the purpose of the large intestine was to remove most of the water and bile salts from the chyme so the beast wouldn't have constant diarrhea. Water and vitamins were being sucked out of Hammys chyme. Certain bacterias were sent to help to break down material in the chyme. The large intestines, despite their name, were not as long as the small intestines and were only about 1.5 meters long. 
Deep in thought, Hammy had a shock run through his body...he had never felt this way before. It was a feeling of an understatement. A feeling of knowing why he was created. Just like he had been told, in the depths of his despair, he realized what his purpose in life was. He realized that the beautiful beast. that he had seen before, had eaten him because, without him, she would die. It all made sense now, he was her source of energy. He decided he would stop fighting because he had grown to love the beast that had devoured him. He knew that she meant no hard when she ate him but she had to do it for her own survival. Out of love, Hammy decided that he would give himself up for her. He would die so she could live. An act of kindness, an act of true love. He now understood why all the great hamburgers of the past had died, it was because they came to the understanding that they lived for a purpose, and it was to die. Hammy felt great, he had done something in the time he was alive. Contentment filled his heart and he was overjoyed. 

]]> 2017-11-05 21:07:29 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684596 11 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684671 As he gave up his will to survive, the products and the waste that was not absorbed into the body started to decompose and compact. He was stored in the rectum until the beast made him exit from her body. Hammys story may not have ended very pleasantly or happily, but it ended heroically. 
Hammy died with a purpose, which to him, was better than living with no reason. ]]> 2017-11-05 21:08:05 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203684671 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686666 2017-11-05 21:25:06 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686666 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686697 2017-11-05 21:25:22 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686697 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686724 2017-11-05 21:25:37 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686724 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686805 2017-11-05 21:26:16 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686805 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686931 2017-11-05 21:27:24 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686931 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686982 2017-11-05 21:27:48 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203686982 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687010 2017-11-05 21:28:02 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687010 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687097 2017-11-05 21:28:37 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687097 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687152 2017-11-05 21:29:03 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687152 gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687214 2017-11-05 21:29:41 UTC https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203687214 Work Cited gecbourne https://padlet.com/gecbourne/66rtzi05m2d/wish/203689678 Boundless. “The Small Intestine.” The Small Intestine | Boundless Anatomy and Physiology, courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ap/chapter/the-small-intestine/

“Digestive System.” Diabetes.co.uk, www.diabetes.co.uk/body/digestive-system.html

“Stomach.” InnerBody, www.innerbody.com/image_digeov/dige11-new.html
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