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 roaches die (naturally) on their backs?

First, a major qualifier here; by naturally, I mean not forced to die on its "stomach" (like by being stepped on). Secondly, I live in the U.S., so maybe this applies to only American roaches. Literally every time I remember having seen a dead roach…
Just Some Old Man
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Does everybody have almost same brain-waves while they're thinking about the same thing?

Do people have almost same brain-waves (Waves that captured by EEG) while they are thinking the same thing (For example thinking about an Apple)? To put it another way, are there patterns in measured brain activity that can reveal what someone is…
Seyed Hamed Shams
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Are oranges actually green?

On an episode of Qi there was a 'fact' that claimed oranges aren't actually orange they are green and they lose their green colour in transport and become orange. Now I was indeed skeptical about this, surely they are just green when they are…
EagerMike
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When and how does the consumption of fluoride cause health problems?

I have heard about orally consuming fluoride and rinsing with a solution containing fluoride to help prevent cavities, but I've also heard some claims that fluoride is bad for peoples' health. What health concerns are there and does it matter how…
Celeritas
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Does electrolyzed reduced water (ERW) extend the lifespan of animals (compared to regular water)?

Among the research interests of Dr. Pablo Campra (of recent graphite-in-Covid-vaccines claim) is something called electrolyzed reduced water (ERW). One of the (Asian) groups studying this presents is as Electrolyzed reduced water (ERW) is a…
Fizz
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Has the Javan devil leaf nettle (urtica urentissima) been shown to cause any deaths?

According to Sir Stephen Tallents, writing in The Spectator, 12 March 1943: The sting of a certain Java nettle, for example, may last for a year and is reputed even to cause death. Mrs. M. Grieve, writing on Botanical.com repeats the claim but…
gerrit
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Is climate change causing jellyfish to wash up on the beach?

The following article Thousands of Venomous Portuguese Man O’ Wars Wash Ashore in Australia: ‘It Was the Stuff Of Nightmares’ details an event where a large number of a jellyfish creatures washed up on a beach in Australia. Mostly, the article is…
user11643
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Smell of a Body

There's many fictional and nonfictional stories about passerby detecting dead bodies inside buildings and such by an "overwhelming stench of decay" or something equivalent, usually even through thick walls or from separate houses. But the total mass…
quack_inc4
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Does radiation sensitivity decrease with age?

Just after 3:23 in this TED Radio Hour segment, featured guest Holly Morris makes the claim that "the older you are, the less detrimental the effects of radiation is." The context is in why explaining older people were allowed to return to their…
WBT
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Will plant-life on Earth end due to too little CO2?

According to a 2013 Daily Mail article : greater evaporation and chemical reactions with rainwater will take away more and more carbon dioxide. In less than a billion years, its levels will be too low for photosynthesising plants to survive, say…
DavePhD
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Do pathogens have a negative ORP and beneficial bacteria a positive?

As claimed on page 33 of this MMS book: All pathogens (poison producers) have a negative ORP. All beneficial bacteria have a positive ORP. In other words: The beneficial bacteria are positively charged. Human tissue cells also have a weak…
kenorb
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Would a fingerprint scanner still work as you age

Fingerprint scanners are known to record a portion of your finger in order to be accessed. What would happen if you age? Your hands grow and eventually even get wrinkles on your fingers. Would a fingerprint sensor still work? For Example: A toddler…
The Amazing Zill
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Do overpopulated rats have extremely high infant mortality rates caused by competition and stress?

Dr John B. Calhoun conducted a series of experiments in the 1960's on the effect of over-population on Norway rats. Wikipedia explains: The conclusions drawn from this experiment were that when all available space is taken and all social roles…
Alexei Averchenko
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Does copper react differently with different people?

One of my friends and I have developed a habit of drinking water from only copper vessels as I have read several benefits of drinking from that. But I observed one strange phenomenon during past few months. Even if both of us wash our vessels on the…
Point Networks
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Does injecting Bacillus F improve one's health?

In a Siberian times report, a Russian scientist Anatoli Brouchkov claims that 3.5 million year old bacteria Bacillus F improves longevity and fertility of fruit flies and mice stimulated the growth and also strengthened the immune system in…
asmaier
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