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1500 questions
11
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What was the first piece of work in computational biology?
What was the first piece of work in computational biology? I'm ideally looking for a paper.
I am not interested in works that involve data management or data analysis but work that model biological processes through numerical simulations or…
RNs_Ghost
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11
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Are there any solitary species of ant or termite?
The social insects consist of the ants, the bees, and the termites, which live in colonies rather than living solitary.
But I've heard that there are some species of bee which are solitary and don't live in colonies.
Are there also any species…
hippietrail
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11
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Why does human chromosome 19 have the second highest number of protein-coding genes?
While chromosome 19 only is the 19th largest autosomal chromosome, it contains 1440 protein-coding genes, and thus has the second highest number of protein-coding genes of any human chromosome.
For comparison: If one would naively assume the same…
tsttst
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11
votes
2 answers
What is the modern state of the theory of evolution?
When I studied biology at my medical school, we used to learn topics around a century old: the famous Darwin's voyage on "Beagle" to the Galapagos Islands, the classical triad of his Theory of Evolution, etc.
At the same time we were told that there…
Alexander Galkin
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11
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1 answer
Species Identification: Red velvety insect, India
What species is this?
Description:
Location: India
These insects came out just after overnight rain.
They were all over the place.
Their body looks like velvet.
Are these insects poisonous?
nrb
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11
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1 answer
What is the functional and structural distinction between core (H2A, H2B, H3,H4) and linker(H1/H5) histones?
Many explanations of histone biochemistry isn't quite elucidating for the undergraduate student. How does histone structure (dimers, octomers) relate to their specific functions as core or linker histones? Also, how do both linker and core histones…
LanceLafontaine
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11
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1 answer
Big Bug from Peru
I'd like to have a name for this guy. There were 5 or 6 of them zipping around the flower bed on the coast of Peru about 120 kms south of Lima.
Steve
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11
votes
1 answer
Are high sounds worse for your hearing than low sounds?
From about 80 dB it is possible to suffer loss hearing after a couple of hours. But does it make a difference what frequencies those sound waves are or is it just the volume of the sound in dB that matters?
In your ear the first sounds you lose in…
Marijn
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11
votes
1 answer
Restriction enzymes, how are the recognition sequences determined?
How were the recognition sequences (e.g. GAATTC of EcoRI, GGATCC of BamHI) characterised? Text books only list the recognition sites but never the methodologies used to determine the sequences.
Green
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11
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1 answer
Strange Striped Insect identification (Northern Indiana)
These bugs are coming out of some wood that I cut and burned in Northern Indiana (USA) . I am not sure if it is coming out of a white ash, cherry or oak. We did have the emerald ash boarer come though the area -- is this an ash boarer?
Thanks.
Tom
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11
votes
1 answer
What is positive and negative supercoiling?
Is the following correct?
Positive supercoiling = the coiling of DNA helix (B-DNA) on itself during intesified coiling of the two DNA stands in right handed direction
negative supercoiling = the coiling of DNA helix(B-DNA) upon itself during…
Tyto alba
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11
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2 answers
Are these birch or aspen trees?
I was just wondering if anybody could help me identify the trees in this image? I am confused as to whether they are aspen or birch, a mix of the two, or whether the brown/reddish trees are some other species I don't know about? Thanks!
Jake
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11
votes
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How do disulphide bonds in hair cause curling?
I understand that there are several characteristics of curly hair which differ from straight hair (such as an asymmetrical distribution of disulphide bonds in curly hair), but really am struggling to understand the root cause of inherent curl on the…
User2341
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1 answer
What would be the conduction speed of A-alpha fibers, were they unmyelinated?
It's known (Hursh 1939) that myelinated axons exhibit the behavior $v = 6d$, where $v$ is the propagation speed [m/s] and $d$ is the axon diameter [μm].
A related relation for unmyelinated axons is (Malmivuo & Plonsey, eq. 2.1):
$$v =…
Andrey
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11
votes
1 answer
Standard practice for generating rarefaction curves from Next Generation Sequencing data
We have a few million 18S reads from a particular environment. The reads have been clustered into Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU), and the OTUs annotated against a reference database.
To generate a rarefaction curve, my understanding is that one…
Ben S.
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