With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
Have you ever wanted to know how much gas a sauropod dinosaur might pass in a day? What an echidna smells like when it dies? If it's true that Indian rhinos don't blink? How far a flea might be able to jump in zero gravity?
Probably not. But imagine if you did: the good news is that there is now an open-access internet forum dedicated to the answering of your biological questions. It's Ask A Biologist, the brainchild of Dr David Hone of Munich's Bayerische Staatssammlung fur Palaontologie und Geologie. Though designed mostly for children of school-going age, Ask A Biologist is open to anyone, and exists to both promote science, and to provide an open-access and user-friendly science forum where qualified experts provide their expertise for free. So far about 50 biologists and palaeontologists from around the world are on the Ask A Biologist panel, representing most branches of the life sciences. They include Carl Zimmer, Prof PZ Myers, Prof Steve Jones, Dr Luis Chiappe, Dr John Hutchinson, Dr Alice Roberts, and many others, including yours truly. Thanks to a generous grant recently provided by The Palaeontological Association, Ask A Biologist now has a new, snazzy webite, and the re-launching of the site was covered in the national British press recently. Do feel free to check it out, and do paste the link if you want to spread the word and help promote science education.
Coming next.... Speculative Zoology: Wedel throws down the gauntlet.
Comments
Thanks for the free press Darren! And is there ever a bad time to post T.rex pictures?
Posted by: Dave Hone | February 14, 2007 2:14 PM
Nice, now I know where to look if somebody asks again one of these nasty questions that start with "as a biologist you surely know"
Posted by: sparc | February 14, 2007 2:21 PM
And I should add, while Darren is giving me free advertising, please do tell your kids, schools, teachers etc. about the site!
Posted by: Dave Hone | February 14, 2007 3:06 PM
Yeah, thanks Darren. My question would be: did the megalodon not sleep like most modern-day sharks don't sleep?
Posted by: Organic Chemistry | February 22, 2007 12:14 PM
Are there any organisisms that reproduce by Meiosis using more than two parents? Which ones?
Are there any organisisms that reporduce by Meisosis using only one parents? which ones?
Posted by: Sean | March 7, 2007 4:46 PM