Biology

The Monarch's larva feeds on milkweed and over time, their body becomes as toxic as the plant itself. If a person imbibes a venom of some snake over a long period of time, will he become immune to that snakes bite? And would his body have enough venom to be as toxic as the snake itself? Even powerful enough to hurt someone who touches his bodily fluid? ie, saliva, blood etc

If you randomly spun some large vat of microbial life in some fluid once every thirty minutes do you think in some span of time this would register with how the microbes are behaving? I mean could this random spin in a liquid vat in time become enough alone to register in say gene selection even? I mean if you could manage to make a washing machine a habitable environment for some microbe that could replace detergent this would be beneficial somehow I think?

Hey guys. I'm needing to buy a large culture of the malarial parasite, i.e. any one of the following: -Plasmodium vivax -Plasmodium falciparum -Plasmodium malariae -Plasmodium ovale Does anyone know where such a purchase could be made online? Thanks

Is there a theory on what is the most likely body covering material to evolve next in the living world? We have had tree bark, jelly fish like membrane, exoskeletal insects and crustaceans, fish/reptile scales, bird feathers, mammal skin and hair. I find it difficult to imagine what other strikingly different body coving might emerge? And I know hair and echidna spines are basically the same material, but visually they are quite different. Am I clear enough here?

A few days back I noticed some fly agaric mushrooms growing in my backyard. Today around 40 minutes ago I looked out the window and saw a squirrel running from the nearby forest. The squirrel then briefly munched on a fly agaric, picked it up and ran away with it. Fly agarics contain muscimol which seems to be quite toxic to rats and mice at least and I'd imagine it could be a psychoactive to them as well. I wonder if this squirrel was a narcomaniac? Or just ignorant of the fact that the mushroom could be his/her last meal?

A good news for all the coffee junkies. First it became apparent that coffee is not as strong a diuretic as believed initially. Now a report from Wanke et al. (Mol Mic, 2008) showed that caffeine targets the TORC1-Sch9-Rim15 phosphorylation cascade that is believed to be involved in increasing lifespan in nutrient limited organisms. As this cascade is highly conserved it may also have an effect on humans (the study was conducted with Saccharomyces cerevisae).

I found this frog in the Raleigh area of North Carolina. I was curious what kind of frog it is? I have some turtles in an aquarium - would it be safe to put him in with them? He's pretty bright green with little yellow spots and he has sticky feet. Is it possible that he is poisonous?

Biology has to offer many kinds of energy conversions - for example solar into ATP and later glucose. We can now take whole organisms and eg burn them to gain energy (biofuels). But remember where natural gases (and other fossil fuels) are from... Biology knows these metabolism pathway! Maybe we could take for example unicellular photosynthesizing organism and put into it genes of required proteins? Just to make it work, than take a few dozens(hundreds) of generations of artificial selection to create cheap, efficient(?) living solar panels, from which we could just pump eg. methane... About different kind of energies ... remember that in microscopic scale chem…

How and when did humans begin eating meat? As primates, naturally we'd have teeth of herbivores. I believe the change had to do with cold weather and lack of food during migration... but how can an animal just begin a diet on meat. Is it healthy? Could a Gorilla turn to eating meat in an instance of life or death?

I'm working on my summer assignment for AP bio and I couldn't get a couple questions. Indicate the type of learning illustrated by the following example: Ewes will adopt and nurse a lamb shortly after they give birth, but will butt and reject it if the lamb is introduced a day or two later. The only types of learning I know are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, spatial learning and habituation and none of them fit. How is a female birds fitness associated with her ability to choose a mate by deciding among displays and adornments that "advertise" the health of the male? How does the females fitness have ANYTHING to do with choosing a mate?…

I was wondering if someone here could recommend a biology text book for someone who wants to learn biology, basically from scratch. I'm interested in a college level text since I know the basics of biology. Thanks. Pete

I have to do a debate on Stem Cell Research...I am against it. Could anyone give me some against-points as well as counterpoints. Or links to sites with debates of Stem Cell Research? Thanks

I know if I see it in writing, I'll recognize it. It's the muscle that acts as a one-way door between the esophagus and the stomach. It relaxes to allow food in, but contracts when the food is in the stomach to keep you from puking it. What's the name of this muscle?

I moved to newfoundland nearly a year ago. Newfoundland's provincial plant is the pitcher plant: Recently I discovered that they also have the sundew plants here... This is the only photo I didn't take: And last week I found out we also have the round-leafed variety of sundew: I am now completely fascinated in these things. I read somewhere that the sundews can actually wrap themselves around their prey by growing. Some of them can apparently bend themselves 180° in one minute in this fashion. Is that possible?

We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message ========================================================================================= The 3rd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (iCBBE2009) CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.icbbe.org/ Beijing, China June 11-13, 2009 ========================================================================================== This conference is sponsored by IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), Beijing Institute of Technology and Wuhan University. All the papers accep…

We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message ========================================================================================= The 3rd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (iCBBE2009) CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.icbbe.org/ Beijing, China June 11-13, 2009 ========================================================================================== This conference is sponsored by IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), Beijing Institute of Technology and Wuhan University. All the papers accep…

I do not believe there are any autotrophs with nervous systems, but is there any reason why they couldnt develop them? or would it be possible to stimulate, or genetically fabricate such a mutation? The reason i wonder is, because if it is possible, would not autotrophs quickly become the most intelligent species, surpassing us by far? for example in the state i live in within this land so called The United States, lives the largest known organism (by weight, not volume, if i recall the trophy for volume is for a fungus in oregon) named Pando, a single male Quaking Aspen of 6615 tons. As mobile heterotrophs we are restricted to a brain we can carry in our skulls without u…

I find it interesting that lions and tigers can reproduce with each, yet produce sterile male offspring. Dogs, on the other hand, to my knowledge, can successfully reproduce fertile male and female offspring, from wolf to pug. Why are very physically different dogs successful with producing fertile offspring of either sex, while cats don’t seem to have the same success? Is it the nomadic Man and dog companionship that has made this possible? I also find it interesting that homosapiens are in the same boat as dogs: We can successfully reproduce from Pigmy to Chinese oriental. So I assume, in general, if other creatures travel with man long enough they too can look …

What is a "subspecies" versus a "breed"? A Wildcat (Felis silvestris), has five subspecies, but a house cat (Felis catus) doesn't have subspecies, but breeds. For example, a siamese and a maine coon are very different in appearance and behavior, so why shouldn't they be considered subspecies? Thanks for any help.

For consumers or predators would simple abundance played a role in fitness and continue to do so? I mean if you reduce what a species can eat rapidly I think the impacts would be bad, but on that note could specie to specie fitness in such a relationship, such as predator to prey help a predatorial species by simply staying fit? Such as if a Thompsons gazelle became a lazy specie that could not run very fast, I think it would be easy to think predators making such a specie extinct rather quick, but then that could be disaster for any predatorial specie, simply put what do you eat? This is a problem for bigger cats such as tigers in ever shrinking regions of habitable…

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and thought it was about time I posted a question, so here goes.... Is it possible to live a healthy life without the trillions of bacteria that live in our digestive systems, or are they vital for our survival? And could we get rid of them even if we wanted to? Thanks:D

Being a regular drinker of strong mugs of tea, I just wondered if it is posible that by heating and re-heating water, we may encourage the selection of mutations that become thermophilic? Pretty ridiculous, but I wondered if anyone has tested this out?

Hi, i'm investigating the effects of Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate (also known as sodium bicarbonate) on the rate of photosynthesis. Please explain how sodium carbonate affects the rate of photosynthesis. If possible , please help me design an experiment to test this given the the following materials: 1.Fresh leaves of plants 2.a bottle of 5mol concentration of sodium hydrogencarbonate solution 3. stop watch 4.plastic straw 5.cork borer 6. torch light as light source 7. dark cloth 8. large syringe 9. 6 x 100mL measuring cylinder 10. Forceps Thank you and regards

I often get what i call 'episodes' of unexplained happiness and anxiousness or sometimes sadness. Im baffled by this, because, in most of these seemingly unoticable episodes i feel unexplainably happy and energetic even though there is no reason for me to be. Sometimes i am waiting at home before going to school to a boring day, with nothing but boredom and monotonous tasks to undergo; with nothing to look forward to; and with nothing to be happy about at that moment, yet i fell uncontrollably happy... Before we go on: 1. No, im not taking drugs, 2. and note that i dont get stupidly hysterical or anything, just a bit happier and excited... I was thinkning that maybe …

Hi I normally study in chemistry, but can't do much with because I'm only fifteen. I thought I would give biology a try because I think there are more areas I can go into without my parents freaking out about me blowing myself up. So could someone explain to me different fields of biology I would be able to go into in the future? Also I would like to know what I would be able to take with it in college. I'm interested in biomechanical engineering if you could give some examples of work people do in this field that would be great thanks for all replies.