Blog Archives
Embed Plus – and the Plants Talk to Us
Tay from EmbedPlus pointed me to their free tool to allow greater control over YouTube videos, so here is my first attempt at using it to annotate and take over this TED talk from Wade Davis.
EDIT – it doesn’t work properly on WordPress.com, but here is a link to the edited video (the embedded version below is the original from YouTube). It works great on GoogleSites and Moodle, though.
The second ‘chapter’ (about 11.40 in) links to a brilliant example of an amazonian shaman who makes a powerful psychoactive preparation of Ayahuasca, from a vine. Tryptamines are the active component and are similar to tryptophan (our famous amino acid/ end product inhibition example).
They act as neurotransmitters and include serotonin, which regulates mood. It is broken down by enzymes bound to the plasma membrane of cells in the digestive tract called monoamine oxidase (MAO), so can’t be taken orally. The amazing thing is the shaman uses a preparation from another plant that inhibits this enzyme, so that the potion can be ingested and is effective. This is amazing knowledge, gleaned from a totally alternative scientific method to the one we are used to, and demonstrates an advanced naturalistic intelligence.
When he asked how they knew this and were able to combine these two extracts from the thousands available, they answered “The plants talk to us.”
Can you link this to the AHL enzymes content and represent it diagrammatically?
Once you’re done flicking through, watch the whole talk. Then become an ethnobotanist and do something useful!
For more questions and TOK links, see the full post here.
Lyrical Science: Good Riddance (to excess end products)
A sing-along-a-Biology song, for end-product inhibition of metabolic pathways, based on Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)“. Put the audio track on and sing along, karaoke-style.
For more Lyrical Science madness & how-to, click here.
Enzymes, Core and AHL/Option C
One great enzymatic dollop, for the core content and AHL/ SL Option C. Make sure you use this theory in your write-ups, can relate the action of enzymes to their structure as proteins and look for examples of enzymes in action throughout the course.
Essential Biology 3.6 & 7.6/C2: Enzymes
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Check out this article on the potential use of an enzyme in second-generation biofuels.
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Enzyme Basics:
What is an enzyme? from Northland (the best one – including inhibitors, pathways and feedback inhibition)
How enzymes work from McGraw Hill
Enzyme basics from KScience.co.uk
A full collection of savable enzyme animations from Husam Medical
And John Giannini’s Enzyme collection is nice and clear.
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Enzyme activity and kinetics
Nice virtual lab from KScience.co.uk
Enzyme kinetics from Wiley Interscience
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Denaturation:
Protein denaturation from McGraw Hill
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Inhibition
Complete tutorial from Wiley Interscience
What is an enzyme? from Northland
Feedback (end product) inhibition from McGraw Hill
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And here’s a quick run down on YouTube:
Enzymes (Core and AHL & C2)
Covering the core and AHL/ SL Option C content, here is a rundown of enzymes, from active sites to end-product inhibition. Again, there are lots of animation resources out there, many of which are used in the presentation – click on the shadowed images to go there.
–
Check out this article on the potential use of an enzyme in second-generation biofuels.
–
Enzyme Basics:
What is an enzyme? from Northland (the best one – including inhibitors, pathways and feedback inhibition)
How enzymes work from McGraw Hill
Enzyme basics from KScience.co.uk
A full collection of savable enzyme animations from Husam Medical
And John Giannini’s Enzyme collection is nice and clear.
–
Enzyme activity and kinetics
Nice virtual lab from KScience.co.uk
Enzyme kinetics from Wiley Interscience
–
Denaturation:
Protein denaturation from McGraw Hill
–
Inhibition
Complete tutorial from Wiley Interscience
What is an enzyme? from Northland
Feedback (end product) inhibition from McGraw Hill
–
And here’s a quick run down on YouTube:
i-Biology 