Category Archives: Biology

Biology - The Nervous System This video explains how the nervous system is a network of neurons that send signals to different parts of an organism's body to coordinate the actions of th... By: Brightstorm … Continue reading →

The Art of Nutrients - Biology Song -'Counting Stars' Remake Don't forget to LIKE and SHARE! The amount of LIKES determines our GRADES! An assignment for our Biology class. Enjoy~ By: Shefilyn Widjaja … Continue reading →

Thursday April 10, 2014 University of Edinburgh researchers have accomplished something that has not been done before. They have successfully regenerated a living organ: the thymus. The thymus is a small glandular organ that produces specific immune cells called lymphocytes. The thymus normally deteriorates and shrinks with age. In the study, the researchers were able to reactivate the thymus in mice by increasing the levels of a specific protein. The protein, FOXN1, induced certain cells to rebuild the thymus. According to researcher Dr. Rob Buckle, "This interesting study suggests that organ regeneration in a mammal can be directed by manipulation of a single protein, which is likely to have broad implications for other areas of regenerative biology." The researchers are hopeful that information gained from this study could be used to develop new treatments for individuals with dysfunctional immune systems. Learn more about this study, see: Monday April 7, 2014 George Washington University researchers have invented a new organ that aids in blood circulation. This organ functions as a 'mini heart' by helping blood to flow in veins with non-functioning valves. The 'mini heart' is a cuff of cardiac muscle cells that is able to contract to help pump blood … Continue reading →

See Inside Biology is making it harder for scientists to reproduce one another's experiments Science works by iteration.' Scientists repeat their peers' work and build on their findings. The literature of peer-reviewed scientific papers is the record of this step-by-step process. In recent years, however, prominent reports have suggested that many scientists are not able to replicate others' published results. Is scientific progress going wrong on an unprecedented scale? Before we jump to that conclusion, it would help to consider the changing nature of science itselfparticularly biology. Basic biomedical research and its translation into therapeutic interventions to cure diseases are at the center of this issue. In an ideal world, academic scientists identify targets for drugstypically proteins involved in diseaseand industry scientists look for agents that interfere with those targets' function. In reality, more often than not, industry scientists find that they cannot replicate the effects seen by academics in a sufficiently robust way to justify drug development. Worse, many promising drug candidates fail in phase II clinical trials when their efficacy is put to the test. The world seemed simpler in the 1970s, when molecular biology brought us concepts such as gene A leads to protein B, which leads … Continue reading →

Published: Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 11:00 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 11:31 p.m. Stillman College has been selected to participate in NNEDLearn 2014, a professional development opportunity offered by the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health. Stillman participants are Charlotte Carter, vice president for enrollment management and retention; Jacqueline W. Currie (team leader), director student development center; Artha P. James, coordinator, Stillman management institute; Joseph Scrivner, assistant professor of religion and director of the Center on Religion and Society; and James Taggart, chief of Stillman College Police. Stillman recognized 237 students for their academic achievements during its annual Honors Convocation on April 3 in Birthright Alumni Hall. The highest-ranking member of the senior class and student body with a 4.0 cumulative GPA: Asia S. Hart, a biology major from Dothan. The highest-ranking member of the junior class with a 4.0 cumulative GPA: Tamba Mondeh, a history major from Tuscaloosa. The highest-ranking member of the sophomore class with a 4.0 cumulative GPA: Franchesca J. Jefferson, a biology major from Corona, Calif. The highest ranking members of the freshman class (all with 4.0 GPAs): Kaylee D. Alexander, a biology major from West Blocton; Eric C. Berry … Continue reading →

The complexity of biology can befuddle even the most sophisticated light microscopes. Biological samples bend light in unpredictable ways, returning difficult-to-interpret information to the microscope and distorting the resulting image. New imaging technology developed at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus rapidly corrects for these distortions and sharpens high-resolution images over large volumes of tissue. The approach, a form of adaptive optics, works in tissues that do not scatter light, making it well suited to imaging the transparent bodies of zebrafish and the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, important model organisms in biological research. Janelia group leader Eric Betzig says his team developed the new technology by combining adaptive optics strategies that astronomers and ophthalmologists use to cancel out similar distortions in their images. In a report published online on April 13, 2014, in the journal Nature Methods, Betzig, postdoctoral fellow Kai Wang, and their colleagues show how the technique brings into focus the fine, branching structures and subcellular organelles of nerve cells deep in the living brain of a zebrafish. These structures remain blurry and indistinct under the same microscope without adaptive optics. "The results are pretty eye-popping," Betzig says. "This really takes the application of adaptive optics … Continue reading →

Bridging the Brain Disease Knowledge Gap through Computational Modeling and Systems Biology: An O... Join Orion Bionetworks April 4, 2014 for a complimentary all-day event to establish a forum for a dialogue between the Pharmaceutical, Academic, Patient Te... By: Orion Bionetworks … Continue reading →

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy.[1] Modern biology is a vast and eclectic field, composed of many branches and subdisciplines. However, despite the broad scope of biology, there are certain general and unifying concepts within it that govern all study and research, consolidating it into single, coherent field. In general, biology recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the synthesis and creation of new species. It is also understood today that all organisms survive by consuming and transforming energy and by regulating their internal environment to maintain a stable and vital condition. Subdisciplines of biology are defined by the scale at which organisms are studied, the kinds of organisms studied, and the methods used to study them: Biochemistry examines the rudimentary chemistry of life; molecular biology studies the complex interactions among biological molecules; botany studies the biology of plants; cellular biology examines the basic building-block of all life, the cell; physiology examines the physical and chemical functions of tissues, organs, and organ systems of an organism; evolutionary … Continue reading →

The science of biology as such did not exist in the early modern period; the term biology itself came into use only around 1800. Nonetheless, research in subjects now encompassed by biology was avidly pursued, principally by physicians but also by natural philosophers. The philosopher of science Francis Bacon (15611626) called for intensified descriptive study of physical forms ("natural history") and the analytical study of their functions, classified as part of "physic." Institutional sites for inquiry included the universities, with those in southern Europe dominant earlier and those in northern Europe later in the period. Private individuals often worked with the support of aristocratic, princely, and ecclesiastical patrons. In the seventeenth century omnibus scientific societies were founded in Rome and Florence. The Royal Society of London (founded 1660) and the Academy of Sciences in Paris (founded 1666) were highly influential. Specialized learned societies came into existence only at the end of the period. Instruments were less important than in physical science, but the microscope proved crucial to advances in knowledge. Much inquiry was tied to the pursuit of fine and technical arts (painting and sculpture, optics, printing and illustrating) and to collecting practices ("cabinets of curiosities"). Public gardens and zoological … Continue reading →

Carrying on the spirit of Emily Gregory, a Barnard professor and a pioneering woman in science, biology professor Jennifer Mansfield has been named this years Emily Gregory Award recipient. The award, established in 1974 in honor of the first woman to be named a full professor at Columbia University in 1895, is Barnards only student-nominated and student-selected teaching award. Gregory, who died in 1897, was the first American woman to receive a doctorate in botany. According to Mansfields students, Mansfield reinforces Gregorys legacy of promoting a future generation of women in science. Shes definitely an inspirational person in this field at this college. Shes a really good example that you dont have to be cutthroat in this field. Shes so smart and capable, Natasha Antony, BC 14, who took a genetics class with Mansfield, said. Shes a remarkable example of a woman in science. The Emily Gregory Award, sponsored by McIntosh Activites Council, is not the first time Mansfield has been honored for her scientific pursuits. Mansfield completed a three-year Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, granted by the National Institutes of Health, and was awarded the Charles A. Huebschman Prize for marine biology and the James Howard McGregor … Continue reading →