Biology Weekly Newsletter - Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Biology newsletter

Top new questions this week: Why didn't the polar bear change its color from white to black during evolution to absorb heat? Polar bears are white in color and white color is not a good absorbant of heat. Why then didn't they evolve a black color to absorb more heat? evolution   asked by bhanu 12 votes answered by Chris 21 votes Cloning and Telomeres I read that the length of telomeres in Dolly was shorter, because the DNA was taken from an old sheep. Shorter telomeres may lead to early aging. What is happening now with cloning? Do we use a ... cloning telomere   asked by Barbos 10 votes answered by tel 11 votes Why don't we see turbulence in the aorta even in normal situations? I read about the Windkessel effect. Then I read about pulse pressure waves getting reflected from the periphery. If the pulse pressure wave is reflected during diastole and at the same time blood is ... cardiology blood-circulation   asked by gautampw 7 votes answered by Masi 3 votes The origin of molecular machines DNA holds genetic information and holds the key to the evolution of living organisms. Transcription and translation mechanisms enable living cells to process information encoded in DNA. To that end, ... evolution molecular-evolution abiogenesis   asked by Mohammad Al-Turkistany 6 votes answered by Barbos 3 votes How does the body "know" how to metabolize foreign substances As a freshman biochemistry major, I find myself befuddled by our body's ability to perform complex chemical reactions to break down foreign substances. I can see how we would evolve explicit pathways ... evolution biochemistry metabolism   asked by Raiden Worley 6 votes answered by user137 2 votes When did our ancestors switch to a menstrual cycle instead of the estrous cycle? The Wikipedia page on the Estrous cycle says: Humans have menstrual cycles instead of estrous cycles. They shed their endometrium instead of reabsorbing it. Unlike animals with estrous cycles, ... endocrinology sex human-physiology human-evolution   asked by Christian 6 votes answered by Nick Sandor 2 votes Why doesn't Sanger (fluorescent) DNA sequencing double count nucleotides? My understanding is that PCR is carried out until a fluorescent nucleotide halts replication. The segments of DNA are fed through the capillary tube based on size, sifting through the segments from ... dna-sequencing   asked by Alzeon 6 votes answered by canadianer 6 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Death because of distilled water consumption One of my friends said that I would die if I drank distilled water (we were using it in a chemistry experiment) I gave it a go and surprisingly did not die. I did a bit of Googling and found this ... human-biology biochemistry experimental   asked by The-Ever-Kid 39 votes answered by leonardo 23 votes What is the cause of muscle cramps? According to wikipedia, muscle cramps are caused by myosin fibers not being able to break free from the actin filaments during contraction, resulting in a prolonged contraction. Obviously a lack of ... physiology muscles   asked by Mew 9 votes answered by mike 7 votes Can you answer these? Download FunCat Database for Programmatic Access I am enriching RNA-seq data for the fungus Neurospora crassa and would like to be able to search the genome by functional category, determine similarity of genes by category membership, and any other ... bioinformatics database   asked by caburke 1 vote Is there any conclusive study relating the food consumed and the occurrence of acne? The internet says a million things about what to eat and what not to in case of acne. For instance: Refrain from dairy products. Refrain from food heavy in unsaturated fat. Refrain from too much ... skin diet   asked by HindK 3 votes Medium for Pseudomonas? What is a good minimal medium for Pseudomonas bacteria? Do I need different media for different Pseudomonas species? microbiology bacteriology medium   asked by DaanV 1 vote

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