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A Salamander Superhero?
Biology Concepts – primary and secondary toxin, passive and active defense, venom, poison, toxin salamander, newtWolverine is a comic book character, as well as a recurring movie character played by...
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Sneaky Snakes: Biters, Boobytraps, and Spit
Biology concepts – venom, toxin, poison, fangs, evolution, toxicofera hypothesisThe California Red Sided Garter Snake is one beautiful reptile. It has round pupils, so it might be non-venomous, but it...
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It’s An All Or None Proposition
Biology concepts – toxin, venom, cnidarians, kleptocnidaeIn our discussions of venoms and toxins we have looked at many groups (phylums) of animals. In each phylum we have identified at least one...
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A Death Apple A Day Keeps…..
Biology concepts – toxin, poison, urushiol, oleander, hapten, allergic contact dermatitis A cloudburst threatens to ruin your summer hike. You dart under a tree for protection from the rain and break...
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Venomous Plants – A Hairy Situation
Biology concepts – venom, toxin, poison, nettle, urticating hairs, trichomes, defense behavior The cobalt blue tarantula is a beautiful old world tarantula, but not very cleverly named. They are...
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It’s An Airtight Case
Biology concepts – respiration, aerobe, anaerobe, CAM plants, plastron respiration, cutaneous respiration Question of the Day – what living thing can hold its breath the longest?It may seem like an...
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Biodiversity Counts!
Biology concepts – biodiversity, kingdoms of life, animalia, plantae, fungi, protist, archaea, bacteria, extant, extinctIt seems that contests counting things in jars always involve food. M&Ms,...
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I Know Why She Swallowed The Fly
Biology concepts – carnivorous plants, minerals in biology, symbiosis, cryptids, The Thing From Another Planet was a 1951 B-horror movie. Arctic researchers find a space ship in the ice and thaw out...
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Gas, Knuckles, And The Little Blue Pill
Biology concepts – dissolved gas, cavitation, arthritis, decompression sickness, ebulism, gas embolismIt is certainly true that some folks love cracking their knuckles. The little research that has...
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The Living Earth – Rocks and All
Biology concepts – Gaia Hypothesis, photosynthesis, biogeology, plate tectonics, biological weathering, oxygen crisisThe physical form of Earth definitely influences how life evolves on Earth. You...
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A Big Plant In A Little Package
Biology concepts – angiosperm, utricle, fruit, flower, phytoremediation, monoecious, dioecious, stalk, stamen, pistil, acaulescentEucalyptus regnans is the tallest flowering plant in the world. It...
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The Roots Of Our Animal Family Tree
Biology concepts – porifera, last common ancestor, placozoa, cladogram, lower metazoan, bilaterians Bonobo apes (Pan paniscus) are very closely related to chimpanzees. They have longer legs than common...
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The Colors of Alien Plants
Biology concepts – photosynthesis, chlorophyll, pigmentation, astrobiology, exoplanet, dormancyThe King Crimson Norway Maple in our front yard is at least 50 ft. tall. It isn’t a rare tree, but I like...
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Sweet Suffering
Biology concepts – nociception, cranial nerve, headache, referred pain, vasodilation, mechanoreceptorNancy Johnson, a Philadelphia housewife, received a patent for the hand crank ice cream freezer in...
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Grin and Water Bear It
Biology concepts – tardigrade, cryptobiosis, anhydrobiosis, eutely, hyperplasia, hypertrophy, dry vaccine, dormancyThe original toughman contests were supposed to show us the toughest of the general...
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A Linnaeus For The Biomes
Biology concepts – ecosystem, biome, naming systems, climate, chaparral, taiga, pyrophyte Clint Eastwood was already a minor film star when he made the spaghetti westerns for director Sergio Leone. It...
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Mildew Broke The Mold
Biology Concepts – mold, fungus, powdery mildew, downy mildew, nosocomial infection, decomposer, parasiteBill Cosby is one of the five funniest men ever. The other four, in no particular order, are of...
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Tough As Nails
Biology concepts – keratin, crystalline form, cornification, regeneration, stem cellsHorns are made from keratin, just as are nails, hooves, and hair. Believe it or not, this is a real picture of a...
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Go Prune the Grass?
Biology concepts – meristem, monocot, dicot, herbaceous, arborescent, xylem, phloemKnots can form in trees for different reasons. When you prune a limb back and a callus grows over it in a few years,...
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How Prokaryotes Shape Up
Biology concepts – morphology, eubacteria, coccus, rod, bacillus, spirilla, spirochete, prosthecae, halotolerant,The standard menu of prokaryotic shapes may seem boring, but they really perform...
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