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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Has any cure come from embryonic stem cells?

The claim is made here that none have. Of the 80 treatments and cures which have come about from stem cells, all have come from adult stem cells – not embryonic ones.
Russell Steen
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Is there a point of no return when starving to death?

I was looking at this image on Wikipedia of two children during the Russian famine of 1921-1922. The caption reads (my translation): Famine in Russia. III. The two stages of hunger: the skeletal limbs, the swollen belly (by grass, straw, tree…
Pertinax
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Can kangaroos walk backwards?

Source From Exploring Nature: They cannot jump backward because of their thick, muscular tail. Their long feet and heavy tail also make walking impossible, forward or backward. The Australian 'Coat of Arms' features an Emu and a Kangaroo: …
Oliver_C
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Does taking birth control pills alter your preferences for a partner?

It has been reported (and repeated) several times that women who use the typical birth control pill (with both estrogen and progestin) show different preferences for men, depending on whether they are currently using the pill or not. See, for…
Mark Anderson
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Was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle responsible for the Piltdown Man hoax?

Was the genius behind Sherlock Holmes also behind one of the most infamous forgeries in history? source:roystoncartoons.com In what could be described in retrospect as basically a shallow grave near the village of Piltdown, Charles Dawson and…
Monkey Tuesday
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Is house dust mostly made up of human skin?

Fortean Times I first heard the claim that house dust is mostly made up of human skin on a TV show, when I was a kid (probably Cheers, where Cliff makes this comment at the beginning of a Season 9 episode), but even today I often hear this "fact"…
Oliver_C
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Do biological males who were castrated at birth and raised as females often behave like stereotypical men?

In "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", James Damore wrote (emphasis added on claim): On average, men and women biologically differ in many ways. These differences aren’t just socially constructed because: They’re universal across human…
Tim Schimandle
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Do hand dryers in public bathrooms spread bacteria?

A hand drier is a warm and humid environment that is surrounded by bacteria from all the bathroom users. It is claimed that this is one of the main causes for spreading bacteria/microbes (NCBI ref) Is this claim truly accurate, and should hot air…
shorea2
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Can "breatharians" live without food or water?

Much like the question here about reptilians hosting the news, I thought that there could not possibly be people who would make claims like this. However, some searching proved me wrong. While not particularly prevalent, there are more than a few…
Monkey Tuesday
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Does the oral contraceptive pill "age" a woman's cervix prematurely?

Well, I heard an interesting one tonight. My wife passed on that on a blog discussing contraceptive use, someone posted a link to a site stating that taking Ortho Tri Cyclen, an oral contraceptive, "ages" the cervix prematurely. The implication was…
Hendy
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Do cacti absorb harmful radiation emitted by computers?

It is a common belief that cacti absorb radiation; consequently, a lot of people put potted cacti by their computer as a safety means. Do cacti actually absorb radiation? Even if so, will a small cactus (or several of them) by one's computer make…
Armen Tsirunyan
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Does a typical human on a western diet have undigested protein stuck in their body from years of eating certain foods?

Last night I watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. The movie followed two unhealthy people who suffered from a chronic disease on their juice fasts and subsequent lifestyle changes. Their health improved dramatically, their disease was…
Sam I Am
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Did people long ago used to drink beer because water was dirty?

I've heard this dozens of times before. But from what I know beer doesn't have enough water in it to counteract the diuretic effects of its alcohol content, making this impossible. Which is true?
WakeDemons3
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Are some species of animals born pregnant?

I've heard of claims that aphids can be born pregnant, like tribbles in ''Star Trek''. However, doing a web search didn't provide very convincing evidence. The Straight Dope refers to being pregnant before birth as paedogenesis. The Wikipedia…
Andrew Grimm
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Did a NASA study show that arsenic-based bacteria are possible?

A while ago a NASA funded study claimed that they could get bacteria to incorporate arsenic into their DNA. Life forms based on different elements than life on earth have been speculated about in science fiction for a long time, the most prominent,…
Mad Scientist
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