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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.
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?
Cooperation is something that humans and animals are known to do. It turns out that the 30 trillion cells in our body also need to cooperate. Like some humans, there are cells that are cheaters when it comes to cooperation. They do not do their share of the work and cause a lot of other problems.…
Dr. Biology is out of the studio again and this time with his shoes off and inside the tiny, but powerful submarine named Alvin. He’s there to talk with the chief pilot of Alvin, Bruce Strickrott, about what it is like to explore the deep ocean. Listen in as we explore the living…
When you visit a pond or the beach, what kinds of living things do you see in the water? Don’t let your eyes fool you… there’s a hidden world in water full of creatures too small to be seen!
What happens when you mix part Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson with biology? You get an adventure that has filled many lifetimes (bird lifetimes). Dr. Biology had the opportunity to sit down with Peter and Rosemary Grant to talk about the more than 30 years…
An interview with arachnologist Norman Platnick. Learn about the animal that has become famous through his Marvel Comics and movie action hero.
There are many types of relationships that exist in the living world. This episode dives into one special relationship that an insect has with some tiny microbes. It is a life and death story that microbiologist John McCutcheon has been exploring. Dr. Biology gets the…
This animal lives in almost every part of the world and kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. What might surprise you is that you certainly have had a close encounter with the world’s most dangerous creature. Dr. Biology catches up with evolutionary biologist …
Venom!
Play the Venom! GameThe shape of a molecule is very important. It’s what makes it possible for proteins to interact with other parts of the cell. In this…
Cell Parts Game
Explore the Cell Viewer Game Cells are the basic building blocks of life, but what all do cells hold? You can now look inside of cells to learn more…
Doctor Know
Play Doctor KnowPlay doctor in the 21st century! Practice modern medicine by examining all dimensions of the body, from organs to molecules, as an…
Tiger Beetle Zoom Gallery (Up-close with tiger beetles)
Some of the fastest animals on Earth are below. That’s right, if these tiny insects were as large as a horse they would be running 200 miles an hour.
Ant Gallery (Get up-close to ants)
Now is the time to check out these amazing animals from the safety of your own computer.
Pollen Gallery (Pollen up-close)
Pollen comes in many shapes and sizes. These are just a few of the thousands of examples.
Migrating Monarchs
Thousands of orange and black shapes flutter through the trees. Welcome to one of the few wintering homes of the monarch butterfly. Also in: Español…
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Time Traveling Plants
Every year billions of babies are dried and buried, not to be unburied for weeks, months, years or even decades. Don't worry, these are not babies like your little brother or sister, these are…
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Making the List
By the time the first endangered species list was made, many species had already gone extinct. Some species, like whooping cranes, were almost extinct at that time. But the US…
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Mite Mighty Foe to 'Killer' Bees in State
Africanized "killer" bees have fallen prey to a deadly predator of their own- parasitic mites whose infestation has dropped their wild colony numbers by as much as 70 percent statewide.
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