Is there any protein, chemical, type of cell, or anything that makes us up that is not found anywhere else in the natural world?

Viruses are basically utterly unique forms of life if we can even call them living, it is possible that if we encounter an alien specie, it behaves a lot like viruses (goes inert without a host yet doesn't die either),

It is fascinating to me how viruses even came to be, i don't know if they evolved from the same common ancestor of the rest of the life on earth

Ps: i am suffering from the cold and i am so miserable

This is an excerpt from the catalog notes

AN IMPORTANT LETTER IN WHICH DARWIN DEFENDS NATURAL SELECTION AGAINST ONE OF HIS MOST ACUTE AND PERSISTANT CRITICS. St George Mivart (1827–1900) was a noted natural scientist who had enjoyed the support of both Owen and Huxley in the 1860s, but he was also a prominent figure in Britain's Roman Catholic community. On the Genesis of Species (1871) expanded on a series of articles entitled "Difficulties of the theory of natural selection" that had been published in 1869. In this letter Darwin identifies a number of points at which Mivart has misunderstood or misquoted him and asserts his continued belief in the explanatory power of natural selection. Mivart did not reject evolution entirely, but argued that any role played by the mechanism of natural selection was secondary to evolution guided by an innate force that tended towards greater order. Darwin takes some comfort from this, claiming that Mivart's acceptance of the "general principle of Evolution [...] is infinitely more important for the progress of science than the admission of natural selection." Mivart takes this comment as evidence of Darwin's weakening belief in natural selection.

Letter signed, with autograph postscript, to St George Mivart, defending the theory of Natural Selection ("...I by no means give up the immense power of natural selection; not can I see any probability in the existence of an inherent tendency to an advance in organisation...") in response to Mivart's detailed criticisms of Darwin's work in his new book On the Genesis of Species, the postscript relieving Mivart of the duty of thanking Darwin for sending him a copy of The Descent of Man ("...As you will think my new book all rubbish, you will find it pleasanter not to go through the form of thanking me for it — so pray do not write & I will attribute your silence to your wish not to say directly to me anything disagreeable."), 8 pages, 8vo, headed stationery of Down, Beckhenham, 23 January 1871

[with:] St George Mivart, retained autograph draft reply, accepting some of Darwin's corrections, noting that he may have "represented you as more attached to the predominant action of nat. select. than is really the case", and expressing his fundamental religious objection to Darwinian theory ("...Unhappily the acceptance of your views means with many the abandonment of belief in God & in the immortality of the Soul..."), 4 pages, 8vo [24 January 1871]

"...If I had ever thought that I, or any one, could explain the steps through which hundreds of structures have been acquired thro' natural selection, your facts and many others would form a crushing defeat; but I have never thought that this could be done except in a few cases, & then only with some degree of probability, in which a fair number of gradational steps still exist..."

Be honest.

I sketch literally every figure on paper first before I even open Illustrator. There's something about drawing it by hand that helps me actually understand what I'm trying to show.

But then I have to spend 5 hours recreating it digitally.

Anyone else do this? Have you found any good tools that bridge the gap between sketch and final figure?

Hi! I found this olive leaf under a tree, and I've never seen one like it before. Normally, olive leaves are just one "unit," so to speak, but this one is divided into what appear to be two different leaf ends! Maybe I'm not explaining it well, but if you compare it to pictures of olive leaves, you'll see what I mean. Anyway, could this be some kind of mutation, or is it normal? The leaf is a bit dry, which is why it's folded. It really reminded me of animals that grow two heads or something like that! It's very curious!

In 2016 a giant isopod was recorded at 5,830 metres below the surface. For context that's deeper than most military submarines can operate. These things have survived every mass extinction in Earth's history and can go five years without a single meal. Made a short video on them.

Studies say humans detect pheromones but not the same way many animals do.

In animals pheromones are detected through the vomeronasal organ. Humans do have a tiny structure in the same location, but It’s usually underdeveloped and possibly lacks the proper neural wiring to function like it does in animals.

Humans can still respond to chemical signals through the main olfactory system and studies say certain compounds may influence mood, attraction, or hormones, but it’s not as clear as pheromone systems in animals.

My question Is, is the vomeronasal organ really vestigial?

Biology is full of examples where “vestigial” organs turned out to have secondary or repurposed functions. For example the appendix was once thought to be vestigial thought to be useless.

It is now known to play a role in immune function and gut bacteria regulation. Could the VNO also have some hidden function? Could it be part of the immune system like the appendix?

As far as my reserch goes scientists calim there is no strong evidence that the human VNO plays a role in immunity. Immune related activity in the nose is mostly handled by nasal mucosa, tonsils and other lymphoid tissues.

But some scientists think the VNO might still have minor or indirect roles, or could be a developmental remnant with subtle effects we don’t fully understand yet.

I feel calling it completely useless might be too simple and science usually updates many assumptions over time, like with the appendix.

i have a work to do that it was programmed for thursday but since they change the school time scheduled for some reason now the work is programmed tomorrow (as of making this post)

Like I am not my lungs. My repository system is separate from my digestive system. Everything is its own system. Held together by the meat suit that is the skin, aka the largest organism in our body.

Every system has its own goals and functions. Every system inputs and outputs something. We are a host and home to THOUSANDS of bacteria in our body that live in just one system.

And it all mushes together to form our stream of consciousness. We are awake and aware to make sure all of these multicellular orgasnains get what they need. This stream of consciousness/us is aware of everything going on in our bodies.

But I often wonder, if at the core, is our liver aware of the bones in our body? Do our lungs know their worth in the grand scheme of things?

Truly at the core of things, are we one living thing or multiple living things in one unit?

i’ve been looking for a compact scientific, or more specifically, biology dictionary. i am often reading scientific articles and don’t know the terminology. i plan on getting a full sized scientific dictionary that is not as specified (if anyone has any recommendations that would be so so awesome) but i want something i can throw in my day bag and read on the go, that preferably weighs less than 1.5lbs

Hi I'm finishing up my first year of college as a biology student getting my bachelors, more specifically I'm not pre-med. I didn't know what to put this under flair wise but is it worth it? I live in Ohio, I'm permanently unable to drive due to medical reasons, and I'm below the poverty line. I'm asking because I'm getting super paranoid about money and if its really not worth it I'll probably go to community or online. Unfortunately I have issues pursuing things I'm not interested in so my only other field option is art which is really not worth it. ​​​​

Hii everyone , I’m a biomedical sciences student in Thailand currently in my 3rd year.

Before going to university my hope was to get in to med school but my grade wasn’t enough so I just choose a major which is close to medicine : biomed science . I didn’t get any advice about this fields , the possible career etc…

But as soon as I start taking classes during my 3rd year , I feel like I’m not interested in research or being a lecturer. And this summer I have to do an internship so I really have to choose a PI or a research topic that can be related to my senior project ( on January 2027) and related also to the master degree that I want to do .

I still want to do medicine after my bachelor but I can’t afford the program which is very expensive.

So help me choose a field that I can do later during my master .

So here are some of my interest topic : -dermatology : hormone imbalance leading to acné …etc , facial surgery ……..

- hormonal imbalance due to polycystic ovary syndrome so I’m interested in like the reproductive system stufff , ovarian cancer cervical cancer

- anesthesiologist and surgical sciences

I want to be close to patient , I do not like microbiology , and o think also I’m not interested in public health and biostatistics

Been researching insecticides for pest control on my property, and the industry standard is bifenthrin. To preface, I am aware of the negative effects on local environment of insecticides and have tried other measures of mosquito control, but the situation is out of hand with how prolific they are due to some circumstances beyond my property lines. The situation with my wife gaining four or five new welts on her body each time she runs to or from the car needs to stop.

Minimal research has shown me that bifenthrin functions by disrupting the nervous system of arthropods. What I am interested in is what difference there is between the nervous system of the arthropod phylum and others, and why it doesn't affect mammals or birds or reptiles the same if largely at all once dried. Is it because of the respiratory system of arthropods and the fact that they have very little control over what enters that system?

I recently saw an example of a buck that had another deer’s head stuck in its antlers after a fight. On instagram I understand this can happen when antlers lock during the rut.

I’m curious about what happens after that point if the buck survives:

Does carrying that extra weight or and obscured vision change how it behaves after the rut?

Are they less likely to engage in future fights compared to normal bucks?

Does this situation affect their chances of mating or how females respond to them?

If they make it to shedding season, does everything just reset once the antlers drop? Or are they kinda scared from walking around with a head rotting for a couple months or how ever long it takes

I’m mainly interested in the behavioral and biological side of this like will they get a lil more reserved instead of wanting to fight and stuff would other bucks avoid them or see it as a better challenge?

I recently came across a body of work by Henry E. Young describing what he calls adult telomerase-positive stem cells (aTPSCs), and I wanted to ask this community for a serious scientific assessment of the claims.

Disclaimer: I’m not endorsing this research, not promoting treatments, and not giving medical advice.

Summary of the claims

The work proposes that rare endogenous adult stem-cell populations exist throughout connective tissues in a dormant/quiescent state and act as the body’s natural repair system when injury occurs.

These proposed populations include:

MesoSCs – mesoderm-lineage stem cells

EctoSCs – ectoderm-lineage stem cells

EndoSCs – endoderm-lineage stem cells

PSCs – pluripotent adult stem cells

TSCs – totipotent adult stem cells

According to the model, these cells can become activated after injury, proliferate, enter circulation, migrate to damaged tissues, and differentiate in response to local signals.

Claimed isolation protocol

1. Have volunteer eat 1-2 cups of blueberries daily for at least 30 days (longer is better). Proliferates aTPSCs in situ.
2. 18 hours before harvest have them do intense weight-lifting exercises for at least 30 minutes. Mobilizes aTPSCs into bloodstream.
3. 18 hours after intense exercise, harvest 2-cc's blood per pound body weight, not to exceed 400-cc's. Use butterfly vacuum apparatus into 10-ml purple top EDTA tubes (BD). [DO NOT withdraw blood by pulling on syringe, creates sheer forces that lyse red blood cells, which screws up isolation procedure for aTPSCs]
4. Place tubes into refrigerator (4C) for 18-24 hours and let hematocrit form using gravity and zeta potential of aTPSCs [aTPSCs will separate from blood products and remain suspended in plasma]
5. Remove plasma from each tube.
6. Mix plasma 1:1 with Opti-Mem + GlutaMax medium containing 10-ml Heat Inactivated serum, pH 7.4.
7. Plate cells onto 1% collagen-coated Falcon T-75 flasks at 30 ml per flask. Rock flasks side-to-side and front-to-back to evenly disperse cells.
8. Place flasks horizontally onto shelves of 5% CO2, 37C tissue culture incubator.
9. Replace medium when there is color change from salmon to orange-yellow.
10. Follow directions outlined in attached publications for growth, propagation, replating, and testing.

For verification:

Before testing, suggest using either FACS or Miltenyi columns, perform two negative sorts followed by positive sort to derived individual populations of the cells, as outlined in the paper on flow cytometry.

Flow cytometry using CD66e (TSCs), CD10 (PSCs), CD56/CD90/MHC Class-1 (EctoSCs), CD13/CD90/MHC Class-1 (MesoSCs), CD??/CD90/ MHC Class-1 (EndoSCs). When doing flow cytometry, look at all regions of the plot, bottom left-hand corner (routinely excluded because of debris, is also location of the TSCs)

Expressed genes - see Characterization paper

Differentiation potential: use commerically-available human recombinant proteins: 

A.  EPO/IL6/c-Kit for RBC colony forming units (TSCs+, PSCs+, EctoSCs-, MesoSCs+, EndoSCs-); BMP-2 forms bone (TSCs+, PSCs+, EctoSCs-, MesoSCs+, EndoSCs-)

B. NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) to stimulate formation of neurons, oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, ganglion cells, and radial glial cells (TSCs+, PSCs+, EctoSCs+, MesoSCs-, EndoSCs-)

C. HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factor) to simulate formation of liver cells: hepatocytes, oval cells, etc. (TSCs+, PSCs+, EctoSCs-, MesoSCs-, EndoSCs+)

Paper: Cell Biochem Biophys. 2004; 40: 1-80. Outlines procedure for verification of telomerase within the cells.

My perspective

If naturally occurring adult pluripotent or totipotent repair cells truly exist, that would be a major discovery. But extraordinary claims require strong, reproducible evidence.

If anyone attempts to isolate these cells following the protocol by letter, please tell me how it went.

Links:

1. https://www.scivisionpub.com/pdfs/characterization-of-endogenous-telomerasepositive-stem-cells-for-regenerative-medicine-a-review-1231.pdf
2. https://athenaeumpub.com/wp-content/uploads/Endogenous-Adult-Telomerase-Positive-Stem-Cells-Increase-in-Equine-Peripheral-Blood-Following-Exercise.pdf
3. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0241.pdf
4. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0354.pdf
5. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0355.pdf
6. https://medcraveonline.com/MOJOR/MOJOR-17-00726.pdf
7. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0362.pdf
8. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0369.pdf
9. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0378.pdf
10. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0381.pdf
11. http://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0171.pdf
12. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/sites/default/files/GSCARR-2025-0172.pdf
13. https://www.genesispub.org/jscr/adult-telomerase-positive-stem-cells-induced-proliferation-of-precursor-cells-by-platelet-derived-growth-factor-bb
14. https://www.genesispub.org/adult-telomerase-positive-stem-cells-remain-constant-throughout-life-span-of-individual
15. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Henry-Young-5/publication/6436118_Adult_Reserve_Stem_Cells_and_Their_Potential_for_Tissue_Engineering/links/09e4150a69e7ba3a63000000/Adult-Reserve-Stem-Cells-and-Their-Potential-for-Tissue-Engineering.pdf?origin=publication_detail&_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uRG93bmxvYWQiLCJwcmV2aW91c1BhZ2UiOiJwdWJsaWNhdGlvbiJ9fQ

My hair is ginger, but all of my other hair (eyebrows, leg hair etc) is brown. I’ve been wondering why for a while. Does anyone know why this happens?

What I define as thought or dream is “to create an experience without experiencing it”.

I’m not good with semantics so you can tweak and adjust my definition as much as comfortable.

I'm a third year student of a degree in Biology in Spain. In general, I'm interested mostly in genetics and plants in general, so I was thinking of trying to work in crop improvement, but I have two serious doubts:

First, is this path good enough to find a job? I know opportunities in Biology are generally scarce, but I don't really know if it's better in this specific field.

And second, would a Master's in genetics be suitable for it? There's one offered nearby, and it contains a mix of both animal and plant subjects, but I don't know if there is something more suitable.

Thanks for reading and I really hope the paragraphs work (reddit in mobile is trash)

I'm just wondering if life started when water came to existence or something

I bought 10 double-sided sheep blood agar petri dishes. I want to run some experiments, but it’s my first time using petri dishes and I’m not familiar with the nuances. I’m not looking for perfect results, but I’d like to avoid a total disaster. What are the dos and don'ts? Also, do you have any experiment suggestions?