The Science of Fat (Adipose Cells)

Adipose cells are essentially fat cells in connective tissue that are composed of triglycerides and fatty acids. There are two types: white adipose cells and brown adipose, both with quite differently, yet related characteristics. The main function of white adipose cells is to be a major storage for fat. Due to this, the other organelles typical of a eukaryotic cell are found in white adipose cells  are significantly smaller compared to the large vacuole. This vacuole is what makes the shape of the cell, takes over 90% of the space in a cell and is filled with lipid. On the other hand, brown adipose cells burn lipids to generate heat for the organism. Unlike white adipose cells, brown adipose cells store triglycerides in multiple cell vacuoles instead of one large one and they contain a lot of large mitochondria as well as common organelles seen in other eukaryotic cells.


See http://anatomyandbeyond.blogspot.com/p/works-cited.html for works cited.

Brown adipose cell (left) White adipose cell (right)

To Be Sweet or Not to Be Sweet Lab

In this lab, I tasted different types of carbohydrates: sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose to determine each one's sweetness. Through this lab, I found that the number of rings in a carbohydrate corresponds to the sweetness of the carbohydrate. For example, cellulose and starch formed long chains and were the least sweet while glucose and fructose, which each had only one ring, were the sweeter. Where these carbohydrates are naturally found also relates to its sweetness. Since cellulose is found in vegetables as a major energy source, and most vegetables are not sweet, it makes sense that cellulose would not be very sweet either. On the other hand, fructose is found in fruits, which are supposed to be bait for animals to eat their fruit and spread the seeds, logically, fructose would be sweet. It was! Turns out, the way that humans taste sweetness is through taste cells on taste buds on a person's tongue (NPR). The way that people normally taste is different from the way that our body senses sweet tastes. We actually have sweet receptor proteins in our taste cells which go on to send certain signals to our nervous system and brain. What has been recently discovered a few years ago is that other organs in our body can sense sweetness as well. However, back to the tongue and its taste buds. They have gustatory receptor cells which go on to send signals to the brain (How Stuff Works). These receptor cells are what determine how your brain will react to those flavors. This is a factor in how each person senses different tastes and the extent of how sweet, sour, or bitter it is to them.


Fun Fact: Your taste cells have a lifespan of around 10 days

Works Cited

"Adipose Tissue." Adipose Tissue. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/adipose/adipose.html>.

"BIOdotEDU." BIOdotEDU. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/ahp/LAD/C4d/C4d_adipose.html>.

"Adipose Cell | Biology." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/science/adipose-cell>.

"Transdifferentiation Properties of Adipocytes in the Adipose Organ."Transdifferentiation Properties of Adipocytes in the Adipose Organ. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/297/5/E977>.