Hi r/biology

I am an undergraduate and I am running an experiment on plant growth for my final project. I am looking for papers which have methodology for measuring height etc.

Can anyone help with a source for standard operating procedures or even what to search? I am getting a lot of either very old papers or papers using modelling or lasers to measure. I need something in the middle to base my methodology on as it is a fairly simple experiment with 2 treatments. Many thanks!

I graduated college in the middle of the pandemic with a BA in Biological Sciences. After a year of not finding a job in the field and surviving by waiting tables, my parents convinced me to settle for a career teaching highschool biology. After 3 grueling years of teaching blind while completing courses to earn my teaching credentials, I (26F) can’t help but regret this path I’ve put myself on.

Teaching does not pay enough and I don’t think it ever will. I know I am much more valuable of a worker than this career requires and appreciates. It is absolutely exhausting and not something I can foresee myself doing for the rest of my life. I’m also terrified of the direction the field of education is heading…the students these days are…mostly unbearable. Part of me thinks higher education might be more bearable, but is that something i can even pursue with my current credentials??

What are some ideas for a transition into a new career? I believe it’s possible for me to find a career that pays well without having to go back to school, but not necessarily in my area. I live in a suburban town that has a hospital and doctors offices and places like that, but i don’t think i want to sit at a lab bench everyday and be a cut and dry “scientist.” I want to collaborate with others and be innovative and make a difference!!

A masters degree would be expensive, and if i wanted to do that, I definitely don’t want an education-based program. Instead it would need to be something that i can make a career out of in the biology field. If im going to spend money on that, it needs to be worthwhile.

What ideas can you give???

i was just thinking about how ears work and how the concept could translate to the sense of smell too.

tbh it seems farfetched as molecules dont travel in a predictable way like waves but maybe animals with a stronger sense of smell can make it work? nah i dont think it works but why is it that two nostrils is kind of the standard in the animal world?

im talking as profane of biology, but i've always wondered why evolution seem to vastly prefer advanced earing and smell for nightly ambient scanning instead of infrared vision.

is it impossible to have normal frequency vision during the day and infrared during the night?

Hi, I have to write an article about keeping exotic animals. Using the example of the leopard gecko, to clarify the question as to whether species appropriate keeping is possible. Unfortunately, I find it very difficult to find appropriate literature, which is why I would be happy about any help.

I recently received my Bachelor’s in Integrative Biology and am planning to apply for a course-based Master’s in Animal Bioscience. I’m hoping to work on a Major Research Paper with a professor at my chosen university. Part of the process is a letter of interest to the prof, which includes how I am preparing to take on the master’s. What should I include in the letter for how I am preparing to take on a research project that the prof has and for how I’m preparing to take on the master’s program?

I graduated last spring with my BS is Biology, minor in Chemistry. I was apart of a program my freshman year that got me published, but then covid happened and I ended up online until the 2nd half of my junior year. Despite all my connections and references I got rejected for all the internships I applied to my entire undergrad, even the ones I had direct contacts with. I networked a lot at career fairs, lots of them were impressed with me as they stated at the end of our chats but post grad I only got a few interviews, but never any offers despite being told I interviewed well. I’m broke so I can’t afford to relocate, so I went straight to grad school for bioinformatics and computational biology. I graduate at the end of this year and I’m really looking for a job that’ll help me get the experience I need, as most of these rejects are because I have no experience, but how am I suppose to get experience if no one will give me a chance? I live in the DMV area for reference.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable in any of what I'm about to say but I just read that Heavy Water (Deuterium Oxide) is safe to drink in small amounts but you can't live off of it because it causes chemicals processes in your body to slow down; due the bonds between deuterium and oxygen being stronger.

I immediately had a thought of, "if heavy water makes it so it takes more energy for chemical reactions in your body to work. would drinking an amount of heavy water that isn't* deadly every day help with weight loss in people?"

I thought this because if it takes more energy to do things at the chemical level, you would end up burning more energy just simply existing.. idk maybe I'm dumb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVCPeDIsIiA&list=WL&index=8&t=10s

I mean like, how come nobody has made a material that's like the bone? It is possible as far as i'm aware. Is it just to expensive? Does it just not work? Is the bone too complicated? like why? the bone is a good bit lighter and six times stronger than it's weight in steel (as far as i've read). It's just kind of a mystery to me.

So I'm trying to work on this project for my ecology class and the topic is stream continuum concept. Basically the beginning of the stream the headwaters have shredder and collector insects, The medium waters have collectors and grazers, and the large flowing streams have mostly collectors. It sounds pretty straightforward, but I cannot find any specific examples of invertebrates that are classified as collectors, shredders, or grazers. Is anyone familiar with this concept?

So I've been reading a book with my 9 y.o.son who's obsessed with insects, and there was one that "pretends" to be a bird poop so the birds don't eat them. And we both had a question, how does the bug know the birds don't eat poop? How do they know what poop looks like (because they'd need to see it from the bird's perspective)? Supposing they do, how do they evolve to look like it? They can't just "ok let's focus and transform!" And it goes for all kinds of mimicry, such as insects that look like leaves or sticks, and etc surely there are many examples.

Hello everyone,

So, I'm going to start a university degree in biology next year (career change), and I'd like to make the most of my free time until then to get ahead in my studies. I would like to know, in your opinion, what are the best books for self-learning, aimed more towards undergraduates?

Hi everyone,

Share with the community the biology side project you've worked on and enjoyed.

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Hi everyone, I am a microbiology major college student who would love a good first microscope to utilize at home. I would like something with a decent resolution and to also distinguish all the little organisms I see in my fish tank water. I’d also like to recreate some of the simpler experiments at home such as staining cheek cells to view under the microscope. My school uses the Leica models, but I know my price range isn’t going to reach that quality. Thanks!

Is there a website that contains a map from which I can find out which insects have been spotted in each country?

There are many rare insects in my area, and it is very difficult to find their names or information about them

Just got a lecture about vaccine safety from my brother in law who has a high school education and works construction. I got to hear all about how the spike protein is designed to make it into our brains and stop the formation of new memories. Also the nurses actually injected the vaccine into our blood, not muscle, so that's how it travels to the brain. I tried to be nice, but as the conversation went on I got visibly annoyed. Luckily this person has no children so he is not making vaccine decisions for anyone else. I tried not to make him feel stupid because nobody changes their mind with those kinds of tactics. But I do want to push back and offer correct information, at the very least for other family members who are listening. Curious how you guys would handle this? I know the answer is probably just to let him have his incorrect ideas, playing chess with a pigeon and all...but still, let me know!

There are those who are now working to try to de-extinct things like mammoths, passenger pigeons and other animals

The reasons it must fail (to me) include:

Habitat loss and shifting

Others that have taken over that niche

But I think the biggest reason, is that once a species enters Extinction is that a living thing is more than its body and its DNA

There is a loss of a whole set of irreplaceable animal behaviors, learning or instinct, territoriality, mating, knowledge of where things are.

So in reality, at best you are creating zoo animals which will never be what they were in the past

I am a Finance student who wants to get deep into Astronomy and Biology without getting the degree or, being an astronomer / or a biologist. Is it possible to have deep knowledge without a degree or not? If possible, how can I access it?

Edit: I have my answers, thanks everyone for helping! Currently writing my Bsc thesis and can't figure out how to say that one reason it might of gone wrong was that I think a field worker put two samples of oyster larvae in one tube.

Given that most of them radiate from the centrosome that's located by the nucleus, they gotta bend around nucleus to reach behind it towards the opposite side of the cell.

I always assumed that they do (since they can't go through the nucleus, there seems to be no other option), and I know that microtubules are flexible – but I wonder if there's any explicit confirmation.

P.S. But there are many illustrations that depict exactly that:

https://preview.redd.it/35ixjvekzguc1.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4efa82b63a17fe5957640e1082270e9b3d63466a

1. What's the difference between apomorphy and autapomorphy? My lecturers all seem to use both words interchargably. What's an apomorphy without it also being an autapomorphy?
2. Does a synapomorphy have to be found in all descendants, or would it also be a synapomorphy if only one descendant has it? If not, what is it then?
3. Plesiomorphy is an ancestoral trait. Since it's a symplesiomorphy when several descendants have it, is it a plesiomorphy when only one descendant has it?

How much student loan debt did you have for your biology degree and what would be your advice for me? I need 180 units and so far I have 100 units completed with 0 debt because I was able to use a small lottery winning to help pay for school. BUT now I’m out of that money. I was wondering how much student loan debt do you think I should take out. I was thinking about 50k. I live rent free, car is paid off, only real bills I have is phone, car insurance, medical insurance, and weekly food. Do you think it’s stupid for me to take out a loan like that? Some background information on me: I was a microbiologist for 6 years with an associates degree, but I wasn’t making enough money. I won a small lottery and used it to go back to school to complete my bachelors degree. I plan to also get my CLS license. I’m 100% confident I will be able to find a job very quickly given my experience and resilience to get my bachelors and the CLS after graduation. But do you think 50k is reasonable?

I mean alternate between breathing in with the right lung while breathing out with the left lung and breathing in with the left lung while breathing out with the right lung ?

And vice versa?