Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [biology]

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Use this tag for general biology questions, but also use more specific life science tags to accompany this one if applicable.

Biology

Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines. Among the most important topics are five unifying principles that can be said to be the fundamental axioms of modern biology:

  1. Cells are the basic unit of life
  2. New species and inherited traits are the product of evolution
  3. Genes are the basic unit of heredity
  4. An organism regulates its internal environment to maintain a stable and constant condition
  5. Living organisms consume and transform energy.

Disciplines

Subdisciplines of biology are recognized on the basis of the scale at which organisms are studied and the methods used to study them: biochemistry examines the rudimentary chemistry of life; molecular biology studies the complex interactions of systems of biological molecules; cellular biology examines the basic building block of all life, the cell; physiology examines the physical and chemical functions of the tissues, organs, and organ systems of an organism; and ecology examines how various organisms interact and associate with their environment.

A more comprehensive list is the following:

  • Anatomy
  • Arachnology
  • Astrobiology
  • Botany
  • Biochemistry
  • Biogeography
  • Bioinformatics
  • Biophysics
  • Cell biology
  • Cytology
  • Dendrology
  • Developmental biology
  • Ecology
  • Entomology
  • Ethology
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Embryology
  • Genetics / Genomics
  • Herpetology
  • Histology
  • Human biology / Anthropology / Primatology
  • Ichthyology
  • Limnology
  • Malacology
  • Mammalogy
  • Marine biology
  • Microbiology / Bacteriology
  • Molecular biology
  • Mycology / Lichenology
  • Nematology
  • Neurobiology / Neuroscience
  • Ornithology
  • Parasitology
  • Palaeontology
  • Phycology
  • Phylogenetics
  • Physiology
  • Plant pathology
  • Taxonomy
  • Virology
  • Zoology
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Do cats always land on their feet?

Assuming a fall from a survivable height, will a cat always land on its feet? Has this been studied? Is there real data to back it up?
Monkey Tuesday
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Do victims of rape have biological defenses that prevent pregnancy?

Pro life Rep. Todd Akin, who was running for Senate in Missouri, said: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Needless to say, this claim is quite controversial. Is there any truth to it?
samthebrand
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Is this picture showing an eagle flying upside-down genuine?

I found this picture on Facebook: It definitely doesn't come from a particularly credible source (I F***ing Love Science), but I'm curious if that picture is genuine. My mother claims that the legs, wings and head appear "unnaturally twisted"…
ApproachingDarknessFish
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Is eating rice harmful to birds?

There is an old custom to throw rice at the wedding couple when they leave the church after the ceremony. But now I have heard from several people that you should not throw rice because birds will eat the rice and then explode when it expands in…
Broken Orange
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Are 30% of human embryos "spontaneously aborted"?

From Richard Dawkins on Feb 1, 2019 How could I have failed to predict it? My tweet of the beautiful newt embryology film is already triggering the abortion nuts. Did you know, at least 30% of human embryos are spontaneously aborted? Does that make…
Evan Carroll
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Do Ostriches bury their heads in the sand

I have always believed that Ostriches when frightened bury their heads in the sand. Upon closer re-examination of this belief, I came to the following conclusions: Ostriches typically live in arid areas. Arid areas have dry surfaces. Dry surfaces…
funkymushroom
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Does milk make your bones stronger?

It's a common notion that milk makes bones stronger; milk contains calcium and bones contain calcium. But obviously it's not the case that calcium ingested is immediately deposited into bones. In fact, there seem to be no studies suggesting this at…
Dapianoman
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Were people shorter in the middle ages?

In many castles or museums you'll find medieval armor, belonging to a knight. Those are often very small compared to the average human nowadays. I've heard this explained multiple times as being due to the general smaller size of people in the…
Mad Scientist
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Do drop bears exist?

A drop bear is a carnivorous bear that is known well for hanging in the tops of trees, and dropping down on potential prey to attack, hence the name. They eat medium-large mammals, often times many times larger than itself. While there is some…
tuskiomi
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Does swatting/killing a bee cause the hive to attack?

I used to hear this all the time when I was growing up. Just ignore bees, don't swat at or try to kill them, because if they die, they'll send a "signal" to the hive that will attract dozens more. After forgetting about it for many years, I…
Aaronaught
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Does dyeing elephant tusks help discourage poachers?

Recently, I've often seen this image claiming that some people are dying elephant tusks to prevent individuals from hunting them. Has this actually been done? Is it common? Initially, this seemed a fair idea. However, implementing a staining…
Lonidard
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Is there any explanation for a near-death experience?

One idea I used to hear a lot about was that when people are near-death and saved by medical science that they sometimes see "a light at the end of a tunnel" in a vision. Today I read about an article about a new best-seller from an ambitious…
Mark Rogers
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Is phosphine evidence of life on Venus?

This news article came out about evidence tied to the possibility of life on Venus. The crux of the evidence is the detection of phosphine. The claim is that we only know of two ways to make this compound. Artificially with chemistry, or by…
Larian LeQuella
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Do teenagers fall asleep and rise up later than kids or adults for biological reasons?

In a TED talk "Why school should start later for teens", Wendy Toxel made an assertion that teenagers naturally fall asleep and rise up a couple of hours later than children OR adults (related to Melatonin production time). I found one BBC article…
user5341
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Do human eyes grow after birth?

My friend just assured me that when a person is born, their eyes are at the size they will be for the rest of their life, or, that they do not grow. A Google for this question shows that it has been asked many times, and has varying answers. Do…
SpellingD
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