Friday, January 25, 2013

VDA # 6: Prune Fingers!

 
1. Scientists predict that prune fingers may serve a purpose. What purpose do they suggest prune fingers serve?
 
 

     scientists suggested that prunlike skin might work the same way as the tread on a tire, a pattern of ridges and grooves. these helps rolling rubber hold fast to wet pavement. In 2011, scientists suggested prunelike skin might work much the same way. The body’s nervous system , a network of cells used by the brain to send and receive signals to different parts of the body ,controls skin wrinkling. If the brain directs skin to become prunelike, those wrinkles must provide some advantage. Or so reasoned the researchers.

2. Do you think that the study performed in England was a valid study? Why or why not? 
 
        I think the study performed in england  didn't give all the information to answer why do we have prunelike fingers?  but, it did give some information that could lead to answering the question, for example, every participant moved the wet objects faster with wrinkled fingers. but wrinkled skin didn’t help anyone move the dry objects any faster.
 
 
 
3. How would you design an experiment to gather more data to support the suggestion that prune fingers serve a purpose?  (Be sure to include the number of people sampled, the independent and dependent variables and the duration or amount of time for your experiment.) 

      I would test 4 children and 4 adults and 4 elderly. I will let them put their hands in the water for about thirty minutes and then i will first give them a light object then a heavy object  to put in different boxes as fast as they can. I will record which age group took each object faster and which age group went faster with an object that was lighter and heavier. Then I would test their hands after2 hours in water and give them dry objects with the same weight.  


4. While scientists are attempting to determine the biological purpose for prune fingers, the article does not discuss why prune fingers happen in the first place.what biological process allows  for the skin on our hands and feet to turn wrinkly when submerged in water for a long period of time?
       
      Your hands turn wrinkly when submerged in water for a long time because water washes away an oily substance that protects your skin which is called sebum.When that happens, a certain type of dead cell on your skin will absorb the water causing the cells to swell up, but the layer underneath does not. So the swelling, combined with the places the skin is connected underneath to the non-swelled layer, causes your finger tips to look all wrinkly.
 
 http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/11/why-fingers-wrinkle-in-water/

Redo:

1. Scientists predict that prune fingers may serve a purpose. What purpose do they suggest prune fingers serve?
 

prune fingers serve us by helping our fingers hold wet objects.

2. Do you think that the study performed in England was a valid study? Why or why not?

I think the study was valid because they did the experiment more than once. They also made the people try to carry objects with dry hands.


3. How would you design an experiment to gather more data to support the suggestion that prune fingers serve a purpose? (Be sure to include the number of people sampled, the independent and dependent variables and the duration or amount of time for your experiment.)

      I would test 20 people i would let them first move dry things with dry hands as fast as they can to boxes then I would let them put their hands in warm water for 1hour and let them move wet things as fast as they can to boxes, then i would see the difference of speed between each part of the experiment. this experiment might take about 1hour and a half for each person.( which includes the time period of the peoples hands in the water.My independent variables is the time, water and objects. My dependent variables are the people and results.




4. While scientists are attempting to determine the biological purpose for prune fingers, the article does not discuss why prune fingers happen in the first place.what biological process allows for the skin on our hands and feet to turn wrinkly when submerged in water for a long period of time?














        This biological process is called Osmosis.


 

2 comments:

  1. Dena,

    Please redo:
    Put number 1 in your own words.

    Please be sure to answer the question in number 2. You did not address the true question.

    What is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable? And, with the way you've set up your experiment, you are testing the effect of age on the ability to hold/move objects that are wet, not the effect of the wrinkly fingers themselves. Careful how you set this up!

    And, number four needs to be highlighted appropriately and the answer is one word. Think carefully, it's something you learned in my class recently.

    ReplyDelete