Red Bull Daphnia Experiment

The experiment studies the effects of Red Bull and its major components on the heart rate of a Daphnia. The experiment focuses on the effects of conditions on the cardiovascular system. The Cardiovascular system is responsible for the transport of blood, oxygen, nutrients and waste circulating the body. It consists of the heart, vessels, and blood as in closed circulatory system and hemolymph in open circulatory system, the cardiovascular system is also responsible for thermoregulation in the body. (Gonzalez, 2012). The heart helps pump blood to the lungs and rest of the body. The pumping of heart or the contraction and relaxation of heart determines the heart rate and depends on multiple chemicals that we could influence by using stimulants, depressants, varying temperatures, aerobic, and anaerobic

Also, we learned that depressants decrease the heart rate because they influence the parasympathetic nervous system which responsible for the rest and digest and depress the sympathetic nervous system (Silverthorn, 2010). The main stimulator in Red Bull is caffeine, it functions by blocking the effects of the adenosine, a brain chemical involved in sleep. When caffeine blocks adenosine, it causes firing of neurons that stimulate the sympathetic system, that triggers "fight or flight" response by releasing adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that increases the heart rate and dilate the eye; another effect of Caffeine is changing the levels of dopamine, responsible for pleasure in the brain (Kollmorgen, 2011). We will be comparing the components individually to the baseline, we will also be testing the components in combination compared to their results individually and baseline. Our baseline will be aged tap