The Ask a Biologist site has been relaunched and revamped, and it's the perfect place for teachers and parents to send kids with difficult questions about biology. It's really easy: just go to the site, click on the "ask" button, and type in a question…and with a little patience, eventually a qualified expert will try to answer it. Give it a try!
askabiologist.org.uk is back, bigger and better, to answer your questions about all things biological. We are a group of over 60 professional biologists; Ph.D. students, Post-docs, lecturers and professors, who volunteer to give their time to answer your questions. We have been around now for about 4 years now, and the site will get a brand new feel, the main thing will be that we will have increased 'user-friendliness' whereby people will be able to upload a photo of 'the green insect that is really interested in fallen fruit'. We are here to answer childrens' question about the natural world, and with biologists and palaeontologists with interests in many different areas, from insects and worms, to dinosaurs and birds, or trees and other plants, to embryos and evolution, and much more besides, we can help!
If you are a parent or a teacher who does not know the answer to a question, give us a go, we might be able to help. In fact, if you have a question, it does not matter how old you are, why not see if we can help. Answering your questions is the main thing that we do, but we also have a new blog section, where we will post exciting science stories. We also have our 'labcoat essays' where you can find out what we do as biologists, and we have the archive of all of the questions that we have answered since we began. Another new feature is that now you have the ability to respond to the answer we give to your questions. The only thing that we DO NOT DO, is answer your homework! Obviously there is a difference between the homework of a primary/elementary school child and that of a secondary school and college pupil, but as a rule, if it's your homework, you have to do it yourself.
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Um okay. Do these jeans make my butt look saggy?
Global warming has contributed to a few extinctions (so far ... more likely to come), and to changes in the ranges and behavior of many creatures. So it is likely to have an effect on the evolution of populations that survive it. Are there (at this time) any direct examples of populations evolving to adapt to changes due to global warming?
(That's what I submitted.)
What are the biological mechanisms behind dreams, and is it wrong that I dream of PZ Myers wearing a leopard-print thong and fronting the latest incarnation of Van Halen?
What's the evidence for intelligent design?
But if they knew that, they'd sell it to Ahmanson for millions.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Why can't they make lettuce taste like chocolate?
(IANAB) No, it's not the jeans.
BUT HOWCUM THERE R STILL MONKEES?!!
There aren't. There's just Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork now.
Geez, you didn't need a biologist for that one.
(IANAB) There aren't. Not since Peter Tork quit, anyway.
Fucken magnets! How do they work?
Dammit, Brownian
I just had a look around the "Ask a Biologist" site. I'm not impressed.
In the area that I know something about- insects, mainly- they may as well have asked random people on the street. They've got medical scientists with no zoology training just making shit up.
Sorry tsg, but by now you gotta know that if there's a lame pun to be made, I'm on it.
I hope for their sake that they have a "how is babby formed" filter.
@Brownian
Yeah, I know, but just once I'd like to beat you to it.
I'm trying to resist the urge to flood it with "If evolution is true, why are there still 747s??" questions.
Is this really true?
Cleric says promiscuous women cause earthquakes.
I know it's only half about biology but still. . .
@16:
There are 747's because most of them are built in Everett and don't require a tornado.
I predict a deluge of questions of the kind "Who will win in a fight, a bear or a shark"...
Oh, wait! They already answered Grizzly bear vs lion!
fuckin' maggots! How do they work?
Re: #17
From the article:
At first it looked like a case of "I hate this so my god hates this", but it is actually a case of "we can't do anything, let's ask people to pray so it looks like we are".
In
Episode XLIX: The endless thread is doomed; it has sunk to discussing cute widdle kitty-cats
Category: Open Thread
Posted on: April 18, 2010 3:40 PM, by PZ Myers
the kitty cat (pussy cat) chased off a bear.
What is the average airspeed velocity of an unladen Swallow?
African or European?
Oh, more people with god complex:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10639124
fuckin' Magdalenes--how do they work?
maglevs?
magnolias?
Magnavoxes?
never mind
How is babby formed?
I remember a site like this for physics; questions would not be answered for a few days, just to discourage lazy kids from asking other people to do their homework.
Not at all, darling, you look hot.
Quote #7 - "But how come there are still Monkees ?"
Precisely - and what about the Beatles ?
50% of the Beatles are extinct.
....and what happened to the Animals and the Byrds ?
No, it's your butt that makes the jeans look saggy.
Tighten up the bum-cheeks!