Biology

I came across what seems like a nice, biology inclusive custom dictionary for MS Word today and thought I'd share, since it's a useful tool to have for people who dislike red, squiggly lines. I have another one that I use for chemistry as well, which was linked in another thread here. If anyone has any other useful tools like this for writing in biology, I'd love to hear about them, as I am currently in the process of writing my first research article since moving into the field(s) of microbiology / genetics.

how do we intergrate them? I support transgender rights, but there are serious issues with former men entering women's sports. Mike Tyson would be an example. Would it be possible to have another way to determine who plays what sport? So instead of male and female, base it on muscle ratio or testosterone levels? Do we need to do anything at all?

Basically, if the God exists, it must be, by definition, the most powerful deity and the most poweful beings . But how can we define "power" when talking about gods? Anyway, If other more mysterious (higher?) beings than human exist, there must eventually exist more mysterious (higher ?) attributes that distinguish them. A question that can arises is the following: Are humans the pinnacle of self-consciousness and intelligence? Are there "things" deeper (higher ?) than "human consciousness" and "human intelligence"? Indeed, it seems that these are the main attributes that distinguish humans from other living beings, just as life distinguishes living beings from non-liv…

Do you think they are born gay, or chose to be gay. I say they chose to be gay, by acting on some feelings in there bodies during puberty, they are confused to think they are gay, and keep acting on this feeling until they are gay. What do you think? :scratch: :scratch:

Just wondering, what are people's thoughts on genetic engineering? Do you approve, or disapprove? Do you think it is dangerous, or unhealthy? Vote, and give your opinion on it.

surely black would be better?

To get the ball rolling, I'll post stuff from another forum where a bunch of other dudes has tried to figure this out. I got into a stoush with someone who appears to be stuck on the idea that we can't say it's even meaningful, and is no use in any definition (even though he then seems to be quite happy to use purposeful behaviour as a distinctive, and observable phenomenon). I can't figure out why he can't see what the problem is with the approach he is using, so maybe some bright spark can shed a bit of light:

Shops and other various teenage hangouts have devised a really god damn annoying way to keep unwanted adolescents away. A high pitched whine audible only to people under 25. There's a link to the sound at the bottom of the article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2006/04/04/mosquito_sound_wave_feature.shtml My ears hurt!

Has there ever been a study to confirm this? It seems similar to the ''nocebo'' effect. Your thoughts? ''There are a lot of stories floating around out there about people who experienced an injury in their dreams and then found real, physical evidence of the wound on their bodies once they awoke. For instance, some people have claimed to have been caught in a fire in their dreams and then woke up to find burn marks on their skin. Other common stories involve people being attacked during their dreams and then waking up to find scratch marks somewhere on their bodies. However, most of these stories are found in chat rooms or message boards, so it’s hard to corroborate if…

I think if you want to get only a little pedantic, then if you'v ever eaten corn it's GM corn. The question is how the genetic manipulation has been done. Corn (as well as other crops and, of course, animals) has been selectively bred for thousands of years; corn has stark differences with the wild maize that it is descended from. I wonder how many people realize that the sole purpose is to modify the genes, even if the practitioners didn't realize this. I do realize that GM is usually meant as a different sort of modification

If our bodies are made of atoms and there is an infinite number of atoms in the universe because the Universe is infinite, then shouldn't an afterlife be theoretically possible?

What is the criteria that is used to determine whether something is alive or not?

Ah ha ha ha haaaaa. I now have three very entertaining Pandinus imperator. They're pretty neat. Anyone else keep scorps?

If humanity became extinct at some point in the future, how long will it take for all of our science (all of our physics and chemistry and biology) to be rediscovered again by a different species?

Topic says all I'm asking.

All the animals, birds,i nsects have specific mating season. why dont the human have mating season? Human can mate anytime. any reasons for this

I was going to place this in another section of this forum, but I think it is valid for physics and science due to the nature that homosexuals and lesbians cannot have children " physically natural." And yes I am aware of the choices on adoption. I am also aware of artificial insemination and " blink banks" BUT unsure if this is considered natural and not sure if the condoning is psychological? IE, same sex attracted to same sex? And no I have no biases towards any particular groups at all. In case no one here understand the dogmas linked to Homosexuals and Lesbians here is a list of sort. On world biases Gays and Lesbians have issues with the…

Here's another take... We probably need GMOs to help us survive and feed the world's growing population, potentially allowing us to do so with lower user of poisons and pesticides. A good article overall. Just a short snippet below. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/nature/fewer-pesticides-farming-with-gmos/ That last statement in my quote above strikes me as particularly poignant. What are your thoughts?

I appologize if I put this is in the wrong section. We got a 5 month old, we did 3 out of 4 dosages of a 5 in 1 "Pentaxim" vaccine which is mandatory here. 4th and last dosage will be at 18 months. Up untill now fortunately - zero side effects appart from a very slight temperature increase but this is negligible. I've been all over the internet looking for legitimate information on vaccinations but there is so much missinformation that it's easy to go nuts. Some of my friends who have children, already went from taking a scientific stance to full nuts due to the crap that is outthere. I'm looking for websites based on scientific sources and scientific opinions based…

these are amazing if you have an eye for marine science detail

In developed countries, the sick, poor, and disabled are taken care by means of the great excess those nations have at their disposal. The poor or sick may or may not lead happy or fruitful lives, but their survival is not at stake in any significant manner. Success in a developed countries is defined by material belongings, academic achievement, and emotional factors such as happiness, satisfaction, and contentment. These do not drive natural selection. In fact, those that devote their time to material or academic success have less time to raise a family as those that focus on a "social life" or "family life" and do not pursue a high status. So, in one se…

Many people say life begins at conception. Actually it begins before that. Every sperm cell, egg cell and blood cell in our bodies are alive. The much more important question is when does that life become a human? That is the topic I am interested in. At what point can you say "that's a human". I know answer 3 is vague. I would have said "it's a human when it's viable to live on it's own" But I was afraid that would leave some wanting to say none of the above. The way I see this, the building of a human is gradual. It starts off as a fertilized egg. Then becomes more complex as the fetus develops. It may be a human when it is viable outside the mother. I do not …

some days my depression gets real bad. and i lose the motivation to do anything. I think that if earth wasn't such a garbage world the quality of science would increase. Science wouldn't even be a "thing" just a basic piece of conversation like music. Instead of "Oh, did you listen to the latest Pop tunes" people would discuss equations with each other. I remember googling something and it showed scientific evidence that depression decreases intelligence in the brain. When i am depressed I dont feel as smart...and the sad thing is that during these moments I dont even care. I dont remember what search terms I put exactly so I can't find the link. basically, i hate…

A while ago I thought about some concept, which should which should allow us, to get rid of all unwanted life. This is – by becoming incompatible. Previously I thought that we could do it by changing the language which encodes nucleotide triples into amino acids (be replacing eg tRNA), but it could result in enormous number of problems with gene regulation. I’ve just found the “safe” way – take mirror reflection! If we replace left-handed amino acids with right-handed, we would get mirror reflections of natural proteins. Analogically we could get chiral DNA, sugars, etc. on which new enzymes would work perfectly. Finally we would get normally functioning mirror refl…

Note To Reader: I am just like any other normal person wanting to discover the truth. I am not being selfish and am not trying to bother you or be nonsensical. I just really wish to discuss and find the answer to my theory here. So far, I haven't. People have just been dismissing my theory based upon their own personal opinions. But I need to discuss an actual valid reason as to why they reject my theory besides just from their own personal opinions. There are many philosophies out there on how to live a happy/joyful life. But these are nothing scientific. They know nothing about science and how the brain really works (what our mental experiences really are).…