Halloween Candy, Food Coma and Scary Music... oh my

This Tuesday is Halloween and to get in the spirit, I thought I would share one of my favorite Jimmy Kimmel clips.  I absolutely love the brothers at the end of this clip.  If you have time to kill this week between school work and trick-or-treating, you should look at more of the "I Ate All of Your Halloween Candy Clips."  Jimmy Kimmel has been doing this challenge for about six years and he says he will continue the challenge until kids get smarter and realize it is all a joke.

During third hour this week, we had a little extra time on Thursday so some of you picked out some excellent blog topics.

1.  Food Comas

2.  Halloween is not a treat for your Digestive System

3.  The Future of Medical Technology Video Clip:

4.  Why is Scary Music Scary?

All of the options above are either related to digestion, Halloween, or biology in some way or another.  (Thanks 3rd hour...you guys rock.)  You can pick which option you would like to either read or watch.  Write a scholarly paragraph about what you learned.  Your paragraph should be at least five sentences long.  Also, I would like to to respond to at least one of your peers.  Do you have an idea for a future blog post?  Please email it to me.

Got Milk

This week we will wrap up our unit on Chemistry.  In class last week we discussed whether or not you liked milk.  I would say that our class is about 50/50 on the milk issue.  This is a super interesting video put out by the Howard Hughes Institute about lactose tolerance and evolution.  Essentially, one video actually ties together three different units in Honors Biology:  Biochemistry, Enzymes and Digestion and finally Evolution. 

What causes lactose persistence?  Normally, what happens to our ability to digest lactose as we get older?  What is the enzyme that helps break apart lactose into glucose and galactose?  What caused the different mutations in the Finnish and the African people?  Was it the same mutation?  Why is milk good for you?  What was the factor that helped "weed out" the people that were not able to digest lactose? 

Your assignment this week is to watch the video and answer some of the questions above in a well constructed paragraph.  Also in your paragraph I want you to state whether or not you like milk.  Additionally, I would like you to state whether your family likes milk and where your family's ancestors are from.  In addition to your post, you will also need to respond to at least one of your peers.