This amazing graphic takes you on a journey from the highest mountain on Earth to the deepest trench of the oceans. Enjoy it as you scroll down the page. The outer layer of the Earth (the crust) ranges from 5 and 70 km thick. The Mariana Trench is just under 11 km deep. A journey all the way …
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Category:Biology
A Fish Out Of Water…
I don’t have a TV in Oxford but do in France. I pay the BBC license fee in the UK because I think the BBC is the greatest British institution. Sadly iPlayer doesn’t work in France and I can’t tell it that I am a paid-up member and should be entitled to view. So I …
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Eagle owls…
I like the Latin names of different species. They are normally named with their genus then their species so humans are Homo sapiens. The genus is always capitalised and the whole name is in italics. I have always liked it when the genus and species are the same. I think this stems from when I …
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The Anthill Mob…
There are several ant nests on my property this year. I suspect that there have always been but this is the first time that they have been large enough, and sufficiently prominent, that I have noticed them. The one above is the biggest I have spotted so far. Every time I pass there is a great …
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Baby Birds…
These are the Great Tit chicks growing very quickly in the Summer Fields Nest Box. I think I can count six of them but it is difficult with them all bunched together. The parents are working tirelessly to feed them.
Flowering Plants…
The above is a labelled diagram of an insect pollinated flower. You can tell that it is pollinated by an insect because of the large petals. In reality it would probably have a bright colour, pleasant smell and nectar to attract the pollinator. What do all the bits do? The anther and filament together are …
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Leaves (Part Two)…
There is a Leaves (Part One) which you could look at before this if you are in any doubt about your leaf knowledge. The above is a cross-section through a typical leaf. There is an actual microscope photograph of a similar leaf below. It should be fairly easy to compare structures between the two pictures. …
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Leaves (Part One)…
Leaves are the factories of plants. They have a large surface area for gaseous exchange. They can absorb gases from the air through the tiny pores on their undersides called stomata (singular stoma). They also open and close these to regulate water evaporating from the leaf.
What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us…
Work done by Dr Nikola Koepke (formerly from Oxford University but now at Zurich Universtory) looked at the remains of skeletons from the 8th century BC until the 18th century AD and used changes in people’s heights over this period as a measure of how well fed they were. The study combined biology and archaeology …
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Incontinentia Buttocks…
Re-reading a post from last term on diffusion and smell inevitably made me think about flatulence. Flatulence is the polite word for farting. Apart from Her Late Majesty the Queen, everybody suffers from flatulence from time to time. Flatus (a Latin word I believe) refers to gases produced in the gut although a hefty proportion …
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