12/12/09 Blog!

This week in Science, we learned about relationships between base pairs, m-RNA, t-RNA, and how cells make protein.

There are four different DNA bases:

1. Adonine
2. Cytosine
3. Thymine
4. Guanine

Adonine is always paired up with Thymine, and Cytosine is always paired with Guanine. The base pairs are the DNA code. We learned about the relationships by looking at a picture of DNA, and observed that there are four different DNA base pair colors. This is important to know because to understand DNA, you must understand the way base pairs work.

We also learned about m-RNA and t-RNA. m-RNA is messenger RNA. Its job is to copy the code the DNA has. t-RNA is transfer RNA. Its job is to bring pieces. RNA stands for ribose nucleic acid. It has one sugar backbone and no oxygen. We learned about this by doing a class simulation of how cells make protein. This is important to know because RNA is vital in the creation of something made with the help of DNA.

Finally, we learned about how cells make protein. To learn about this, we did a class simulation of how cells make protein. First, Someone had a code. Next, another person copied that code, crumpled the paper it was on, and threw it to our table. Our table decodes the message and finds that it says: put yellow on green. After that, we told two people to each bring a piece to the building table. Finally, we had one of the people that brought a piece bring the product to the thinking table. We figured out what parts of the cell each person represented. For example, the original person to have the code represented DNA, and my table represented ribosome, which read the code. This is important because protein is an important process that the cell goes through.