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
472 questions
25
votes
1 answer

Do you need to twist a tick out counter-clockwise?

I was told many times when I was little that if you don't twist ticks counter-clockwise and instead just jerk them out, the head goes into your bloodstream and can be dangerous. It wasn't until recently I realized that I have no support for that…
Kit Sunde
  • 18,636
  • 12
  • 93
  • 127
25
votes
1 answer

Can scientists create a life-form yet?

Evil Bible quotes a 2002 Science paper detailing the artificial synthesis of a virus from its DNA. When I was in school, I heard that the most humans can do is to create a bunch of amino acid. Which one is right?
user4951
25
votes
2 answers

Can people forget how to ride a bike?

I doubt that people never forget to ride a bicycle. If my grandfather, who hasn't ridden a bicycle in over 30 years, were to hop on one and start riding, I would be immensely surprised. Are there any sources that either confirm or deny that…
Peter Olson
  • 3,603
  • 2
  • 22
  • 23
25
votes
1 answer

Is pain lessened by swearing?

Earlier today, during one of my many home improvement projects ("experiments" may be a more appropriate term) I struck my thumb with a hammer. Without thinking, I released a reflexive string of profanity which quite possibly made my dog blush and…
Monkey Tuesday
  • 24,456
  • 19
  • 109
  • 136
25
votes
1 answer

Does "stripping the skin's oils" with soap or shampoo cause the skin to produce more oil than normal?

A dubious Wikipedia article makes this claim, which I've seen numerous times before, in various forms: Using shampoo every day removes sebum, the oil produced by the scalp. This causes the sebaceous glands to produce oil at a higher rate to…
endolith
  • 3,289
  • 5
  • 32
  • 38
25
votes
2 answers

Is the human menstrual cycle related to the lunar cycle?

I've heard that the female menstrual cycle follows a pattern of the lunar cycle, mostly as an evolutionary adaptation so that menstruation (and hence detectability by predators because of the smell of fresh blood) happens on the nights where humans…
Brian M. Hunt
  • 17,999
  • 13
  • 99
  • 176
25
votes
1 answer

Is this video of the Soviet Dog Revival Experiment real?

In this video a dog's head is brought back to life by artificially injecting blood and air. The dog's head reacted to sound and touch and used its tongue to taste. I am not skeptic about its possibility, but I am skeptic if it was possible in 1940. …
smUsamaShah
  • 2,343
  • 4
  • 24
  • 32
25
votes
3 answers

Is yawning contagious across species?

The Mythbusters have "confirmed" the contagiousness of yawning between humans and this study concludes it may be part of a neural network involved in empathy. This hypothesis is supported by another study that found that children under the age…
Oliver_C
  • 47,851
  • 18
  • 213
  • 208
25
votes
1 answer

Does Alexandria's Genesis exist?

Supposedly, it's a mutation that gives you purple eyes at puberty, no hair, and for women, fertility without menstruations. Source
Dante
  • 468
  • 1
  • 6
  • 13
24
votes
2 answers

Did hundreds of birds die in a park the Netherlands? What caused it?

About a week ago at The Hague, many birds died spontaneously, falling dead in a park. You likely haven’t heard a lot about this because it seems keeping it quiet was the plan all along. However, when about 150 more suddenly died- bringing the…
Saturnix
  • 455
  • 4
  • 9
24
votes
3 answers

Is reviving an extinct species possible?

With all the science of genetics, and genetic engineering, would reviving an extinct species possible? Yes, akin the story of "Jurassic Park". Would it be possible now, with the science we have today?
CMR
  • 1,001
  • 6
  • 14
24
votes
1 answer

Is fasting healthy?

My friend said that if you fast for say two weeks or thirty days, it will really improve the health of your body. He said it includes the flushing out the toxins in your fat of the body, improving the senses, increasing immune system, etc. First, I…
Thursagen
  • 6,175
  • 3
  • 39
  • 52
24
votes
2 answers

Can dogs smell fear?

Ever since childhood I've been told that if you encounter an unfamiliar dog, you should not show fear, because if you do, the dog is more likely to become aggressive. I have been told that this is because "dogs can smell fear" I'm sure there are…
Monkey Tuesday
  • 24,456
  • 19
  • 109
  • 136
24
votes
1 answer

Is this Indonesian man, Mbah Gotho, 145 years old, as he claims?

Apparently a person in Indonesia is claiming he is 145 years old. The world’s oldest man has been named as Indonesian Mbah Gotho, who is 145 years old, with documentation that says he was born in 1870. What little I know of biology and…
JasonR
  • 9,247
  • 5
  • 51
  • 65
24
votes
1 answer

Jump from building: die from shock induced heart failure before hitting the ground?

In my childhood days there was this proposition/myth that claimed there is a big chance that you'd die from a shock induced heart failure (hart attack/cardiac arrest) before hitting the ground, when jumping off a building (for suicide or for…
Decent Dabbler
  • 1,454
  • 2
  • 14
  • 25
1 2 3
…
31 32