Biology

Hello. Within the framework of a French university "TIPE" -- namely: an own-iniative experimental study, a sort of micro-thesis -- we're asked to answer a biology or geology-related problematic, in connection with the annual topic. The topic of this year is: "Surface". I first thought about the surface-tension matter in some agronomic issues (foliar fertilization etc.). How to carry out valid experiments and obtain valid conclusions for that subject is the problem: how to measure the dimension of the drop? how to quantify the plant reaction? etc. I then listed some other ideas: 1. (plant physiology) Relation between mycorrhizae and root-surface (but, risk to …

I notice In many international cross-country events Is that Ethiopian athletes tend to win and excell quite a bit. Could natural selection be due to this or Is this just coincidence?

do form things nessesary for us to live, give us any reasons why we as life forms really need things that are like scientific process to live, is it becuase we are around other people and they are looking at us and thinking about us and things while looking at us and we cannot see what they are doing to us,.. becuase personally i could think of things i want to do and see and smell with out tiny machines doing it 4 me!:cool:

Hi everyone, I took these pics in my back garden the other day and wondered what type of caterpillar they are and what they may look like as butterflies or moths? Not sure if this is the right place to post this question, so m please move if its not, thanks in advance to any answers:D

hello, i'm new here. I'm a high school student. i have a research subject which requires us to make a problem. Mine's a complicated one. I am going to test the effect of the electricity on plants. I mean i have leads to how my research will go: how can acids be a bridge to plants and electricity? and including the electron transport chain? is that also related? thanks for reading i hope you can give me some advices. I hope that i may be able to come up with something. I aspire to be a chemist someday..... thanks.....

I, like a lot of other men (I suppose), have been thinking a lot of times of the reason why we are atracted to women (overmost to the younger). I have reached an hypotesis but I do not know if I am the first or if I have too much imagination. It was by chance that I came across vitamin B12 (or the B complex). I was allways very stressed by abrupt noises and I reached a moment when I could not calm myself in these cities crowded by so many explosion motors. Then I got to B12 and after taking it I noticed myself more calm, but after it the next progression was slow. I suppose my brain had done a lot of associations between some stimulus and the stressing noises. Then I …

The last couple of weeks I've been learning about Viruses. What I am wondering is, what does knowing a certain kind of virus has an envelope tell me (aside from the fact it "may" hide the virus from the host immune system)? Or that a Virus is RNA or DNA? I only have access to outdated introductory microbiology textbooks. Are there any general rules to learn about Viruses? Perhaps something like this: (I am making up all the facts below) 1. Viruses with a Polyhedral Capsid are highly contagious 2. Viruses with the enzyme Reverse Transcriptase have no cure and have high mortality rates. 3. + sense viruses can only be transmitted be saliva. 4. - sense vi…

Hello everyone, I just started biology and I have lots of clarifications If red blood cells are created in the bone marrow how do they enter the circulatory system. Do they permeate through the blood vessels?

Does the immune system neutralise the toxin created by the bacteria or does it only neutralise the bacteria. Or is it both? Thank you

most people find the idea of creating a new life form to be an idiotic idea but i believe otherwise i mean from one strand of dna we could grow a sheep or a human (even if it is illegal) so why couldn't we mix a a hamster and a fish to make a hamfish or something similar any ideas welcome

So, I have a headache at this moment. I'm fully re-hydrated, and this is no longer the issue. But my stomach seems to be a bit upset with all the beers I had last night (I wasn't even drunk, just tipsy). In short: I feel a bit like throwing up, despite the fact that I have had a 3-sandwich breakfast, several glasses of water and a coffee. I know from experience that my headache and the stability of the stomach are linked. If I were to decide to throw up (I hate doing that, I prefer to sit it out), then the headache also disappears... and it disappears almost instantly. What mechanism links my stomach contents to my headache?

we saw this frog at the chattanooga aquarium but have no idea what the name is. i've searched everything, i think, and i can't seem to find out what it is called. thanks for you're help.

Is there any evidence showing that scientists can help people become at least ten years younger a few years later, say like within one decade or two decades? What techs are they planning to use?

For example it was penertrated by a bullet via gun shooting, then it would recover itself in ten minutes. Is that possible for an organism to be this way?

I looked everywhere and couldn't find any information on what exactly these animals are. I was hoping one of you guys were familiar with.. these. Thanks.

A recent study has shown that ants actually count their steps to navigate home, rather than using visual clues. To test the hypothesis, they had to cut the feet off of a number of ants, and attach little stilts to another selection, to see if the amputees fell short of their goal, and similarly to see if the 'ants on stilts' overshot their goal home. Please see the livescience article below... http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060629_ant_pedometers.html

What is Happiness? What is Hate? What is love? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsCXZczTQXo I have developed the belief that emotions are nothing more than chemical reactions in the Limbic System of the brain. They transpire into something we perceive regardless of reality or their origin. If emotions are the result of substance then it is possible to synthesize such chemicals to mimic feelings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpViKXu36z0 Psychoactive drugs such as anti-depressants, lithium, and anxiolytics are currently in use medically in order to alter a patient’s state of mind. These are necessary for the survival and comfort of the patient but do very little to chan…

What techniques are used to assist the host to survive or resist the disease? If I were to say by surgical removal of the cysts in the body, would that be sufficient? I'm not sure how else the host would resist this disease...By the way, hydatids is caused by echinoccoccus granulosus (a taperworm).

In regards to blood stain analysis methods, aside from the basics, I've also heard that crystalization of the blood sample, can be used in some manner to determine the person's (or animal's) age. There was also something mentioned regarding the nature of the clotting- I would assume this would be during the administration of the necessary antiserum, that some aspect of the coagulation can be used to estimate age. I was recently reading a biology text, for lack of anything better to do, due to sickness (curse thee common cold!) and skimmed over a brief reference in the text towards forensic analysis of blood samples, though began to grow annoyed as it mentioned some less…

An interesting question on hand, for those at SFN (proclamation)! I'ts always been stereotyped in various television shows (particularly pointless children's shows, which I have sadly been coerced to watch due to the existence of younger siblings), that gastropods (regardless of genus; sometimes sea slugs, sometimes terrestrial pulmonates) seem to almost bubble and froth, in an almost disintegrative manner, when on contact with salt. Why does this seem to occur, or does it even? After all, there are tons of saltwater gastropods? I know magnesium chloride, in particular works as an anesthetic, in reasonable quantities, however, what does our dear friend common table salt …

Playing the video game Assassin's Creed made me wonder this. Hybernation, reproduction, all those things that are attributed to "animal instinct," things that the animals somehow know, absent the requisite first-hand experience (also, if these things are "instinct," then how come humans, who are just as much animals as dogs and cats, have to be taught how to reproduce or sleep and eat?). I don't doubt for one minute that "instinct" is what the phenomenon is called, but what causes instinct? The guy in Assassin's Creed explained this the way most people explain it: Instinct exists because it just does. But, for scientists, since when was "just because" a suitabl…

Hi everyone I've been arguing with my bf over this for an hour now I am saying that selective breeding is different to genetic modification. Now, apparently, genetic engineering is both selective breeding and genetic modification? But genetic modification and selective breeding are different, right? He's exact words were "selective breeding is equivelant to genetic engineering and thus to genetic modification." He read this on Wikipedia and seems to think it proves HIM right : "Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms. The DNA of genetically modified organisms has been modified through genetic engin…

Hello everyone, i just wanted to know more information on this... thanks! Well, it starts off just today (Tues. June 9, 2009) when I was outside just enjoying myself at about noon and taking some photos of just generally anything that looked interesting to me. One in particular was my favorite because of the way the grass and some plants took shape was really cool. So i took a shot, fascinated. Well... later on around almost evening i was looking through my gallery and stopped at that one photo. Something about it seemed very wrong, and a short time later i saw it; the pebbles were bones, the leaves illusions of hard ecoskeletons, the grass limbs... It was absol…

It is known that thermal challenge by cooling the hands is often used in thermographic tests in order to enhance the signal from pathological region (by decreasing the temperature of the surrounding periferal tissues). Does somebody knows if the environmental temperature affects the response to this kind of thermal challenge? I mean if a response will be stronger just at lower temperatures (ussually used in thermographic tests)?

there are organisms having no sex, hermaphrodite, etc. We have male and female i.e. 2 sexes . What would happen if there were 3 different sexes and to reproduce gametes were needed from all these sexes? What would be the life like? More complex? difficult?