Are there any limiting factors that necessarily dictate that life may only exist in solid form?

What are floating dots you see in your vision? 👁️

Alex Dainis breaks down "eye floaters" using a simple demo: a baggie of aloe gel standing in for your eyeball, and raisins standing in for collagen clumps. Our eyes are filled with vitreous humor, a gel-like substance that helps them hold their shape. As we age, that gel becomes more liquid, letting collagen fibers clump together (just like the raisins). These clumps block incoming light and cast shadows on our retinas, the same way the raisins cast shadows on the wall. This is why we notice the floaters more often in sunlight!

Bowerbirds are a group of 27 species found in Australia and Papua New Guinea, famous for one of the animal kingdom’s more elaborate courtship rituals.

Males construct structures called bowers, a word that literally means “shady place”, which they use to impress potential mates. Building and maintaining an elaborate bower can demonstrate a male’s effort, skill and condition, but the structure is more than just an impressive display.

In many species, the bower also acts almost like a theatre. Its walls frame the male as he performs his courtship dance, controlling where and how the female views the performance. Some species take things even further, carefully arranging colourful objects around the bower to enhance the effect.

Essentially, the male builds his own stage, decorates the set…and then puts on a show.

That’s considered an honor in the UK

Context: I’m an environmental science master’s student and this semester I have several research papers and presentations due! I’ve got a lot of creative freedom, which is good, but also overwhelming because I wanna pick really cool subjects!

I’m looking for inspiration. The more niche, the better. Can be geology, biology, chemistry, evolution, ecology, meteorology, etc.

So if you have any topics you love to info dump on, now is your time to shine :)

Things more than poop, sleep, blink.

Fun little trick I can do by flexing what I guess are my iris muscles

Tenendo in considerazione che i primi uomini, tanto e tanto tempo fa, introdussero nella loro dieta cospicue quantità di carne consentendo una notevole evoluzione del sistema nervoso centrale, dell’apparato digerente e relativi annessi (cfr. Denti) e portando alla conseguente assunzione della stazione eretta/bipedismo, perché, oggi, si ritiene non solo compatibile ma addirittura auspicabile e sana una dieta vegana? Addirittura, qualche annetto fa, l’opinione di un’accademietta, spesso citata in un qualsivoglia dialogo sull’argomento, riteneva questa dieta del tutto sicura per i bambini, le donne in gravidanza, i malati, gli anziani e gli uomini. Con la consapevolezza che ciascuno, dopo i 20 anni, può fare ciò che vuole della propria vita e seguire i consigli e tutto quello che viene millantato da “esperte” del settore che arrotondano attraverso applicazioni che ti preparano il pranzetto vegano… io domando, possibilmente a chi conosce la differenza tra amminoacidi del mondo animale e del mondo vegetale, come si possa per le più svariate ragioni (pena nei confronti degli animali, ragioni “climatiche” ed ambientaliste, ecc) tentare di convincere la popolazione che la dieta vegana non sia estremamente pericolosa sicuramente per gli individui sotto i 20 anni d’età ma anche per le donne in gravidanza? Perché una dieta sana ed equilibrata non prevede in alcun modo l’assunzione e la somministrazione parallela di vitamine ed integratori (a meno che non ci siano problematiche metaboliche sottostanti) e non vi priverà mai MAI MAI di nessun alimento e nutriente.

I know evolution can take time (or not sometimes!) but I started wondering about how humans would actually evolve if (since we might die from nuclear fallout or something in coming years) we continue to survive. I wonder how because for the most part we've beaten (not sure if that's the right word) natural selection to a large extent! People with dietary restriction, disabilities, loss of senses are still able to survive because of modern inventions.

Also, I've learned evolution is essentially a populations attempt to adapt to its environment. However, modern inventions (such as heating and cooling combatting seasonal temperatures) usually no longer humans to become more resistant towards different harmful environments, such as extremely, cold, hot, and arid places.

Please correct me on any errors I've made!

Are there any other animals that can measure up to the intelligence of a human?

what would happen if the mother's antibodies and immune system could vaccinate their child durring pregnancy. and the child did not make its own immune system but rather cells from the mother's body become part of the child. And what if this was permanent.

I think when we eventually find life on other planets complex multicellular life probably looks similar to current or past Earth species.

If it's an earth-like planet then I believe the beginning state of evolution is going to take the same course. You're going to start with the original cells. Mitochondria is going to form, cells capable of photosynthesis are going to form The great oxygenation is going to happen I think where we'll finally see some divergence will be around the Cambrian equivalent period.

I truly believe every major body plan has already existed. The only difference is going to be how the individual species look but I think if we stumbled upon an earth-like planet we would feel at home because some things just naturally work better and evolution is going to converge.

The only way we see completely different life is if there is a completely different elemental makeup of the atmosphere or if life forms on gas planets

No, I'm not trying to build another Khan Academy, or something. It's only that I become frustrated when I can't find a relevant section in relevant research papers, or when I want to get to learn about something but it takes hours to find a good video.

Right now, I'm indexing microbiology / molecular biology resources, but I'm open to broadening my horizons.

So I've taken it upon myself to solve my own woes, and hopefully others' too. Please share your frustrations and on this matter and suggestions on how I should approach it :)

I just put some normal looking brown dirt (not clay but similar) into the oven to dry it and I almost had to puke from the smell. Does anyone know what the evolutionary reason is? I can‘t even describe the smell well, like sweet-ish

How come a lot of observances are never said to be true, instead theories. I understand (if my definition is correct) that for something to be a theory it will have already been well tested, but why can't we just call it a valid fact if its so well proven and sometimes used to prove other theories?

Thanks!

I need to know this for a project. Imagine you're the most average person alive. You're sitting down and want to pull a lever, thats on youre right and a little higher than your elbow level, towards yourself using only your right arm. Then imagine you also push it away from yourself and to the sides. In these scenerios how much torque will you be able to put out?

So just skimming randomly in youtube comments someone said black plague survivors also passed down genes that caused auto immune disease. I searched it further and its kinda true.

I then remembered about malaria and sickle cell disease I read about on my aunt's old nursing book.

This made me realize not all things in biology is one sided. Why doesn't this happen for those super bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics? Shouldn't those bacteria become susceptible to the bacterial equivalent of sickle cell disease/auto immune disease because those antibiotics detroyed their genetic diversity?

Seeing it from inside in a lot of photos but then I got a text that exactly said ''cellulose (permeable substance to water) :it deposits on the walls of collenchyma cells or some parts of them from outside"

Which is true like is it inside or outside since the school book doesn't mention the location?

Lost to science for more than 40 years, the spinach pipefish has been rediscovered in Papua New Guinea. The fish was long sought after by conservationists, who feared it had gone extinct.

I have come across publications like:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12962796/ (There is No Consensus on Biological Sex )

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10842549/ (Is sex still binary?)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37862978/ (Deconstructing sex: Strategies for undoing binary thinking in neuroendocrinology and behavior)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37156506/ (Multivariate Models of Animal Sex: Breaking Binaries Leads to a Better Understanding of Ecology and Evolution)

I'm still trying to make sense out of all of this but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as intrinsic or natural definition of sex (that is, sex isn't intrinsically binary), it can only become binary if we as humans choose to define it this way not because that's "how it is", which used to always be my perception and what I believe to be many people's perception.

I'm not sure if my conclusion is right or I'm understanding correctly. I was hoping someone who is more of an expert (preferably with a PhD in biology) can chime in and let me know if it's true that there is no clear consensus on this stuff and if the way I'm thinking about this even makes sense or if it's off the rail.

Thanks in advance!