As of now, I have no plans for Spring Break this year. I am most likely gonna just stay home in bed and watch Netflix like always. I am not traveling anywhere, unless my parents make last minute plans. If y’all have any Netflix recommendations for me, leave them in the comments please and thanks lol
For my newspaper article, I want to write about Eastwood students who play baseball for the Austin Mustangs at Austin High School down the street. I would like to ask a few players about how they got onto the team and their overall experience so far as the season begins.
Prompt: Embed or link to an interesting TED-Ed Talk and write your own summary and reflections.
In the TED Talk titled “Can we cure genetic diseases by rewriting DNA?” by David R. Liu, he talks about how CRISPR can be used to prevent or get rid of diseases caused by base mutations. The CRISPR scissors would go in and cut a specific piece of the DNA sequencing that is chosen by the scientists. This would make the life cycle of the virus that causes the disease to get disrupted and we would technically be able to get rid of the disease. Unfortunately, sometimes just cutting the sequence will not benefit the person because the function of that sequence must be replaced by another, not just fully destroyed. Scientists have the ability to add new sequences where the CRISPR scissors made the cut, but that process unfortunately does not work for most cells. Liu worked with other scientists to develop ways to actually fix the base pairs, rather than further destroy them. As a result, they created molecular machined called “base editors.” Almost like CRISPR scissors, the base editors look for the mutation and directly converts one base to another. This allows the mutation in the gene to be fixed. The base editors are just three-part proteins that have the ability to convert C’s into T’s at certain places in the genome. They tried to create a new base pair, but they ran into a problem. There is no protein that can convert A’s into G’s or T’s into C’s. They ended up evolving a protein in their lab. They made a protein that can convert A into something that resembles G. They haven’t used the base editors on humans yet, but they have been used on animals successfully. The base editors have also been successfully used in plants. These base editors were a huge innovation in biotechnology and most likely be successfully used on humans for genetic diseases in the future.
In June 2019, I went on a six day trip to many national parks in Utah, and to Las Vegas. I went on this trip with my aunt, my uncle, and my cousin. They took me on this trip as an early gift for my 15th birthday. I had the time of my life doing things I’ve never done before like hiking, going on an airplane, and seeing mountains in real life. This trip was one of the few times in my life where I felt genuinely happy and as if I was in a dream.
This is the buffalo ranch chicken strip sandwich from Whataburger. It is undoubtedly favorite fast-food meal. I get this every single time I go to Whataburger. It has chicken strips, buffalo sauce, ranch, and american cheese. The buffalo sauce has a strong, sapid flavor of tang and spice, but not too overpowering. The ranch adds a rich, velvety relish that pairs sublimely with the buffalo sauce. The duality of flavors in the sandwich is enough to make your mouth water.
This is from June 2019 when I went to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Its highest elevations are over 9,000 feet and its lowest point is 6,620 feet. The weather was cold, especially when we were hiking on the top of the canyon. When we got there, it was cloudy and it eventually started to rain as we were about to leave. The canyon and its surrounding areas were beyond beautiful and the view often left me speechless. The hike down into the canyon was a lengthy 2.9 miles, but it was worth every single step. As my cousin, my uncle, and I were hiking back up, i got very breathless but i was able to push through. I was in low spirits when were leaving, but we had to since it started raining. Bryce Canyon is one of the most unequivocally breathtaking places I have ever been.
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