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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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Life is Elemental
Biology concepts – elements, biomolecules, biochemistry, trace elements, selenocysteine, stop codonThe blue whale is the often 30 m (100 ft) long and can reach a mass of more than 175 tons (160,000...
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So Many From So Few
Biology concepts – protein, amino acids, non-standard amino acids, peptide bondSevere dietary protein deficiency leads to distinct symptoms, and if not resolved, death. Called kwashiorkor(Ghanan word...
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Three Lefts Make A Right
Biology concepts - chirality, homochiral, enantiomer, stereoisomer, racemic mixture, biofilm, antimicrobial peptide, protein, amino acidGeordi was the chief engineer on Start Trek; The Next Generation,...
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Sugars Speak In Code
Biology concepts – carbohydrates, monosaccharides, hexose, glycocode, starch, glycogen, carbohydrate linkage, bacterial persisters, fructolysisRefined sugar is produced from two main sources, sugar...
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It’s Not Just Our Tooth That’s Sweet
Biology concepts – homochirality, carbohydrates, chiral discrimination, glycoside, H antigenIt isn’t just biomolecules that show chirality. There is also chiromorphology, like snail shells that usually...
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RNA Takes First Place
Biology concepts – nucleic acids, DNA, RNA, central dogma of molecular biology, ribozyme, RNA world hypothesis The Library of Congress in Washington DC was designed as a showplace as well as a...
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DNA is As Easy As A, B, Z
Biology concepts – forms of DNA, history of DNA structure, triplex DNA, tetraplex DNA, protooncogene From left to right we have the main players in our little discussion of how science can be done...
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Is There Anything Fat Can’t Do?
Biology concepts – lipid, phospholipid, eicosanoid, sterol, unsaturation, omega fatty acids, essential fatty acids, fluid mosaic model, lipid droplets, myelination Last week we talked about fat, but...
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Snow Saves Lives
Biology concepts – subnivean zone, chionophiles, antifreeze proteins, UV vision, snow blindness, photokeratitis Rudolph the red nosed reindeer didn’t start as a song or even a Rankin and Bass stop...
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Twelve Days Of Christmas – Biology Style
Biology concepts – introduced species, cross breeding, courtship ritualsWe are finishing a long series stories on sleep and activity patterns, but I thought we might take a break and talk about the...
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It’s An Exercise Resolution
Biology concepts – exercise, stress, aging, mood, neurotransmitters, monoamines, endocannabinoids, endorphins, blood brain barrierExercise is a common New Year’s resolution. You want to test yourself...
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Exercise Puts Me To Sleep – You Too
Biology concepts – sleep induction, circadian cycle, narcolepsy, insomnia, anterior hypothalamus, neurotransmitters, cytokines, inflammationHarriet Tubman gained the respect of all after the Civil War,...
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Pump Up Your Brain
Biology concepts – learning, memory, attention, concentration, hippocampus, neurotransmitters, neurotrophins, executive function, processing speed, exerciseMany people exercise because of how it makes...
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A Taste Of Things To Come
Biology concepts – gustation, taste papilla, evolution, defenseThe miracle berry is the fruit of the Richadella dulcifica bush from West Africa. The plant also goes by the name Synsepalum dulcificum....
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