The effect of temperature on beet membranes. Research Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to determine what type of effect increasing temperature will have on the plasma membrane of a beet cell. IntroductionBeets contain a red pigment which is retained in cells by membranes. If the membranes are damaged, the pigment “betalain” will escape. The amount of pigment escaping can be assessed, as the “betalain” will color all the water surrounding the cell. If the water containing the beet slices is heated to different temperatures, will the temperature have an effect on the color of the solution? Hypothesis I think more red pigment will be released as the temperature increases. When the beet slices beetroot in water are heated, the higher temperature will provide more kinetic energy. The increased energy will allow the molecules inside the beet slices to move faster. The rapid movement will likely cause damage and break down the cell membrane, allowing the red pigment to disappear out of the cells. Temperature (C°) Color of beet water Color intensity (arbitrary units) 0 Pale cream color 0.0220 Darker cream color 0.0240 Pink with red admixture 0.0660 dark red 1.0080 Orange-red .65100 Yellow /orange .14Table 1: Observations of the colors of beet water from my data (group 5)Temperature (C° ± 5.0 C°) Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Mean SD0 0 .03 0.01 0.13 0.05 0.02 0.00 0.01 0.04 0.0420 0.04 0.01 0.06 0.00 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.02 0.0240 0.09 0.05 0.06 0.15 0.06 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.0460 1.45 0.56 0.90 0.84 1 .00 0.05 0, 59 0.77 0.4080 1.45 0.62 2.00 0.65 0.65 0.74 0.87 1.00 0.49100...... middle of paper ...... Some Groups had different leakage of the pigment into the test tubes with water. This could be improved by being very careful when cutting the beetroot, but using another type of equipment instead of a knife should make the cut more precise. The water baths were well controlled and thermometers helped control the desired temperatures. I think the water baths were pretty accurate, but having two thermometers in each bath might have helped keep the temperature readings more accurate. We were not given any instructions on whether or not to shake the test tubes with the colored solutions before inserting them. place them in the spectrophotometer to read the absorbance. By shaking each test tube a number of times before putting it into the spectrophotometer, the accuracy of the absorbance of the solutions could have been improved...