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Look Who’s Talking
Humans have the ability to make language, although too many choose not to use it well. Our speech involves anatomy, genes, and our higher brain functions that allow us to attach meaning to words and...
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How Fast Is Fast
The cheetah is one quick cat, but it often confused with the leopard. Here is a guide. The cheetah has single black spots, while the leopard has rosettes - dark spots or circles with light fur in the...
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Leaves Suck!
We have talked about the reactions of photosynthesis before. Basically, the plant uses the energy of the sun to fix carbon (change it from gas to solid) by adding water to it chemically. Then it splits...
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Lions And Tigers and Ligers, Oh My!
A full grown liger is a biiggg cat! A male lion and a female tiger get to know each well, and their love child is huge. It doesn’t happen in the wild because the ranges of lions and tigers don’t...
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I’ll Fly Home—Or Not
The snowy owl is sedentary, meaning it does not migrate. The males are almost perfectly white, while the females and juveniles can have black barring. They sit, look, and listen for their prey, which...
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Ivy League Climber
Wrigley Field was originally called Weeghman Park, after a local lunchroom owner. The first team to call the park home was the Chicago Whales - strange name for a city on a freshwater lake. The ivy on...
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Lucky For Me, I’m Diseased
Biology Concepts – disease, vaccination, single nucleotide polymorphismsJill Bolte Taylor is an Indiana University neuroscience professor who suffered a massive stroke. She recognized what was...
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Your Body Has A Photographic Memory
Biology Concepts – innate immunity, acquired immunity, memory response, influenzaYour body is exposed to tens of thousands of foreign molecules every day. Some can do you harm, some can’t. Your immune...
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Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!
Biology concepts – fever, infectious disease, sexually transmitted disease, innate immune systemWould you be willing to be a human guinea pig, to see if one disease might stop another? The term “human...
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Viva La Evolution
Biology concepts – evolution, reproductive advantage, natural selection, co-dominance, X-linked genesLast week we learned how less aggressive strains of malaria were used to treat neurosyphilis and how...
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Ironing Out The Black Death
Biology concepts – iron, genetic disease, infectious disease, immune evasionIt is strange to think of people as rusting, but there are days when I get up and swear that my joints have frozen – my age...
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Don’t Be So Sensitive!
Biology Concepts – immune hypersensitivity, allergy, autoimmune diseaseStone Mountain in Georgia is one big hunk of granite. There is a bas-relief carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and...
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The Dirt On Staying Healthy
Biology concepts - hygiene hypothesis, immune regulation, bacterial drug resistance Christian Slater starred in a 2008 American TV series called, “My Own Worst Enemy.” Slater was a secret agent with a...
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Immune To Evolution
Biology concepts – innate immunity, adaptive immunity, defense mechanisms, endotoxinThe Jardin des Tuileries is the setting for the final scene of “The Happening.“ Located in Paris between the Louvre...
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Tricky Little Buggers
Biology concepts – immune defense, antibiotic resistance Naim Süleymanoğlu is better known as Pocket Hercules (4' 10"). He was born in Bulgaria, but is of Turkish descent. He competed and retired...
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Antibiotics Are Going Viral
Biology concepts – bacterial immunity, bacteriophage, antibioticsThere are recognized characteristics that all living organisms share. However, they are not black and white; take a look at these...
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Why Can’t We Just Go With the Flow? – The High Cost of Heating
Biology concepts – endothermy, ectothermy, poikilothermy, thermoregulationSo you are lying in bed, cold and hungry, contemplating living like a monk just so you can have more time to live like a monk...
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Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Just My Philodendron?
Biology concepts – thermoregulation, pollination, tropisms, flower structure, plant communicationIn many ways, plants are “smarter” than people (forgive the anthropomorphism). We can change our...
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The Perils of Plant Monogamy
Biology concepts – pollination, single pollinator, co-evolution, co-divergenceWhat’s bugging her, it’s supposed to be a party!Imagine the best party of the year – it’s cold outside, but hot inside. The...
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Take Off Your Coat And Stay Awhile
Biology concepts – thermoregulation, ectothermy, endothermy, genetic mutation Let me introduce you to the most wondrous animal on the surface of the Earth, or under the surface of the Earth – the...
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