Questions tagged [biology]

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Use this tag for general biology questions, but also use more specific life science tags to accompany this one if applicable.

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Does chromosome 6 deletion cause the patient to not feel pain, hunger, and fatigue?

In this 7-years-old Belfast Telegraph article there's a video posted to Russia Today about a girl called Olivia Farnsworth who has the genetic abnormality "chromosome 6 deletion" which ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
996 views

Is it possible to use microbes to grow protein from air and electricity?

Solar Foods claim they can use microbes to ferment an edible protein powder. Their process is described as follow: The process takes a single microbe, one of the billion different ones found in ...
Andrain's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
220 views

Is there a 29.5 day cycle of neutrotransmitters released from the claustrum in our brains?

According to multiple 'spiritual' websites (like this one), there is a 29.5 cycle in the human body. Every 29.5 Days, A Seed Is Born That Gifts You With An Opportunity For A Physiological & ...
Riemann's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
487 views

Did the body of Saint Bernadette remain intact after 50 years, despite the conditions it was in?

According to this 2019 article in the National Catholic Register, The Marvelous Preservation of St. Bernadette, the body of Saint Bernadette had limited decay, despite: given the close examinations, ...
John's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
4k views

Is abiogenesis virtually impossible?

Dr Eugene Koonin published a paper in 2007, The cosmological model of eternal inflation and the transition from chance to biological evolution in the history of life in the journal Biology Direct. An ...
Mark's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
382 views

Do single families of insects have more species than all vertebrates combined?

This article about a caterpillar specialist claims: There are roughly sixty-five hundred species of mammals, nine thousand species of amphibians, and eleven thousand species of birds. These are what ...
feetwet's user avatar
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20 votes
2 answers
8k views

Is an Instant Pot sufficient for "scientific sterilization"?

According to this promotional post by InstaPot, Who knew that Instant Pot can provide scientific-grade sterilization? (Actually, we did.) Swensen and her research team concluded that “store-bought ...
Evan Carroll's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Are puberty blockers fully reversible?

Multiple sources claim that puberty blockers function like a pause button. To name a few: Using puberty blockers is like hitting a pause button St. Louis Children's Hospital “The really wonderful ...
pinegulf's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
575 views

Do bison conceal their pregnancy?

Today there is an article in The Guardian that states Three bison were released in Kent in July but, unknown to the rangers, one had a secret passenger on board. Bison conceal their pregnancies to ...
bbp_nepeta's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
442 views

Do introverts and extroverts respond to dopamine and acetylcholine differently?

This Mind Brain Ed blog article is an example of one that quotes the book Quiet kids: Help your introverted child succeed in an extroverted world. by Christine Fonseca in claiming that introverts and ...
Water's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
440 views

Is dandruff an indicator of an "unhealthy scalp?" Can a shampoo cure the underlying problem?

In this video (sponsored by Head and Shoulders) by Veritasium entitled "What Actually Causes Dandruff?", you can hear Dr. Jim Schwartz a Research Fellow at Head & Shoulders say: The ...
Evan Carroll's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
126 views

Did a tree grow inside a man's lung after he inhaled a seed? [duplicate]

https://www.newshub.co.nz/world/fir-tree-in-lung-surgeon-stands-by-his-story-2009041623 The Russian surgeon who says he found a fir tree growing inside a patient’s lungs is standing by a claim that ...
Willy150's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Has there ever been documented human individual producing both kinds of sex cells?

UCSB Science Line (University of California, Santa Barbara, scientist q/a) claims that: Long before we are born, the same gonads either become testes, if the embryo has a Y chromosome, or ovaries if ...
eis's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
13k views

Does the Yulan Magnolia flower bud look like a bird?

This GreaterGood article, Yulan Magnolia Flowers Look Like Beautiful Birds, shows pictures of flowers that look like birds, including these images from the planetsavioursuk Instagram account. They ...
Ponder Stibbons's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
865 views

Does a fetus taste the mother's food?

There seems to be two disconnected claims (1) whether or not babies can addicted to the nutrients they're exposed to, like an excess of fats., and (2) whether or not a fetus can taste things the ...
Evan Carroll's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Did a 10 year old girl die from holding her breath?

Articles in the Daily Mail and the New York Post allege that Nyla Anderson, 10, died on December 12 after she took part in the dangerous Blackout Challenge which encourages participants to hold their ...
Willy150's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
274 views

Does electrolyzed reduced water (ERW) extend the lifespan of animals (compared to regular water)?

Among the research interests of Dr. Pablo Campra (of recent graphite-in-Covid-vaccines claim) is something called electrolyzed reduced water (ERW). One of the (Asian) groups studying this presents is ...
Fizz's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
514 views

Does the mass of human made objects exceed the entire biomass on the planet?

An article in Nature, "Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass" in 2020 has recently gained some attention on social media (see this Twitter thread) possibly because of a striking ...
matt_black's user avatar
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34 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is listening to lossy audio more tiring than lossless audio?

Multiple posts on Reddit (Ear fatigue and Audio quality, another comment) claim that it is more tiring to listen to music in a lossy format. The same claim is even repeated on the Wikipedia page for ...
cdknight's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
5k views

Does the AstraZeneca vaccine not come in contact with any animal product during production?

In refuting an Indonesian Islamic council finding to the contrary, AstraZeneca Indonesia director Rizman Abudaeri said in a statement: “At all stages of the production process, this virus vector ...
Fizz's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
385 views

Can someone die of hypothermia just from thinking they're in a cold place? [duplicate]

There's a legend about a guy named Nick Sitzman who was accidentally locked in an unplugged walk in freezer. It was during the summer so it was actually hot, but he thought the freezer was on, and he ...
Willy150's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
3k views

Is this study evidence that a fly falling into one's drink should be dipped?

About 9 years ago, a user inquired about a medical claim from an islamic text, a claim that a fly falling into your drink should be dipped in then thrown away (the claimed explanation being that ...
RTG's user avatar
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-7 votes
1 answer
475 views

Does this article make a valid claim that SARS-CoV-2 isolation hasn't been demonstrated yet? [duplicate]

This is the article: Lordchewy: "Exposing the Core Tenets of the Covid 1984 Regime, Part 2: Koch’s Postulates, Lack of Sars Cov 2 Isolation and of its Presence in Autopsy Reports", Medium, ...
Gaston Lagaffe's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is all disease caused by the electron spin of food?

Dr Elizete Kaffer is a Brazilian dermatologist. In a video (in Portuguese) she claims, starting from 0:54 (enphasis on the part that I translated): [After talking about hidden sources for pathologies,...
Lambert macuse's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Do banana peels take 2 years to decompose?

A Google search for "banana peel decompose time" gives the result: 2 years. This claim is repeated in several reputable sources, such as: Popular Mechanics, The Guardian, and BBC. However, ...
Arnon Weinberg's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
321 views

Does a vaccine provide additional protection to a previously infected and recovered patient? [closed]

The change in literature I've observed during the covid-19 pandemic is certainly prompting this question, but I think the question can be answered broadly in terms of immunology, which does have ...
TCooper's user avatar
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34 votes
1 answer
10k views

Is slime mold eaten in Mexico as a dish called "feces of the moon"?

Various web sites make the claim that slime mold is eaten as a dish called "caca de luna" -- feces of the moon -- in Mexico. Sometimes the claim is attached to Fuligo septica, "dog ...
jwezorek's user avatar
  • 443
3 votes
1 answer
510 views

Has the US Air Force studied squid to improve aircraft camouflage?

The Hawaiian bobtail squid is known to have a close relationship with a particular species of bacteria that lives within the squid. The bacteria are naturally bioluminescent, which is hypothesized to ...
Barry Harrison's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
343 views

Are there as many hair follicles in your nose as on your head?

The Cleveland Clinic website on nose hair says, "The inner surface of your nose has as many hair follicles as your head.". That seems like a lot! From a few measurements (sample size N=1 ...
Daniel Wagner's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

Has SARS-CoV-2 been purified in a lab? If not, does this imply that the PCR test for it is not specific?

Dr. Sam Bailey gives a number of references in her YouTube video on PCR tests stating the virus has never been purified as in actually separated from the infected cells. I'm curious if this is ...
Matko's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
671 views

Was Mary Schwietzer the first person to suspect the odor of dinosaur fossils might imply that they contain organic material

Discovery magazine interviewed Mary Schwietzer, the woman who discovered soft tissue in dinosaurs. She mentions that when she was working on a T rex skeleton she smelt something like a cadaver. When ...
Shannon T's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
510 views

Did biologists till 1950 believe that before solving transmission of hereditary traits we should solve protein folding?

Patricia Churchland in her 1996 paper “The Hornswoggle Problem” published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies (scholar link, PDF) writes: Before 1953, many people believed, on rather good grounds ...
Gaurang Tandon's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
937 views

Did Dr. Nikolay Chudinov revive Permian bacteria found in a potassium salt crystal in Perm, 1972?

I have heard of 3.5 million year old bacteria being revived, but 250 mya is much longer, and I can find no modern mention of this astonishing claim anywhere. However, it was mentioned in multiple ...
qazwsx's user avatar
  • 479
58 votes
2 answers
11k views

Is phosphine evidence of life on Venus?

This news article came out about evidence tied to the possibility of life on Venus. The crux of the evidence is the detection of phosphine. The claim is that we only know of two ways to make this ...
Larian LeQuella's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
765 views

Does synthetic vitamin C contribute to the formation of genotoxins that can lead to cancer?

While researching Vitamin C supplements, I noticed dozens of people outraged about various companies slipping in "synthetic vitamin c" (ascorbic acid). From what I can tell this aversion ...
Honest Abe's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
6k views

Are sardines farmed?

I've been trying to find out if sardines are farmed or if they are all wild and are only fished. Most of the sources I find, like this page, say that they cannot be farmed: They are not farmed, as ...
Dumu's user avatar
  • 73
7 votes
1 answer
823 views

Will bacteria grow in filtered water?

Zero Water makes water filtration systems that they claim remove 99% of total dissolved solids from water. On the Water is the New Gold blog, a water-filter scientist warns against its use: More ...
user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
6k views

Does it take two weeks for a single man to produce enough sperm to impregnate every fertile woman on Earth?

Fact Slides has a slide that claims: A single human male produces enough sperm in two weeks to impregnate every fertile woman on the planet. It sources a book of random facts Is it true?
Richard Pi's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
342 views

Was the yellow fever virus a past standardized biological weapon in the US Army?

Dany Shoham writes in a 2012 paper [full text, paywalled]: The yellow fever virus – a past standardized BW in the US Army, then carried by infected Aedes mosquitoes as vectors – was thus genetically ...
Fizz's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
701 views

Are there artificially created viruses that are both deadly like Ebola and transmissible like the common cold?

A popular YouTube personality, Dr. John Campbell, a retired nurse teacher, makes a claim in a May 4th video around the 4m27s mark: Now let's be quite clear. No-one is saying [SARS-CoV-2] is a ...
user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
280 views

Is there real scientific consensus linking bats to COVID-19? [closed]

I see a lot of articles in the media mentioning new bat species and adding references in the articles or the titles linking bats to coronavirus [The links in ref1 at the bottom are just some samples]. ...
FluidCode's user avatar
  • 737
-1 votes
1 answer
637 views

Are crocodiles more closely related to birds than lizards and snakes?

In this video Owl, The Best Pet Reptile? you can hear Clint say, Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards and snakes. Is this claim true?
Evan Carroll's user avatar
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20 votes
1 answer
5k views

Does rolled sod produce 40x as much oxygen as a pine forest?

From an advertisement for turf / rolled sod by a German company: 250 m² Rollrasen produzieren etwa so viel Sauerstoff wie 10.000 m² Kiefernwald oder etwa so viel, wie eine vierköpfige Familie zum ...
Daniel Jour's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Will homemade facemasks using vacuum bag filters cause lung irritation?

In this YouTube video A Doctor Explains How to Make the Safest Face Mask, a doctor, and then his wife, talk about 'the safest' home-made face mask. (He disclaims that it has been tested, but says he ...
I likeThatMeow's user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
375 views

Could the COVID-19 mortality rate be way lower than we think, implying vastly more cases? [closed]

I was analyzing some of the data surrounding COVID-19, and was looking at the vastly different mortality rates (calculated as deaths / total cases * 100). While there are probably many factors ...
robbieperry22's user avatar
54 votes
1 answer
15k views

Do studies show that viruses are contagious?

An acquaintance of mine has been very adamant that viruses can't be caught and continues to link me things like this Ickonic video, where Jaymie Icke interviews Dr. Andrew Kaufman M.D. who claims: I ...
TheXenocide's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
555 views

Are pomegranate seeds edible? [closed]

My dad usually eats cherry seeds, which seemed dangerous to me, so I searched it online and indeed it can be dangerous. Today, I was about to eat a pomegranate but I wasn't sure if the seeds are ...
user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is there a species of locust-eating wasp that will check its burrow repeatedly if its food is moved?

The book Do Animals Think? by Clive D. L. Wynne claims that a biologist, Jean-Henri Fabre, conducted a number of experiments on the inflexibility on wasp behaviour. In particular: One species of ...
Lukas1's user avatar
  • 183
39 votes
4 answers
17k views

Can social isolation kill babies?

According to the Wikipedia page for Language Deprivation Experiments, An experiment allegedly carried out by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century saw young infants raised without human ...
Frou-Frou Fox's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
103 views

Does calcification of the pineal gland negatively affect normal bodily functions? [duplicate]

I received this link from an associate of mine. It smells like pseudo-scientific bull to me, but there are a LOT of claims made in the article that I can't really debunk all by myself. To quote from ...
Scrambo's user avatar
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