A-Ron21

Hi everyone. I'm usually a lurker on this forum but I decided to make a thread to ask for some help. I'm a senior biology/chemistry student at a state university in Pennsylvania. I am geared generally toward human physiology/medical science. I will be graduating next fall, and I need to make the stressful decision of choosing a graduate school. Here is my problem in a nutshell: I don't know what I want to do. I am confident that I would be successful in a medical program. I get good grades and I am fairly sure that I would be successful as a doctor of some sort. I am being pressured (not strongly, but some) by my professors to enroll in a medical program. I've sorted it to two main problems: 1) I really do not know what I want to do with my degree. I have always had a fascination with how things work. However (again), in high school I was never good enough in mathematics and so the option of me enrolling in a physics or engineering program for undergrad was out of the question. I have definitely improved in my mathematical ability since then. I also have had an interest in infectious diseases and have looked up a couple schools for that. 2) Cosmology, astronomy, and engineering were always my first and main interest. The first books I read were on cosmology and astronomy. I've always wanted to enroll in the space program at NASA. I've always wanted to be a pilot. I highly enjoy building things and taking them apart and learning how they work. This is clearly an engineering-type interest. So here is my focus: I would like to pursue my dream of working with NASA or astronauts (or being one) first and foremost, but I am not sure how to go about doing this because my undergraduate degree is in biology and chemistry. I've been searching on the Peterson's website and have found several schools that offer programs in Biophysics and Bioengineering, which are the closest I could come to melding the two fields. I've considered doing a master's program in something related to biology or phsyics, and then possibly going a non-academic route (ie. aviation school or the navy) in order to make this happen. However I have no idea how to start that. The other option is go to a medical school, and then after I graduate try to do some sort of work with NASA and human physiology in space (basically). ----- Anyways, if you actually made it through reading all this, I highly appreciate it, and would definitely appreciate any advice that the members of this board can give me.

I just had a test on this! haha. Basically, a signal comes down a motor neuron to whats called the neuromuscular junction, where a nerve basically attaches to a muscle. The signal causes the end of the motor neuron to release Acetylcholine, which binds to the receptor at the junction and stimulates the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which is sort of a sheath that surrounds the muscle. The S.R. then opens up and floods Ca+ into the muscle, which then bind to something called the troponin-tropomyosin complex. When the Ca+ binds to it, the T-TMC shifts position and underneath it basically are two different proteins, myosin and actin. When the T-TMC shifts position, the myosin, which lies inside the actin, forms cross-bridges and connects with the actin. The myosin literally pulls itself forward to connect with the actin - and when you multiply that many many times you get a muscle cell to contract.

I agree with MIgirl. If you are 15 years old, your testosterone production is skyrocketing and as a result, your estrogen levels are also high because testosterone converts to estrogen, and there is always a balance. Give it time and it should go away. Exercise helps reduce fat which will make the fat on your chest less noticeable. However, my question is, what does a person do if that doesn't go away? Or if they exhibit the same estrogen-related fat deposition after puberty? I had a couple of friends ask me about this and I'm not really sure.

Check these out, I found these in about ten seconds with google: http://mit-mites.org/alumni_central/02_websites/g.oladipo/www/glycine.pl http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/education/AminoAcid/the_twenty.html Hope this helps!

Would it be possible to mimic a stressed state by giving a person elevated doses of the hormones that are released during stressful periods of time? Such as cortisol and hormones that retain water, I think ADH or Aldosterone.

That guy has veins all over his body because he is on about 3-5 anabolic steroids - from the nitrogen retention caused by that. Hes also on other bodybuilding drugs too.

Haha thanks, I want to get it on a shirt.

Hey guys. Thanks a lot for the help. I read all of your posts and it definitely provided me with some additional reading to get other views of that subject. I had met with my chem professor yesterday and wednesday and we went over that and the integrated rate law, and I pretty much get it now. Look for me posting mainly in the biology section. Thanks guys!

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum! I've been stalking it for a little while and now I really need some help. I am a biology major and I am currently taking a relatively basic Chem 112 class. However, my professor moves through lecture very quickly and I'm having trouble understanding the first part on chemical kinetics. Also guys, sorry if I don't provide enough information in this post, i can provide it tomorrow, I've had a long day and i'm making this thread as a last resort before i go to bed. my lecture is tomorrow and i'll be talking to my professor then. Anyways, the part i'm stuck on is first, second, third order reactions. I'm pretty much confused about them in general. Can someone point me in the right direction, to a page that has a general overview or even just explain it to me? I'm also confused about rate law and how it works. I need to be able to learn how they work and then use that information to crunch data from lab reports, or in this case, the problems out of the back of my chem textbook. yes, i am reading my textbook too but I want to cover all my bases, so thats why I'm making the thread. Thanks guys.