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1500 questions
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Do invasive species cause long-term damage to ecosystems they invade?
Growing up in the U.S., I was warned at various times of the dire consequences of a variety of introduced pests (usually insects).
Japanese beetles, gypsy moths, and most recently the brown marmorated stink bug are all introduced pests that, at…
Beofett
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14
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Does a blood transfusion cure disease?
Does transferring blood between two people also transfer all the white blood cells?
Why can't AIDS victims with low t-cell count just get blood transfusions till they have more t-cells? Why can't someone who's over a cold give blood to someone with…
CornSmith
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14
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Does cell culturing contribute to dangerous antibiotic resistance to the same degree as livestock?
According to the CDC, antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time. The largest incubator for antibiotic resistance is the factory farming of animals where livestock are administered large antibiotic doses often…
Abraham Miller
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14
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3 answers
How did the genetic code evolve?
The genetic code is redundant, there are 20 amino acids for 64 possible nucleotide combinations (triplet codons). Therefore some amino acid are coded by several different codons. While leucine is coded by 6 codons, tryptophan is coded only by one…
Remi.b
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What is Growing on These Tree Leaves? (Image)
I found a seemingly diseased tree when I was out playing tennis yesterday... What is growing on this tree leaf? Is this a disease? If so, is it contagious? I have zero knowledge in botany, but I'm curious about what is happening to these trees. :)
StephenChen
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13
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What is the standard deviation of adult human heights for males and females?
The wikipedia article on human height reports mean height for many different countries by sex but it does not report standard deviations.
What is the standard deviation of adult human heights within sexes?
Obviously the size of the standard…
Jeromy Anglim
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How do the biophysics of how cerebrospinal fluid mechanically protects the brain work?
The two mechanisms I've seen mentioned are the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) acting as a hydraulic cushion or shock absorber, and how CSF creates a micro-gravity environment through buoyancy.
I have very little understanding of the former, but I do have…
Dahen
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13
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Why do toenails grow much slower than fingernails?
As the title suggests, I've noticed that my fingernail grow much faster than my toenails. For instance, I usually trim my fingernails every two week or so, but for toenails the number would be about 6 to 8 weeks.
A bit of research revealed this…
Ali
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13
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How does Golgi's neural histological stain work?
What is known about the targets of Golgi staining of neurons? Are larger neurons more likely to be stained? Are specific cell types more susceptible than others?
The current wikipedia article says the mechanism is still not fully understood. What is…
Memming
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Are all carcinogens mutagens?
I assume that all carcinogens must be mutagens, but I've read that this is not the case. However, I can't find any good examples or an explanation of why it is not the case.
How can a non-mutagenic agent be carcinogenic?
How can something lead to…
user45969
13
votes
2 answers
Could cancer be in itself a evolutionary process?
Could cancer be in itself a evolutionary process? Maybe in some way could it be a process of variation? Or would this idea be completely without support, if so, why?
I don't mean that each case would lead to evolution, but that within an entire…
John
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13
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How do ants sense imminent rainfall?
I have always been told to watch to see if ant-hole mounds are built up as a sign of imminent rainfall. My questions are,
if what I have always been told is true, then by what mechanism do ants 'sense' the imminent rainfall? Is it a case of…
user3795
13
votes
2 answers
Does an annealing temp higher than primer's Tm contribute to primer dimer?
I am attempting to reproduce results from a number of journal articles all referring to the same SNP. In doing this I'm using the same primer set outlined in the articles. When I attempted a run the other day I experienced what I can only assume was…
bobtheowl2
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Chorophyll and photosynthesis in plants with coloured leaves
Do plants that have only coloured leaves (e.g. ‘ornamental’ plants) contain chlorophyll and perform photosynthesis?
If they don’t, how do they obtain energy and metabolic intermediates?
user459284
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13
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What is Peter's rule in neuroscience?
I have heard and read about Peter's rule informally in the past, but never saw a formal definition or description.
Informally I have learned to understand Peter's rule as the assumed correlation between the amount of overlap between axons and…
Amelio Vazquez-Reina
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