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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.
Melissa Wilson Sayres never expected that her love for both math and biology would lead her to studying genetics and sex chromosomes. But the newest surprise in her work comes from finding out about some very colorful monsters.
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!
When was the last time you folded a piece of paper to make a fun shape? Maybe you made a paper plane or tried origami to make a swan. Believe it or not, the building blocks inside your body also need to fold into the right shapes to work properly. In this activity, you can build your…
What might look like a lifeless world is actually filled with life and history. You just need to know where to look. Take a tour with two park rangers to get the inside story of South Mountain Park.
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…
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…
It is surprising how much of the land on Earth is what scientists call drylands. You might think that these areas are not crucial to life on the planet, but in fact, they are. They are also some of the most challenging places to do research. Part of the challenge is what we see above ground is only…
Imagine a day at work where your clients range from tiny reptiles to massive elephants, each with their own unique health needs. That's a regular day for our guest in today's episode, Dr. Gary West, the Senior Vice President of Animal Health and Living Collections at the Arizona…
Venom!
The shape of a molecule is very important. It’s what makes it possible for proteins to interact with other parts of the cell. In…
Venom!
The shape of a molecule is very important. It’s what makes it possible for proteins to interact with other parts of the cell. In…
Seeing DNA
Every living thing uses DNA as the instructions for life. But how can we be sure that something so small is actually there at all? Here is one experiment that you can do at home or school that…
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.
Plankton Zoom Gallery (Plankton up-close)
Plankton 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.
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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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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Why Are English Sailors Called Limeys?
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…
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Not So Scary Scorpions
Scorpions are often misunderstood. Many people say that scorpions are so aggressive they will sting themselves to death, but this is not a natural behavior of scorpions in the wild. Also in:…
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