Prolonging Life with Life Discussion

A)  Throughout day one the lab, our group attempted to record the effectiveness and efficiency of cellobiase on an artificial substrate which represented cellobiose. One day two of the lab, our group measured the effectiveness and efficiency of edible mushroom in turning cellobiose into glucose. We measured the rate of conversion from the artificial substrate (acts as cellobiose) to glucose by adding a strong base. The strong base turns the artificial substrate yellow, and stops cellobiase. To measure reaction rate, we labeled five tubes and added a fixed amount of artificial substrate and cellobiase (day 1) and a fixed amount of artificial substrate and our mushroom (day 2)., and added the strong base at set points in time. This allowed our group to discover that both were approximately even when it came to efficiency. Overall, my hypothesis was correct. The cellobiose was converted into glucose efficiently by both the cellobiase and the mushroom solution on both day one and day two of the lab.

B) Possible Sources of Error:
- When adding the strong base, we could have added it at the wrong time messing up the correct coloration of yellow.
- Failed to grind the mushroom up enough, thus the majority of the enzymes remained unable to produce glucose.
- Not enough cellobiase was added, thus a slower conversion occurred and inaccurate readings were obtained by our group.
- The centrifuge was not spinning for long enough to fully separate the mushroom solution, not enough of the mushroom was added to accurately convert the artificial substrate.
- Too much cellobiase was added, so the artificial substrate was converted too rapidly for our group to notice a change after three minutes.