The Effect of Enzyme Concentration on Reaction Rate

The Effect of Enzyme Concentration on Reaction Rate Determination of the effect of enzyme concentration on catalysis using starch an amylase. INTRODUCTION Enzymes are said to be catalytic proteins which increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being altered in the process of that reaction. [1] A substrate is a substance which an enzyme acts upon. No bond is formed between the enzyme and the substrate in the reaction thus the enzyme goes back to its original shape and can be used again.[2]An enzyme binds to a substrate via the active site thus forming an enzyme substrate complex They are very specific in their reaction and also to the substrate they are binding with. Enzymes function correctly when the shape of the substrate matches the enzymes active site and their functioning is dependent upon its three dimensional structure. They undergo catalysis by lowering the activation energy so that more molecules will be activated thus having the reaction occurring more easily [1] [2] In this experiment amylase is use to break down the starch molecules. Starch is the substrate used and amylase is the enzyme. There is a change when amylase reacts with starch. There is a release of a disaccharide maltose. As time increases there will less abundance of starch and more of the sugar present. So when this is added to iodine the blue/black colour will decrease to a light yellow shade.[4] The concentration of the enzyme is important in chemical reaction as it is needed to react with the substrate. Often a small amount of enzyme can consume a large amount of substrate. But as enzyme concentration increases so is the availability of active sites thus these will convert substrate molecules into products. What this is basically saying is that if the enzyme concentration is to be increased there needs to be an excess of substrate present which in other words means that the reaction must be independent of the concentration of substrate.[3] Apart from the concentration of substrate and enzyme there are other factors which can also influence the enzyme to function to its optimum capacity. These include temperature, pH, and inhibitors. Higher temperature would allow for more collisions to occur therefore allow substrate to bind to the enzymes active site more frequent. Since enzymes work at a certain temperature range activity would decline once this range would have been exceeded and the enzyme is denatured. Each enzyme has its own optimum where it functions best. Pepsin, an enzyme found in our stomach, works best in acidic conditions. Some enzymes becomes denatured thus deactivated when pH goes up down. I predict that the rate of the reaction will increase as the concentration increases and vice versa. The reaction will occur fast once the enzyme is added but it will slow down upon descending to the last test. I also believed that only a few of the test tube will produce a blue/black colour since the starch present in the solution will be hydrolyzed. Apparatus/Materials Water Buffer solution ( pH 6.8) 1% starch solution 1% amylase solution (Saliva) Dropper 3 beakers 3 10 ml measuring cylinders 12 test tubes Test tube rack Timer Method: Four test tubes were labeled A D 2 ml of water was measured and placed in test tube A. 2 ml of amylase (saliva) was measured and placed in the same test tube. Again 2 ml of water was measured and placed in a second test tube, test tube B, and to this 2 ml of the solution in test tube A was added. Another 2ml of water was added to a third test tube, test tube C , and to this , 2ml of the solution from test tube B was added. A further 2ml of water was added to test tube D, and to this 2 ml of solution from test tube C was added. Two milliliters of solution from test tube D was discarded so that all will have equal amounts of solution. Forty drops of buffer solution was added to test tube A . Eight (8) test tubes were collected and placed in a test tube rack. Two drops of iodine solution was placed into each using a dropper. To tube A 0.5 ml 1% starch solution was added. One drop of solution from tube A was immediately transferred to test tube #1 containing iodine solution. The dropper was properly rinsed. After 1 minute, one drop of solution from tube A was added using the dropper to the second tube containing iodine. The dropper was rinsed thoroughly. This was done for all the other test tubes that remained. The contents in all eight iodine test tubes were discarded. The tubes were thoroughly rinsed and dried for use in the next round of tests. Steps 6 11 was repeated for test tubes B,C,and D. RESULTS Test Tube Test Tube with Iodine Observations A B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Dark brown solution with small amounts of blue/black grains. These were apparent 17 seconds after adding solution A Dark brown grainy solution. Orange brown solution with particles which were also orange -brown Light orange brown solution. No grainy particles present Lighter orange brown solution Yellow brown solution Yellow brown solution. This was lighter than tube No. 6 Light yellow brown solution. This was exceptionally lighter than the others. Blue- black with coarse particles. Small traces ( 320 seconds) Orange brown solution Light orange brown solution with grains present Orange brown solution with tiny grains present Orange brown solution Orange brown solution Light orange brown solution Light orange brown solution C D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Dark brown with small traces of black particles (fewer than with tube B) (455 seconds) Orange brown solution Orange brown solution Orange brown Dark orange brown Dark orange brown Very dark brown solution with a few grainy particles Very dark brown with lots of grainy particles Dark brown solution with very small traces of black grains ( 560 seconds) Dark orange brown, no grainy particles present Dark orange brown solution Orange brown solution Orange brown solution Yellow/ orange- brown solution Yellow brown solution Light yellow brown solution The graph shows how the concentration of the enzyme affects the overall rate of the reaction. A higher concentration of the enzyme will produce a faster occurring reaction than a lower concentration. From the graph as time proceeds the reaction rate drops significantly. DISCUSSION: This lab exercise demonstrated the ability of an enzyme to hydrolyze the substrate molecule. The enzyme used was amylase and the substrate was starch. The starch is what the amylase actually acts upon to give the end products i.e amylase breaks down starch. Substrate ENZYME Products Enzyme concentration and substrate concentration play a vital role in enzymatic activity. The more enzymes available, the quicker the reaction will occur until the substrate is all used up More substrates will also mean quicker activity, until the enzyme is fully saturated so that it cannot continue increasing its activity.[1] Based on the results obtained from tube A, a blue/black colouration was noted. This indicated that there was significant amount of starch present. Iodine is an indicator for the presence of starch. This same colour was noted for tubes B- D but the traces of blue /black colour decreased from tube A -D. As the tests proceeded to the last tube, the colour of the solution for each set changed from a dark brown solution to light yellow and in some cases to a light orange brown solution. A reasonable explanation for this is that there are fewer enzymes present as you move from tube A-D thus the starch will not be broken down. When there is an insufficient amount of enzyme present the reaction will not progress as quick as it would because the active sites present are occupied. If the concentration or amount of enzymes is increased then this would make provision for an increase in reaction rate. Reaction rate would increase due to the fact that there will be more active sites that are unoccupied. However, if there is an excess of enzyme molecule, the rate would not increase if more is added but it would reach at a point where it would level off.[2] Another reasoning behind the colour change in that after the amylase reacted with the starch there will be a discharge of maltose which is a disaccharide. Less starch will be present as time proceeds and more maltose will be present. In addition less starch will be available to react with iodine thus the blue/black colour will decrease. The predictions made were moderately correct since a lower concentration of enzyme produced a reaction which was slow and one that had less products being formed. Various factors could have affected the results of the lab which may have given some amount of inaccuracy. These include temperature and pH. The enzyme perhaps would have functioned better in a certain temperature range instead of normal room temperature. CONCLUSION Based on the results obtained from the experiment it can be concluded that the concentration of enzymes influences the rate of a chemical reaction. If enzyme concentration is decreased then the reaction rate will also decrease. If there is sufficient enzyme to bind with substrate then the reaction will proceed fast and if there are insufficient enzymes present then the reaction will slow down

The Dragon Creature as Fairy Tail Creature

Dragons, for example, are usually giant fearless creatures that destroy anything and everything in their way. They capture maidens, kill knights and possess extraordinary confidence, but the dragon in this poem shows none of those characteristics. The majority of his section is filled with complaints about his portrayal in the painting. like the angle he was painted at, and he is upset that two of his feet weren't in the painting. He also has no interest in the maiden that he has captured, he actually finds her quite ugly. All he is worrying about is what people are going to think of him, when usually a dragon wouldn’t care, all they want to do is kill, and capture, but this dragon shows little confidence or interest in those tasks.Traditionally maidens are supposed to be pure at heart and pure at mind, but this maiden is in no way like that. She is very much attracted to the dragon who has captured her and she has no interest in being rescued, by the possibly ugly knight. Her lust towards that dragon is very strong, and her supposed â€Å"pure† mind is actually quite dirty. Unfortunately, her little crush must end because the dragon was defeated, which meant she might as well run off with the Knight who â€Å"saved† her, because she needs to think about her future.The knight in this story cares little about the maiden he is saving and more about his credibility as a Knight. He has all the latest horse, and weapons, and he is the most qualified to slay the dragon. He wants to finish the job that was assigned to him and he doesn't understand why this maiden won't just get out of his way so he can rescue her and add another achievement to his already stacked resume. He portrays a more modern mind then the customary knight, and work is most important to him. Each speaker from each section is showing a different side, then readers would usually see or expect, and the sides they are showing are pretty unpleasant which is why the poem is called à ¢â‚¬Å"Not My Best Side†. There is also humor added to the usually serious love story.the dragon, unlike it's mythological counterpart has quite a sophisticated vocabulary, use of adjectives like ‘ostentatiously beardless' and the idiom ‘old chap' suggests an intelligent, well spoken, stereotypical British,  Upper Class gentleman, the antithesis of a ferocious monster. The line ‘Not my best side, I'm afraid.', reveals the dragon's self conciousness and obsession with appearance, a reocurring theme.The nouns ‘artist' and ‘pose' indicate the poem is about a character in a painting and the dragon is highly critical of both the painter, ‘Poor chap, he had this obsession with Triangles, so he left off two of my Feet.' and the other characters, ‘Why should my victim be so Unattractive as to be inedible,'. It is the comical and conversational tone that makes the dragon so likeable and lots of rhetorical questions draw the reader in, particul arly ‘(What, after all, are two feet To a monster?)' which, enclosed in brackets gives the impression the dragon is addressing the reader directly.Continuing the pattern of reversing the stereotypes, the girl is presented as a slightly feminist, with a mind of her own, ‘It's hard for a girl to be sure if She wants to be rescued.', not the†¦.

Barn Burning

Antonio Webb Professor Debra Germany English 2336 14 November 2012 Barn Burning In â€Å"Barn Burning†, a short story by William Faulkner, a boy finds that he can no longer be governed by his father’s ideas and tries to prevent his father from doing further harm, and leaves his family in the process. Sarty Snopes desire is to break away from the moral deficiency of his family life and live life with some resemblance of normalcy even at the expense of never seeing his family again.A growing body of evidence, suggest that humans have a moral sense from the very start of life and family does not instill this moral compass from the very start of life. His father was a man of little or no education who had developed an attitude in life of catering to no one but himself even at the expense of his family. The story begins with Mr. Snopes on trial for burning a neighbor’s barn after sending a black man over for his hog and actually warning the man that hay and wood burn. Shortly afterwards the neighbor’s barn burned and the story begins in a court of the Justice of the Peace. Sarty, is remembering all this and the details of the court room which was actually a storeroom in a grocery store. The man whose barn was burned asks that the boy testify and the judge is hesitant as this was not proper protocol in that time. The man says the boy does not have to testify and the case is dismissed due to lack of witnesses. The boy says he would have had to tell the truth had he been forced to testify even though he has a very real fear of his father.The father actually hits the boy who had defended the family honor by fighting someone in the crowd calling them barn burners. The father knows the boy would have testified and he tells him that they have to stand together against the world. This is obviously a common occurrence in the young mans life and always ends up the same, they are told to move on and never come back. They all gather in their wagon and leave, the wife, her twin sister, his two sisters, and his older brother. They all are afraid of the father and dare not question him or his authority.The central theme of the story begins with the last move when the family moves onto property owned by a Major De Spain and take up residence in a tenant farm house belonging to the major. The boy and the father ride over to the Majors house which is larger than anything the boy had seen in his life he compared the house to the courthouse. As they approach the door the father steps in a large pile of horse manure. The black man at the door tells the father to wipe his feet before coming in and also announces that Major De Spain is not home.The father forces the door open and enters the home, leaving a path of mud on the rug which turns out to be an expensive rug from France. When the Major returns home and discovers the condition of the carpet he rolls it up and takes it to the Snopes residence where he instructs the father to clean i t and return it as it was. The father makes the boys and the two sisters, clean the rug and then returns it to the Major. The Major tells Mr. Snopes that he will have to pay twenty bushels out of his labor to pay for the rug. Mr. Snopes takes the Major to court to have his payment overturned.Mr. Snopes thinking that washing it would be sufficient finds out that it is not. The judge shows some leniency reducing the payment to ten bushels of corn and five dollars. The father is not happy with this and decides once again to burn the Majors barn as he orders his son to get the kerosene against his wife’s wishes who says at least send a black man again like you did before. The young boy who by now has decided in his heart that this cannot go on and is restrained by his mother even though the father wants to physically tie him to his bed so he cant warn the Major.The father by now has headed towards the Majors house. The boy breaks away from his mother and heads for the Majors hous e on foot, arriving there he warns the household about their barn and then runs out the door not knowing where he is headed. The Major rides by him on his horse and somewhere up ahead the boy hears a shot and then two more. The constellations wheeled on. It would be dawn and them sun-up after a while and he would be hungry, But that would be to-morrow and now he was only cold, and walking would cure that.His breathing was easier asleep because he knew it was almost dawn, the night almost over. He could tell that from the whippoorwills. They were everywhere now among the dark trees below them. He got up. He was a little stiff, but walking would cure that too as it would the cold, and soon there would be the sun. He went on down the hill, toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasing –the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night. He did not look back. Baym,Nina) He knows that his father is torn between love and righteousness and feels sorrow for his father but knows in his heart he can longer live this way of life. While the story never mentions his age, Barn Burning is a sad story of a young mans life who knew what was right and wrong and does what has to be done in the end as conscious would not allow him to continue with his fathers way of life. However this story illustrates how morality is not developed within the family, but something that is instilled within us all in the first early years of life.By the age of six months babies have already developed a strong moral code, according to psychologist. They may be barely able to sit up, let alone take their steps, crawl or talk, but researchers say they can still tell the difference between good and evil. An astonishing series of experiments is challenging the view that human beings are born as â€Å"blank slates† – and that our morality is shaped by our experiences. Instead, they suggest that concepts of good and bad may be hard-wired into the brain at birth.In one experiment involving puppets, six-month-old babies showed a strong preference for good helpful characters-and rejected unhelpful, â€Å"naughty† puppet, some babies went further- and dished out their own punishment with a smack on its head Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University in Connecticut, whose department has studied morality in babies for years, said: A growing body of evidence suggest that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. You can see some glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral felling even in the first year of life. Some sense of ood and evil seems to be bred in the bones. In one experiment involving puppets, six-month old babies showed a strong preference for â€Å"good† helpful characters- and rejected unhelpful, â€Å"naughty† ones. In another, when asked to take away treats from a â€Å"naughty† puppet, some babies w ent further—and dished out their own punishment with a smack on its head. (Derbyshire, David) Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University in Connecticut, whose department has studied morality in babies for years, said â€Å"A growing body of evidence suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life.You can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bones† Which is not to say that parents are wrong to concern themselves with moral development or that interactions with their children are a waste of time? Socialization is critically important. But this is not because babies are young children lack a sense of right and wrong; it’s because the sense of sense of right and wrong that they naturally possess diverges in important ways from what we adults would want it to be, Dr Nadia Reissland, of Durham University, said b abies start to learn he difference between good and bad from birth. â€Å"Everything hinges on who decides what is normal†, she said. (Derbyshire, David) Infants fall into the preconvention level of moral development according to the theories of Lawrence Kohlberg. This involves two orientations: punishment and pleasure seeking. Infants respond to their environment primarily to seek pleasure and meet their needs. They show joy by smiling, cooing and laughing when they are fed, comfortable and feeling safe. As they grow, they learn to make choices in response to punishment, such as being told no or having an object taken from them.Meeting an infant’s basic needs through consistent care and positive social interactions simultaneously nurtures their moral development and trust in their caregivers. (Smith-Vratny, Lisa) Two noteworthy individuals, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, studied the moral development of children. Piaget looked at how children develop moral reasoni ng. He found that Two noteworthy individuals, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, studied the moral development of children. Piaget looked at how children develop moral reasoning. He found that young children have a much more primitive understanding of right and wrong behavior than do older children.Piaget determined that younger children judge bad behavior by the amount of damage caused by a person’s behavior. He would tell children a story with a moral dilemma. He would ask them to tell him â€Å"who is naughtier† a boy who accidentally broke fifteen cups or a boy breaks one cup trying to reach a jam jar when his mother is not around. Younger children attributed the â€Å"naughty† behavior to the boy who broke the most cups regardless of the other child’s intent. A huge amount of growth and physical development occurs during the first years of a baby’s life.These early stages of development are critical in laying the foundation for the babyâ€℠¢s future. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the normal development milestones for a baby, and how to encourage his or her learning and behavior. (Huxley, Ron) In conclusion the Snopes family lack of morality clearly influenced Sarty this is evident in the beginning of the story when the boy is willing to lie to insure that his father is acquitted of any wrong doing but somewhere along the way he could no longer contribute to their way of life.Somewhere along the way Sarty realizes everything the family is doing is wrong and its hurting peoples lives. The research indicates that you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling in the first year of life, what happen to the Snopes family along the way that the son would have more moral judgment than the family. This illustrates that family can only develop morality or withdraw away from it; essentially good and evil is something that seems to be bred in the bones. Works Cited Derbyshire, David http://www . ailymail. co. uk/news/article-1275892/Were-born-moral- Babies-tell-good-evil- months. html Bloom, Paul http://www. nytimes. com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies- t. html? pagewanted=all&_r=0 Smith-Vratny Lisa   http://www. livestrong. com/article/180598-moral-social-development-in- infants/#ixzz2C9gL5co8 Smith, Peter   http://www. lifesitenews. com/news/archive//ldn/2010/may/10051009 http://www. essentialbaby. com. au/baby/baby-stages-of-development/the-moral-life-of-babies- 20100513-v0u0. html Huxley, Ron http://www. christian-mommies. om/ageless/handle-emotions/moral-development-of-children- knowing-right-from-wrong/ Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider. Life-Span Human Development. California: Wadsworth, 2003. Caroll E. Izard. Measuring Emotions in Infants and Children. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. What to Expect the First Year. Sydney: Harper Collins, 2009. Jean Piaget. The Origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: International U niversity Press, 1952. Gillies, Christine http://suite101. com/article/the-developmental-milestones- f-a-baby-a314799 Baym, Nina, gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C,D, and E (a three- volume set) 8th ed. New York:Norton, 2012 http://www. childrensmoraldevelopment. com/index. html Bersoff, David M. and Joan G. Miller. â€Å"Culture, Context, and the Development of Moral Accountability Judgments. † Developmental Psychology29, no. 4 (July 1993): 664–77. Schulman, Michael, and Eva Mekler. Bringing Up a MoralChild: A New Approach for Teaching Your Child to BeKind, Just, and Responsible. rev. ed. New York: Main Street Books/Doubleday, 1994. Barn Burning In William Faulkner’s Barn Burning, ten year old Colonel Sartoris Snopes, is forced to confront an ethical uncertainty that questions his loyalty to his family against the higher concepts of justice and morality. Satoris decision on whether to do right by family or do the right thing according to law are controlled by a life of violence, conflict, constantly overwhelmed of fear, grief and despair. He knows that peace, joy, and dignity are the alluring promises of a different kind of life one that seems far away from the one his father has headed. Abner Snopes, Sartoris father is a serial arsonist who has convinced himself he has rights to unleash his destructive revenge on anyone whom he believes has wronged him. Barely having charges dropped against him for belief that he burned down a landowners barn whom the family were short term tenants, Abner finds himself in a confrontation with De Spain an affluent landowner whom Abner and his family will work for. Sartoris finds himself in the middle of this all trying to decide if loyalty to his family is more important than loyalty to the law is the moral imperative. Sartoris is marked with pride after taking a punch from a boy that accused Abner of barn burning, wanting to believe that his father will turn from his criminal ways he remains loyal to his family standing up to anyone who bad mouths his father. This pride is short lived once Sartoris realizes his father is planning to burn the barn of De Spain after their confrontation about the rug being soiled and mistakenly burned. Sartoris then begins to understand family loyalty comes at to great a cost and to heavy a burden, he then goes on to warn De Spain of the burning. As a result his father is killed presumably shot to death by De Spain. This is a mark of freedom and a chance at peace and happiness even though they still wind up alone. Barn Burning Antonio Webb Professor Debra Germany English 2336 14 November 2012 Barn Burning In â€Å"Barn Burning†, a short story by William Faulkner, a boy finds that he can no longer be governed by his father’s ideas and tries to prevent his father from doing further harm, and leaves his family in the process. Sarty Snopes desire is to break away from the moral deficiency of his family life and live life with some resemblance of normalcy even at the expense of never seeing his family again.A growing body of evidence, suggest that humans have a moral sense from the very start of life and family does not instill this moral compass from the very start of life. His father was a man of little or no education who had developed an attitude in life of catering to no one but himself even at the expense of his family. The story begins with Mr. Snopes on trial for burning a neighbor’s barn after sending a black man over for his hog and actually warning the man that hay and wood burn. Shortly afterwards the neighbor’s barn burned and the story begins in a court of the Justice of the Peace. Sarty, is remembering all this and the details of the court room which was actually a storeroom in a grocery store. The man whose barn was burned asks that the boy testify and the judge is hesitant as this was not proper protocol in that time. The man says the boy does not have to testify and the case is dismissed due to lack of witnesses. The boy says he would have had to tell the truth had he been forced to testify even though he has a very real fear of his father.The father actually hits the boy who had defended the family honor by fighting someone in the crowd calling them barn burners. The father knows the boy would have testified and he tells him that they have to stand together against the world. This is obviously a common occurrence in the young mans life and always ends up the same, they are told to move on and never come back. They all gather in their wagon and leave, the wife, her twin sister, his two sisters, and his older brother. They all are afraid of the father and dare not question him or his authority.The central theme of the story begins with the last move when the family moves onto property owned by a Major De Spain and take up residence in a tenant farm house belonging to the major. The boy and the father ride over to the Majors house which is larger than anything the boy had seen in his life he compared the house to the courthouse. As they approach the door the father steps in a large pile of horse manure. The black man at the door tells the father to wipe his feet before coming in and also announces that Major De Spain is not home.The father forces the door open and enters the home, leaving a path of mud on the rug which turns out to be an expensive rug from France. When the Major returns home and discovers the condition of the carpet he rolls it up and takes it to the Snopes residence where he instructs the father to clean i t and return it as it was. The father makes the boys and the two sisters, clean the rug and then returns it to the Major. The Major tells Mr. Snopes that he will have to pay twenty bushels out of his labor to pay for the rug. Mr. Snopes takes the Major to court to have his payment overturned.Mr. Snopes thinking that washing it would be sufficient finds out that it is not. The judge shows some leniency reducing the payment to ten bushels of corn and five dollars. The father is not happy with this and decides once again to burn the Majors barn as he orders his son to get the kerosene against his wife’s wishes who says at least send a black man again like you did before. The young boy who by now has decided in his heart that this cannot go on and is restrained by his mother even though the father wants to physically tie him to his bed so he cant warn the Major.The father by now has headed towards the Majors house. The boy breaks away from his mother and heads for the Majors hous e on foot, arriving there he warns the household about their barn and then runs out the door not knowing where he is headed. The Major rides by him on his horse and somewhere up ahead the boy hears a shot and then two more. The constellations wheeled on. It would be dawn and them sun-up after a while and he would be hungry, But that would be to-morrow and now he was only cold, and walking would cure that.His breathing was easier asleep because he knew it was almost dawn, the night almost over. He could tell that from the whippoorwills. They were everywhere now among the dark trees below them. He got up. He was a little stiff, but walking would cure that too as it would the cold, and soon there would be the sun. He went on down the hill, toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasing –the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night. He did not look back. Baym,Nina) He knows that his father is torn between love and righteousness and feels sorrow for his father but knows in his heart he can longer live this way of life. While the story never mentions his age, Barn Burning is a sad story of a young mans life who knew what was right and wrong and does what has to be done in the end as conscious would not allow him to continue with his fathers way of life. However this story illustrates how morality is not developed within the family, but something that is instilled within us all in the first early years of life.By the age of six months babies have already developed a strong moral code, according to psychologist. They may be barely able to sit up, let alone take their steps, crawl or talk, but researchers say they can still tell the difference between good and evil. An astonishing series of experiments is challenging the view that human beings are born as â€Å"blank slates† – and that our morality is shaped by our experiences. Instead, they suggest that concepts of good and bad may be hard-wired into the brain at birth.In one experiment involving puppets, six-month-old babies showed a strong preference for good helpful characters-and rejected unhelpful, â€Å"naughty† puppet, some babies went further- and dished out their own punishment with a smack on its head Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University in Connecticut, whose department has studied morality in babies for years, said: A growing body of evidence suggest that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. You can see some glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral felling even in the first year of life. Some sense of ood and evil seems to be bred in the bones. In one experiment involving puppets, six-month old babies showed a strong preference for â€Å"good† helpful characters- and rejected unhelpful, â€Å"naughty† ones. In another, when asked to take away treats from a â€Å"naughty† puppet, some babies w ent further—and dished out their own punishment with a smack on its head. (Derbyshire, David) Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University in Connecticut, whose department has studied morality in babies for years, said â€Å"A growing body of evidence suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life.You can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bones† Which is not to say that parents are wrong to concern themselves with moral development or that interactions with their children are a waste of time? Socialization is critically important. But this is not because babies are young children lack a sense of right and wrong; it’s because the sense of sense of right and wrong that they naturally possess diverges in important ways from what we adults would want it to be, Dr Nadia Reissland, of Durham University, said b abies start to learn he difference between good and bad from birth. â€Å"Everything hinges on who decides what is normal†, she said. (Derbyshire, David) Infants fall into the preconvention level of moral development according to the theories of Lawrence Kohlberg. This involves two orientations: punishment and pleasure seeking. Infants respond to their environment primarily to seek pleasure and meet their needs. They show joy by smiling, cooing and laughing when they are fed, comfortable and feeling safe. As they grow, they learn to make choices in response to punishment, such as being told no or having an object taken from them.Meeting an infant’s basic needs through consistent care and positive social interactions simultaneously nurtures their moral development and trust in their caregivers. (Smith-Vratny, Lisa) Two noteworthy individuals, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, studied the moral development of children. Piaget looked at how children develop moral reasoni ng. He found that Two noteworthy individuals, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, studied the moral development of children. Piaget looked at how children develop moral reasoning. He found that young children have a much more primitive understanding of right and wrong behavior than do older children.Piaget determined that younger children judge bad behavior by the amount of damage caused by a person’s behavior. He would tell children a story with a moral dilemma. He would ask them to tell him â€Å"who is naughtier† a boy who accidentally broke fifteen cups or a boy breaks one cup trying to reach a jam jar when his mother is not around. Younger children attributed the â€Å"naughty† behavior to the boy who broke the most cups regardless of the other child’s intent. A huge amount of growth and physical development occurs during the first years of a baby’s life.These early stages of development are critical in laying the foundation for the babyâ€℠¢s future. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the normal development milestones for a baby, and how to encourage his or her learning and behavior. (Huxley, Ron) In conclusion the Snopes family lack of morality clearly influenced Sarty this is evident in the beginning of the story when the boy is willing to lie to insure that his father is acquitted of any wrong doing but somewhere along the way he could no longer contribute to their way of life.Somewhere along the way Sarty realizes everything the family is doing is wrong and its hurting peoples lives. The research indicates that you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling in the first year of life, what happen to the Snopes family along the way that the son would have more moral judgment than the family. This illustrates that family can only develop morality or withdraw away from it; essentially good and evil is something that seems to be bred in the bones. Works Cited Derbyshire, David http://www . ailymail. co. uk/news/article-1275892/Were-born-moral- Babies-tell-good-evil- months. html Bloom, Paul http://www. nytimes. com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies- t. html? pagewanted=all&_r=0 Smith-Vratny Lisa   http://www. livestrong. com/article/180598-moral-social-development-in- infants/#ixzz2C9gL5co8 Smith, Peter   http://www. lifesitenews. com/news/archive//ldn/2010/may/10051009 http://www. essentialbaby. com. au/baby/baby-stages-of-development/the-moral-life-of-babies- 20100513-v0u0. html Huxley, Ron http://www. christian-mommies. om/ageless/handle-emotions/moral-development-of-children- knowing-right-from-wrong/ Sigelman and Elizabeth A. Rider. Life-Span Human Development. California: Wadsworth, 2003. Caroll E. Izard. Measuring Emotions in Infants and Children. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. What to Expect the First Year. Sydney: Harper Collins, 2009. Jean Piaget. The Origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: International U niversity Press, 1952. Gillies, Christine http://suite101. com/article/the-developmental-milestones- f-a-baby-a314799 Baym, Nina, gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. C,D, and E (a three- volume set) 8th ed. New York:Norton, 2012 http://www. childrensmoraldevelopment. com/index. html Bersoff, David M. and Joan G. Miller. â€Å"Culture, Context, and the Development of Moral Accountability Judgments. † Developmental Psychology29, no. 4 (July 1993): 664–77. Schulman, Michael, and Eva Mekler. Bringing Up a MoralChild: A New Approach for Teaching Your Child to BeKind, Just, and Responsible. rev. ed. New York: Main Street Books/Doubleday, 1994.

Why Britain Attempted to Tax the American Colonies

The attempts by Britain to tax its North American colonists in the late 1700s led to arguments, war, the expulsion of British rule and the creation of a new nation. The origins of these attempts lay, however, not in a rapacious government, but in the aftermath of the Seven Years War. Britain was attempting to both balance its finances and control the newly acquired parts of its empire, through asserting sovereignty. These actions were complicated by British prejudice against the Americans. The Need for Defense During the Seven Years War, Britain won a string of major victories and expelled France from North America, as well as parts of Africa, India, and the West Indies. New France, the name of France’s North American holdings, was now British, but a newly conquered population could cause problems. Few people in Britain were naà ¯ve enough to believe that these former French colonists would suddenly and wholeheartedly embrace British rule with no danger of rebellion, and Britain believed troops would be needed to preserve order. In addition, the war had revealed that the existing colonies needed defense against Britain’s enemies, and Britain believed that defense would be best provided by a fully trained regular army, not just colonial militias. To this end, the post-war government of Britain, with a major lead taken by King George III, decided to permanently station units of the British army in America. Keeping this army, however, would require money. The Need for Taxation The Seven Years War had seen Britain spend prodigious amounts, both on its own army and on subsidies for its allies. The British national debt had doubled in that short time, and extra taxes had been levied in Britain to cover it. The last one, the Cider Tax, had proved highly unpopular and many people were agitating to have it removed. Britain was also running short of credit with banks. Under huge pressure to curb spending, the British king and government believed that any further attempts to tax the homeland would fail. They thus seized upon other sources of income, one of which was taxing the American colonists in order to pay for the army protecting them. The American colonies appeared to the British government to be heavily undertaxed. Before the war, the most that colonists had directly contributed to British income was through customs revenue, but this barely covered the cost of collecting it. During the war, huge sums of British currency had flooded into the colonies, and many not killed in the war, or in conflicts with natives, had done rather well. It appeared to the British government that a few new taxes to pay for their garrison should be easily absorbed. Indeed, they had to be absorbed, because there simply didn’t seem to be any other way of paying for the army. Few in Britain expected the colonists to have protection and not pay for it themselves. Unchallenged Assumptions British minds first turned to the idea of taxing the colonists in 1763. Unfortunately for King George III and his government, their attempt to transform the colonies politically and economically into a safe, stable and revenue-producing—or at least revenue-balancing—part of their new empire would flounder, because the British failed to understand either the post-war nature of the Americas, the experience of war for the colonists, or how they would respond to tax demands. The colonies had been founded under crown/government authority, in the name of the monarch, and there had never been any exploration of what this really meant, and what power the crown had in America. While the colonies had become almost self-governing, many in Britain assumed that because the colonies largely followed British law, that the British state had rights over the Americans. No one in the British government appears to have asked if colonial troops could have garrisoned America, or if Britain should ask the colonists for financial aid instead of voting in taxes above their heads. This was partly the case because the British government thought it was learning a lesson from the French-Indian War: that the colonial government would only work with Britain if they could see a profit, and that colonial soldiers were unreliable and undisciplined because they operated under rules different from those of the British army. In fact, these prejudices were based on British interpretations of the early part of the war, where cooperation between the politically poor British commanders and the colonial governments had been tense, if not hostile. The Issue of Sovereignty Britain responded to these new, but false, assumptions about the colonies by trying to expand British control and sovereignty over America, and these demands contributed another aspect to the British desire to levy taxes. In Britain, it was felt that the colonists were outside the responsibilities which every Briton had to bear and that the colonies were too far removed from the core of British experience to be left alone. By extending the duties of the average Briton to the United States—including the duty to pay taxes—the whole unit would be better off. The British believed sovereignty was the sole cause of order in politics and society, that to deny sovereignty, to reduce or split it, was to invite anarchy and bloodshed. To view the colonies as separate from British sovereignty was, to contemporaries, to imagine a Britain dividing itself into rival units, which might lead to warfare between them. Britons dealing with the colonies frequently acted out of fear of reducing the crown’s powers when faced with the choice of levying taxes or acknowledging limits. Some British politicians did point out that levying taxes on the unrepresented colonies was against the rights of every Briton, but there weren’t enough to overturn the new tax legislation. Indeed, even when protests began in the Americans, many in Parliament ignored them. This was partly because of the sovereignty issue and partly because of contempt for the colonists based on the French-Indian War experience. It was also partly due to prejudice, as some politicians believed the colonists were subordinate to the British motherland. The British government was not immune to snobbery. The Sugar Act The first post-war attempt to change the financial relationship between Britain and the colonies was the American Duties Act of 1764, commonly known as the Sugar Act for its treatment of molasses. This was voted in by a large majority of British MPs, and had three main effects: there were laws to make customs collection more efficient; to add new charges on consumables in the United States, partly to push the colonists into buying imports from within the British empire; and to change existing costs, in particular, the importing costs of molasses. The duty on molasses from the French West Indies actually went down, and an across the board 3 pence a ton was instituted. Political division in America stopped most complaints about this act, which started among affected merchants and spread to their allies in assemblies, without having any major effect. However, even at this early stage—as the majority seemed slightly confused as to how laws affecting the rich and the merchants could affect them—colonists heatedly pointed out that this tax was being levied without any expansion of the right to vote in the British parliament. The Currency Act of 1764 gave Britain total control of the currency in the 13 colonies. The Stamp Tax In February 1765, after only minor complaints from the colonists, the British government imposed the Stamp Tax. For British readers, it was just a slight increase in the process of balancing expenses and regulating the colonies. There was some opposition in the British parliament, including from Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Barrà ©, whose off the cuff speech made him a star in the colonies and gave them a rallying cry as the â€Å"Sons of Liberty,† but not enough to overcome the government vote. The Stamp Tax was a charge applied on every piece of paper used in the legal system and in the media. Every newspaper, every bill or court paper, had to be stamped, and this was charged for, as were dice and playing cards. The aim was to start small and allow the charge to grow as the colonies grew, and was initially set at two-thirds of the British stamp tax. The tax would be important, not just for the income, but also for the precedent it would set: Britain would start with a small tax, and maybe one day levy enough to pay for the colonies’ whole defense. The money raised was to be kept in the colonies and spent there. America Reacts George Grenville’s Stamp Tax was designed to be subtle, but things didnt play out exactly as he had expected. The opposition was initially confused but consolidated around the five Resolutions given by Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of Burgesses, which were reprinted and popularized by newspapers. A mob gathered in Boston and used violence to coerce the man responsible for the Stamp Tax’s application to resign. Brutal violence spread, and soon there were very few people in the colonies willing or able to enforce the law. When it came into effect in November it was effectively dead, and the American politicians responded to this anger by denouncing taxation without representation and looking for peaceful ways to persuade Britain to scrap the tax while remaining loyal. Boycotts of British goods went into effect as well. Britain Seeks a Solution Grenville lost his position as developments in America were reported to Britain, and his successor, the Duke of Cumberland, decided to enforce British sovereignty by force. However, he suffered a heart attack before he could order this, and his successor resolved to find a way to repeal the Stamp Tax but keep sovereignty intact. The government followed a twofold tactic: to verbally (not physically or militarily) assert sovereignty, and then cite the economic effects of the boycott to repeal the tax. The ensuing debate made it quite clear that British Members of Parliament felt the King of Britain had sovereign power over the colonies, had the right to pass laws affecting them, including taxes, and that this sovereignty did not give the Americans a right to representation. These beliefs underpinned the Declaration Act. British leaders then agreed, somewhat expediently, that the Stamp Tax was damaging trade and they repealed it in a second act. People in Britain and America celebrated. Consequences The result of British taxation was the development of a new voice and consciousness among the American colonies. This had been emerging during the French-Indian War, but now issues of representation, taxation, and liberty began to take center stage. There were fears that Britain intended to enslave them. On Britain’s part, they now had an empire in America which was proving expensive to run and difficult to control. These challenges would eventually lead to the Revolutionary War.