Does Eating Turkey Make You Sleepy?

Have you had this happen to you before? You consume a  large meal like thanksgiving with lots of food and turkey and soon after the meal you just can't stay awake. 

Why does this happen?

Let’s start with the amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins.

Turkey contains tryptophan. When we eat foods that contain tryptophan, this amino acid travels in the blood from the digestive system and later enters the brain. The brain then changes the tryptophan into another chemical called serotonin. Serotonin calms us down and helps us sleep.. The byproduct of the tryptophan to serotonin is melatonin, another hormone that regulates our sleep cycle.

Serotonin is one of the hormones, which can calm and relax the body.

However, we don’t consume nearly enough turkey during a holiday meal to produce enough serotonin to create a food coma.

Interesting beef and chicken also contain tryptophan cheddar cheese has 50 percent more and egg whites has four times as much tryptophan than turkey.,

So you just can't blame the turkey.

Other factors come into play like the large amount of food you have to digest this causes an increased blood flow to the stomach to help digest the meal, which results in less blood flow to the brain, making you tired.

The turkey, cheese, egg whites and large amounts of food all work together to make you extra sleepy, along with the stress of the holidays and family gatherings.

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Saturated - Unsaturated- and Supersaturated Solutions- What is the diffe...

Saturated, Unsaturated and Supersaturated Solutions

Let's take a solvent like water and mix in salt at a given temperature. 

Water can only dissolve so much salt you can look these up or use a solubility curve. 

When water is at 90 degrees Celsius it can dissolve 40 grams of salt in 100 grams of water. The water is the solvent and the salt is the solute. 

When you have an unsaturated solution less solute then the solution is capable of dissolving is mixed in. 

Solutes in an unsaturated solution dissolve completely. 

Using salt as an example, if we mix in 20 grams of salt at 90 degrees it will be unsaturated.  All of the salt will be dissolved. 

With a saturated solution there is so much solute present that if you were to add any more it will not dissolve and excess salt will fall to the bottom of the container. 

If you mix in 40 grams of salt at 90 degrees into 100 grams of water. 

A supersaturated solution contains more than the maximum amount of dissolved solute then the solvent is able to dissolve at a given temperature. 

If you mix in 50 grams of salt the extra salt will sink to the bottom of the container. 

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Naming Rules for Binary Ionic Compounds

Naming Binary Ionic Compounds 

First, binary means to so you have two elements. The first atom or cation is going to be a metal the second atom or anion is a non-metal.

Some metals that have different oxidation states that follow slightly different rules. 

I'm not going to cover that here.

When you name ta binary ionic compound the metal is always first and then the non-metal is second and just add IDE.  

In this example, you have sodium which is a metal bonded to chlorine which is a non-metal and it becomes sodium chloride. 

Next you have sodium fluorine, the sodium is a metal and fluorine is a non-metal and it becomes sodium fluoride. 

Magnesium and oxygen and it becomes magnesium oxide. 

Remember kindness multiplies kindness, be kind to someone today

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The Moon - Facts Everyone Should Know

One bonus or treat we can all experience is to go outside at night and look up at our moon. I personally think it is just super cool to look at. It could be a full moon, or just a sliver of a moon, or an october moon. I just think it is beautiful.

To begin, our Moon’s diameter is 2159 miles 3470 kilometers  or roughly the distance across China and more than a quarter the size  of the Earth

It has an average distance from Earth of 380,000kilometers.

 It has a distinct crust, mantle, and  solid iron core. 

Because the Moon rotates and revolves at the same rate of approximately 27 days.  

We always see the same side of the Moon.

When you look at the surface of the Moon you will notice lots of craters. 

These craters come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. 

On the near side of the moon you also have darker and smoother regions called Maria, which is latin for seas because  they were once believed to be filled with water) and [are vast solidified pools of lava.

Because the moon basically does not have an atmosphere, temperatures on the moon vary greatly with temperature differences ranging from 140 °C to −171 °C  depending on the amount of sunlight received.

Small quantities of sodium,potassium,argon, radon have been detected in the atmosphere.

The 2008 Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has confirmed the existence of surface water ice, using the on-board Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The spectrometer observed absorption lines common to water thus,  providing evidence of large quantities of water ice, on the lunar surface

The moon goes through 8 phases as seen from the Earth as it revolves around the Earth.

New moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent.

It takes 29.5 days to go from new moon to new moon.

Twelve people have walked on the moon. Which if you think about it is pretty crazy.

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All About Planet Earth

This big blue marble, also known as Earth, is home to over 7 billion humans, a huge variety of animals and plants, contains amazing mountains, vast oceans, rivers, swamps,and is our home. Let’s take a closer look at some of the features of planet Earth.

Our Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is roughly 93 million miles from the sun and revolves around the sun in 365 days. 

The Earth sits on it’s axis at 23.5 degrees and takes just shy of 24 hours to complete one rotation.

It has a diameter of almost 13.000 km and has one moon roughly ¼ it’s size

The Earth is 71% water and 29% land

97.5% of this water is salty and 2.5% freshwater

70% percent of this freshwater is frozen and the remaining amount is ground water, lakes,streams, and swamps.

In other words, the amount of usable water on Earth is scarce.

If you cut the Earth in half you will notice a thin crust that we live on. The crust is roughly 50 km thick. It is made of huge plates that move about. These shifting plates create our tallest mountains and our deepest trenches.

Underneath the crust you find additional layers like the lithosphere which is a little like very, very, thick syrup, which the crust sits upon and causes these plates to move.

At the center of the Earth is a heavy iron core that is very very hot. Roughly 5200 degree celsius. 

Surrounding the Earth is an atmosphere made of gasses. Our atmosphere is made up of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, and 0.1 percent other gases, along with trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and neon.

We hang out in the lowest layer called the troposphere which is also home to some amazing weather including hurricanes and tornadoes.

All these traits of the Earth work together to allow life to exist on our planet. The Earth is home to an amazing variety of life. From single cell protists, to vast rainforests, to workaholic insects, and much, much more.

So in summary, our Planet Earth is a gift to all of us.

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Cytoskeleton: The skeleton of the cell PLUS MORE

If you take a look at most drawings of a cell and the cell organelles a major component is usually missing. The cytoskeleton.

As the name implies it is the skeleton of the cell. 

The cytoskeleton of a cell is a network of filaments running throughout the cell.

The cytoskeleton has several different jobs in the cell It helps provide support much like your skeleton provides support .

It provides tracks or highways for the movement of vesicles and other objects in the cell, helps pull the chromosomes apart during mitosis and even helps the cell move. Some single cell organisms move using cilia made up of cytoskeleton filament.

 

The cytoskeleton consists of three types of fibers, microfilaments, intermediate filaments,and microtubules.

 Microfilaments are fine, thread-like protein fibers. They are composed predominantly of a protein called actin these filaments create service highways for the vesicles that need to be moved in the cell and may hold organelles in place.

Intermediate filaments are medium in length and they help maintain the shape of the cell 

For example a red blood cell has a unique donut shape cytoskeleton filaments help produce this unique shape.

Microtubules are the largest filaments and also create tracks for proteins. 

Think of the microtubules as roads in the cell They also help pull the chromosomes apart during mitosis.

Microtubules also help with the movement of the entire cell by helping to create flagella or cilia that helps propel certain cells.

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Erosion due to Gravity

Although you may not see it, gravity is a force of erosion. Gravity not only influences the movement of water, but it also causes rocks and soil to move downward. This downward movement caused by gravity called mass movement plays a major role in shaping the Earth.

Sand, rocks, and soil will move downhill until the slope becomes stable. The angle of repose is the steepest angle at which loose material will not slide downward. The angle of repose may change based on the size, weight, shape, and moisture level of the objects which may cause rock falls or landslides.

The most destructive mass movement happens suddenly and rapidly. A rockfall happens when loose rock falls down a steep slope. This steep slope may be manmade when creating a road or created by nature. Rocks that range in size from small fragments to large boulders fall down the slope due to gravity.

A landslide is the sudden and rapid movement of a large amount of material downward. A slump is the most common landslide and happens when a block of material moves downward over a curved surface. A rapid movement of a large mass of mud is a mudflow. When heavy rain mixes with soil and rock a slippery mass of mud may be created that can flow rapidly downhill. Mudflows as a result of a volcano are called Lahars. Volcanic eruptions or heavy rains on volcanic ash can cause a Lahar that may travel up to 80km an hour.

Sometimes the mass movement is very slow. This is called creep. Water loosens the soil on a steep slope, Plant roots and animals loosen the soil which slowly moves downhill. Bent tree trunks may be evidence that creep is occurring.

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