Thursday, March 17, 2011

Rohan Mallya 3/17/11

Today, we learned how the first cell of a baby was created. Here are the steps:

1. First, the male and female must go through intercourse (sex). Remember: sex is not reproduction! It is merely a delivery meathod so that the sperm and egg cells are at same place at the same time!

2. Next, the sperm cell has to fertilize egg cell in the womb. During fertilization, the two cell literally merge together. The egg is always an "x" chromosome and the sperm is either an "x" or a "y" chromosome. Each cell has half of the 46 chromosomes (23 homologous pairs). But, we learned that when you go through sex, the woman does not always end up pregnant. This is could be because the woman used birth controls, which keep the the sperm and egg cells from being in the same place at the same time. Or, this could be because the spaerm and the egg are never end up being in the same place at the same time.

3. The first cell of the new organism is formed.

Finley told us that for plants, the sex cells are the egg and the pollen. The pollen is kind of like the sperm cell, but for plants.

Here's a video to clear this all up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgT5rUQ9EmQ&feature=related

There might be some vocabulary you might not know.

Rohan

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