BIOL 1010 by

Assignment 1

hbernard15 — 2025-09-03 13:38:13 UTC

Atoms need to have 8 electrons in the valence shell in order to be stable. If there aren't enough electrons, the atom is reactive and will form chemical bonds in order to get those 8 electrons. Atoms form covalent bonds when they share electrons to become stable. Ionic bonds are formed when opposite charges attract and electrons are transferred. I chose this resource because it shows a clear visual of chemical bonds and how covalent and ionic bonds form and made it easier for me to understand. An example of this in everyday life is sodium and chlorine which is table salt.

Assignment 2

hbernard15 — 2025-09-18 01:55:00 UTC

Prokaryotic cells are unicellular and are in the bacteria or archaea domains. Eukaryotic cells are unicellular or mulitcellular and are in the eukarya domain which can be protists, plants, animals, or fungi. Both cells have DNA, ribosomes, cytoplasms, cell membrane, and a cell wall in plant and fungi cells. Eukaryotic cells are larger and more complex than prokaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles, prokaryotic cells do not. I chose this video because I liked how it broke down the similarities and differences between the two cells. An example of this in everyday life would be getting prescribed antibiotics for an infection caused by bacteria.

Assignment 3

hbernard15 — 2025-10-06 22:35:23 UTC

Light-dependent reactions occur in the thylakoid and begin in photosystem II. Photosystem II recieves photons causing electrons to escape. To replace these electrons, water is split, releasing oxygen, two hydrogen ions, and two electrons. The first set of electrons move down the electron transport chain, releasing stored energy. A protein in the electron transport chain pumps hydrogen ions into the thylakoid space and these ions flow through a channel in ATP synthase. And the energy is used to add a phosphate to ADP which is how ATP is formed. NADPH is formed from the energy in photosystem I. The electrons go through the 2nd electron transport chain and they are replaced again in photosystem I. Water is split and the electrons reduce NADP with a hydrogen molecule. I chose this resource because I thought it did a good job breaking down the process of light-dependent reactions and explaining how ATP and NADPH is formed. An example of this in everyday life would be oxygen that is released from the water spliting in light-dependent reactions is in the air that we breathe.

Assignment 4

hbernard15 — 2025-10-27 23:43:09 UTC

Asexual reproduction only requires one organism and results in offspring that are genetically identical. Different types of asexual reproduction include binary fission, budding, and cloning. Sexual reproduction involves uniting gametes to produce a unique offspring. Sexual reproduction creates genetic diversity. The offspring from sexual reproduction receive genetic information from their two parents. Gametes are different from each other because of independent assortment and crossing over. I chose this video because it provided good examples explaining the differences between asexual and sexual reproduction. An example asexual reproduction in everyday life would be bacteria on a sponge reproducing by binary fission. An example of sexual reproduction in everyday life would be two humans having a baby when sperm fertilizes an egg.

Assignment 5

hbernard15 — 2025-11-23 18:44:34 UTC

CRISPR stands for "clustered interspaced short palindromic repeats." It is a system used by microbes to find and eliminate invading viruses. CRISPR creates a new RNA sequence to find the invading virus using a new DNA sequence by taking a piece of the bacterium's genome and inserting it into its own. The new RNA sequence is used to detect the virus DNA seuquence and destroys it. CRISPR is also used for gene therapy to fix a mutated gene or to regulate the expression of a gene into protein products. I chose this article because CRISPR has a huge impact on research, medicine, and agriculture and it is interesting to learn about. An example of CRISPR in everyday life would be using it to fix the mutated gene that causes sickle cell disease.