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Hey! Well being from the UK I’m certainly not qualified to answer specifically. But for me, normally I like to choose the topic, and layout the general points I want to talk about. Then I expand them slowly with evidence or examples for each. Then I try to find things that link between them and link them together. I find starting this way makes the essay much more clear, concise and reads a lot better. If you’d like some specific help, let me know! 

English

How should I go about writing my college essay

Hi, Jonathon. Have a couple of options I recommend! 
1. Chromebook - on a budget these are unbeatable. They are portable, have good battery life and are good enough for secondary school. They only really run office/google docs for school work, the internet and then streaming apps. Really easy and simple to use. But if she’s interested in using software such as design, video editing, or basically anything other than documents/ office, this won’t work! 
2. Microsoft vs Mac. 
These are the only other real options. I would say perhaps check what the school uses, as a lot of secondary schools use one or the other and would be easier to transfer files etc if she uses the same company. They both have their advantages. Laptops that run Microsoft tend to be better value for money, but Macs are probably easier to use if she is already familiar with apple products, tend to be better built, have good speakers and are generally more portable with good battery lives. 
Overall really depends on what a) the school use b) what she prefers/ is used to and c) your budget, as macs tend to be far more expensive. 

Hope this helped! 

Career Advice

Looking to get my daughter a laptop for secondary school,does anyone know what operating system I should be looking at?

Hi Jarret! 

To keep things simple, enzyme inhibitors stop or slow natural process by blocking the actions of our enzymes! So if you have a condition in which a process is too active, causing an imbalance in the body’s homeostasis, enzyme inhibitors can be used to stop this process by inhibiting an enzyme involved in driving it. This will counteract the effects and maintain homeostasis. Hope this helped! 

Biology

How do enzyme inhibitors maintain homeostasis in your body?

Hi Lina. 
This is quite a complex question to answer for a quick response like this, but is quite simple when you get your head around it! 
So firstly, a synapse is a connection between 2 neurones or nerves, between a muscle and a nerve, or between a nerve and the brain. They are a physical space between these things, and the signal down the nerves, known as an Action Potential, is carried on through this physical space/gaps by chemicals, known as Neurotransmitters. 
The neurotransmitters are released from the first neurone, diffuse across the synapse gap, and bind a receptor. These receptor trigger the signal to continue down the next nerve/muscle/brain tissue. To understand your question, you have to understand how an Action Potential is fired down a nerve in the first place. A normal neurone has a resting potential of -70mV. This means that overall, there is a relatively negative charge in the cell, and a positive one outside the cell. When an AP starts, a positive charge flows into the neurone. This triggers an action potential in the next segment, so that it is positively charged. This happens by the positively charged signal reaching the new section of neurone, causing its membrane potential to become positive, triggering Voltage Gated Sodium channels to open in This region. Complicated I know! It is not as complex as it sounds. These are channels that let sodium in, but they are only opened between membrane potential slightly more positive than -70mV and +30mV. Na+ flows in, causing the membrane voltage to increase as it is positively charged, to +30mV, and then the Na+ channels close so that no more + ions flow in. Now when this point is reached, another voltage gated channel is opened at +30mV. This is the potassium channel. Potassium is naturally found in the nerve, and is positively charged. So to balance charges, the potassium diffuse out of the nerve, to reduce charge in the neurone and make it negative again. By this point the signal has already started triggering action potentials further down. The reason the action potential cannot flow the other way is that these channels are completely blocked, or inactivated for a certain amount of time after they have been activated. They become active once the action potential has already travelled too far down the nerve to trigger that segment again. This is the refractory period. The same principal applies for a synapse. As the neurotransmitter is released from the first nerve to the second, the section a the tip of the first nerve is in the “refractory period”. This means that it’s voltage gated sodium channels are blocked, and so if the neurotransmitter binds here, the channels will not be open. 
Another more obvious reason is that the neurotransmitter receptors are only found on the second neurone/muscle/brain cells. I just wanted to clear up why an AP is unidirectional first! I hope this clears some things up. Don’t worry if you’re confused, I would certainly recommend looking at diagrams in a textbook/in Google! Please message me if you’re still confused I think I could teach in a far more clear way via diagrams and messages!!! Thanks, Ben 

History

Why is transmission at chemical synapses unidirectional?

Hi!

Well I am studying medicine because during college/sixth form I shadowed doctors at a GP surgery, hospital and a care home. I loved hearing the patient's stories, and was inspired by the doctors who have a huge impact on their patient's lives. This made me realise I would like the practical aspects of the career. I like science, specifically biology and researched the course topics which all sounded interesting, so I knew I would enjoy the learning aspect of it also. I also did work experience in pharmacies, and from that I knew that I specifically wanted to do medicine, and not another related course.
Some of the most important advice I can give is to really make sure medicine is for you. If you think for one second it is going to be easy, then you're in for a long ride! You need to be really passionate and committed to it. I know it's hard to chose what you want to do for the rest of your life at such a young age, but researching it early and getting experience in medicine and any other professions you think you may be interested in will make the decision easier. 

Hope this helps! Thanks, Ben

Applying for Medicine

Why did you choose to study medicine above everything else and how did you know it was for you?

Good question!

To start, a stem cell is a cell with the ability to self-renew indefinitely. This means they can divide themselves unlimited amounts of times. This is unlike other normal cells which have a limited number of cell divisions. 

Stem cells are important to maintain ALL of our cell populations. For example, at the bottom of our skin's outer layer, the epidermis, are a one cell thick layer of skin stem cells. These divide, remain in their positions on the bottom whilst their daughter cells move forward towards the skin surface. Eventually they die when they reach the surface of our skin. They are also important for making the cells of our blood and immune system, as well as helping repair, regeneration and healing of tissue after injury. They form our nerves, bones, fat stores as well as sex cells, the sperm and ovum.

The rest of my answer is a little advance, so maybe only read if you are an A-Level or University student! Many people think that pluripotent cells, are always stem cells. But this isn't true! For example there are early embryo cells at the "morula stage" that can give rise to all adult (somatic) cells, meaning they are pluripotent, but they are not stem cells as they do not have the ability to self renew. It is important to mention also the difference between cancer cells and stem cells, as an important hallmark of cancer is gaining the ability of unlimited self renewal. the main difference is that stem cells also ALWAYS retain their normal phenotype, meaning they cellular biology does not change. Cancer cells show different phenotypes, meaning they look different under a microscope. They are different to the normal tissue at a cellular level. 

If you would like to learn about this in a more simple way, or hear about the fine complex details, message me! Happy to help.

Thanks,

Ben.

Describe the role of stem cells in multicellular organisms

General

What are the advantages and disadvantages of assessment in schools

You can ask the tutor to send the money back by messaging them, and if they don’t, you can report them! Hope this helps! 

Paymen

Yes we are a type of animal, and no it’s not because of that! Most animals have brains, except jelly fish and a few others! Human is the name of our species. We are also called Homo Sapiens. Hope this helped, if you need any further help please feel free to message me! Thanks 

Are we kind of animal? we call "human" becese we have brain

No matter what the specific situation is, it’s important to remember that water always moves from an area of low to high salt concentration, down the water potential gradient. So in this example, assuming the water has a higher concentration of salt than the chip, water in  the chip will move out and into the water bowl. This would cause the chip to shrink! 

Benjamin Mansour

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Benjamin Mansour