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How do animals identify their offspring?

Recently I was watching a documentary about penguins and how a mother penguin lost its chick. Then it went looking for it, and among a horde of penguins it was able to find its chick and take it back. What really intrigued me is that the penguins…
K Split X
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Purpose of K+ channels in action potential

I understand that they serve to repolarize the neuron after the Na+ influx. What I don't understand is why this is important. Meaning, let's say all the K+ channels disappeared. So now the potential is up near +50 mV about. It doesn't go back down…
Jo.P
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Recommendation for a molecular biology book that explains how we know what we know

My background is in math and I know very little about biology. The few biology books that I've looked at seem to explain what is known (or what is believed), but don't really explain how we know what is known. For a specific example, when I hear…
littleO
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Absorption ratios 260/280 and 260/230 for RNA

I extracted RNA from different cell lines, an I want to perform reverse transcription and then PCR. To get good results, in which range should the absorption ratios 260/280 nm and 260/230 nm be? And what is the idea behind measuring those ratios? I…
kali281
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Worm compost cannot have cooked food

I live in the Netherlands and it is getting fashionable to compost with worms. After investigating a few websites I noticed that most websites suggested that I cannot feed the worms leftovers from citrus fruits. This seems logical. I then started…
cantdutchthis
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Branch length in phylogenetic trees

I know this is a very basic question, but it is not too clear to me what is the unit of measure of branch length in phylogenetic trees. I have come to understand that it is usually expressed in number of substitutions/site/some unit of time. What is…
Beatrice Baldi
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How could this fossil's soft tissue be preserved so well?

I found this article for non biologists like myself. It describes, how astounding fossils were found in China. They belong to a crustacean like animal that lived more than 500 Ma ago. The exciting thing about them is, that the nervous system -soft…
Ludi
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Is death by cyanide the same as suffocation?

Reading this description of cyanide poisoning — http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/how-cyanide-kills/ — makes me wonder if death by cyanide is equivalent to suffocation. Is it?
SomeUser
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Why does closing one eye in bright light allow me to open the other?

I often find it physically painful to open my eyes past a squint after stepping out into the full summer sun. However, if I close one eye entirely, I can keep the other open without pain. This seems odd. Naively, one would assume the pain results…
dlf
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How does a tiny spider interpret/cope with gravity?

The Question: Does a tiny spider know that it is walking on a wall or a ceiling as opposed to the (horizontal) ground? Does gravity play a role in this knowledge? Further thoughts: I am interested in how other organisms sense gravity, and how they…
n1k31t4
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How does the immune system fight scabies mites?

After a distressing episode involving my elderly mother and a nursing home, I've been reading up on scabies. It seems that in healthy people, the immune system limits the mite population to around 10 of the creatures at any one time; elderly and…
peterG
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Algae or Lichen identification. Coastal BC, Canada

I have tried all books and internet resources I know of, but I still have no idea what this might be — a lichen or something else. At first glimpse, I thought it was something man-made and unnatural, but then I looked closer and saw how it appears…
Zewz
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What species of snail is this?

I found it in Washington state, in a city south of Seattle. I found it next to a bush after it rained on someone's driveway. Here are two pictures of it: ( originally posted in instagram ) If anyone can identify​ this species, kudos to you.
Matthew
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What are the consequences of inbreeding?

Inbreeding increases the risk of getting two identical recessive genes, alleles, that cause a disease which wouldn't have been activated with mixed genes. That's how I understand it anyway. But I sometimes read and hear that inbreeding among humans…
LocalFluff
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Could plants do photosynthesis at moonlight?

Related to this and this but not exactly same; could plants do photosynthesis at moonlight or more dim-intensity light?
Always Confused
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