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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Did a tree grow inside a man's lung after he inhaled a seed?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/world/fir-tree-in-lung-surgeon-stands-by-his-story-2009041623 The Russian surgeon who says he found a fir tree growing inside a patient’s lungs is standing by a claim that has been met with wide disbelief in the medical…
Willy150
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Has the US Air Force studied squid to improve aircraft camouflage?

The Hawaiian bobtail squid is known to have a close relationship with a particular species of bacteria that lives within the squid. The bacteria are naturally bioluminescent, which is hypothesized to benefit the squid through…
Barry Harrison
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Was the yellow fever virus a past standardized biological weapon in the US Army?

Dany Shoham writes in a 2012 paper [full text, paywalled]: The yellow fever virus – a past standardized BW in the US Army, then carried by infected Aedes mosquitoes as vectors – was thus genetically engineered in conjunction with IAV, resulting in…
Fizz
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Is there real scientific consensus linking bats to COVID-19?

I see a lot of articles in the media mentioning new bat species and adding references in the articles or the titles linking bats to coronavirus [The links in ref1 at the bottom are just some samples]. Although not all of them mention explicitly the…
FluidCode
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Does calcification of the pineal gland negatively affect normal bodily functions?

I received this link from an associate of mine. It smells like pseudo-scientific bull to me, but there are a LOT of claims made in the article that I can't really debunk all by myself. To quote from near the top of the online article: Studies show…
Scrambo
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Do Humidifiers Increase Risk of Respiratory Infections?

According to this report "Humidification should preferably use evaporative or steam humidifiers, as cool mist humidifiers can disseminate aerosols contaminated with allergens" Similarly, a NY Times article published in 1988 states…
S.O.S
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Does Vitamin K2 MK-4 have a half-life of about one hour?

Mercola writes MK-4 is a synthetic product, very similar to vitamin K1, and your body is capable of converting K1 into MK-4. However, MK-4 has a very short biological half-life of about one hour, making it a poor candidate as a dietary supplement.…
Christian
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Does eating chicken during pregnancy make your baby's penis small?

According to Eating chicken may lead to a smaller penis: to protect their sons’ normal development, pregnant women may be wise to avoid poultry Is any of this true?
theonlygusti
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Are there more trees in America today than there were during colonial times?

Yesterday, one of my Facebook friends posted an article defending trophy hunting of elephants in Africa. This led to a discussion about hunting reservations in the US, and ultimately to my friend asking rhetorically, Why do you think cows and…
Logan Clark
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Is the average temperature of a healthy human adult 98.6F/37C?

Everyone knows that... Human body temperature - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body_temperature In humans, the average internal temperature is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F), though it varies among individuals. However, no person always has…
user5341
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Can this Indian teenager resist 11kV electric shocks without dying?

Many online sources report on the Indian teenager Deepak Jangra (Daily Mail, Mirror) who claims to be able to resist 11kV electric shocks. They include images of him touching an exposed mains wire powering a lightbulb to his tongue, and also claimed…
March Ho
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Did cats evolve meowing in order to manipulate humans?

My girlfriend told me last night that cats evolved meowing specifically in order to mimic the sound of a baby's crying to get us to feed them and so forth. Considering the meme of throwing shoes at loud, stray cats in American cartoons, in many…
durron597
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Is there any correlation between temperature and illness?

How many times did you hear your mother tell you, "Put on a jacket or you're going to catch a cold!" or "Come in out of the rain before you catch cold!" It's also a fairly common trope in Jane Austen-esque type movies that someone will be out in the…
Scottie
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Did scientists warn of the possibility of a zombie apocalypse?

A image posted by 8fact: This pictured grabbed 11,085 shares and 34,942 likes so far on Facebook. I find it hard to believe.
George Chalhoub
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Is sleeping with your head pointed north dangerous?

According to the top-voted answer of this question: When we sleep in this position, iron from the whole body starts to congregate in our brain which can cause headache, Alzheimer’s Disease, Cognitive Decline, Parkinson disease and brain…
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