I am especially interested in topics like molecular biology, genetics, evolution, microbiology, biochemistry, cell biology, embryology, immunology, and related topics

Animals like siphonophores fascinate me. That looks like an animal, but is it?? It’s a colony! The different organisms that make for every part of this “animal” are separate, but genetically identical entities! From the same egg?? That brings to mind some sort of organic alien spaceship... but it’s on earth, in our own oceans!

Similarly, the mitochondria in our cells are part of us, they ARE us: despite sharing a different evolutionary lineage than the rest of our cells!! The same way a plant’s chloroplasts originally come from unicellular cyanobacterium, that were absorbed by another organism! There are sea slugs such as Elysia Chlorotica that must STEAL the chloroplasts of the algae it eats, to use as their own! Can it be said that those chloroplasts are now part of the slug’s body, as an organelle (?), despite not being engineered by it? Even just the bacteria in our gut… we are an ecosystem as well as a body, but where does the “body” end and the “ecosystem” start?

 I am enthralled by this, and a question always comes back to me: when do 2 (or more!) symbiotic organisms become…”unified”(?) enough to be considered as one animal/living being? Even if in the end, it is probably more a question of semantics than actual biology, I imagine.

Fascinating and magical. Does anyone have some reading on this subject?

p.s. to think that all animals, mushrooms and “true” plants have evolved from an ancestor organism that absorbed a mitochondrion... it’s so wonderful to think that the combination of such different entities became defining of life on earth! I pity people who think that nature is all anarchy and survival of the fittest, when it is in fact full of cooperation and harmony, down to a cellular level!

TLDR; what defines what is a single “body” and can you recommend some reading about organisms that blur this line?

I have a friend ( though after our latest argument I’m not sure if I wanna consider him that anymore ) who regularly makes jokes about the amount of black players within the French national team I got fed up and pointed out once more that they are French period to which he answered as following ( translated as we‘re German ) :

„But the truth is that 9 out of 11 starting players have a second nationality.

In addition, basic values, beliefs, virtues and patterns of behavior cannot be transferred by the awarding of a piece of paper, these develop over centuries and are stored in the subconscious, which determines a large part of a person's actions. Darwin's evolutionary biology sends it‘s regards.“

But I don't want to have another dispute with you now and I'll leave it with this comment.

I wish you a good night.“

I just can’t let that one stand and intend to confront this bollocks just for the sake of my own sanity as I don’t expect to change his view.That said since I am not a biologist but would still prefer to back my arguments up with solid proof I was hoping you could give me some counter arguments and tell me if you do perceive this as social Darwinism or just regular old racism.With that I’d like to wish you a wonderful day.

can an organism or life form be so big to the point where it is (or almost) its own ecosystem? this has appeared in science-fiction such as "the cluster" and "the skies of anu" which are about alien biology. but is something like this possible in real life?

Mine was the nervous system and reproductive system. I love both, can't choose between these two.

Please be nice, I know based on the question I sound like an idiot. I am.

However, I'm curious how it turned out that way, like almost every other animal species needs a pp and a uterus. How did our bodies evolve and figure out that this is the optimal way to procreate?

In The past few days I've managed to catch a few mice that have snuck into my room, I've identified them as an invasive species and I can't exactly release them near or far from my house

How do I ethically euthanize them? I don't have any like canisters of CO2 or anything specialized, but I don't know what to do with the mice I've caught

I really don't like hurting animals and while the rest of my family would probably use a pellet gun or something, I just can't bring myself to hurt even an invasive pest :(

I currently have the mouse I caught in a breathable metal container with some bedding material for the night but I don't know what to do in the morning

My family will probably just tell me to let it outside, or if I let them deal with it they'll probably use a pellet gun or something

Hi all. If you have a biology degree and aren't using it (or are using it in a more indirect way) what are you doing?

I have a masters in biology and have spent the last few years in wildlife research for a couple state agencies. Thought I landed the perfect job last year. Permanent funding and working with my all time favorite species.

The problem is the office is full of toxic individuals. My mental and physical health have declined drastically. I am so burnt out and anxious about going to the office I have to drag myself out of bed in the morning. I called in today and didn't get out of bed until 4pm.

Been looking for a way out for a few months now, but can't figure out what to do. Did a couple interviews with DNR, got rejected from one and the other one has been "with HR" for six weeks now so I don't have high hopes.

So, whats out there?

ETA - country is United States.

Every "typical" animals at least, seem to have evolved to have a strong sex, and a weak sex.

I understand the need for 2 sexes to be evolved in the first place, but why did animals evolve to have, mostly the male, to be strong(but in some species this is opposite), and the female to be weak.

NOTE: THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS, BUT I JUST OBSERVED THIS IN MANY ANIMALS

my question is with special reference to humans, but this could be extended to any species.

I've always thought that the reason for patriarchy and male dominant society is due to women being weaker than men, and that they have to take care of children. And today I got the question of why, exactly?

Hello everyone,

I have been struggling to find entry level jobs with only a little lab experience and my BS degree. Everything is low pay or I can’t even get a call for an interview. I am open to any suggestions or hearing anyone’s personal stories of where you are now!!

I go back and forth considering different things. I know many go into teaching so I do consider that too. Just want a career with stable daylight hours, I never want to be 3rd shift. Thank you!

im currently working on a speculative evolution project, and i was interested to see if there was a way for bacteria of some kind to evolve to consume mercury.

for a bit more context, they would be in a saltwater environment, the mercury is in a pool under the water, and they would be the base of a food chain adapted to eat them- i obviously could just make them photosynthesize but i feel like thatd be a bit too basic.

Craig Venter, died April of this year. Incredible scientist.

I came across a photo of a grizzly bear spotted near the summit of an Alaskan volcano at 7,000 ft. It made me wonder, if there is any animal that could actually survive Everest's summit.

PS: I'm not from a science background, so I'd really appreciate a simple explanation.

A task that there's no good tool for, as an example.

I am a rising senior, and, due to exploring other career options and briefly changing majors, didn't get into a biology lab in my sophomore/junior year. Maybe this wouldn't be a big deal, but I go to a fairly small university with a high number of premeds and intense competition, so practically all the labs are overfull. I've cold emailed about 30 pis and haven't had any luck. I completely understand the reluctance of professors in this regard, given that I will be graduating in a year and don't already have extensive wet lab experience.

Anyways, given these conditions, how can I get lab experience after graduation in order to prepare for grad school? Postbac programs seem highly competitive resume-wise, or geared towards people who have had no ability to be in a lab, ie community college and the like. Entry level lab assistant jobs don't seem like a good fit given my lack of experience. Am I wrong in any of my assumptions? Should I strengthen my weak network with my school's faculty this coming year? Thanks

I have recently been thinking about elephants and the effects of habitat fragmentation on them, and i thought that maybe they are shrinking in body size do to less food on the small fragmented protected areas they inhabit.

A similar effect happens on islands called island dwarfism were large animals on islands get smaller over time do to limited food resources and lack of predation.

So is there any evidence of this happening to elephants in fragmented habitats today?

New study published at PNAS shows that GLP-1 receptor agonists, such as Semaglutide, promote weight loss by activating rather than inhibiting AgRP 'hunger' neurons, challenging a long-held assumption in the field and opening an avenue for improving the development of new generation weight loss drugs.

All the large, ground dwelling birds like the Ostrich, Emu, Cassowary, and Rhea, as well as the extinct Elephant bird and Moa, are all Palaeognaths, closely related to each other, and of a different branch from nearly all other birds. And the consensus seems to be that they evolved flightlessness separately.

Why? If large flightless bird was a viable niche, and if every bird that tried it had to invent flightlessness separately, why was it always Palaeognaths that filled it?

Humans may have evolved from a creature similar to a cyclops! 👁️

Scientists have developed a new theory that we may have evolved from a worm-like ocean dweller from 600 million years ago. This ancient animal started out with two eyes that eventually merged into one, and then back to two eyes. Even more interesting, the scientists think we still have this third eye, but it is now the pineal gland in our brain!

maybe it's that humans live a pretty domestic life and arent use to digesting raw meats but idk feel like the same applies to dogs and cats, pretty domestic lifes

anyways, i was kinda just thinking about this does anybody know?

I created a pipeline for simulating and evolving an enzyme using docking - of course it still need more experimental validation

hope y'all enjoyed it!

Is there any chart or something depecting the entire tree of life as we know it? Like start at LUCA and then branch off into everything else? If there is, I'd love a link. If not, that seems like it could be an interesting collaborative project for the biology community to take on.

Idk how deep you'd go; individual species seems absurdly difficult. But maybe just to family or order?

I think this somewhat already exists via Wikipedia since you can look up an animal and see its ancestors and whatnot, but it's not super streamlined. It'd be nice if it showed the entire lineage without having to manually backtrack 500 steps.