One of the rarest plant’s few have ever seen in the world of botany is the Parrot Flower (Impatiens psittacina) looks like a parrot. 1 The flower appears as an orchid but lacks the specific characteristics (three petals and three…
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Dicotyledons are a group of flowering plants with specific features. Their primary and most distinguishing feature is the presence of two embryo leaves called cotyledons. This is the main basis for the differentiation between this set of flowering plants (dicotyledons,…
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An earthworm is an invertebrate animal. An invertebrate animal is an animal without a backbone. An earthworm feeds on dead and live organic matter and is usually found in soil. It is tube shaped with neither legs nor hands and interestingly,…
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Orcas or killer whales are large and striking members of the dolphin family that live in all the world’s oceans. There are several subspecies of orca, and there is an ongoing debate in the scientific community concerning their classification. The…
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Looking for an explanation of the sometimes confusing terms ‘diffusion’, ‘osmosis’ and ‘tonicity’? Look no further. Each of these concepts, how they relate to each other, and how they play out in both animal and plant cells are detailed below….
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The ability to smell is inherited by almost all developed organisms, which is facilitated by specialized organs and cells. However, until very recent times, scientists were unaware of the olfaction of bacteria although they knew the same to exist among yeast…
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The discovery of a new animal species is an exciting event in the scientific community, although it does not often catch the public’s attention like the three marsupial species recently found in Queensland, Australia. These species have gained this attention,…
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While folklore has suggested for centuries that wolves and man can be friends, it has been a cautionary friendship. Now, however, geneticists have suggested that the relationship between man and wolf (European gray wolves, to be precise) may hold the…
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COMPARATIVE GENOMIC HYBRIDIZATION (CGH) Comparative genomic hybridization is a technique to study changes in copy number of DNA. Classical CGH procedure consists in labeling DNA from the “test” patient” with a particular fluorescent dye that emits green light, while DNA…
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Tomes have been written about mosquito morphology and taxonomy. Because of their economic importance, there is probably more known about the mosquito than any insect other than the giant silkworm, the honeybee and, thanks to E.O Wilson, ants. Mosquitoes are…
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