Independent Component 2

LITERAL:

a.) I, Vanessa Machuca, affirm that I have almost completed my independent component which represents nearly 30 hours of work.  I have yet to complete my independent component 2, as both classes end past tomorrow's due date, but will report on my final grade in each.

b.)  I am taking this Systems Biology course via Coursera.  Ravi Iyengar, PhD of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai teaches the course, which he designed along with Evren Azeloglu, PhD, Jens Hansen, MD, and Joseph Goldfarb, PhD.  The course involves reading multiple papers covering such topics as differential equations in chemistry and the basics of systems biology.   I did a research check on one such paper recently:
Iyengar, Ravi. "Lecture 2: Quantitative Representation of Enzymes and Receptor Action." Introduction to Systems Biology. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (online course). 4 April 2014. Web.
The CHM 121 class I am taking at Cal Poly is taught by Dr. Gagik Labadzyhan. I refer to my notes, course documents he posts on Blackboard, and the course textbook - "Chemistry" (very creative) by John E. Murry and Robert C. Fay, to complete the homework.

c.) My independent component 2 log is posted to the right.

d.)  So far, I have watched and taken notes on videos for the Systems Biology course, while also diving into some of the required reading.  For the Cal Poly chemistry class, I attend and take notes during a one hour class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and complete homework on Mastering Chemistry.

INTERPRETIVE and APPLIED: 

"Introduction to Systems Biology" has, so far, helped me gain a deeper understanding of life at the molecular level.  What I've found as I've gathered and read research is that there are certain bits of intuition I need to develop in order to better appreciate and learn from them.  How do extremophiels interact with their respective environments at the most basic level?  How are these interaction analyzed and quantified?  I now understand how an organism can have a range of capabilities but only display a few, and how outside stimuli are translated into a physical response in cells.  In bioremediation, understanding these interaction is extremely important.  How can we be sure that a microbe we place in an environment to remedy it will integrate well into the the native microbial ecosystem?  How are substrates process in biofuel synthesis?  Something else that I've gained from taking this course so far is to see life as information.  We all information, split up into compartments - flows of information.  Extremophiles just so happen to hold information we can use to develop biotechnology further.

Each video is quite lengthy - averaging about 15 minutes each - and I often pause them to take notes, hence the hour I recording it having taken me to complete each.  The assigned reading and peer assignments take a few hours each.  

Here are four sample pages worth of notes I took for the Systems Biology course.

The other part of my independent component is the CHM 121 class I am taking at Cal Poly.  My project has become largely a chemistry-based one - especially with my third answer involving organic synthesis.  In fact, it was investigated by third answer that made me realize my shortage of chemistry prowess.  Taking this course refreshes what Pang taught us juniors last year and forces me to "think chemistry".  Reading papers on organic synthesis with this mindset makes them much more digestible, and I know I will better equipped to explain the concept - especial when it come to C-C bond formation - for my senior project presentation thank to this class.

Dr. Labadyhan posts a plethora of class materials on Blackboard.

Behold, the homework I have completed thus far.
I aim to get that percent up to 100% (which is  possible, actually).