20/20 VISION???

Well, November will probably seem like a "blur" when it all said and done with. Whitley is officially 11 years old and her Mom is officially old enough to stop celebrating. These days my eyes seem to tire. Maybe it's from hours of studying and maybe it's because I'm now pushing 40. If I remember correctly, that seems to be about the time that John started wearing "cheaters".

The days go so fast and never a dull moment to spare. I am learning so much in school. We have went from Chemistry to Organic Chemistry to BioChemistry and now to Bioenergetics, which in lay terms relates to Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis. But it is much more than knowing that bodies need sugar,carbs,lipids and protein or that plant's have cholorphyll and photosynthesize. I'm learning about the things I can;t see with my naked eyes. In cellular respiration, I've learned that a 6 carbon sugar goes through 10 enzymes to split in to two, three carbon sugars called pyruvates. If there is oxygen present, they enter the mitochondria and undergo reactions with 8 more enzymes in the Kreb's cycle which produces NADH & FADH2 which carry proteins to the ETS (Electron Transport System). There the NAD loses the H+ and they diffuse across a concentration gradient. They eventually fall through the ATP synthase system because of Oxygen's electronegativity and then become H20 and ATP! ATP is ENERGY,and that is what we need to live!! Learning about plants was a little easier. They use our by-products CO2 & H2o to give us C6H12O6 and 6O2. In the choloroplasts, they have a thykaloid and in its membranes are quantasomes P680 and P700 to create light reactions. They are like little solar panels. The go throught the Calvin Cycle which is alot like the Electron transport system to produce NAPHP which produces glucose in the dark reactions. The two are opposites, but there is a link between then two. We can't live without plants, but they can love without us! That is pretty humbling to me!

Well, that's all I have to share for this week. We are winding down the semester so things are getting really busy: big projects are due in all classes. The last of regular lecture and lab exams are within the next week and then I start prepare for finals! I can actually see light at the end of the tunnel. I may need to readjust how much to take on next semester so I'm not so negative and Disney doesn't offer me a lead part for "GRUMPY! In case they didn't know, I 'm auditioning for the guy named "DOC"...the one with GLASSES!!!!