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Interspecific Competition Relationship - Competitive & Niche Differentiation

By: HWC, Views: 6329

In an environment with limited resources, any organisms that utilize the same resources will be in competition with each other. For example, let's look at two competing species of paramecium, a single-celled organism that feeds on bacteria. If we raise each of these species in isolation, both...

Major Elements in Biological Molecules: Proteins

By: HWC, Views: 6066

Proteins are chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. The 20 different amino acids used to make all proteins differ only in their side chains, and the properties of these side chains account for the great diversity of protein structure and function. Collagen is an example of how a prote...

How does an animal choose what food to eat?

By: HWC, Views: 6150

One might assume that natural selection has influenced the foraging behaviors of animals, and that most animals forage efficiently, spending the least energy to gain the most nutrients. This is the underlying assumption of optimality modeling, a scientific approach to studying foraging behavior. ...

Barriers - eye structures, digestive mucosa, respiratory mucosa & genitourinary mucosa

By: HWC, Views: 6899

• Eyebrows, eyelids, eyelashes and conjunctiva serve to trap microbes preventing their invasion. • Tearing (lacrimation) is a protective mechanism that washes away microbes that attempt to enter the eyes. • Salts, mucus, and lysozymes in tears neutralize substances and bacteria. â€...

Darwin's Observation (Fossils, Galapagos Islands & Africa ) and Natural Selection (Adaptive Traits)

By: HWC, Views: 6571

Along Darwin's voyage, he made many observations. Each one added to his understanding of how organisms change over time. Darwin was already familiar with fossils and knew that many fossils were very different from living organisms. But, also there were some fossils that were very similar to li...

Global warming and its effect on climate change

By: HWC, Views: 6312

Global warming, habitat destruction, and pollution are all hot topics in the news. Environmentalists are concerned that many of these factors will lead to the loss of species. But how will this happen? One way to think about the environment is as a finely-tuned, high performance engine. If one...

Nervous pathway to the Neuromuscular (NMJ)

By: HWC, Views: 7190

• A nervous impulse, also called an action potential, starts from the brain or spinal cord to signal skeletal muscle cell contraction. Action potentials continue along a motor neuron to the muscle cell. • The signal to contract must cross a synapse - the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) - betwe...

Hypoglycemia Animation

By: Administrator, Views: 10466

Hypoglycemia, also known as low blood sugar, is when blood sugar decreases to below normal levels. This may result in a variety of symptoms including clumsiness, trouble talking, confusion, loss of consciousness, seizures or death. A feeling of hunger, sweating, shakiness and weakness may also be...

Olfaction. or the sense of smell

By: HWC, Views: 4046

Do you ever wonder how you can distinguish thousands of different odors? Olfaction. or the sense of smell, is used by all mammals to navigate, find food, and even find mates. We have millions of olfactory receptors for smelling in our nose. These receptor neurons bind water-soluble or volatil...