Objective: to study the effect of temperature on the structure of the cell membrane. Hypothesis: I predict that a greater concentration of betalains will be released as the temperature increases, because the temperature will increase. soften the cell vacuole and cell membrane allowing the passage of more betalains. Introduction: Beetroot contains red pigments called betalains, located in the cell vacuole. Normally the pigments cannot pass through the membranes but they can escape when the beet is cooked. To function properly, a cell must be able to control transport across the partially permeable membrane. Safety: You must be careful not to burn yourself as this experiment involves hot water. The bain-marie is connected to electricity, so there is a risk of electrocution. Also, the boiling tubes are made of glass, so you have to do this because they don't break as fragments could enter your body. The scalpel used to cut the beetroot is very sharp, so handle it carefully as you can cut someone with it. Equipment: - Raw beetroot - it is more effective to use raw beetroot to get accurate readings - Ruler - for measuring the size of beetroot tubes. - White tile size 4- Scalpel- Water baths at 40.50, 60 oc- 10 ml graduated cylinder- to measure hydrogen peroxide- 1 rack for boiling tubes- Distilled water- Pipette- Ice cubes- Thermometer one per bath- tailor-made if the temperature of the water baths fluctuates.- Colorimeter – for accurately measure the absorbency of the color.- Cuvettes- stopwatchMethod:1. Gather all your materials and carefully cut sections from a single beet using a ruler to measure 1 cm.2. Cut eight 1 cm long slices from these sections3. fill the boiling tubes using 5...... middle of paper ......rbance reading. The graph constructed is a line graph to show continuous data. The graph shows that at the warmest temperature the highest absorption capacity reading is obtained. EvaluationThe limitations were that we could only conduct the experiment at these temperatures. To make our results more accurate, we could have used a wider temperature range. Additionally, the temperature of the water bath fluctuated several times during the experiment. To prevent this from happening, I should have put a thermometer in the water bath. The beets were all different ages and sizes. To prevent this from happening, I could have measured the beetroot more accurately. We made sure our results were reliable by repeating them six times and taking an average. An increase in temperature denatured the membrane, allowing a high concentration of betalians to escape.