Read our stories
Listen and watch
Play our games
Enjoy our activities
Welcome to Ask A Biologist. This site has a large collection of biology learning materials that includes stories, games, activities, videos, and a podcast.
Why do peanuts, pollen, or pet dander make some of us sneeze or swell up—but not others? In this episode, Dr. Biology talks with immunologist Esther Borges Florsheim from Arizona State University to explore how allergies start, why they’re becoming more common, and what’s really…
As you go about your day, breathing and thinking, with your heart beating, your body is working. It sends and receives signals, grows, and stores fat, among hundreds of other functions. All of these functions make up your physiology, or how your body works. The same is true for every living…
Biologist Bruce Hammock talks about life as a biologist, being a businessman and mountain climbing. How do these all fit together? Listen in as Dr. Biology learns how these pieces all work together in an interesting career.
The career path for biologist Kevin McGraw was set by a chance sighting through a window of a Costa Rican coffee shop.
Microbes are everywhere, but what are they? We get the inside story from microbiologist Valerie Stout about these tiny life forms including a slimy and gooey material many microbes make called biofilms. In fact, you have a daily encounter with biofilms and bacteria that can…
The evening news, your local paper, online websites, blogs, twitter, Facebook, and yes podcasts all are communicating the latest science news. In this mix of messages are often conflicting stories about what is good and bad for you. It also seems that every other day there is a cure for cancer or…
One of the benefits of being a biologist can be travel. There are some researchers who travel the globe as part of their work. Arvind Varsani is a molecular virologist who studies viruses found around the world. Dr. Biology was able to catch Arvind between trips to talk about his…
It's a mystery, at least until you try to guess what animal children book author Conrad Storad is describing at the beginning of this episode. Joining Conrad is physiologist Michael Quinlan. Together they give us all the gory details behind this desert dwelling…
Monster Inheritance
In this lesson, with a few rolls of a die, our Monster Maker game, and a presentation, you will learn a bit about how traits are inherited. Explore the activities for the basics, or dive in further…
Bee Learning Lab
Take a trip with us today into the Bee Learning Lab. Train bees in your very own experiment and see how you can make them learn…
Monster Maker
Build your own monster by decoding the monster genome in Monster Maker, a DNA game. It is not very different from what…
Using the Scientific Method: The Case of the Mystery Images
Play The Case of the Mystery Images
Looking for another detective assignment? Practice all the new detective skills you learned in the…
Picking off the Peppered Moth
Get your beaks ready, it's moth-hunting time. In the Peppered Moths Game, you take on the role of the hunter and…