One of the best-known facts in biology is that, in sexual species like ours, to generate a new living being, a female and a male gamete are necessary. That is, an egg and a sperm. The theory is simple: during fertilization, the sperm penetrates the egg or oocyte and activates it. The oocyte is the one that […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: biology
Can embryos be generated without a father?
Biology with Tibetan Buddhist monks: What I’m taking back to my college classroom from teaching at a monastery
It would be quite appropriate for a college professor to assume students know that a tree is alive and a rock is not. Or would it? For several summers, I have had the pleasure of teaching biology to Tibetan Buddhist monks exiled in India. This program, called the ETSI (Emory-Tibet Science Initiative), was sparked by discussions the Dalai […] … learn more→
Pesticide tied to bee colony collapse
The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The authors, led by Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health, write that the […] … learn more→
Humans and climate contributed to extinctions of large Ice-Age mammals
The history of six large herbivores — the woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, bison, and musk ox — is the subject of a study by an international group of scientists investigating how climate fluctuations and human activity affected mammal populations at the end of the last ice age. According to Beth Shapiro, the […] … learn more→