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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Does plucking/epilation impact hair growth?

I've recently encountered the idea that plucking an area of hair (say, with tweezers) causes the hair to grow back thicker/denser/stiffer etc. yet I remain skeptical. This concept is rampant with anecdotal evidence, mainly amongst those trying to…
eMansipater
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Has carbon dating indicated that live humans are 4000 years old?

A friend of mine told my wife that carbon dating is unreliable because it has been performed on live humans and indicated that the test subject(s) are 4000 years old. Is there any truth to this claim? I'm having a hard time finding anything about…
Big McLargeHuge
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Are males more likely to be LGBT than females (based on sex assigned at birth)?

According to ONS survey: More gay men in UK than gay women, gay men exceed lesbians as a proportion of the population, and On the Calculation of the Prevalence of Transsexualism suggests that there are more male-to-female transgender people than…
user20902
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Is an Instant Pot sufficient for "scientific sterilization"?

According to this promotional post by InstaPot, Who knew that Instant Pot can provide scientific-grade sterilization? (Actually, we did.) Swensen and her research team concluded that “store-bought pressure cookers can be an appropriate substitute…
Evan Carroll
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Is acid reflux ("heartburn") caused by having too little stomach acid?

According to a number of websites, "almost everything you have been told about heartburn, indigestion, and common stomach ailments are lies", and heartburn is actually caused by too little stomach acid. The truth about most stomach disorders is…
endolith
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Does rolled sod produce 40x as much oxygen as a pine forest?

From an advertisement for turf / rolled sod by a German company: 250 m² Rollrasen produzieren etwa so viel Sauerstoff wie 10.000 m² Kiefernwald oder etwa so viel, wie eine vierköpfige Familie zum atmen braucht.  translation: 250 m² rolled sod…
Daniel Jour
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Did a boy die after masturbating 42 times?

Some years ago, there were reports being over social networks and blogs that "a boy died after masturbating 42 times in a row". For example: M24 Digital: A 16-year-old boy died after masturbating 42 times without stopping in Rubiato town, in Goiás…
Ankit Sharma
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Beer goggles: Can alcohol make people look more attractive?

Image Source The Cambridge Online Dictionary: If you say that someone is wearing beer goggles, you mean that they have been drinking so much alcohol that they think someone is more sexually attractive than they really are. The Mythbusters tested…
Oliver_C
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Why do cats and dogs fight?

From our daily experience we know that most of the time cats and dogs are involved in fights rather than in expressions of affection. Is there an evolutionary basis(justification) for this? Why would two species of animals fight each other…
AIB
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Which is more effective at removing germs, washing with soap and water or using hand sanitizers?

I know this question is similar to the one posted about hand washing with either cold or warm water, but I hope it can stand on its own. If not, I'll delete. Hand Sanitizers Alcohol and water are the most common ingredients in commercially available…
Monkey Tuesday
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Do trees die of cursing in Solomon Islands?

From http://wingedwizard.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/solomon-island-tree-curse/ According to some reports in the Solomon Islands of the pacific the islanders practice a special form of curse magic. If a tree needs to be cut down and it is too big to…
user3459110
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Can one die of fear?

Is it scientifically possible for someone to die of fear? I'm sure someone can be scared enough to have a heart attack or something, but is it possible for the brain to shut down as a defense mechanism in times of intense fear? Also, alongside this…
n0pe
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Are yawns contagious?

I guess that this might be a little bit of an extension of the question "Is yawning contagious across species" that was earlier asked. But my question is, is yawning contagious at all? Is there any evidence that supports the idea that a person is…
user906
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Does one drop of nicotine kill a horse?

There is a popular aphorism in Russia, translated as "one drop of nicotine kills a horse": , which is widely used on the anti-tobacco posters etc. Can 0.05 ml of nicotine really kill a healthy 400-kg horse? What could be the origin of this phrase?
Quassnoi
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Can any fish climb trees?

I recently came across the following quote on the twitters, attributed to Albert Einstein: Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. I doubt that it's…
Andrew Grimm
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