Penicillin

Hello everybody!!
Today's lesson is about penicillin! Some of you might not know what penicillin is, but I'm gonna teach you! Here's our lesson plan!

• What is penicillin?
• Who created penicillin? 
• What are antibiotics?
• Why are mice used to test antibiotics?
• Why are antibiotic overdoses bad?
• What was Alexander Fleming's contribution to penicillin?

Let's get started!!

1. What is penicillin? Penicillin is an antibiotic used to fight bacteria in your body.  It is used to fight infectious diseases such as pneumonia, gonorrhea, rheumatic fever, and ear infections. Penicillin was the very first natural antibiotic to ever be created! Good job, Mr. Fleming!
2. Who created penicillin? Alexander Fleming created penicillin in 1948, but it was not confirmed and used in hospitals until November 19, 1999. 
3. What are antibiotics? Antibiotics are medicinal drugs used to kill or prevent reproduction in harmful bacteria. Before antibiotics were made, if you had an infected cut, all doctors could do was sit and wait, and hope that the infection didn't spread. After penicillin was made, the doctors could finally do something that stopped the infections!
4. Why were mice used to test penicillin? Well, normally, scientists used Guinea pigs or hamsters to test medicines. For some reason, Mr. Fleming decided to use mice. If he hadn't used mice, there would be no penicillin right now, because drugs are toxic to Guinea pigs and hamsters! Maybe Mr. Fleming knew, maybe he didn't, but if he had used Guinea pigs, they would have died, and penicillin would have been put aside as dysfunctional. 
5. Why are antibiotic overdoses bad? Antibiotic overdoses don't have the same effects as other drug overdoses, but if you use penicillin, and even one bacterial cell gets away, that cell has immunity to penicillin. If that cell reproduces, that immunity is passed from the parent to the offspring, and if that cell reproduces, what happens? It just goes on and on. The more you use antibiotics, the more cells have immunity to that drug!
6. Believe it or not, the founding of penicillin was an accident! Fleming found a certain type of mold in an old unwashed petri dish. He later found out that that mold held a medicine that we now call penicillin! 

Here's this YouTube video that I found explaining how penicillin was found a little bit more in detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qeZLLhx5kU

I think that's it for today! Comment any questions that you may have! Also, feel free to use any information on this post! Have a good day!

Lydia

Blog posts

Hello, everybody! It's Lydia! I want to continue to write on this blog, but in order to do that, I need you guys to tell me what you want me to teach! Just comment a topic, and I will talk to my science partners, and hopefully we'll make a post explaining all that you need to know! Thanks in advance!
~~Lydia

Microbes

Hello everybody! It's just Lydia today. This year, Olivia is not doing class, so I will be running this blog on my own... Today's lesson is all about microbes. We will be going over basic things, like what microbes are, are they good or bad? I hope this helps all of you guys!

A microbe is a tiny organism living in your body, and in the body of almost every living creature. Microbes are actually good for you. They keep you skinny by boosting your metabolism rate. They also fight disease just by taking up space that bacteria would normally inhabit.

The four major kinds of infectious diseases are viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. A virus is a form of bacteria that draws nutrients away from your body, leaving you sick. Bacteria are tiny microscopic, very simple, cells that live everywhere. Some are harmless, but some are viruses that can leave you sick for a long time. Fungi are a group of bacteria. A lot of fungi can be dangerous, and even deadly, but some are healthy, like non-poisonous mushrooms. Protozoa are not always good. They eat bacteria, which is a good thing and a bad thing, because they eat the bad bacteria, which is a good thing, but they also eat the good bacteria, which is a bad thing.

Infectious diseases are transmitted in several different ways. They can be transmitted from animals to humans, and from humans to other humans. They can be in one person, who drinks out of a cup of water, but also leaves their saliva on the cup. If another person drinks out of that cup, they can pick up the disease in the other person’s saliva. They can also be transmitted when mosquitos bite you. Some mosquitos have a disease in their blood called malaria. When they bite you, their saliva, along with the disease, is transmitted into your blood stream. Household animals can also give you diseases. If a cat or dog gets some sort of disease on its claws, and then scratches you, that would also transmit the disease into your blood stream. If a baby is sick and bites you, and breaks the skin, the disease can get under your skin.

Hope this helped all of you guys! Comment any questions you have!

Apologia Physical Science Lesson 3-- Module 11

Kon'nichiwa, guys! Olydia here again! Today we'll be doing another lesson from our Apologia Physical Science book, Module 11. Our topics today are:

• The Four Fundamental Forces of Creation
• Gravitational Force
• Force and Circular motion
• Fictional Force
• Gravitational Force in our Solar System
• Comets, Meteors, Meteorites, and Meteoroids
• What Causes Gravitational Force

Let's start!

1. The Four Fundamental Forces of Creation. The four fundamental forces are gravitational, electromagnetic, weak force, and strong force. They're called fundamental forces because all force is traced back to one of these four forces. 

2. Gravitational force is the easiest force to recognize. Gravity is everywhere on earth. It may seem easy, but it's hard to understand. Scientists aren't exactly sure what causes it. When an apple falls off of a tree, it doesn't actually fall, it is pulled by gravity to the ground. The three general principles of the Universal Law of Gravitation are: 

a) All objects with mass are attracted to one another by the gravitation force. 

b) The gravitational force between two masses is directly proportional to the mass of each object.

c) The gravitational force between two masses is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between those two objects.

3. Force and Circular Motion. Circular motion requires a special force, which is centripetal force. Centripetal force is the force necessary to make an object move in a circle. It is directed perpendicular to the velocity of the object, which means it points toward the center of the circle. There'll be a video below with an experiment using centripetal force and circular motion.

4. Fictional Force.