Welcome to Ask A Biologist. This site has a large collection of biology learning materials that includes stories, games, activities, videos, and a podcast.

Read our stories

Listen and watch

Play our games

Enjoy our activities

Dr. Biology gets the skinny on our largest organ - our skin. Professor and author Nina Jablonski talks about the important ways our skin works for us each day.

Take a breath and breathe out. What you just exhaled is the subject of this podcast. It is a story of over 140 thousand molecules and what we are learning about them and what a single breath might tell us about our health. Dr. Biology catches up with bioanalytical chemist …

An interview with limnologist James Elser from the School of Life Sciences. Listen in as Dr. Biology and co-host Michael Saxon learn about a biologist that studies life in and around fresh water, or you might think of him as the other marine biologist.

In the tiny world of DNA, we might call genomes monsters. These huge sets of information include all the codes for all the genes present in an organism. From genomes, we can learn about the traits, diseases, and evolution of a species, and that’s just a start. What might such a monster set of…

Ants doing math? Could this be possible? Stephen Prattt from the ASU School of Life Science gives Dr. Biology a lesson about ant problem solving.
Dr Biology sits down with well known science correspondent, Robert Krulwich (Radiolab), for a fun conversation about communicating science. The two talk about media, old and new, and maybe some that may not have been developed.

Could fire be important for life on Earth? Would Earth be the same without fire? These are just a few of the many questions we have for fire researcher Stephen Pyne about fire and its role with life. Did we also mention his battle with a dragon? If you have a burning desire to…

The Ugly Bug Contest has been part of the Flagstaff Festival of Science and Mt. Campus Science Day since 1997. Ask-a-Biologist is pleased to extend the contest to the world via the Web.

a cartoon of nerves

Nervous System

Read A Nervous Journey and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

a galleon sailing on puzzle pieces

ABC Vitamins

Read Why Are English Sailors Called Limeys? and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

Zoomed in picture of bug

Ugly Bug Contest 2012

Vote in the 2012 Ugly Bug Contest!

an ant farm

Ant Farm

Read Ant Farm and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

Four potential viruses that can be used in the game

Give It A Shot

Explore Give It A Shot

As our lives become more affected by viruses and bacteria that cause disease, how much does wearing masks and…

A cartoon illustration of a mosquito biting human skin

Epic Mosquito Quest

Play Epic Mosquito Quest

Mosquitoes go beyond annoying, to being downright dangerous at times. How can you reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home, to…

Cartoon of two scientists one male and one female.

Doctor Know

Play Doctor Know

Play doctor in the 21st century! Practice modern medicine by examining all dimensions of the body, from organs to molecules, as…

An illustration of pea pods with different genes (yellow and green, and round and wrinkled)

Genetics Game

Play Garden Gene Genius

Our genes control much of how we look and who we are. But do you really know how genetics work? Take a moment to gather some…