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

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When you think of the Arctic, you might picture mostly empty ice. But the Arctic ecosystem is home to many organisms, from microscopic bacteria to large animals like whales and polar bears. Much of this life in the Arctic depends on tiny organisms called plankton which make up the base of the…

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…
There is an endless march going on in the rainforest, as tiny farmers collect food to bring back to their fungus. Join us in the rainforests of Panama as we take a closer look at the life of the leafcutter ant.
Most girls around the world have periods, but how and why do periods happen? Periods are part of the menstrual cycle, which is an essential part of the female reproductive system.
It's a colorful world out there and Dr. Biology checks into the reason we see color and how animals use color. Listen in as Dr. Biology talks with Kevin McGraw animal behavior biologist in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

You are now entering another dimension. A dimension of insects determined to be crowned the next ugly bug champion.

Professor Susanne Neuer from the ASU School of Life Sciences talks about her research and how a person in the southwest desert can be studying deserts in the oceans. Yes, we said deserts in the ocean. Listen in to find out why.

And the winner of the 2009 Ugly Bug Contest is...

scorpion game

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…
a bat in the moon light

Bats

Read Bats and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

some berries coming out of a medicine bottle

Medicinal Plants

Read Nature's Medicine and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

a drawing of a list

Endangered Species

Read Making the List and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

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.

Ant Gallery (Get up-close to ants)

Now is the time to check out these amazing animals from the safety of your own computer.

Feather Zoom Gallery (Feathers up-close)

There is nothing like seeing a feather up close.

Pollen Gallery (Pollen up-close)

Pollen comes in many shapes and sizes. These are just a few of the thousands of examples.

Ants in nest

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.…

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Ants carrying puzzle pieces

Collecting Ants

There are several different ways to get ants for an ant farm, depending on when you would like to start the farm and how long you would like for your ant farm to last.

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A classroom Globe

Where In The World Is Kazakhstan?

Where in the world is Kazakhstan (Ka-zakh-ston)? This may be a puzzling question to some, but no longer. This story we will help put the pieces together.

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Cloning Sheep

Cloning Ewe

What is cloning and do we have clones living among us today? The answers might surprise you or maybe we should say ewe.

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