Wednesday, May 18, 2011

If it doesn't fizz, SPIT IT OUT.

A hot topic in the drug world these days, and still on the rise: methamphetamine.  Methamphetamine, or meth, can ruin, change and potentially kill people.  Even trying this sucker-hole of a drug is too much.  The high or buzz people claim to get from this drug is like feeling energized, focused, more sexual prowess and overall confidence.  After the first time using this drug however, the amount that needs to be taken in order to get this feeling increases each time, leading to an easy addiction.  Ironically, after becoming addicted to meth you become less focused, energized, and sexually appealing.  Meth consists of everyday legal ingredients such as rat poison, brake fluid, cleaning fluids, battery acid and even diet aids.  When mixed together and cooked though, this can become a deadly, deadly substance.  Meth effects the dopamine in our brain.  At first it sends a splurge of dopamine to the body, causing us to feel pleasure and euphoria, but after time the dopamine receptors in the brain are destroyed, making it nearly impossible to feel pleasure.  When the feeling of the euphoria and pleasure first wears off, users have admitted to feeling depressed and self-conscious, with an automatic response to want to take more meth to feel how they once did.  Meth also makes the brain release large amounts of adrenaline when used, causing the user to "tweak." When tweaking on a meth binge, many users have been known to have obsessive behavior causing them to do things that they would never have done sober, such as dumpster diving, collecting random items in alleys and from the thrown-out items from stores.  These large levels also help to contribute to the after-effects of meth on users.  Most ex-meth users have been found to have violent behavior partly due to the uneven levels of adrenaline the brain had been exerting.  One of the other behaviors that have been found in heavy ex-meth users is psychotic behavior including; aggression, paranoia, delusions and hallucinations.  

To read more, go to this website:


A new form of meth is now known as "Strawberry Quick." Strawberry quick is a dark pink color much like the candy Pop Rocks and smells like strawberries.  Not only does this new form of meth come in strawberry, but also peanut butter, chocolate, grape, mango and countless other "flavors."  There is a rise in teens and pre-teens who are tricked into taking this form of meth thinking it is the harmless candy.  So a quick note to all, "If it doesn't fizz in your mouth... SPIT IT OUT!" Because it just might be crystal meth.  
Pop Rocks

Crystal Meth


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Blood, D.N.A. and Tape... OH MY!

For our final project in Biology this year, we worked with exonerating innocent people from jail with DNA testing.  In order to complete the project we did multiple lab activities in order to get a good idea of how to fully understand and represent D.N.A. testing.  One of the lab activities was creating a "DNA necklace." This DNA necklace was made from taking cheek cells from our mouth and completing a process in order to separate the DNA markers from the rest of the DNA and use these to then be mixed with a Lysis Buffer.  With this solution, the DNA clung together like a small string, and floated to the middle of the solution in the small vile.  We could then wear this vile around like a necklace with our DNA floating inside.  Another main lab we did was an Electrophoresis Gel kit.  This kit was more time consuming than the necklaces and took two days to complete.  The process was to set a gel solution with Agarose Gel, let it harden (which only too a couple minutes) then take the four different DNA samples and inject them into the four slots made in the Gel.  A solution was poured over the hard gel so when injecting the DNA into these slots you could see the DNA glide down through it and lay on top of the hardened gel. We then hooked up a positive and negative energy flow to the gel causing the DNA markers to move through the gel littlest to biggest until in got to its secure spot inside of the gel.  After the DNA was securely in its spot, we poured out the liquid layer on top and let the DNA sit overnight.   The next day we added a dye to the gel, making the DNA turn bright blue.  We washed this out a few times to get all of the remaining dye out of the actual gel, then we had our final product of our moved DNA! New DNA technologies are what allow for the DNA testing that is taking place today to be able to happen.  Whether that be through electrophoresis gel or semen testing or even fingerprint analyzing, the distance we have come with testing is remarkable and has helped hundreds of innocent convicts get out of jail.

 So far in the United States there have been 269 people exonerated from jail due to D.N.A. testing.  In our classes we were put into groups of 2-3 people and in these groups we chose a name off of the list of exonerated people, then focus our project on them.  We chose a random name on that list; James Bain.  As it turns out though, James Bain was in jail the longest out of anyone who has ever been wrongfully convicted... 3 years! He was convicted for taking a 9-year-old boy to a baseball field and raping him.  When the boy was describing his attacker to his uncle, he mentioned how the man had had bushy sideburns, and the uncle said that that sounded like James Bain.  In the line-up at the station the detective specifically told the boy to pick out "Mr. Jimmy Bain," James Bain had no prior criminal record, just an unfortunate shared characteristic with the man who did attack the 9-year-old boy.  Our class made tape-sculptures to represent each exoneration victim we chose.  For our tape sculpture we had it in a laying down position to show the time that passed in jail and how sad and slightly helpless he felt there.  The painted on shirt was the same shirt that James Bain wore right after he got out of jail saying "NOT GUILTY!" Another aspect we chose to put on our sculpture was bushy sideburns; of course like the ones that had once unfairly set him aside in this case.  After serving his lengthy 35 years in jail, James Bain came out more insightful and charismatic as before.  He was excited to see his family and start from where he left off as a 19 year old boy.  The government gave Bain over 1.7 million dollars in 2010 for compensation.


This unit taught me all about the criminal "justice" system, and how in a lot of ways it can be really unjustified.  It also showed me how DNA testing and the new breakthroughs it has made has freed 269 people in the US just in the past thirty years.  I also learned how to do the actual DNA testing and make learn how to not make mistakes when doing this as to keep the results clear and perfect.  I think that I connected to this project from the tape sculptures we did.  This was an easy way to make a fun representation of DNA exoneration.  I also connected to this project through all of the stories we heard from people who had gotten out of jail after so many years of serving unnecessary time.  I am proud of the work my group and I completed, the tape sculptures were not easy, but we pulled through and created a really great sculpture as well as slideshow on James Bain.  Next time I would spend more time perfecting the slideshow and also work to patch all of the small holes on our sculpture.  It looked fine, but if we wanted perfect quality we were just an arms length from it due to computer issues on the night of exhibition.  For the nect project like this I will be sure to take every second of my free time to refine my project as much as I can and be sure to make it as high quality as possible. 

Our video to narate our project is below: