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Welcome to Ask A Biologist. This site has a large collection of biology learning materials that includes stories, games, activities, videos, and a podcast.
The public has decided. Congratulations Orthoptera, you have earned your 008 status.
Arianne Cease isn't just any locust biologist. She's also a sustainability scientist, as she's bringing together all kinds of researchers to work on reducing the number of locust swarms, which affect 1 in 10 people across the globe.
Humans can suffer from certain back problems in their old age, but other very similar animals don’t have the same issues. Why might this be the case?
What could possibly be the difference between a cup of dirt and a cup of soil? Dr. Biology talks with microbiologist Ferran Garcia-Pichel about why he avoids the dirty word and prefers to say soil. Could it be there is more in a cup of dirt - excuse me a cup of soil than meets…
The 2013 Ugly Bug Contest has come to an end and all the clues point to a single suspect.
Honey bees use a waggle dance to communicate the location, distance and quality of a flower to other bee workers. But what does this dance actually look like?
There is more to our memory than you might think. In fact, we have three types of memory. Just how these memory systems work, and work together is the subject of this episode. We also learn that there are sometimes errors in our memory. Take a few minutes to learn how we remember things and even…
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…
Mysterious World of Dr. Biology
Science is full of mysteries and unknowns waiting for you to discover. Beyond their usual research, there have been some unusual things happening in Dr. Biology's laboratory and they need your…
Tropical Rainforest Biome
Read Revealing the Rainforest and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!
Pollen Gallery (Pollen up-close)
Pollen comes in many shapes and sizes. These are just a few of the thousands of examples.
Ant Gallery (Get up-close to ants)
Now is the time to check out these amazing animals from the safety of your own computer.
Bone Zoom Gallery (Up-close Inside Bones)
Take a look at the microscopic world of bone in our virtual bone histology lab. Just pick a microscope slide from below and click on it to view under the virtual microscope.
Making Life Crystal Clear
Much like a mechanical watch, living things only work when all the gears work together. Some of the tiniest of gears are proteins. Learning about the shape and size of these proteins is the job…
Wordsearch | Crossword
I Spy an Ecosystem
We hear the word ecosystems in the news and at school but just what are ecosystems? It turns out there are lots of ecosystems. You might even learn you have some inside you! Also in:…
Wordsearch | Crossword
Ant Farm
Farming ants might sound like a crazy thing to do unless you might like to eat chocolate covered ants. It turns out we can learn a lot from ants and the best way is to build your own ant farm.…
Wordsearch | Crossword
An Invisible Watery World
When you visit a pond or the beach, what kinds of living things do you see in the water? Depending on the environment, you might find fish, frogs, crabs, insects, seaweed, or lily pads. Don’t…
Wordsearch | Crossword