Lyrics for AP Bio Reading Science Sing-a-Long

AP Reading Blues
The Cell Song
Food Chains
Carbon Cycle
Enzymes
Glycolysis
Protein Synthesis
DNA, Fantastic
Electron Transport Chain
Osmosis
Membranes!
Mendel!
Meiosis!
This Land is Your Land
Blowing in the wind
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Learn on Me
My Girl

AP Reading Blues

I’m here in Kansas City,
grading all these tests,
Thinking about my students,
I hope they did their best.
I’m at the AP reading and time is dragging on.
I need a shot of caffeine When will those tests be gone?

I’m thinking bears and cladograms
And how they all relate
And whether that lyst sequence beats that Mitochondrial DNA
I’m at the AP reading and time is dragging on.
I need a shot of caffeine When will those tests be gone?

I’m thinkin’ gastrodermin,
And interleukin too
And when those pores are openin’ up
What will osmosis do?
I’m at the AP reading and time is dragging on.
I need a shot of caffeine When will those tests be gone?

Those bedbugs with their knocked out genes
Are crawling up my skin.
I’d kill them with insecticides.
But please don’t use that cyfluthrin
I’m at the AP reading and time is dragging on.
I need a shot of caffeine When will those tests be gone?

I’m feeling like a tongue sole fish
It’s pretty hot tonight.
This Kansas city heat wave’s
Gonna change my phenotype
I’m at the AP reading and time is dragging on.
I need a shot of caffeine When will those tests be gone?

I’m at the AP reading and time is dragging on.
I need a shot of caffeine When will those tests be gone?

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The Cell Song

I went into a cell, to get out of the rain,
and there was the gatekeeper, the cell membrane.
I went into a cell, and what did I see,
the mitochondria, it’s the energy factory.
I went into a cell, and said “who drives this bus”
and found myself talking to the boss, the nucleus.
I went into a cell, to recover from a spasm,
and found myself swimming in some clear cytoplasm.

I went into the nucleus to ask how to get home,
and got genetic info, stored in a chromosome.
I went into a cell, and stretching o’ so far,
was a thin and wavy network, it’s called the E.R.
I went into a cell, trying not to be perplexed,
by the packaging and sorting in the Golgi complex.
I went into a cell, and said “who makes proteins here?”
and somebody responded “it’s the ribosome, my dear.”
I went into a cell, and was feeling pretty fine,
‘til a lysosome engulfed me, and dissolved me in enzymes.
I went into a cell, and was feeling pretty nimble,
till a centriole lassoed me, tying me up in a spindle.

I went into a plant cell to see how trees get so tall,
and all around the outside was a rigid cell wall.
I went into a plant cell, “why’s it so green I asked?”
“Cause I make food from sunlight,” said a green chloroplast.
I went into a plant cell to see how plant cells store food,
when a vacuole informed me that he was the storage dude.

So when you go inside a cell, remember what you see,
There’s over a trillion cells in both you and me.
Just sing this song if you ever feel confusion,
and remember active transport is the opposite of diffusion.

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Food Chains

To the tune of The Ballad of Jed Clampett (Beverley Hillbillies Song)

Lyrics © Glenn Wolkenfeld

Oh, a nuclear reaction happens deep inside the sun,
When hydrogen atoms are fused into helium
And then their heat and light is radiated into space,
In 90 million miles it shines upon the Earth’s face.

For every hundred calories that shine out from the sun,
The calories that green plants trap will number only one,
But every single calorie in oceans, hills, and plains,
Will serve as a foundation for a living food chain.

At the bottom of a food chain are producers like green plants
Whose cells make food from sunlight making use of chloroplasts,
It happens in the pines and flowers on your windowsill,
‘Cause every single green plant’s got a little chlorophyll.
Well the next step in a food chain is a primary consumer,
An herbivoric cow or vegetarian baby boomer,
A primary consumer spends its mealtimes eating plants,
It might be a buffalo or might be an ant.

Each level in a food chain yields only ten percent
Of the former level’s energy, you might ask where it went
There are bones and leaves you can’t digest that really make a dent
And don’t ignore the weighty cost of metabolic rent.

So if your plants are yielding ’bout a hundred calories,
Your yield will only be ten in the birdies and the bees.
And seven hundred calories in algae in the sea
In primary consumers it will yield you seventy.

Some other ways of getting food are really out of sight.
You could be a predator or be a parasite,
A predator eats meat a parasite eats your insides,
And if you’re a decomposer you will eat me when I die!

And if you know this about food chains you can really take the cake,
When energy goes through it doesn’t last, it dissipates,
But nutrients in food chains meet a very different fate,
They recycle and they circulate forever, ain’t that great?

Just remember there’s no beings in this world that live alone
Populations form communities where all do make their homes
Though your niche may be determining the role that you are playing.
Every creature live or dead is in a food chain!

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Carbon Cycle

I’m a carbon atom in a CO₂ up in the air,
(In the air, in the air)
Floating with the nitrogen and oxygen up there
(Nitrogen and oxygen up there)

And there I’m gonna be until I’m sucked into a tree
(Into the leaves, of a tree)
Photosynthesis captures me
(Puts me in the leaves of a tree)

Fixed into the leaves I’m in a new situation
(Now I’m in a solid in a plant location)
‘Cause photosynthesis does carbon fixation
(Carbon fixation)

CHORUS
Carbon cycle, moving me around
Gaseous in the air and solid on the ground,
Carbon cycle going ’round and ’round
(Going ’round and ’round and ‘round)

I might be fixed into a tree, or herb or weed or shrubbery,
(Or maybe an algae, floating in the sea)
But after CO₂ in a producer’s where I’ll be
(Producer’s where I’ll be)

Formerly a gas, now I’m solid carbohydrate,
(Leaves and bark and fruit and wood are mostly carbohydrates)
Or possibly a grain of rice on someone’s dinner plate,
(Someone’s dinner plate)

Then maybe I’ll be eaten by a deer or mouse or bird,
(Chewed up by a goat or by a buffalo herd)
After being swallowed I could be dropped as a turd,
(Dropped down as a turd)

CHORUS
Carbon cycle, moving me around
Gaseous in the air and solid on the ground,
Carbon cycle going ’round and ’round
(Going ’round and ’round and ‘round)

In a plant or animal, I might get respired,
(For energy I’ll get respired)
CO₂’s released, and oxygen’s required
(Oxygen’s required)

Or possibly who carries me will fall dead to the ground,
(On to the soil on the ground)
Decomposers break me down as CO₂ comes out,
(CO₂ comes out).

Decomposition, respiration put me in the air
(Carbon dioxide in the air)
With the clouds and nitrogen and oxygen up there
(Nitrogen and oxygen up there)

CHORUS
Carbon cycle, moving me around
Gaseous in the air and solid on the ground,
Carbon cycle going ’round and ’round
(Going ’round and ’round and ‘round)

Or maybe I fall to the ground, no oxygen around,
(Logs and leaves accumulate, pound by pound)
Makes me into fossil fuels deep under the ground,
(Deep under the ground)

They mine the coal, and oil and gas; combust me in machines
(CO₂ emitted from machines)
And now the CO₂’s at levels no one’s ever seen.
(No one’s ever seen!)

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Enzymes

They’re the protein catalysts in every organism
ENZYMES!
Through enzymatic action your metabolism’s driven
ENZYMES!
In staphylococcus, jellyfish, tarantulas and trees,
They lower activation energy
Enzymes, in you and me now
ENZYMES!

You got ’em in your cells where they do cellular digestion,
ENZYMES!
You got ’em in your mouth and in your stomach and intestines
ENZYMES!
The thing an enzyme acts upon is called a substrate.
They fit like lock and key with complementary shape
Enzymes, speed up reaction rates
ENZYMES!

An enzyme binds its substrate at its active site
ENZYMES!
Bound together in a complex where they snuggle so tight,
ENZYMES!
New bonds will form and break due to the active site’s chemistry
Reactants become products, it’s the enzyme’s specialty,
Product gets release enzyme repeats its action readily

ENZYMES!
Like any molecule an enzyme’s shape defines its function.
ENZYMES!
Environmental change that changes shape leads to malfunction,
ENZYMES!
Every enzyme has a pH where it catalyzes best,
a pH change will set enzyme activity to rest.
Enzymes are so sensitive they’re easily upset
ENZYMES!

More heat until a certain point increases their efficiency
ENZYMES!
But too much heat denatures them destroying their activity
ENZYMES!
That’s why a fever running high’s a dangerous situation,
All that heat can alter enzymatic conformation.
Keep it 98.6 for enzyme optimization
ENZYMES!

Enzymes in saliva will break starch into glucose
ENZYMES!
If you lack the enzyme lactase then you won’t enjoy milk lactose,
ENZYMES!
Tay-sachs, galactosemia and PKU disease,
All caused by inherited enzyme deficiencies
ENZYMES, they’re what everybody needs
ENZYMES!

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Glycolysis

Glycolysis is a series of reactions,
Enzymatic actions, energy transactions,
Takes glucose, a molecule so sugary,
Breaks it down for NADH and ATP

It’s an anaerobic cytoplasmic pathway that amazes
Organized easily into three phases,
Investment, cleavage, and energy harvest,
Tell me later which one you like best.

Investment: activation energy’s supplied,
Cleavage: our six-carbon sugar divides
Harvest: we get our energy yield,
So beautiful, so intricate keep your eyes peeled

CHORUS
Glycolysis!
Come on sugar, come on sugar,
For the breakdown.
For the breakdown.

Investment’s like striking a match,
That energy you put in makes the fire catch
For glycolysis investment’s two ATPs,
Which act as activation energy

Enzymes take phosphate from ATPs
Jam ’em on a glucose rearranging it to fructose,
Leaving Fructose 1- 6 bisphosphate on the table,
With two phosphates, it’s highly unstable!

Moving us to the second phase
The cleaving of Fructose bisphosphate
Cause glycolysis means splitting sugar, you can see
cleavage yields two molecules with carbons three

One is glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate G3P
It continues on our pathway broken down for energy
But the second one an enzyme will immediately,
Convert into a second G3P

CHORUS
Glycolysis!
Come on sugar, come on sugar,
For the breakdown.
For the breakdown.

Phase 3: G3P gets rearranged and oxidized,
By an enzymatic assembly line,
That harvests energy from each G3P
One NADH and 2 ATPs

Double this yield per G3P
To two NADH and 4 ATPs
That’s the gross yield for every glucose in
A generous accounting of glycolysis’s win

But 2ATPs were invested in phase 1
So you net just two you can use to jump or run,
Put two in, get four out, your net gain is two,
Two ATPs that you can use.

If that doesn’t seem like very much, it’s cause it ain’t,
There’s tons of energy left in pyruvate,
The two three-carbon molecules we’re left with at the end.
And what happens to pyruvate is gonna depend,

On the metabolic pathway where pyruvate gets sent,
If it’s anaerobic it’ll be fermented
But in aerobic cells pyruvate’s termination
Will be the Krebs cycle and total oxidation!

CHORUS
Glycolysis!
Come on sugar, come on sugar,
For the breakdown.
For the breakdown.

Glycolysis starts with investment
of two ATPs to the glucose that we started with,
The product is cleaved into two G3Ps
From which the cell harvests NADH and ATPs.

This anaerobic pathway is respiration’s first phase,
It’s billions of year’s old evolved in ancient days
before O2 accumulated in the seas,
before eukaryotic cells like ours arrived on the scene

It’s everywhere, ubiquitous, in every organism,
Bacteria, sequoia tree, no matter your metabolism,
Happens in the cytoplasm doesn’t need no organelles.
You wanna find glycolysis? Look in any cell!

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Protein Synthesis

Look at what’s coming out of the nucleus
Destined for a ribosome, a strand of mRNA
It’s got the code, the information,
For the protein we’ll be making today

The RNA message is organized
Into codons, that’s a sequence of bases three
That spell out one and only one amino acid
A genetic code that works universally

A codon has its match in an anti-codon
Three bases on a tRNAs bottom side
tRNA’s job is to bring amino acids
To ribosomes so proteins can be synthesized

CHORUS
mRNA, tRNA and ribosomes
Plus amino acids make a protein making machine
Read the codon, make a polypeptide
That’s translation – cells synthesizing proteins

The small subunit of a ribosome binds
With that mRNA’s leading end
And slides until it reaches start codon AUG
Indicating where translation begins

A ribosome has three binding sites
Where tRNAs can bind
The “A” site’s first, “P”s next, then “E”
And the E’s got an exit sign

The first tRNA in this translation process
Binds the start codon in binding site “P”
And that tRNA carries an amino acid
That goes by the name of Methionine.

And now to finish this initiation
The ribosome needs to be made complete
The large subunit binds the small subunit
Now we’re ready for translation to proceed.

CHORUS
mRNA, tRNA and ribosomes
Plus amino acids make a protein making machine
Read the codon, make a polypeptide
That’s translation – cells synthesizing proteins

Now we’re ready for next step: elongation
An amino acid carried by a new tRNA
With an anticodon matching with the second codon
Binds at the site called “A”

Then the ribosome carries out an enzymatic action.
Binding these amino acids with a peptide bond
So a dipeptide hangs on the “A” site tRNA
Watch translation move along!

Next the ribosome shifts exactly one codon over
In a move that we call “translocation”
So the “A” site’s empty, and the “P” site’s loaded
And the first tRNA’s in the “E” location

“E” site tRNA makes its exit
And the next tRNA fills the site called “A”
And the ribosome catalyzes away
In your cells it happens every second, every day

And watch that polypeptide, see it get longer
As each codon get translated
Ribosomal robots reading RNA instructions
As proteins get created!

CHORUS
mRNA, tRNA and ribosomes
Plus amino acids make a protein making machine
Read the codon, make a polypeptide
That’s translation – cells synthesizing proteins

Bridge
Protein synthesis! Translation! (repeat 4X)

We started with initiation, which was followed
By part two of translation: elongation
Now it’s time to finish synthesizing this protein,
With a finale called termination.

When the ribosome gets to a stop codon
There’s no tRNA anti-codon that matches
So “A” site’s bound by a release factor:
The polypeptide detaches

tRNAs at P and E sites float away
Ribosome breaks apart, no longer one
The polypeptide folds into functional protein
Translation is done!

CHORUS (2X)
mRNA, tRNA and ribosomes
Plus amino acids make a protein making machine
Read the codon, make a polypeptide
That’s translation – cells synthesizing proteins

Bridge
Protein synthesis! Translation! (repeat 4X)

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DNA, Fantastic!

Welcome, I’m so happy you came by
For a lesson ’bout the essence of b-i-o-l-o-g-y
DNA’s the topic, it’s so fantastic,
We’re talking ’bout Deoxyribonucleic acid

If you’ve ever wondered ’bout development in elephants
Or bumble bees, coffee trees, well DNA’s the recipe
In its home in a chromosome in the nucleus
DNA drives the bus, genetically controlling us

In ferns and worms infectious germs,
mommy’s egg and daddy’s sperm
DNA’s the information linking up the generations
It’s the code of life so listen up well,
‘Cause DNA’s the molecule in charge of every cell

CHORUS
DNA, Fantastic!
Deoxyribonucleic Acid
We’re talking ’bout Deoxyribonucleic acid.
DNA! Fantastic

The shape is key and probably well known to you
Double helix, twisted ladder, or a double corkscrew
Imagine a twisted length of tape
with deoxyribose sugars on the edges with phosphates

Sugar-phosphate sugar-phosphate
making up the sides of the ladder
with nitrogenous bases on the inside
with the bases like the rungs
together with deoxyribose sugar and a phosphate make a nucleotide

Deoxyribonucleotides are the monomers
Link them up together for the DNA polymer
.34 four nanometers marks the space
between one nucleotide and the next one’s place

And for the helix to make one turn
takes 10 bases in a row as you can discern
Since space ‘tween nucleotides is point three four,
One turn takes nanometers three point four

So stylish!, So slick!
First described in fifty three by Watson and Crick
And don’t forget Franklin she took that famous X-Ray pic
but she died so she never got her Nobel prize.

CHORUS
DNA, Fantastic!
Deoxyribonucleic Acid
We’re talking ’bout Deoxyribonucleic acid.
DNA! Fantastic

The nitrogenous bases comes in one of four varieties,
Known by the letters A, T, C and G
A is for Adenine, Thymine’s got the “T”
C it stands for Cytosine and Guanine’s got the “G”

A and G with two nitrogen rings are purines
C and T with one ring are pyrimidines
C only bonds with G, A only with T
Because like puzzle pieces they’re complementary

They fit together. snuggled up like hand and glove,
like enzymes and substrates, like people in love
A-T, C-G, matched up like lock and key
Forming hydrogen bonds, either two or three.

Hydrogen bonds, you know they aren’t very strong,
But they’re enough to hold DNA together all day long
The way the bases fit together couldn’t be sweeter,
they give DNA a width of two nanometers

DNA’s double-stranded, looks pretty swell
The strands’ orientation is anti parallel
With one standing up, the other on its head
It’s how they fit together, Crick and Watson said!

CHORUS
DNA, Fantastic!
Deoxyribonucleic Acid
We’re talking ’bout Deoxyribonucleic acid.
DNA! Fantastic

Sugars and phosphates make the backbone, the structure
But the sequence of the bases is where you find instructions
For development of bodies and the cytoplasmic symphony,
That constitutes life’s miracle in goats and golden algae,

Your sequence of bases is unique, a special batch,
Unless you’re an identical twin it’s nowhere matched,
And you can bet, that if you’re not Jango Fett
That you got no clone, no one like you’s been known!

Our bases comprise our individuality,
You might have “A” where I might have a “G”
Explaining why I’m bald and you got all that hair
These differences can show up anywhere,

The protein hemoglobin, listen up well,
It carries oxygen in your red blood cells,
Hemoglobin’s made of four protein pieces,
A trait widely shared among animal species.

Hundreds of bases spell one hemoglobin piece,
Hundreds of A’s, G’s, Ts and Cs
The gene starts CAC-GTG-CAC
Then TGA-GGA-CTC-CTC

The key is these bases are information,
For hemoglobin’s function and conformation,
Hundreds of bases, in a predetermined order,
A single change brings on a major disorder,

Change T to A in one single spot
This little point mutation might not seem like a lot,
Thymine to Adenine might not seem that big to ya’
But baby that’s the cause of sickle cell anemia!

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Electron Transport Chain

Welcome to this story about cell energy
The goal is explaining how cells make ATP
It happens in the mitochondria which you can think of
As the cell’s energy factory

Mitochondria are double-membraned organelles,
An inner membrane and an outer one as well
The mitochondrial matrix is the fluid inside
It’s where reactions like Krebs cycle reside

Glycolysis and Krebs make NADH
and FADH₂ from energy in food
These electron carriers make their way
From the matrix to the inner membrane.

And that’s where you find the electron transport chain
It’s a series of enzymes embedded in the membrane,
Which take the electron carrier’s electrons
And uses their energy for pumping protons

CHORUS
The mitochondrial electron transport chain
Uses electron energy for pumping protons
From the mitochondrial matrix to the intermembrane space
Increasing proton concentration in that place,
The only way the protons can escape
Is through a channel and an enzyme, ATP synthase.
Which uses diffusing protons’ kinetic energy
To make ATP, from ADP and P

The chain is a series of enzymes in a row
Each accepts electrons, then lets them go
To the next carrier in this transport chain.
It’s kind of organized like a bucket brigade

What drives electrons down this enzymatic series
Is the growing level of each carrier’s electronegativity
And to oxygen electrons ultimately fall
It’s the most electronegative of them all

It’s NADH that starts this run
Donating electrons to Complex number I
This powers active transport as protons are displaced.
And get pumped from the matrix to the intermembrane space

From Complex I electrons flow to
Ubiquinone, also known as “Q”
Which floats through the inner membrane happily
And brings its electrons to Complex III

And you can guess the function of Complex III .
It’s another proton pump using electron energy
Protons jam up in that intermembrane compartment
Like a hundred people in a one bedroom apartment!

Complex II is for FADH₂
Which donates electrons, which then get passed to Q
Which once again passes them to Complex III
Which pumps protons using electron energy

From Complex III the electrons proceed
To another mobile carrier, Cytochrome C
Which donates the electrons to Complex IV
Another proton pump, could you ask for more?

After Complex IV electrons flow,
To oxygen which is ever so
Electronegative it pulls electrons down the chain,
Keeping them moving like the cars of a train.

And as O₂ does this electron grabbing trick,
It also grabs protons from the matrix.
They all combine to form H₂O
Electron transport chain, watch it go!

Now all these protons in the intermembrane space
Are trapped they can’t get out of that place
‘Cause protons are charged and could never get through
A phospholipid bilayer, they can’t diffuse

But like all particles, they’re dying to go
From where their concentration’s high to where it’s low
Stuck in the intermembrane space they’re frustrated.
To diffuse to the matrix, they’re highly motivated.

And this gradient’s been made steeper by O₂
Which absorbs protons from the matrix stew,
So from proton pumping, and oxygen’s actions.
Add another force, electrochemical attraction!

Think of all those trapped protons, each one’s positive.
The matrix, in comparison, is negative.
Opposites attract, so the protons are dying
To get to the matrix, oh how they’re trying!

There’s only one channel that let’s the protons pass,
And they use it like high school students busting out of class,
It’s a channel and an enzyme, it’s ATP synthase
The closer in this game, an energy ace

ATP synthase is embedded in the inner membrane
How it works is so cool it’s insane.
It’s got channels for diffusing protons running right through it.
When cells make ATP, well watch how they do it

The matrix side of ATP synthase has binding sites
For ADP and P which come in and bind.
And as ATP synthase lets protons barge through
Their kinetic energy gets put to use.

Like water through a turbine proton movement generates rotation.
Changing synthase’s binding site conformation.
Which catalyzes chemical bond formation.
ADP and P make ATP that energy sensation!

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Osmosis

LYRICS

I put this yummy gummy through a science experiment,
That models what happens to a cell in an environment
That’s more watery than the cell is inside,
And what I saw, came as no surprise,

My gummy bear expanded — quintupled in weight,
My gummy expanded, an increase so great,
So listen up as Mr. W explains this!
It’s all about osmosis!

Osmosis is the diffusion of water,
Across a membrane or a water-permeable border.
Diffusing like all molecules in fluid situations,
From higher to lower concentration.

CHORUS
OSMOSIS!
H₂0 diffusing
OSMOSIS!
See that water oozing
Hypotonic to hypertonic flow
OSMOSIS!
Let’s go!

Let’s talk about our gummy, in osmotic terms,
Hypotonic, hypertonic, isotonic are the words
You can use to discuss water’s watery diffusion,
Learn ’em well, to avoid confusion.

Hypotonic means higher water concentration
And relatively lower solute concentration,
Hypertonic is the opposite –percent of water’s less,
With more solute dissolved inside, as you might guess

So let’s take these terms and apply them to our gummy bear,
I’m looking at the package, and seeing what it says here,
Each bear is mostly sugar with some other stuff mixed in,
And holding it together is the protein gelatin

So when you put a gummy in a cup of H₂O
It’s readily apparent that the gummy is so
Hypertonic to the water that it’s in,
and the water’s hypotonic to our little gummy friend,

And so through osmosis the water will diffuse,
Into the gummy which soon will look so huge,
The mass it gains is water which will infiltrate the gummy,
Which one day later, is looking pretty funny

CHORUS
OSMOSIS!
H₂0 diffusing
OSMOSIS!
See that water oozing
Hypotonic to hypertonic flow
OSMOSIS!
Let’s go!

Next I took this freshwater plant, name is elodea
It lives in lake and ponds never in the salty sea,
In freshwater elodea cells are full and firm,
It’s all about osmosis as we’re gonna confirm.

See the cells are hypertonic to their watery exterior,
So water will diffuse into the cell’s interior,
Expanding the membrane, pushing it against the wall,
In fact you can’t see the membrane at all,

But add some salty water so the outside’s hypertonic,
And water leaves the hypotonic cells, it’s so osmotic!
Membrane leaves the wall, the cells’ insides are scrunched.
With the chloroplasts all stuck together in a bunch

That’s why at the grocery they always have that mister
The water on the veggies helps to keep them crisper,
Those droplets on the veggies are a hypotonic brew,
osmosis moves the water in, the veggies look brand new.

Dried fruit and beef jerky preservation is osmotic
Their low water content makes the dry food hypertonic
So any germs or molds that fall upon them lose their water
And die and don’t contaminate the dried food in the larder

CHORUS
OSMOSIS!
H₂0 diffusing
OSMOSIS!
See that water oozing
Hypotonic to hypertonic flow
OSMOSIS!
Let’s go!

Animal cells, in situation hypertonic
Lose their water, shrink and shrivel look so sick
But an animal cell in hypotonic abode
Gains water and expands, eventually explodes

‘Cause animals cells lack a wall, of course
So nothing pushes back at the osmotic force,
Water flows from hypotonic to the hypertonic cell,
Which bursts cause the membrane can’t stop the swell,

If you want to keep a frog heart outside a body beating,
An isotonic fluid, is what you’ll be needing,
Water concentration’s same on each side of the cell,
No gain or loss of water, the cell’s feel so swell

And this paramecium which lives in ponds and lakes
Constantly fights osmotic water uptake,
The contractile vacuole’s a pumping adaptation
To deal with this osmotic situation

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Membranes!

If you’re in a cell’s cytoplasm, heading outside,
Your last stop’s a barrier, 8 nanometers wide,
The cell membrane: our subject for today
It’s as basic to life as DNA

It’s selectively permeable, like a border patrol
of a country it maintains control.
Selecting what leaves or what gains entry
It’s a guard, bouncer, watchman, patrolman or sentry.

But not just a guard, it sends signals in nerves
White blood cells use their membranes to eat germs like hors d’oeuvres,
Membranes have receptors, enzymes, and junctions,
So what kinds of structure can have all these functions?

CHORUS
C-E double L, “Mem” B-R-A-N-E
Controlling transport selective permeability
Phospholipids, Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Cholesterol
The Fluid Mosaic Bilayer in us all

So let’s take a look at what makes up the membrane,
Phospholipids rule this domain,
In fact membrane structure emerges directly
from phospholipids’ chemical properties.

There’s a head and a tail on every phospholipid,
The tail’s two long-chain fatty acids
Bound to a glycerol, it’s made to order
The tail’s non-polar –hydrophobic– fears water

The head’s got a phosphate, it’s charged negatively,
makes the head hydrophilic–plays in water happily
So tail avoids water while the head’s attracted to it,
When phospholipids form the membrane that’s how they do it.

Cause when phospholipids into water get submerged,
A phospholipid bilayer structure will emerge
The tails hang together in a water-free zone,
Hear their hydrophobic moan, “water leave me alone!”

While the heads are sticking out touching all those H₂Os
Tails in, heads out, it’s how every membrane goes
Tails in, heads out, in a cellular sphere,
It’s the bilayered basis of membranes everywhere.

CHORUS
C-E double L, “Mem” B-R-A-N-E
Controlling transport selective permeability
Phospholipids, Carbohydrates, Proteins and Cholesterol
The Fluid Mosaic Bilayer in us all

But a cell membrane’s not just a phospholipid scene
There’s cholesterol, carbohydrates, lots of proteins.
In fact, membrane proteins have a presence so great,
They often exceed the phospholipids by weight.

And all of these components are in constant motion,
Moving, mixing like a boiling potion,
Flowing like dancers in a party in Passaic
That’s why the membrane’s thought of as a fluid mosaic.

Let’s start with proteins since they’re key in this mix.
Transmembrane proteins span the entire width.
Typically they’re ports–think of channels or conveyors,
For things that don’t go through the lipid bilayer.

Any protein embedded in the hydrophobic middle
Built right into the inside is considered integral
While peripheral proteins either hang on the exterior,
Or inside on the cytoplasmic interior.

Cholesterol keeps membranes flowing with ease,
In cold it keeps the lipids moving so they don’t freeze,
In heat it slows the lipids down limiting their traveling,
Cholesterol: it keeps membranes from unraveling

Membrane carbohydrates work as markers or signs
So your immune system knows which flag your cells are flyin’
The blood types AB, O, and B and A
Are about the carbohydrates on red blood cell membranes.

CHORUS
C-E double L, “Mem” B-R-A-N-E
Controlling transport selective permeability
Phospholipids, Carbohydrates, Proteins and Cholesterol
The Fluid Mosaic Bilayer in us all

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Mendel

(to the tune of the Flintstones)

Mendel, Gregor Mendel
He’s a big name in biology,
His work, in genetics
Says so much about heredity,

Mendel said that alleles segregate,
And independent assortment is just great,
Mendel, Gregor Mendel
He’s a big name in genetics
And in genetics,
A man before his time!

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Meiosis

Meiosis, it’s how we make sex cells or gametes
The sperm cells or egg cells performing the feat
Of moving genes forward in eukaryotes like orchids and bees.
Meiosis doesn’t happen in all cells of the body
There’s just a few cells that have this hobby
I’m talking ’bout germ cells in testes and ovaries,

Germ cells are diploid and what that means,
Is that the chromosomes are matched up in teams,
In each pair one’s from your dad, one’s from your mother.
And when you line up the chromosomes it’s suddenly clear
How each is a member of a matched up pair,
Homologous pairs, each a homologue of the other.

In humans, the diploid number’s forty-six,
And a key trick that happens in meiosis
is dividing that number in half to 23
And that single set of chromosomes has its own name
It’s called “haploid” in this meiotic game.
So diploid to haploid’s a key meiotic strategy.

CHORUS
Meiosis makes eggs and sperm
It’s the same in the robin as it is in the worm.
Makes haploid gametes with recombination,
Meiosis creates variation!

In interphase I meiosis starts,
It’s the DNA replication part
An evolutionary relic of its origin,
‘Cause meiosis evolved from mitosis you see,
So each process starts identically
Replicating chromosomes into two sister chromatids.

In Prophase I chromosomes coil up, and
homologous pairs pair up,
Forming tetrads, each with chromatids four.
A chiasma’s the spot where the chromatids link
And synapsis is the name for the whole darn thing,
And crossing over is what this whole process is for.

See the homologs aren’t identical twins– no way!
They’re not the same DNA
The genes are the same but the alleles might take different forms,
So during synapsis alleles can cross over,
Between homologs, and when it’s all over,
There are gene combinations that have never been seen before.

CHORUS
Meiosis makes eggs and sperm
It’s the same in the robin as it is in the worm.
Makes haploid gametes with recombination,
Meiosis creates variation!

Another meiotic variety creator,
Is metaphase one with homologs at the equator,
Cause how each pair lines up is random and independent,
So in one pair facing north might be the maternal,
In the next one, it might be the paternal,
It’s a one in two shot, it’s called independent assortment.

So two pairs divide up in four distinct ways,
It’s two to the number of pairs, you could say
So think ’bout us humans with 23 homologous pairs
Two to the 23rd power is a number so great,
Is 8 million, three eighty-eight thousand, six-oh-eight
That’s why metaphase one is a variety-creating affair

And now connect this assortment with recombination,
Note that what we’ve got during gamete creation,
Is sperm and egg cells that are absolutely unique
So if you ever wondered how sisters and brothers,
Can be so different from one another,
Remember these meiotic recombining techniques.

BRIDGE
And if meiosis had never evolved
The book of life would be a very different tome.
Cause if it wasn’t for meiosis
All offspring would be clones!

Metaphase one: homologs at the equator
Anaphase one: they say “see you later”
It’s like Mom and Dad splitting up and setting up new homes.
Two nuclei form in telophase one,

Then cytokinesis-meiosis one is done,
We’ve got two haploid daughters, still with doubled chromosomes.
Now things are much simpler in part two of meiosis
Essentially it’s like just mitosis,

You just need to pull those sister chromatids apart,
They line up in the center in metaphase two
Anaphase pulls them apart we’re almost through,
Telophase, then cytokinesis, we’re at the last part.

CHORUS
Meiosis makes eggs and sperm
It’s the same in the robin as it is in the worm.
Makes haploid gametes with recombination,
Meiosis creates variation!

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This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
And saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me

I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me , a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
In the wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me

This land is your land and this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
The voice come chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me

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Blowing in the Wind, Bob Dylan

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they can call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
How many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
How many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

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I Want to Hold Your Hand, The Beatles

Oh yeah I tell you somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I say that somethin’
I want to hold your hand

CHORUS
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Oh please say to me
You’ll let me be your man

And please say to me
You’ll let me hold your hand

CHORUS
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Bridge
And when I touch you
I feel happy inside
It’s such a feelin’ that my love
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Yeah, you got that somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I say that somethin’
I want to hold your hand

CHORUS
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Bridge
And when I touch you
I feel happy inside
It’s such a feelin’ that my love
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Yeah, you got that somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I say that somethin’
I want to hold your hand

CHORUS
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

CHORUS (2X)

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Lean on Me

Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there’s always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride
If I have faith you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won’t let show

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’ll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’ll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me
call me
If you need a friend
call me…

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My Girl

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it’s cold outside I’ve got the month of May
Well I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way?

My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin’ ’bout my girl (my girl)

I’ve got so much honey the bees envy me
I’ve got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees

Well I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin’ ’bout my girl (my girl ooh)

I don’t need no money, fortune, or fame (ooh hey hey hey)
I’ve got all the riches baby one man can claim (oh yes I do)

I guess you’d say
What can make me feel this way?

My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin’ ’bout my girl (my girl)

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day
With my girl (My girl)
(Talkin’ ’bout my girl my girl)
I’ve even got the month of May
With my girl (My girl, Woah)

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