2009 (and 2010) selection
Explanation/disclaimer: click to expand/contract
These howlers are real students' mistaken answers to Biology questions and explanations of Biological phenomena.
Some show problems with spelling, expressing themselves clearly, comprehension or recall of scientific concepts.
In other words do not take these seriously - they are all wrong in some way.
It is my hope that they first make readers laugh, and then make them think.
Other sections of the BioTopics website are more educational and informative but not so entertaining
- lofty ideals shared with the Ig Nobel prizes and the BBC mission statement.
Every creature is split into herbivores and carnivores.
The sperm feralises the egg
Parts of the skeleton:
Why do temperature and sunlight vary in a similar way?
It takes a couple of seconds for the light to hit the earth and a couple of minutes before the heat hits the earth.
Example of an addictive drug: LCD
When you breathe out your lungs shrivel up
The left side of the heart pushes blood all over the body.
Why are there lots of sperms but only one ovum?
The ovum is bigger and is more painful to release
Part of the plant cell : the vacuhole
Precautions to avoid food poisoning: clean preparatory services
Malarial parasite: plasma sodium
Evolution is a theory which people change over time.
The urinal gentile system
Leaf litter organism: might
Testes hold the sperm in an oval shape.
Testes produce sperm of which there are two.
The penis is an intermittent organ.
The bladder is a bag which links to the penis which urine is stored in.
Roots weigh the plant down so it doesn't fall over.
Warfarin resistant rats pass on this skill to their offspring.
Bacteria - staphylocucoos
The geranium leaf felt fury before we boiled it
The octopus has 8 testicles
Disease - cowbox
The body uses more blood when standing up
At the start of the lesion we talked about the growth of plants
The optimum temperature for digesting enzymes is 32C
Without insulin the body does not know it has a high concentration in its blood stream
If it is not converted in the liver glucose remains in the blood stream as glucose
Bile emulsifies fat
- and turns it into michelles
- and makes it smaller
Enzymes work more sufficiently at higher temperatures
The active site of the enzymes are not active at the lower temperature
Tests for proteins
- the brunette test
- use burettes reagent
- add biuret solution - a violent purple colour should be produced
The function of the myelin sheath is to insult the neurone
The muscle contrax and relaxes
The pituitary gland releases lager amounts of ADH
More ADH is secreted in some dessert animals
ADH reacts with Pi to form ATP
O2 and CO2 can be exchanged before entering the gills
The selectivity filter only lets through recognisable sodium ions
Sodium ions enter the axon and reverse the charges
High intensities (of a stimulus) correspond to high frequency (of impulses) because it is the only language that a stimulus can be communicated in
Channels open causing the positivity of the sodium ions to change the potential difference
This can be seen with an optical microscope as photons are small enough to hit the specimen
The light microscope is not strong enough to enable the naked eye to see this
The wavelength of light is too great so it would pass straight through
An optical microscope can see blow a certain size
Size of the pores in the membrane basement are very small
The pressure exerted from the xylem walls encourages the water up the plant
The column of water has a negative pulling power.
Ectothermic means an organism which will change its core body temperature to match its environment
Ectotherms alter their external environment in order to maintain a fairly constant internal environment.
An ectotherm has no core body temperature
To keep its body temperature, the python absorbs the sun
At a higher temperature, the python has an increased kinetic energy
Suitable units for O2 consumption: arbitrary units
This slows the heart down therefore the heart's valves won't know when to open and shut
Decomposing plant material in the water would produce more CO2, leaving less room for O2 in the water
This allows the 4 molecules of haemoglobin to be fully saturated