For some odd reason, Its good to be blogging here again, after so many months of updating my own blog.
Every good show needs its sequel, as every good blog needs a final recap :D
so here, just a little thing of what we've done in those many months :
Tuesday, 6march:
Serene posts the test post
Thursday,8march:
Serene posts about basic blogging rules
Saturday, 10 march:
Serene posts the first ACTUAl post, touching on the topic of marasmus, with reference to the song Famous last words by (long live) MCR.
Tuesday, 20march:
Huimei(me) Posts about Xerophthalmia, with a video and pics put up by Serene
Thursday, 22march:
Serene writes about serine deficiency (duh) with references to celebrities and their possible children.( thank goodness we didnt recieve lawsuits about that)
Sunday, 25march:
Serene posts about the dire consequences of not having your daily dose of her :D
Tuesday, 27march:
Rachel(dou) writes about zinc deficiency, with losts of respect to oysters XD
Saturday, 31march:
I post about chromium deficiency, and an embarrassing incident with my friends that involved a cow and lactating.
Serene follows up with a post on the deficiency of vitamin D.
Friday, 6 april:
Serene posts about the lack of having a cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator ( try saying that 5 times really fast) and also tpes a really sweet story about a girl who couldnt play the flute)
Sunday, 8 april:
Ana posts (finally) about colour blindness and "speacial" people XD
Friday, 13 april:
I do an april fools day post on a made up disease (which serene totally falls for) :P
Sunday, 15april:
Serene posts a response to me, and dedicates the post to Mr Jo.
Monday, 16 april:
Serene posts about pallagra, with pics of the BANDits, and an admirable attempt at a biological poem :D
Wednesday, 18april:
I post about asphyxia, with an incident pertaining to a certain neigbourhood beng and a very strange game.
Tuesday, 24april:
I post a good (I think) story on courage. Food for thought.
Saturday, 28april :
I post about potassium deficiency, with a really cool picture of a dancing spiderman and cheerleading bananas. :D
Wednesday, 28may:
Serene comes out of hibernation :D with some highly unappealing photos of us :P
Sunday, 6may:
I post a goodbye post on the blog, with a neat little calvinandhobbes strip
Monday, 7 may :
Serene posts a reply to me, and adds on a goodbye posts and aquote by charles dickens, and info on lack of hydrochloric acid.
I follow up with the AWARDS posts :D
AND yep, thats about it folks.
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And rumour has it, that theyre coming back with the sequel.
15:40;
"I do not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from this Book, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My interest in it, is so recent and strong; and my mind is so divided between pleasure and regret - pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions - that I am in danger of wearying the reader whom I love, with personal confidences, and private emotions.
Besides which, all that I could say of the Story, to any purpose, I have endeavoured to say in it.
It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know, how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years' imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever. Yet, I have nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still) that no one can ever believe this Narrative, in the reading, more than I have believed it in the writing.
Instead of looking back, therefore, I will look forward. I cannot close this Volume more agreeably to myself, than with a hopeful glance towards the time when I shall again put forth my two green leaves once a month, and with a faithful remembrance of the genial sun and showers that have fallen on these leaves of David Copperfield, and made me happy."
--Charles Dickens.
Charles Dickens puts it out more aptly than we ever could. Maybe ours was a two-month project, instead of a two-year one. Maybe we used a keyboard instead of a pen. Still, you can't compromise the hours we've put into this blog; in researching, in collating results, in searching for pictures. We learn things we don't learn in textbooks, and that's something. But it's not over. We won't stop blogging. This blog will not cease to exist.
Hahah, and I'm sure we're looking forward to the time where we spread our green leaves out (hopefully more than) once a month and undergo light-dependent stages of photosynthesis, where the sunlight of the knowledge on the internet gets converted by the chlorophyll of our creative thinking into the stored potential chemical energy of a teen-friendly tech-savvy blog! :D
Photolysis of this information also happens when we take information from the internet and we dissect it into smaller more soluble molecules for the easy understanding of readers. :) And in the light-independent stage, the reducing of this information occurs, and the result is the sugary sweet smell of success when we complete a blog post!
Heh.
I'm trying to recreate those feelings I had on Sunday nights rushing out posts. Well, I'm dog-tired, I slept at 3:30am yesterday because Blogger just had to fail on me!, woke at 8am to go to church and have been mugging ever since. It's 2:31am now. It feels like old times and it's a perfect time to start -- deficiency of hydrochloric acid!
:D
According to the bio textbook, hydrochloric acid exists in the body as gastric juice with two other enzymes, pepsin and rennin. Hydrochloric acid is there for four reasons - Firstly, to stop the action of the salivary amylase by denaturing it, secondly to convert the inactive pepsinogen and prorennin into their active forms of pepsin and rennin respectively; third, to create a suitably acidic environment for the actions of these enzymes and lastly to kill any potentially harmful microorganisms in the food.
Anyway, there are a few obvious symptoms that manifest when you do have a lack of hydrochloric acid.
1. WHEN YOU HAVE UNDIGESTED FOOD IN YOUR STOOL OR HAVE OFFENSIVE STOOL.
Actually, I'm not quite sure why this comes about. Seeing that intestinal juice is alkaline, and thus hydrochloric acid is only found in significant amounts in the stomach, we can safely say perhaps there is a bit of trouble digesting proteins in the stomach. However, theoretically, the undigested proteins should enter the small intestine and get digested anyway by the trypsin, which was converted from the inactive trypsinogen by the enzyme enterokinase.
So please do not be too worried about a lack of hydrochloric acid when you see your sirloin steak from lunch at Hans floating in the toilet bowl. It could be a simple case of deficiency of trypsin, or a deficiency of enterokinase. heehee.
2. IF YOU SUFFER FROM MEAL-RELATED BURPING, DELAYED GASTRIC EMPTYING, MEAL-RELATED BLOATING, AND GENERAL FLATULENCE.
Er in English -- if you feel bloated, constipated and feel like burping and farting all the time.
My guess would be that because of the delayed break down of food, food tends to remain longer in the gut and thus, to an effect 'rots' away, and produces gas. Secondly, because the lack of hydrochloric acid means that less bacteria is killed, and these bacteria begin respiring, thus also producing gas. Which also means you become like this unlucky guy who had fart in the airport and get his fart taped down in the annals of youtube history by a infra red camera in an airport.
3. WHITE SPOTS ON THE FINGERNAILS.
I admit I was stumped by this one. I didn't know how it happened, until I did more basic research and ta-dah ALL HAIL WIKIPEDIA THE KING.:D Fingernails equals made out of keratin! Keratin is found in the gastrointestinal tract! (fine, the alimentary canal.) So I suppose the lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach would have some repercussions somewhere somehow in the rest of the gut.
Also, because keratins contain a high proportion of the smallest of the 20 amino acids; and since the proteins in the stomach weren't digested to form amino acids, thus perhaps the keratins were detained.
4. IF YOU EXPERIENCE DROWSINESS AFTER A MEAL.
Who doesn't experience drowsiness after a meal? I don't think we should be very worried about this symptom, but in the context, I would imagine that the oxygen would all be taken the hard-working intestinal cells that need the oxygen, and when the brain doesn't receive enough oxygen, the body starts to respond by slowing down, and you feel drowsy!
:D
Please note that all my theories are merely hypothetical, and are not a law of science until proven so. :)
Well, as a remedy to this puzzle, I would believe would be in the line, "DO IT YOURSELF." If your body cannot provide hydrochloric acid, why don't you provide it? The textbook says that alcohol actually stimulates acid-secretion. So if you drink more alcohol, you're likely to have more acid in your stomach!
However, if you are a tee-totaller, fret not! Perhaps you just need a dose of acid itself. :D See, ethanoic acid, which is vinegar; is quite weak, and thus will not affect the body adversely. :)
Alright, the chem test beckons and I'm probably going to heed its call until 3:30am again, I'm going to die of fatigue man. Or deep vein thrombosis.
yea, dvt.
But deep vein thrombosis is for another blog post. Til then,
HASTA LA VISTA READERS;
JE T'AIME MON CHERIE!
note the swift skilful change in language.:) i'm a linguist!
22:26;
Since we have like, the oscars, why dont we have our own awards :D
( Hinthinthint : extra points for creativity maybe)
we would like to present a special award to our teacher, and its the
Huimei, your MC for this special Awards edition, out
17:00;
No more having to remind each other to update, no more checking back to see what the others have written, no more lauging at each others spelling mistakes and egoism ( in my case) , No more scrambling to find a subject to write on at the last minute, no more lame medical jokes, no more trying to create an abstract connection between our personal lives and diseases that happen to 1 in a million people, no more crying ( at least, I did) over sad pictures you find on the web, no more............well....................... Nessessary bio-blogging.
It over.
SAD SAD SAD.
I guess, you dont expect to gain much inspiration or human insights while blogging about bio. I mean, its science right? Its cold, medical terms, scientific surgery, autopsies on murder victims, the study of dead foetuses, done without feelings, just textbook instructions.
It was kinda different this time around I suppose. The fact that part of the assignment was to make the posts personal kinda made all of us think deeper. In a way, I guess this blog was part of a growing process.
To end off, I'm just gonna post a comic strip that I often reflected on at night while trying to make an entry here :
Huimei out, at the (probably) last graded post.
Sayonara babey
13:11;
Anyway, I hope you guys did really well. Je t'aime! <3!
ana and huimei and dou!
I'll blog more
19:45;
Ok, imagine this:
You are a frail and weak damsel in distress, struggling to walk home with your heavy, bulging schoolbag plus an armful of books. You drop a few books, and dump the bag on the ground to pick them up. Just as you are struggling to heft the bag onto your shoulder again, suddenly, out of nowhere, a shadow falls across you, and a smooth, male voice asks " may I carry that for you?" And you turn around to see this bright light, you seem to hear ambient music playing in the background and the light seems to part to show you this really handsome and good-looking guy, resembling your modern-day knight in shining armour, come to rescue you from the doom and gloom of sucky everyday life :D
Ta-dah!
But then, of course, all your magical imaginings disappear and your hunky knight turns into a bespectacled nerd when, try as he might, he cant get your bag off the ground, and is then forced to carry your wimpy little stack of books while you shoulder the pack. And when Mister Shrimpy and you finally get to your house, and he asks you for your number, you give him a fake one, before slamming the door in his face.
I suppose you must forgive the poor kid, cause after all, he may be suffering from this :
Hypokalemia,also known as potassium deficiency.
WARNING :
This does NOT mean that I suggest for all the wimpy guys out there to raid their schools Science labs and gulp down the store of potassium. It will NOT turn you into superman.
Neither will getiing bitten by a mutant spider turn you into Spiderman, but that is another story.
(ok, I know spiderman doesnt dance like this, but I found it freaking hilarious. How could I resist? :D )
Hypokalemia is a potentially FATAL condition where the body fails to retain sufficient, well..............potasssium. (duh) The meaning of the disease can be found in the word Hypokalemia itself. When dissected, hypo means low, not to be confused with the meaning of HYPER, which means high. Kal refers to kalium, which is latin for potassium, while emia means "in the blood" .
Cool eh?
Ok, now to the not-so-cool part. Signs of hypokalemia include Muscle weakness and pain ( the cheem word for muscle pain is myalgia) , disorientation, seizures and disturbed heart rythm. It can be caused by insufficient consumption of potassium,excessive loss of water (It flushes out potassium) through vomiting or diarrhea, consuming certain medications that accelerate the removal of potassium from the body, or by having certain forms of diabetes. A rarer reason could be that it is hereditary.
Since potassium is essential for muscle and nerve activity, we need a way to cure it right :D
The most important step is to stop the vomiting, diarrhea, or offending medication so the patient cannot lose anymore potassium. If it is only a mild case of hypokalmia, it may be treated by taking oral supplements and potassium rich food such as
tomatoes,
oranges
and bananas.
(avoid those in pajamas, of course :D)
But in serious cases, the patient may have to be warded to recieve intravenous supplementation, which is where they stick a needle in your hand and connect it to a bottle of stuff, and in this case, the bottle will contain saline, which is used world-wide to treat hypokalemia. It requires precise doses and intensive monitering, so be prepared for a long hospital stay.
Just a side note, but your pets can get this as well, so make sure they get enough tomatoes, oranges and bananas too :D
Huimei out, after posting 3 times in a row :D
13:58;
I typed a very long and personal response on the topic of suicide by asphyxiation. It contained a personal anecdote, and a very touching song and was very heart-felt and emotional.
So I deleted it.
It wouldnt do any good to burden all the readers with details of my private life would it :D
Anyway, just to lighten the mood after that confession, I shall post a story that concerns COURAGE :D (Its one of our school values people so pay attention)
Once, a philosophy student was taking his year end exam.The essay question was " What is courage to you?" For three hours, as the other students scribbled frantically away, this student sat there and thought. At the end of the exam, he stood up, handed in his paper, and walked out. Upon opening this students answer paper, the examiner was shocked to find that it was COMPLETELY BLANK. But, as he glanced downwards,right at the bottom of the paper, written in small, neat, letters were the words " This is courage"
The student got an A+.
NOW how cool is that!!!
hope that will provide food for thought, or at least was entertaining :D
Huimei out
20:16;