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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Will tiger farming drive up demand for wild tigers and lead to them being hunted to extinction?

I'm watching a documentary on National Geographic on a case where they were tracking down a gang trading in tigers in Thailand. It was claimed that tiger farms, who has the purpose of breeding tigers for trade drive up demand and further hurt the…
Kit Sunde
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Do homemade pregnancy tests with sugar work?

There are a lot of claims on the internet (like this one) that it is possible to test for pregnancy by just putting sugar in a glass and urinating on it. The hormones in the urine supposedly cause the sugar to clump. There are endless variations on…
Turion
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Are our gut microbes responsible for 50-90% of our behaviour-regulating neuro-transmittors?

I have always concidered this channel serious, but they are making very bold claims. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Ftj5E90tY 50% of our dopamine and 90% of our serotonin is created by microbes in our guts. Is this true and could someone put…
Kristoffer Nolgren
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Is biochemical transmutations of elements possible?

According to a recent press conference Russian scientists have made a breakthrough so astounding it could change the universe as we know it in fundamental ways. The essence of this discovery and the technology is that, we have developed an…
Andy Gee
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Did Russian scientists manage to remove black skin from a man?

I noticed a clickbait article around facebook; A Russian Laboratory Has Invented A Way To Remove The Black Skin Layer Of Black People . Evidently these things have to be taken with a massive ammount of NaCl on the side, but the images depicted do…
Oak
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Do people's backs arch when receiving an electric shock?

PathologyExpert.com says of bodies that have been electrocuted: May arch back and neck backwards. Many times in movies and TV shows, actors arch their backs when exposed to electricity. Is this accurate?
John Tippin
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What is 'Dharan(Navel Displacement)' in Scientific terms?

In India 'Dharan' is supposed to be a kind of sprain which causes the Navel to get displaced. But as far as I know in modern science there is nothing like navel displacement. What actually Dharan is, is that normally when we do some hard work in…
user31782
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Is the Pintubi-1 skull representative of a modern Aboriginal?

The following image shows two skulls - the one on the left is known as Pintubi-1. The one on the right is a modern Caucasian. It is claimed by many people and sites to be representative of the modern aboriginal people [1][2][3]. The skull features…
Jonathon
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Could the 2001 anthrax letter attacks been connected to the disclosure of Project Jefferson?

Project Jefferson was designed to reproduce a strain of genetically-modified anthrax isolated by Russian scientists during the 1990s. It was disclosed (together with Project Bacchus, Project Clear Vision) in a September 4, 2001 article in The New…
asmaier
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Do humans normally pass gas 6 to 21 times per day?

10 Fascinating Facts About Farting People Pass Gas About 14 Times Per Day Fart, Burp, and Embrace Gas! Catapulting gaseous elements out of your orifices 13 to 21 times a day is average. Farting and burping even 30 times a day is, unfortunately…
user275517
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Does "Garbage Enzyme cleaner" contain enzymes?

There are many recipes which call for using fruit peel anaerobic fermentation process to make a concentrated enzyme cleaner solution. So the question arises that does this recipe really have those cleaning enzymes apart from the usual alcohol and…
skept101
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Does stress make you age faster, biologically?

Excess cortisol can damage the hippocampus, and we also know that stress can reduce the length of telomeres, which can lead to a shortened lifespan. But does stress accelerate aging in other ways too, like accelerate skin wrinkling?
InquilineKea
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Are the origins of Rh- blood unexplained by science?

Researcher Daniel Wilks claims: Blood type O is a universal blood type. Blood types are further broken down into two groups, negative and positive. This is called the RH factor. The RH factor is the Rhesus (rhesus as in monkey) blood factor. The…
user17193
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Are green potatoes unhealthy to eat?

I have been told that green (unripe) potatoes are poisonous and that this is "common knowledge". I doubt there are any chemical properties in these potatoes that could cause any harm. AFAIK, potatoes are only a tuber that grows over time, gaining…
Trylks
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Can pumpkin/sunflower/flax/sesame/other seeds regulate hormones?

My wife has started using a technique using various seeds through various times to regulate hormone balance. Does this have any merit? Here's an example of using seeds as a supplement to regulate hormones: Rotating of seeds is a valuable way of…
Dylan Berry
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