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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Imagine you are on a sailing ship in 1747. You left England only a couple of months ago and you felt fine. Now you are so tired you can barely walk. Dr. Lind wants to discover what is causing you so much pain that you can't work.

An interview with biophysicistGerry McDermott of the National Center for X-ray Tomography. Dr. Biology tours the synchrotron that is also called the giant monster. Dr. Biology learns how the football sized facility is used to power a new kind of microscope.

Nine months – that’s about the amount of time that healthy babies develop before they are born. But what if that nine months is a bit more flexible, and can change in response to the environment?

In an attempt to prevent future outbreaks of the Ebola virus, scientists are looking to the past.
What animal runs so fast that it temporarily goes blind? It turns out that these tiny insects are fast, but don't have enough brain power to keep up with their speed. Learn more about these tiny tigers in this video.
Dr. Biology learns how birds might have developed their ability to fly from ornithologist Ken Dial. The two talk about the evolution of bird flight and some of the other cool things birds can do - like are penguins really flying birds?

What is life and how do biologists decide if something is living or non-living? Dr. Biology visits with physicist Paul Davies and microbiologist Ferran Garcia-Pichel. They talk about life, extreme life forms (extremophiles), and the possibility of life on other…

Dr. Biology interviews research scientist Kate Ihle at Barro Colorado Island in Panama. BCI is part of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Different tools that biologists use

Whats a biologist?

Read What's a Biologist? and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

What's Lurking in Lunch?

A game about discovering the cause of a foodborne illness outbreak.

COVID-19 game simulation

COVID SIM Pandemic Simulation

Explore COVID SIM

In the COVID-19 pandemic, how much does wearing masks and distancing matter? How important is it to get vaccinated? You can…

bee dance

Bee Waggle Dance Game

Play the Bee Dance Game

Did you know that honey bee workers tell their sisters where to find the best flowers and nectar with a dance? It is called…

Monster game

Monster Maker

Play Monster Maker

Build your own monster by decoding the monster genome in Monster Maker, a DNA game. It is not very different from what…

Keys to the Ocean Taxonomy Game

Keys to the Ocean Game

Play the Keys to the Ocean Game

Our world is full of different plants, animals, bacteria, and other life. But how do we know which species is…