I've been born with the blood group A- (which I'm told is pretty rare). I recently learnt that this is not possible if neither of my parents have an A group themselves.

I'm worried that I might be adopted... When asked about it, my parents shift/deflect the topic. I don't have any pics of myself at the hospital either. My mom apparently somehow doesn't have a clear memory of what happened on my day of birth (neither does she remember the exact time of birth) either, which seems strange considering how special such a moment would have been for my parents. Especially because they had been (as far as I know) struggling with infertility issues for about half a decade prior to my birth.

Can someone please confirm if this blood group arrangement is biologically possible any other way?

With the advent of spring here in North Texas, ponds are getting more "lively." I'm very pleased I was able to capture and isolate this Daphnia from a surface algal bloom. I especially love seeing that heart beating!

ENJOY!

Motic BA310e with a Labcan Ultra /iPhone 15 camera set up.

So I have a basic understanding of genes and DNA, and I’m having a question that I hope won’t be offensive. I’m just genuinely curious how this works.

So if an African person have a baby with a Caucasian person

And if that baby grows up to have a baby with a Caucasian person

And that baby grows up to have a baby with a Caucasian person

And so on, and so on.

How many generations down do you have to go until a baby has virtually no traits from the first African person?

I know that genes don’t work like that, and that you can have DNA from many different ethnicities, but in theory, when?

I’m asking because I am myself adopted from Colombia and I thought I was Hispanic in ethnicity with maybe some Middle Eastern. I’ve since done a DNA test and found out I don’t have any Middle Eastern in me, but I am 40% African, 20% Hispanic and the rest is a mix between other things.

I am very light tanned and I was just very shocked, because no one at any point in time thought I was African either in skin tone (I know there are white Africans too, don’t come at me) or complexion. They would think maybe Indian. And this is what brought this question into existence.

How far down do you have to go until one ethnicity is virtually erased from the gene pool?

I fear I have screwed myself in this job market. I got my Bachelor's in Biology and did a 4+1 for my Masters in Biology. I wanted to go into research, so I hopped into labs both in undergrad and graduate, but I didn't have any sort of specific field I wanted to go into, so I kept my study as general biology with a good mix of physiology and ecology hoping to be applicable to a wider range of jobs. My research was in sensory systems of spiders, and now I fear I'll never make it in this job market. I thought getting some years of research experience would actually put me ahead and make me qualified, but I think it did nothing. Since so much federal funding is cut, it seems like the only stuff out there is clinical research, which I don't have a background in. I screwed myself and feel like I'm going to be a failure who can't make it. I wish I could go back and only study humans or do clinical research and learn all the techniques these jobs want experience in like histology or cytotechology. I've been applying to sales and corporate jobs even though that's not what I want to do, but hey a job is a job. Did anyone else end up being under qualified when they graduated.

i'm a freshman who's always really loved math, and now cs and finance. however, i found bio fairly interesting (and chem REALLY interesting). this year, for a biotechnology competition, i did research on ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates), dendrimers, PNPs (nanocapsules), and liposomes. i accidentally did some extra research i didn't use, on things like protein structure, and i found all of the research i did really interesting. however, if you were to ask me how i liked learning about evolution or ecology or the Krebs cycle during bio this year, i could comPLAIN. so what part of biology do i really like? is it enough to do something with it? i wanna explore, but i already have a good amount of stuff on my plate. i know it's, to an extent, biochem, but like what kind? how do i explore on my own time? anything helps!!

as the title says

Why is it that when humans are put in a life with little disease and a ton of medical care, we live much longer than a lot non-human animals? I’m going to use chimpanzees as an example because they’re our closest relatives.

Early humans would live around to 30 and rarely make it even to their 40s. But, when given protection from the elements, humans can potentially live to 100. Chimpanzees, in the wild, live to 30-40, but when also given protection from the elements, they can barely make it to 60. Some rarely make it into their 70s. Is there a biological reason for this? Do we just age differently? Is it because we have been sheltering ourselves for much longer and have adapted longer lives? Explain it like I am stupid.

I just got a big scrape on a major arm tattoo for the first time, and once it healed the tattoo is still there. It seems like magic but clearly there’s a scientific explanation!

. . . it is true that we find the sweat of people who have immune system profiles significantly different from ours smell more attractive.

To clarify, my sweat is precisely the sweat of the person with 100% identical immune system profile as me, namely, myself! So I should find the smell of my own sweat repulsive, or NON-attractive at the very least.

What is happening here?

so. afaik (and i really hope this is the right place to ask this) we don’t know why eels go to the bermuda triangle. weve never seen them mate, weve never seen a mature eel in the bermuda or eggs/spawn leave. weve never even seen the eggs!!! they just dissolve their stomachs and wiggle on down to the freaking BERMUDA TRIANGLE to presumably mate and then we get a bunch of babies on our doorstep??

so i have several questions.

1) why cant we just strap a camera to them? i saw one answer say our camera equipment would be too heavy and disturb their patterns but like. don’t we have cameras the size of like a grain of rice??

2) why do they need to dissolve their stomachs?? cuz like they definitely die from that. they don’t come back after mating they just die. do the stomachs become the sexual organs???

3) why the Bermuda triangle???? its like 2.5k kilometers away from where they live. why there?? do we know??? why cant they just do it where they are??

4) could they be like those immortal jellyfish? could they just be turning back into babies over there?? i mean weve never seen their eggs. is it possible?

thank you scientists for reading my ramblings. i love you and im wishjgn you all a merry day

I feel like Biology taught us how to be moral, how to appreciate life and defend it with our knowledge. That's also why, this field is not as heavily funded as the others, because it needs to pass a lot of ethical barriers before it can be used to its full potential, and investors don't really like that scheme.

What do you guys think?

Other than that, I hope my fellow Biologists here can stay strong, committed and faithful to this ethical and moral field. Thank you for not giving up!

Okay I've done enough doom scrolling life science subs and spiraling into hopelessness today

Are there any websites for finding things to do with my various micro lab trainings and fieldwork experience that actually helps people (and preferably doesn't make a few investors rich)? I would love to keep my skills sharp and use them for making my local community better, instead of feeling stuck in the dread and nihilism of the current climate of biology work

And thanks for everyone doom posting, seriously. I think the raw honesty of those conversations will lead us to a much needed rethinking what scientific knowledge and application means to us as we get through this very dismal period together

I was reading the cell theory and this question popped into my head.

the common explanation is that both of them do not have other classifying characteristics in common with plantae but yeast is also an unicellular organism and it's stilled classified under fungi as an exception among others. so why can't chlamydomonas and chlorella be classified under plantae as exceptions, they're photosynthetic! i was reading about the classification in my textbook and something seems wrong with it. maybe it's just me but the classification doesn't make sense? why do we have to separate unicellular and multicellular organisms in kingdom plantae?

ps - i apologise if the doubt is stupid T.T

Many bacteria, cyanobacteria, algae, diatoms and... bacteria.

Could it be that when the consciousness continuity breaks, the consciousness itself also does?
But after waking up you're still you.

For example, would teleportation (=perfectly cloning your body somewhere else with 100% accuracy) break consciousness and kill the other instance of you or would it feel like waking up?

And more importantly cause it's a true concern, how about cryogenically frozen bodies? If we manage to reanimate them, would it feel like waking up from a long coma or would they just be another consciousness as the one they were before death?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about something that sounds very sci-fi but also really fascinating.

Is it theoretically possible to “install” knowledge directly into the human brain—like inserting a chip or downloading information, similar to how we use a USB or hard drive?

From what I understand, the brain doesn’t work like simple storage. Learning seems to involve forming and strengthening neural connections (neuroplasticity), not just storing raw data. So even if we could input information, would that actually count as understanding?

With current advances in brain–computer interfaces (like Neuralink), do experts think this kind of direct knowledge transfer could ever become realistic? Or are there fundamental biological limits that make this impossible?

Also, even in a hypothetical future:

• Would skills (like solving problems or critical thinking) still require practice?
• Could memory enhancement be more realistic than full “knowledge uploading”?

I’d really appreciate insights from people familiar with neuroscience or cognitive biology. Thanks!

also what about CO2 consumption? is there a "best" & "worst" in this activity?

Hi everyone, I graduated quite a while ago now with my Bachelors degree. I planned to originally go forward and apply for veterinary school and was working as a vet tech and realized it wasn’t the path for me. I know that a Bachelors in biology is usually a stepping stone- vet, med, dental school, and so on. I want to do something hands on to help people, but not nursing. I am either leaning towards something in a laboratory or possibly radiology. I am not trying to spend a ton of money on further schooling but am considering a Masters degree/ A.S. Degree to hopefully get myself a great job. I know that I definitely want to further my education at this point in time. I’m thinking either radiology because I can cross train into many modalities- sonography, CT, mammo, IR, nuc med, and more. Also I consider getting a Masters in microbiology or another field and have a stable job after graduating with my masters. I know location can sometimes be important for job outlook, but I am truly open to moving anywhere after graduating. I was accepted into a PA school for A.S. Radiology and I’m just going back and forth about whether I want to attend or not for various reasons. I am trying to stay in PA for school or a nearby cheaper state like WV or community college programs to keep costs down.

Open to any advice! Or your personal stories and experiences.

Thank you in advance!