Biology P4: Get Your Pen Ready

First of all, good luck for tomorrow's P6 exam.

Second, let us post more beautiful girls picture (not Reon, Ozawa or Dizon):









Now for the real deal.

Basically the most difficult part in this paper is Part II, which can be surprisingly easy as in our prelim exam. Generally, homeostasis (osmoregulation and blood glucose regulation) is the easiest of all. Why? You mention one condition then you mention the opposite condition then you get a mark or two. Add up the organ and the hormone involved, you get 4 marks. Mention the aftermath, you will get two marks (blood glucose conc. down/water retained). Get it?

The one that gives us a lot of trouble are plant growth regulator (PGH) and our friend Darwin and his theory.

As for PGH, I can't think of any better possible answer other than these:

• Name the hormones and what is the effect
• How does it carry out the effect
• Leaf abscission and apical dominance

Yes, I do realize all of them requires memorizing. So good luck with that. But for some tips, rather than memorizing the steps, try to understand what is really happening. Make a flow chart and try to analyze the function of each hormone.

As for our dearest friend who was stranded in Galapagos Island, my best suggestion is to open wikipedia.org, type his name and just read whatever provided along with the link.

Another good bet is to memorize one type of your preferred sympatric speciation and allopatric speciation. For this reason, I strongly suggest you to read PYP and just take one of the stories. Personally, I find the story about prawn is indeed good.

Another dreaded topic (still from the same guy) is selection and variation. For this two topics, fortunately, the flow answer is always the same. Remember about sickle cell anemia and malaria? Practically, selection and variation question always follow such structure:

• Initially there are two variants (or any number) of phenotype.
• Number of population remain constant/ gene pool remains constant
• Mention about survival of the fittest/competition, depend on question
• Also mention about change in condition or environment
• If they can survive, they will be able to reproduce or the other way round
  
• Those who survive pass on their gene to the next offspring (this phrase never fails to appear in such questions), otherwise they die.
• Such changes happen over time -> result in evolution
• Change in number of gene pool

Those are only guidelines and please do not copy paste above phrases during your exam. Seriously. Above points are only guidelines and may need to be modified when answering question such as artificial selection, importance of variation or roles of human in natural selection.

Personally, I would recommend to take questions regarding ATP production (Kreb's, glycolysis, anaerobic pathway, oxidative phosphorylation), photosynthesis (asking about Calvin Cycle or light-dependent), synaptic transmission, gene technology (recombinant DNA, electrophoresis, PCR, Sanger method) and homeostasis (osmoregulation, blood glucose control). As a general rule, take "how" questions rather than "describe" questions. Think of your answer before you write them. If the questions can be answered in less than 100 words (listing only main points), I say go for it.

Hope this help.



N.B. Above pictures contain one transsexual woman. Do not get infatuated with her unless you accept her whatever she is.

Chemistry Probrem: Organic + Periodicity

After several feedback from my friend, I have decided Organic Chemistry and Periodicity will be reviewed in this post (and may continue, due to demand or difficulty).

Starting with organic chemistry, to tackle most problems regarding reagents and resulting product, I will be distributing some copies from my "Holy Baibal". It will be ready at the latest on Monday, 4th of April.

For periodicity..............

Starting from Group IV.

One common problem. Oxides and chlorides of Group IV is different from its element (C,Si,Ge). Don't mix it up. Read the questions carefully. They will have completely different reactivity and physical property.

Group IV oxides: carbon dioxide is an acidic gas as well as silicon(IV) oxide. Carbon monoxide is a neutral gas on the other hand. The rest of the Group IV oxides are amphoteric. Their reactions:

Request from Daniel

First evar L4D Post. Just some random thingies.

Created to increase blog's popularity (maybe).

First of all, I am not Vika, sorry Vik, as usual I have to borrow your ID.

Ahh finally someone posting l4d. This isn't really a guide on l4d though, more like a list of helpful l4d information (or some funny things) that I found in its official forum.

Yes, yes, I know that most of you ppl don't play l4d (orly?), don't flame me, at least there is something to be read (or rather, viewed) in this blog once in a while.

Well, here you go.

Update: few more links and I indicated the links for clarity.

HELPFUL INFO NO.1:

MAEN PAKE SPEAKER PLEASE *COUGH(BLOOD)*ALBERT*COUGH*

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=778290
This is the l4d exact statistics for those number-calculating-gaming freaks *cough* wesley *cough*, heck they even found out that exploding pipe bombs and propane tanks does exactly 1 damage 33 feet away =_=.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=788854

Decent boomer tips, just for the sake of it.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=785441
List of current glitches.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=802420
VERY nice advanced tips. This just shows how detailed the makers of l4d, Valve, made this game.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=804885
Witch killing, quite interesting.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746172
ahahah easter eggs, even I myself don't know most of them the first time i read this.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770952
A nice in-depth hunter guide, for those hunter freaks *cough* ken *cough*.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=815449
This is a research entitled: "A study of migratory habits of Hunterous Aerialis in the area of Survivorus Incapati" (lol the latin names) done by advanced players ,obviously, to find out about the tendency on hunter-pouncing-incaps. You should open the images he provided for clearer understanding. Its funny, yet enlightening; written in the form of scientific review for humorous purposes.
@ken this is the one i talked about on the sunday night match, the one with all pros in the server.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI3PyHnvRKQ
Deadly ball statue, highly amusing, the main part is the later half of the vid, around 1 minute and 3 seconds onwards. Again, this just shows how detailed and real l4d is.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=817968
Highlights of DLC update. I've seen some of the vids on the new upcoming Survival Mode Lighthouse map, looks exciting.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=814743
L4D dictionary. Used by international ppl. Now I know that there really is a curse on Louis..

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=782694
Guide to tanks, recommended since tanks are now not as effective as before against good players.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=791501
Pills here! A very nice guide that explains why pills >> medkits with a new way of thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSF94qv5oTI&fmt=22
A fancy hunter tutorial video, in HD, and is slowed 50% for clarity (i think).

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751170
Why is crashsshhhhh! The essential crash solutions.


I didn't read all of them yet (lol), considering the time when I posted this *yawn*.
Vika, you better do sth to keep this blog alive, why don't you post the chemical structure of viagra, and explain how it works. Or you can ask wesley to find the Young's Modulus of condom materials or whatever (they can break during intercourse, according to our biology textbook,... srsly..). Notice that we've currently got only 4 posts (including this) for this year.

Ends here, I may post more thingies on l4d later, provided that biology homeworks will not kill me.


Credits goes to everyone who made these posts and threads and videos, thank you very much!

Request from Ken

I'm Sorry To Make You Wait

Our mascot:


She is an actress and she is not an adult actress.

Let us congratulate her for being our new HTML!!!!!!!!

Chemistry, Again, Homework Help.

Well, we were on hiatus.

I will give you some idea on how to design an experiment to determine the hydration of sodium carbonate (find the X in Na2CO3.XH2O).

Basically, I propose two methods of doing it:

1. Make a solution of known concentration and do a titration.
2. Heat the solid chemicals.

Method No. 1 is well known and comprehensible but requires more detailed explanation and precautions.
Method No. 2 is easier to write and describe, in terms of experiment and precautions. However, this method may require us to know a certain terms and apparatus.

I'll explain the first method first.

The first method is fairly simple. You just need to dissolve a known amount (in gram) sodium carbonate in distilled water and commence a titration with hydrochloric acid.

Since in titration, hydrochloric acid will only react with sodium carbonate, hence by finding the concentration of sodium carbonate reacted (in g/dm3), we can determine the mass of the water in the sodium carbonate, hence the hydration number (or whatever it is called).

The second method works exactly like our Paper 3 Question Number 2. Here, you need to heat with Bunsen Burner a known amount of hydrated sodium carbonate. This way, the water inside the sodium carbonate will be evaporated. The decrease in mass will signify the mass of water evaporated and hence we can find how much water originally in the crystal by comparing the mass of sodium carbonate with the water inside it.

Some apparatus required for these experiments:

• Test tubes, as the container for sodium carbonate
• Pipette, to transfer exactly 25 mL of solution of sodium carbonate for method 1
• Burette, to do the titration.
• Beaker, to contain the result 25 mL of solution of sodium carbonate.
• White tile
• Bunsen Burner, for method 2
  
• Boiling tube, to contain the sodium carbonate in method 2
• Anything to hold boiling tube while it is heated
• Weighing machine, to measure the mass of materials in method 2
• Stirrer and funnel to transfer the chemicals carefully.

I would say that is all for apparatus. Any extra advice would be appreciated.

Now for the chemicals:

• Hydrochloric acid, 0.125 mol/dm3, 250-400 mL
• Aqua destilata, a cool name for distilled water
• Sodium carbonate, of course. It must be pure.
• Methane or ethane, to fuel our bunsen burner.
• Indicator, any will do I think.

That is all for chemicals. Any extra addition will be deeply appreciated.

For the method No. 1, we just need to write what we usually do plus add some precautions and details, such as add X drops of indicator and indicate when we need to stop. For the table, just copy from any old past paper.

For method number 2, what I can say is that we need to continuously reheat and cool it down. We need to do this until the mass is finally constant, that is when all water is evaporated.

Suggestion for table.
Method 1:

Method 2:


So that is all I can help you. Good luck and if you have any problem you can approach Wind, Ms. Ine Medyawati or Kawapada.

Thank you.






(As a side note, if you can check the freeexampapers.com, you can see the paper 3 O/N 2001 and 2003 to get more reference)