White Blood Cells (Leukocyte)

Leukocytes are 20 µm in diameter, and are made on bone marrow. They can be found in your blood stream as well as other tissues in your body. White blood cells themselves are classified as connective tissue. The function of leukocytes are to protect your body from viruses, and bacteria.White blood cells are often referred to as "continually at war". To protect our bodies, these types of cells produce antibodies and engulf harmful bacteria. Unlike red blood cells, white blood cells have all of the organelles that make up a typical eukaryotic cell.

"Leukocyte." - New World Encyclopedia. N.p., 2 Apr. 2008. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

"What Are White Blood Cells?" What Are White Blood Cells? N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Sweetness Lab

Today in Anatomy/Physiology class we did a sweetness lab; we tasted different sugars to rate their sweetness on a scale from 0-200. The sugars we tasted were sucrose (disaccharide), glucose (monosaccharide), fructose (monosaccharide), galactose (monosaccharide), maltose (disaccharide), lactose (disaccharide), starch (polysaccharide), and cellulose (polysaccharide). Typically, the sugars that were monosaccharides were sweeter than sugars with multiple rings. This is true in real life as well; candy, containing monosaccharides, is sweeter than lettuce, containing polysaccharides.

How do we taste sweetness?

Taste buds on our tongue, which are made of nerves, send signals to our brain. This helps us differentiate between sweet, salty, or bitter foods.
Every person has a different reaction to what they taste, because everyone's tongue is different. For example, people who have more sensitive tongues are called "super tasters", while a person with few taste-sensitive structures on their tongue are called "non-tasters".





Sources:
http://www.livescience.com/17190-supertaster-nontaster-tongue-evolution.html
http://www.livescience.com/32408-what-makes-food-taste-sweet.html

Red Blood Cells

Red blood cells are shaped like flat disks with a dent in the middle. A normal red blood cell is 6-8 µm. The cells are typically found in veins, arteries, and the heart. The main function of red blood cells are to transport oxygen to the rest of the body and to carry carbon dioxide back to the lungs. The also help control the pH of blood.

Red blood cells do not have the same organelles as a typical eukaryotic cell. These types of cells lack a nucleus, and therefor have no DNA. Red blood cells actually have no organelles; the only thing these types of cells have are cytoplasm and a cell membrane. Red Blood cells, and other types of blood cells, are classified as connective tissue. 

Works Cited:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53921113@N02/5645665364

http://www.wadsworth.org/chemheme/heme/microscope/rbc.htm

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Red_blood_cell