Category Archives: Biology

The West Press UWG president Dr. Kyle Marrero and Biology Department Chair Dr. Christopher Tabit pose for a photo during the groundbreaking ceremony for the biology building. From Staff Reports The University of West Georgia broke ground Jan. 27 on renovation and expansion work that will transform its 46-year-old biology building into a modern center for collaborative learning and research. Students, faculty and staff attended the event, along with representatives from the Georgia Board of Regents and the state Legislature. This is a very exciting day for all of us, said UWG President Dr. Kyle Marrero. This building was opened in 1972, and todaymany years later were on the precipice of a state-of-the-art facility that will serve 70 percent of our students and educate the scientists, researchers, nurses, educators and innovators of tomorrow. Construction which is being completed by Whiting-Turner Construction and Cooper Cary Architects, both of Atlanta will be divided into two phases, according to Whiting-Turner Senior Project Manager Michael Biggs. Phase one will expand the building by 14,000 square feet and will be complete in November of this year, Biggs said. Phase two will see the renovation of the buildings existing 73,000 square feet and is slated for … Continue reading →

Whitnall High School biology teacher Cody Smith wearing a Bill Nye the Science Guy shirt that reads, "I'ts not magic, it's science!"(Photo: Submitted) GREENFIELD - WhitnallHigh School biology teacher Cody Smith was awarded the FrankZuernerNew Teacher Scholarship, sponsored by the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers Foundation in recognition of having "extraordinary potential for working with and serving students" in just his second year of teaching. "I nominatedCodySmithfor this award because he is not just an excellent teacher; he is an inspiring teacher," said fellow Whitnall science teacher Jessica Doyle, who nominated Smith"Students leave his classes wanting to learn more and looking forward to science. He makes students feel that they are welcome, capable, and important." Smith began working at Whitnall two-years ago, after graduating fromCarrollUniversity in 2015. He student taught at Whitnallhis senior year and was hired full-time at the end of the semester. Smith now teaches honors and advanced placement biology. Originally thinking that he would graduate to become a doctor when he started college, Smith soonrealizedhis calling lay somewhere else. "I was still extremely passionate about science and did not want to change my focus entirely," he said. "I have always wanted to give backand work with people, … Continue reading →

Dayton Business Journal Wittenberg professor leaves school $2.3M Dayton Business Journal The late Elizabeth "Betty" Powelson donated $2.3 million from her estate to the Springfield university's biology department, it announced in an event Wednesday. The money will go toward the Wittenberg biology department. A professor emerita of biology ... and more » Link: Wittenberg professor leaves school $2.3M - Dayton Business Journal … Continue reading →

Brazilian taxonomists have discovered and described three new species of the bird-eating tarantula genus Avicularia from Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. Avicularia merianae, female. Image credit: H.-W. Auer. The description is published in a new issue of the journal ZooKeys, authored by Dr. Caroline Sayuri Fukushima and Dr. Rogrio Bertani, researchers in the Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution at the Instituto Butantan in So Paulo, Brazil. Even though these harmless tarantulas have long been a favorite exotic pet around the world, their identity has remained problematic ever since the first species, the pinktoe tarantula (Aranea avicularia), was described back in 1758 by the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), the scientists explained. He described the species based on a hodgepodge of spiders. Over the next centuries, other species with completely different characteristics were called Avicularia creating a huge mess. As a result, basic questions, such as the characteristic traits of the genus, the number of its species and their localities, have been left unanswered. To address the confusion, Dr. Fukushima and Dr. Bertani studied both newly collected specimens and also specimens from museum collections. The authors concluded that, instead of the 49 species previously assigned to the genus Avicularia, there … Continue reading →

We've seen a lot of bigotry over the past year, from the passage of North Carolina's HB2, which bans transgender people from certain bathrooms, to the Trump administration rescinding civil rights protections for transgender students in public schools. And if you've ever tried to counter this type of discrimination, you might have come up against someone who truly believes that their bigoted viewpoints are based in science. A biology teacher from New York saw this scenario on Facebook, and she was fed up. Instead of just scrolling by, Grace Pokela destroyed a transphobic post with science. According to Observer, Grace saw someone post a meme on Facebook that tried to pass transphobia off as scientific. The post argued that there are only two sexes in sexual species, as determined by chromosomes. The post says anything other than an XX (female) or XY (male) chromosome pairing is a mutation, and it argues those chromosome pairing also determine our gender. We already know sex and gender are different, so this post is automatically untrue but Grace pointed out there's actually a whole lot of science that proves it even more false. "First of all, in a sexual species, you can have females … Continue reading →

Whitnall High School biology teacher Cody Smith wearing a Bill Nye the Science Guy shirt that reads, "I'ts not magic, it's science!"(Photo: Submitted) GREENFIELD - WhitnallHigh School (W.H.S.) biology teacher Cody Smith was awarded the FrankZuernerNew Teacher Scholarship, sponsored by the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers Foundation (W.S.S.T.), in recognition of having "extraordinary potential for working with and serving students" in just his second year of teaching. "I nominatedCodySmithfor this award because he is not just an excellent teacher; he is an inspiring teacher," said fellow W.H.S. science teacher Jessica Doyle, who nominated Smith to the W.S.S.T. "Students leave his classes wanting to learn more and looking forward to science. He makes students feel that they are welcome, capable, and important." Smith began working at W.H.S. two years ago, after graduating fromCarrollUniversity in 2015. He student taught at Whitnallhis senior year and was hired full-time at the end of the semester. Smith now teaches honors and advanced placement (A.P.) biology. Originally thinking that he would graduate to become a doctor when he started college, Smith soon after realizedhis calling lay somewhere else. "I was still extremely passionate about science and did not want to change my focus entirely. I have … Continue reading →

As we enter the final and most crucial stage of the CBSE Class 12 Boards, it becomes very important that we follow certain practices to ensure maximum performance in the exams. Since last year, the format of the biology paper has changed. The number of sections has increased and the nature of questions has also changed. The number of application-based questions has increased and direct questions has decreased. Paper will have 5 sections. Section A will have 5 questions of one mark each; section B will have 5 questions of 2 marks each; section C, 12 questions of 3 marks each; Section D, 1 question of four marks and Section E, 3 questions of 5 marks each. Read more Usually section A and E have direct questions so going through the paper from section E to A (5 marks to 1 mark) helps. Section B and C are application-based sections. Although this article does not in any way state that this is the only way to write the paper, all suggestions are meant to just help students and ensure they have a plan in place for the paper. Section C is the trickiest part of the paper and carries maximum … Continue reading →

Teens learn about Synthetic Biology and Run a DNA Extraction Experiment at the Studio Around the Corner in Brewster "I am a synthetic biologist, and today you are one too," started Jeffrey Marano at the Cultural Arts Coalitions first Science at the Studio Teen Forum. The class opened with a brief discussion about the history of biotechnology and the main movers and shakers of the field. Then the students went on to perform DNA isolation from strawberries. The class closed with a bioethics discussion for the high school student session and an arts and crafts demonstration of laboratory protocols in the middle school session. On April 1st, Forensic Scientist, Ted Schwartz will be discussing various topics in his field. The FREE Science workshop will take place on Saturday, April 1st from 2:30-4:00PM for middle school students and 4:155:45PM for high school students. Registration is recommended. For more information on this and other Cultural Arts Coalition events, visit: http://www.oththeater.org, call (845) 363 - 8330, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or find us on Facebook at Old Town Hall, Brewster, NY. Read more from the original source: Teens Learn about Synthetic … Continue reading →

14:53 06 March 2017 Sarah Cliss Kings Ely A-level biology students won a haul of awards in this years British Biology Olympiad which saw 7,500 students from across the country compete. Archant KingS Ely students won a haul of awards in this years British Biology Olympiad. Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. The Olympiad is an annual competition which sees over 7,500 Biology students from across the country all of whom are predicted A or A* grades completing a gruelling two hour online paper at the end of January. Kings Elys highest performer was Ming Hu, 18, whose results were among the top 16% nationally. He received a Silver Medal and a certificate. Lia Beeston, 17, was awarded a Bronze Medal and a certificate, and William Vasishta, 17, and Edward Chittenden, 18, were both Highly Commended. Pupils Matthew Bridgman, 18, Oliver Wilkinson, 17, and Yichen (Ethel) Wang, 17, were also Commended in the competition. Teacher of Biology at Kings Ely, Paul Lott, commented: We are delighted that these young scientists have utilised their knowledge and understanding and taken the opportunity to extend themselves and push their interest in … Continue reading →

Dear Mr. Kailey, Thank you for raising the important issues surrounding the pro-life side of the abortion debate to the Union community. As students of developmental biology, we would like to address a few points about embryonic development discussed in the article Political Faceoff: Pro-Life published on April 28, 2016. Our hope is to elucidate the circumstances of development so that our friends can fully understand the biological elements of life versus personhood, which we feel are not the same. Mr. Kailey wrote, We know living things instantly when we see them. All the qualities of life are recognizable in the form of an unborn child. Most women who seek an abortion do not understand the development of a baby, and do not realize that within the first weeks a child will have developed limbs, nerves and even functioning organs. As a class, we have looked under the microscope at a single-celled embryo (from a sea urchin) and seen life, but did not recognize qualities of life such as love, empathy and conscious thought. Life is not the same as personhood. There is no way to deny that an embryo in the womb is alive. During the early stages of … Continue reading →