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Welcome to Ask A Biologist. This site has a large collection of biology learning materials that includes stories, games, activities, videos, and a podcast.

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What might look like a lifeless world is actually filled with life and history. You just need to know where to look. Take a tour with two park rangers to get the inside story of South Mountain Park.

Dr. Biology sits down with biologist E. O. Wilson to talk about science, his writing including his book, Superorganism, and future new novel, as well as his art. Along the way they discuss the Encyclopedia of Life web project and a very cool outdoor activity called a "Bioblitz…

Tardigrades are some of the toughest animals on earth. They can survive freezing, drying up, radiation, and space, all while being smaller than the tip of a pencil.

Thousands of orange and black shapes flutter through the trees. Welcome to one of the few wintering homes of the monarch butterfly. Also in: Español | Français

An interview with biologist Tina Wilson from the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix Arizona. Listen in as Dr. Biology learns how cacti and other desert plants keep their cool.
Dr. Biology is out of the studio again and this time with his shoes off and inside the tiny, but powerful submarine named Alvin. He’s there to talk with the chief pilot of Alvin, Bruce Strickrott, about what it is like to explore the deep ocean. Listen in as we explore the living…
Dr Biology sits down with well known science correspondent, Robert Krulwich (Radiolab), for a fun conversation about communicating science. The two talk about media, old and new, and maybe some that may not have been developed.
Professor Susanne Neuer from the ASU School of Life Sciences talks about her research and how a person in the southwest desert can be studying deserts in the oceans. Yes, we said deserts in the ocean. Listen in to find out why.
An eye in puzzle pieces

Seeing Color

Read Seeing Color and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

scorpion game

Venom!

Play the Venom! GameThe shape of a molecule is very important. It’s what makes it possible for proteins to interact with other parts of the cell. In this…
some crystals of different colors with microscopic life on them

X-ray Crystallography

Read Making Life Crystal Clear and then take this quiz to test your knowledge!

Hummingbird cartoon

Hummingbird Lunch

These daredevil birds can be perfect subjects for a backyard experiment.

Pollen Gallery (Pollen up-close)

Pollen comes in many shapes and sizes. These are just a few of the thousands of examples.

Ant Gallery (Get up-close to ants)

Now is the time to check out these amazing animals from the safety of your own computer.

Tiger Beetle Zoom Gallery (Up-close with tiger beetles)

Some of the fastest animals on Earth are below. That’s right, if these tiny insects were as large as a horse they would be running 200 miles an hour.

Bone Zoom Gallery (Up-close Inside Bones)

Take a look at the microscopic world of bone in our virtual bone histology lab. Just pick a microscope slide from below and click on it to view under the virtual microscope.

Mouse and snail taxonomy

Linnaeus and the World of Taxonomy

Have you ever wondered how animals and plants get their names? People give them names, lots of different names! That was how it used to be before Carl Linnaeus created the world of taxonomy.…

Wordsearch | Crossword
A classroom Globe

Where In The World Is Kazakhstan?

Where in the world is Kazakhstan (Ka-zakh-ston)? This may be a puzzling question to some, but no longer. This story we will help put the pieces together.

Wordsearch | Crossword
Sea Urchin

Sea Urchins Do Research

No, urchins are not indigenous to the desert. The usual home for Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is the ocean's rocky floor for grazing along the intertidal and subtidal areas. Also in:…

Wordsearch | Crossword
Scorpion with laser beams

Not So Scary Scorpions

Scorpions are often misunderstood. Many people say that scorpions are so aggressive they will sting themselves to death, but this is not a natural behavior of scorpions in the wild. Also in:…

Wordsearch | Crossword