Help
Add this page to your book
Show book (0 pages)
Suggest pagesPortal:Biology
Welcome to the biology portal. Biology, from the Greek words bios (life) and the suffix -logy (study of), is a branch of science concerned with the characteristics and behaviors of organisms, how species and individuals come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with their environment. Biology encompasses a broad spectrum of academic fields that are often viewed as independent disciplines. Together, they study life over a wide range of scales.
Blue has been chosen as the colour for this portal to emphasise that life on Earth relies on the unique chemistry of water. A photo of Darlingtonia californica, the cobra lily, was chosen as the portal icon because of this species' dependency on a humid habitat, as well as illustrating both autotrophy (in this case, photosynthesis) and carnivory. Finally, it superficially resembles young shoots, with their tips curved in, symbolising growth, a feature of all life.
Adenanthos obovatus, commonly known as basket flower or jugflower, is a shrub of the plant family Proteaceae endemic to Southwest Australia. Described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805, it had first been collected by Archibald Menzies in 1791. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Eurylaema and is most closely related to A. barbiger. A. obovatus has hybridized with A. detmoldii to produce the hybrid A. × pamela. Several common names allude to the prominent red flowers of the species. It grows as a many-stemmed spreading bush up to 1 m (3 ft) high, and about 1.5 m (5 ft) across, with fine bright green foliage. Made up of single red flowers, the inflorescences appear from April to December, and peak in spring (August to October).
Clinton Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.
Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme. In 1982 he introduced into evolutionary biology an influential concept, presented in his book The Extended Phenotype, that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms.
Dawkins is an atheist and humanist, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association and supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. He has been referred to in the media as "Darwin's Rottweiler", a reference to English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—a fixed false belief. As of January 2010 the English-language version has sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages, making it his most popular book to date.
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination. In humans, it is called an embryo until about eight weeks after fertilization (i.e. ten weeks after the last menstrual period or LMP)
- ...that there are ten times as many microbial cells in your body than there are human cells and that the sum of their genomes is 100 times greater than yours?
- ...that a prokaryotic cytoskeleton has been found in prokaryote organisms by recent advances in visualization technology?
- ...that the Champawat tigress and the Tsavo lions had suffered injuries that disabled them from pursuing their natural prey, leading them to become man-eaters?
- ...that the aphid Brevicoryne brassicae has been called a "walking mustard oil bomb" due to its use of glucosinolates as a chemical defense mechanism against predators?
- ...that the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the first bioterrorism attack in the United States, and one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans?
- ...that Florida has over 20 official state symbols, including a state soil and a state wildflower?
- ...that Adenovirus serotype 14 is an emerging virus, related to the common cold, that has recently caused 10 deaths in the United States, including at least one healthy young adult?
- ...that three out of every seventy-seven rainbow runners (pictured) have five spines rather than the normal six?
- ...that some capillaries, known as sinusoidal capillaries have gaps in them large enough for blood cells to fit through?
WikiProjects connected with biology:
- Conservation worldwide
- Ecology
- Ecoregions
- Evolutionary biology
- Genetics
- History of Science
- Marine life
- Medicine
- Microbiology
- Molecular and Cellular Biology
- Neuroscience
- Tree of Life
A complete list of scientific WikiProjects can be found here. See also Wikispecies, a Wikimedia project dedicated to classification of biological species.
Anatomy - Anthropology - Astrobiology - Biochemistry - Bioengineering - Bioinformatics - Biotechnology - Botany - Cell biology - Conservation biology - Developmental biology - Ecology - Environmental science - Evolutionary biology - Genetics - Mathematical biology - Medicine - Microbiology - Immunology - Molecular biology - Mycology - Neuroscience - Paleontology - Palynology Parasitology - Pharmacology -
Phylogenetics - Physiology - Systems biology - Taxonomy - Toxicology - Virology - Zoology
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| Animals | Biotechnology | Ecology | Evolutionary biology | ||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| Fungi | Marine Life | Metabolism | Molecular and Cell Biology |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| Molecular Anthropology |
Extinct and Endangered Species | Neuroscience | Plants |
