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Some people claim same-sex attraction is "unnatural." Biology says otherwise
Bitter taste receptors on the skin were found to fight and expel toxins.
Scientists uncover a pulsating system that flushes out brain waste during non-REM sleep.
Surgeons removed the man's "breakdance bulge" and the patient is now okay.
We thought we knew what neurons looked like. Guess again.
Water anoles can stay underwater for up to 20 minutes thanks to their air bubble "oxygen tanks".
It's plastic-free and vegan — and more sustainable than current alternatives.
The findings highlight long-standing biases in how biologists classify mammals.
A golden mystery has been finally solved with the discovery of a key enzyme.
It could help to engineer crops that can better cope with extreme weather.
Virtual code has become virtual DNA.
Researchers have found that immune cells from a cold attack Covid differently from vaccines.
Whether you’re a college student hoping to improve your grades, a professional wanting to achieve more at work, or an older adult hoping to stave off dementia, the idea of popping a magic pill that boosts your brainpower can be tempting. So it’s no surprise that the use of nootropics or smart drugs is on […]
Plans are just like us... well, in a way at least.
Turns out, Darwin was really good about understanding evolution.
I have the utmost respect for everyone who made this happen.
Anything larger would need more blood than a heart can pump.
Diversity, 100% biological.
Birds of Paradise have similar structures.
The work has only been tested in the lab but, so far, the results are encouraging.
There are two ways to look at this: one is upbeat and optimistic, but the other is much darker.
Despite their sedentary lifestyles, plants have a lot more going on than it seems.
Century-old samples might teach us something new about climate change.
These plants could become our climate "canary in the coal mine".
Celebrate this day biology's way!
Life to the rescue!
A must-read book spanning time and science.
Big science going on at the small scale.
I'm gonna need a smaller controller.
This remarkable research could open the doors for biological thermometers at the nanoscale which might tell us a thing or two about how our bodies function at the smallest level.
Biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly and efficiently program and design DNA-encoded circuits, giving new functions to living cells. There are already a myriad of programming languages. Fortran and C++ allow for rapid computations, PHP is a scripting language for web development, Ruby is a popular object-oriented language – […]
When researchers started raising 48 bacteria species aboard the International Space Station, they weren’t really sure what to expect. They wanted to see how the microorganisms would adapt to living in microgravity, but one species hasn’t only adapted – it’s doing better than on Earth. According to a recent study, Bacillus safensis JPL-MERTA-8-2 – a strain […]
When Obama became president, one of his promises was to close the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility. Now, as he’s nearing the end of his second term, he reiterated that idea, expressing his desire to close it. Two academics have come up with a creative solution to that problem: turning it into a marine research station. The […]
Morgan Beeby and his colleagues at the Imperial College London used electron microscopy to image these biological motors in high resolution and three dimensions for the first time.
A new study finds that many cancers are caused by mutations that block the tumor suppressor gene’s effect, through a process called Intron Retention.
Piotr Naskrecki, a Harvard biologist, did what few people would have the courage to do – he let maggots grow inside his skin, then documented the entire process. The result is, while very gross, spectacularly interesting. Proceed at your own risk. I’ve got you under my skin The Human Bot Fly from Piotr Naskrecki on […]
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to enlarge and map brain samples. This inexpensive technique will now allow scientists to get a much closer look at the human brian and perhaps figure out some of its long standing secrets.
When science meets art, some seriously coolness happens – and the perfect example for this is BioScapes, an annual competition ran by Olympus. BioScapes hosts some of the most spectacular images of life seen through a microscope, as exemplified below. “Each fall, four individuals widely respected in the fields of microscopy and imaging are invited […]
The human body is a complex biological machine, where each part of the system works in tandem, from cells to whole organs, to keep us alive. When something in the system goes astray or downright haywire, disease creeps in. I’m not going to go into biological details on how the human body works – there […]
I’ve given up on watching TV years ago – the occasional documentary or football game (guilty) once in a blue moon will do for me. But recently, there are fewer and fewer quality documentaries being shown on TV; not to say that there aren’t any awesome ones being made – there’s excellent documentaries coming out […]
A team or Scottish scientists are pushing material science on the extreme side by conducting research which, they hope, will enable them to create life out of inorganic molecules. All life on Earth is based on organic biology – carbon compounds. The researchers from Glasgow University, however, have shown in a recently published paper a […]
Cyanide is nasty. I don’t care if you’re a venomous snake, an elephant or Charlie Sheen, cyanide is something you don’t want, which makes it an excellent defense mechanism. Lotus corniculatus, commonly known as the bird’s-foot trefoil, a plant common throughout Europe, Asia and Africa has evolved so that it’s leaves have a cyanide reservoir, […]
In a recent act that just baffles my mind, Tennesee, not one of the US brightest states, has passed a bill that makes it easier for virtually any creationist teacher to include religion in science class. They did this by including mythology in science classes to promote critical thinking. Now I wonder, do you think […]
Elephants are absolutely amazing animals, from numerous points of view; they are extremely loyal and loving creatures, they have evolved up to the point where they have almost no natural enemy (except man), and they are smart – very smart ! Joshua Plotnik, a comparative psychologist at the University of Cambridge in England and head […]
Another mystery, even bigger than the one with the birds in Arkansas is puzzling researchers from all over the world, as dead fish hit the coast of Brazil, with CNN reporting that there are over 2 million dead fish in Chesapeake Bay. Experts have first suggested that this is probably caused by a combination of […]
You know those days when you go to the beach, and it’s just too hot outside, so you have to use some cream and all ? Well, it’s a little harder if you’re a whale. A recent study conducted that a whole lot of whales displayed blisters caused by sun damage. Laura Martinez-Levasseur, from the […]
It’s always nice when new species are discovered, and this time it was an expedition from Papua New Guinea that made the discovery. A frog no bigger than a peanut, a brilliant green katydid with bright pink eyes and a white tipped tail mouse are the stars of the over 200 newly discovered species. The […]
Mycobacterium vaccae is a type of bacteria that naturally leaves in soil and has been in the attention of researchers for a while now, due to the fact that it decreases anxiety. Recent studies sugest that in fact, it also stimulates neuron growth and thus intelligence and the ability to learn. Dorothy Matthews and Susan […]
As any fourth grader will tell you, photosynthesis is (in layman terms), the process through which plants (and bacteria, algae, etc) get the sugars and other organic compounds they need using energy from sunlight. However, during last week’s synthetic biology conference in Boston, a biologist from Harvard took things to a whole new level, presenting […]
The biggest beaver dam is (get ready folks), twice as long as the Hoover dam, measuring 2,790 ft (over 800 meters; in fact, it’s so big that you can even see it from space. Though it may seem pointless for the tiny critters to build, they actually build the dams for a good purpose: the […]
