91541
Get Daily General Knowledge Questions and Answers Feedback and ads: @askme_feedbackbot
What are cell cycle phases in detail?
1️⃣ Interphase, the period preceding mitosis, is the longest phase of the cell cycle and has three distinct sub-stages.
🔻G1 Phase (Gap 1): right after cell division cells increase in size, produce RNA and synthesize proteins. Importantly, this phase ensures that everything is in place for DNA synthesis to occur in the next phase.
🔻S Phase (Synthesis): the cell’s DNA replicates, and at the end of this phase, each chromosome consists of two chromatids attached at the centromere.
🔻G2 Phase (Gap 2): the cell continues growing and prepares for mitosis, ensuring that all the DNA has been replicated without any errors.
2️⃣ Mitosis or the M phase, has multiple steps:
🔻Prophase: Chromosomes condense and become visible, the nuclear envelope starts to disintegrate, and the mitotic spindle begins to form.
🔻Metaphase: Chromosomes line up along the cell’s equatorial plate, and spindle fibers attach to the centromeres.
🔻Anaphase: Sister chromatids are pulled apart towards opposite poles of the cell.
🔻Telophase: The chromatids or chromosomes move to opposite ends of the cell and two nuclei form.
🔻Following mitosis (or as its final step), the cell undergoes cytokinesis where the cytoplasm divides, creating two daughter cells.
⚪️ The G0 phase is a “resting” phase where the cell exits the cell cycle and stops dividing. Some cells, like neurons and muscle cells, enter this phase semi-permanently and may never undergo division again. It is crucial for:
✔️Conserving energy and resources in non-dividing cells.
✔️Specializing cells for specific functions.
✔️Regulation of the Cell Cycle:
🟩 Checkpoints tightly regulate the cell cycle to prevent errors:
✅ G1 Checkpoint ensures that the cell has adequate energy resources and that the surrounding environment is favorable for DNA replication. If conditions aren’t right, the cell can exit to G0 phase.
✅ G2 Checkpoint confirms that DNA has replicated properly.
✅ M Checkpoint (Spindle Assembly Checkpoint) occurs during metaphase in mitosis and ensures that all chromosomes properly align and attach to the spindle fibers.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
How the scientific study of cells was founded and developed?
ℹ️ Cytology or Cell biology is the scientific study of cells.
📍 German scientists Theodore Schwann (1810–1882) and Mattias Schleiden (1804–1881) studied cells of animals and plants respectively. They identified key differences and similarities between the two cell types and in 1838-39 put forth the idea that cells were the fundamental units of both plants and animals. Thus, Schwann and Schleiden are generally regarded as the first scientists to establish cell theory.
☑️ However, both Schwann and Schleiden misunderstood how cells grow.
▪️ Schleiden believed that cells were “seeded” by the nucleus and grew from there.
▪️ Similarly, Schwann claimed that animal cells “crystalized” from the material between other cells. He summarized his observations into three conclusions about cells:
✅ The cell is the fundamental unit of structure, physiology, and organization in living things.
✅ The cell retains a dual existence as a distinct entity and a building block in the construction of organisms.
❌Cells form by free-cell formation, similar to the formation of crystals (spontaneous generation).
Today it is known that the first two tenets are correct, but the third is clearly wrong.
📍 Another piece of the cell theory puzzle was identified by another German researcher Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) in 1855, who stated that all cells are generated by existing cells – Omnis cellula e cellula: “All cells only arise from pre-existing cells”.
📍 The key tenets of the modern cell theory are:
✅ All known living things are made up of cells.
✅ The cell is the structural & functional unit of all living things.
✅ All cells come from pre-existing cells by division. (Spontaneous Generation does not occur).
✅ Cells contain hereditary information, which is passed from cell to cell during cell division.
✅ All cells are basically the same in chemical composition.
✅ All energy flow (metabolism & biochemistry) of life occurs within cells.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What are differences and similarities between prokaryotes and eukaryotes?
Prokaryotes are primitive organisms lacking a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. The term ‘prokaryote’ is derived from the Greek words ‘pro’, meaning ‘before’ and ‘karyon’, meaning ‘kernel’ – ‘before nuclei’.
Eukaryotes are advanced organisms with a well-defined nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. The term ‘eukaryotes’ is derived from the Greek words ‘eu’, meaning ‘good’ and ‘karyon’, meaning ‘kernel’ – ‘true nuclei’.
The main differences and similarities between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are given above ⬆️.
ℹ️ According to scientists, cells, which were very simple prokaryotes, started forming on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago. Eukaryotes are supposed to arose from symbiosis between prokaryotic cells. Eventually, an ancestral prokaryote endosymbiosed other cells, which became mitochondria and chloroplasts. The origin of other organelles is less clear.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What is found inside a prokaryotic cell?
A prokaryotic cell ⬆️ is usually small and relatively simple in structure.
Its components are ⬇️:
Capsule: layer of carbohydrates that surrounds the cell wall of some bacteria and helps them attach to surfaces
Cell wall: consists of peptidoglycans that give the cell structure and protection
Cell/plasma membrane, which encloses the cytoplasm and separates the cell from the environment
Cytoplasm: region enclosed by the cell membrane, where genetic material and processes occur
Nucleoid: region that contains DNA
Plasmids: independently reproducing DNA
Ribosome: performs protein synthesis
Flagella: thin, tail-like structures that aid movement
Pili/sex pilus: short, rod-shaped structures involves in attachment to surfaces and DNA transfer
Fimbriae: thin, hair-like structures used for attachment
Vesicles: sacs released by the membrane that perform a variety of functions
Vacuoles: storage sacs found in some bacterial cells
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What is the smallest common denominator of life?
📍 Cells are the smallest common denominator of life.
📌 Some cells are organisms unto themselves; others are part of multicellular organisms.
📌 All cells are made from the same major classes of organic molecules: nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids.
📌 Cells can be placed in 2️⃣ major categories as a result of ancient evolutionary events:
1️⃣ Prokaryotes, such as bacteria and archaea, with their cytoplasmic genomes, are single cells.
2️⃣ Eukaryotes, with their nuclear-encased genomes and other subunits. Some eukaryotes, like amoebae, are free-living, single-celled entities. Other eukaryotic cells are part of multicellular organisms. For instance, all plants and animals are made of eukaryotic cells — sometimes even trillions of them.
📌 Though they are small, cells have evolved into a vast variety of shapes and sizes. Together they form tissues that themselves form organs, and eventually entire organisms.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What are notable global heat and cold records for 2023?
☀️🇺🇸Hottest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere: 53.9°C (129.0°F) at Saratoga Spring, USA, July 16
❄️🇷🇺Coldest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere: -62.7°C (-80.9°F) at Tongulah, Russia, January 18
☀️🇦🇺Hottest temperature in the Southern Hemisphere: 49.5°C (121.1°F) at Roebourne, Australia, December 31
❄️🇦🇶Coldest temperature in the Southern Hemisphere: -83.2°C (-117.8°F) at Concordia, Antarctica, July 25
🔺🇸🇳Highest 2023 average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere: 32.2°C (90.0°F) at Matam, Senegal
🔻🇮🇩Highest 2023 average temperature in the Southern Hemisphere: 29.7°C (85.5°F) at Surabya AP, Indonesia
🥵A total of 175 monthly national/territorial heat records beaten or tied in 2023
🥶A total of nine monthly national/territorial cold records beaten in 2023
ℹ️Earth’s all-time record for hottest yearly average temperature was 32.9°C (91.2°F) at Makkah, Saudi Arabia, in 2010 and 2016.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What is the most promising place for extraterrestrial life in our solar system?
🪐🌑Just two decades ago, scientists expected that the sixth largest of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, to be a frozen ice ball.
🌑🌊However, in 2005, robotic spacecraft Cassini sent to study Saturn and its rings and moons detected plumes of water vapor and icy particles erupting from geysers on the surface, revealing the existence of a global ocean between the moon's icy shell and its rocky core ⬆️.
❗️In 2023, researchers announced that that they had found phosphorous in the ocean on Enceladus.
ℹ️Of the six elements required for life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur were already found on Enceladus), phosphorus was the only one building block that astronomers had not yet detected in material from Enceladus.
‼️According to scientists, this one of the most important space discoveries of 2023 makes Enceladus the most promising place for extraterrestrial life in our solar system.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What animals can have “virgin births”?
📍 The vast majority of animals need to breed to reproduce. However, a small subset of animals can have offspring without mating.
📍 The process, called parthenogenesis (comes from two Greek roots that literally translate to “virgin creation”), allows creatures to have so-called “virgin births.”
📍 In animals, the embryo develops from an unfertilized egg.
📍 Parthenogenesis occurs in many types of invertebrates including scorpions, nematodes, mites, water fleas, wasps, some bees, and other insects.
📍 Parthenogenesis has been observed in more than 80 vertebrate species, about half of which are fish or lizards. It’s rare that complex vertebrates such as sharks, snakes, and large lizards rely only on asexual reproduction.
❗️ In 2023, pathogenesis was for the first time recorded in a New World/American crocodile ⬆️ at a park in Costa Rica. According to researchers, this is one of the most astonishing discoveries of 2023.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Why hibernating bears do not get blood clots?
🐻 Despite spending several months hibernating in frigid temperatures, brown bears (Ursus arctos) remain remarkably healthy. Bears rarely suffer from maladies such as blood clots, which can occur in humans experiencing only temporary bouts of immobility and can be deadly.
✍️According to a last study, a heat shock protein 47 (HSP47) helps the hibernating bears avoid dangerous clotting.
ℹ️HSP47 recruits an enzyme called thrombin that helps platelets stick together and form clots.
🐻In active bears, HSP47 helps patch up cuts and stop bleeding. But hibernating bears, which are safely snug in their dens, produce 55 times fewer HSP47 than active bears.
🤔Generally, HSP47 proteins may be a mechanism used across mammals to prevent clotting during prolonged periods of rest.
❗️Considered one of the most important in 2023, this finding can inspire fine-tuned treatments for preventing clotting in patients experiencing temporary immobility.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What is the role of evolution in taxonomy?
ℹ️ Evolution is a progressive change that proceeds through genetic variation, natural selection, and genetic drift.
Through evolution, living things evolve to thrive and adapt to the ever-changing environment. A certain group of organisms can evolve so markedly that they diverge into different groups within the group, forming new species.
ℹ️ The process of the formation of new species is called speciation.
📌Modern taxonomy describes evolutionary links.
📌A taxonomic group must always refer to a set of organisms that descended from the same ancestor, at some point in evolutionary history. Species within the same genus all share a common ancestor. The same goes for each genus within one family and so on.
📌According to modern taxonomists, taxonomy is nowadays so intertwined with evolutionary theory, that it can be difficult to delineate when a researcher's "doing taxonomy" and when they're "doing evolutionary biology".
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
How many ranks in modern taxonomy?
The process of placing or grouping organisms in different taxonomic groups is known as the taxonomy hierarchy. These levels, also called taxonomic ranks, formed a structure similar to the ladder or pyramid ⬆️.
The modern taxonomic classification system has 8️⃣ main levels
🔺Domain – highest level constitutes three domains of life: Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria.
🔺Kingdom – the second level constitutes seven kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Monera, Fungi, Chromista, Protozoa, Archaea.
🔺Phylum – a group of related classes: 109 Phyla in all kingdoms.
🔺Class – a group of related orders: 108 classes in animals.
🔺Order – a group of related families: the total number ranges from 420-450.
🔺Family – a group of related genera (data can vary in different sources)
🔺Genus – a group of related species (data can vary in different sources)
🔺Species – a group of similar organisms (data can vary in different sources)
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Who contributed to modern taxonomy?
Here are some researchers who made important contributions to taxonomy.
Andrea Cesalpino (1519-1603) ⬆️, an Italian researcher and philosopher, is often considered to be the first-ever taxonomist in history. He described more than 1500 species of plants in his writings ⬆️. The largest families of plants known as Asteraceae and Brassicaceae, classified by him, are still used today.
Augustus Rivinus (1600-1656), a German physician and botanist, developed a method of better ways of classifying plants and introduced the category of order.
The English naturalist John Ray (1627-1705) produced more complex classification and described details of around 18,000 plants.
In France Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) defined and classified 9000 species in 698 genera.
ℹ️ The development of taxonomy is sometimes credited to more sophisticated optical lenses, which allowed the morphology of organisms to be studied in much greater detail.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Who were ancient taxonomists?
ℹ️Taxonomists are researchers/biologists who analyze the relationship among organisms and aggregate them into groups.
Examples of earlier taxonomy are shown on ancient Egypt’s walls about medicinal plants by early Egyptian taxonomists ⬆️.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)⬆️, ancient Greek polymath, was able to classify organisms for the first time and then grouped them into two major categories, i.e., plants and animals. Several groups of animals proposed by him, such as Anhaima, Enhaima, sharks, and cetaceans, are still used to this day. Anhaima includes animals with no blood (now referred to as invertebrates), and Enhaima - animals with blood (vertebrates).
Theophrastus (371-287 BC)⬆️ was Aristotle’s student and is often called the “Father of Botany”. He continued the classification process and mentioned 500 plants and their uses in his book, Historia Plantarum. Some plant groups, such as Cornus, Crocus, and Narcissus, can be traced back to his findings.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Why are orbital resonances important for science?
Orbital resonances are the source of both stability and chaos, depending sensitively upon parameters and initial conditions.
Orbitally resonant systems are extremely important to find because they tell astronomers about the formation and subsequent evolution of the planetary system.
Planets around stars tend to form in resonance but can easily have their orbits thrown around, e.g. after a close encounter with a passing star.
As a result, only one percent of all the multi-planet systems stay in resonance, according to researchers.
🔭That’s why astronomers observe planetary systems around stars that are believed to harbour planets in resonance.
⬆️ Such a rare star system with 6️⃣ exoplanets has been recently discovered with an architecture unchanged for billions of years. This star, HD110067, lies 100 light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, is the brightest known system with 4️⃣ or more planets.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Why do women need more sleep than men?
According to a study, men need 7-8 hours of sleep where women need 8-10 hours that leads to different circadian rhythms and to more sleep for women.
The sleep cycles are similar, but cortisol goes down and melatonin goes up sooner in women than men.
The interaction between circadian phase and time asleep was significant for sleep efficiency, in that the circadian disruption of sleep became stronger as sleep progressed.
While a person sleeps, their hormone levels are being replenished, and when a woman is deprived of sleep it can mess with cycles that take place within the female body that don’t happen for men.
Another study found that for women, poor sleep is strongly associated with psychological distress, and greater feelings of hostility, depression and anger. In contrast, these feelings were not associated with the same degree of sleep disruption in men.
ℹ️ As per studies, women require about 20 minutes more sleep than men.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
How is the proper growth and replication of cells ensured?
The process which is vital for the growth, development, repair, and maintenance of living organisms is called the cell cycle. It is a series of events that cells go through to grow, replicate their DNA, and divide.
The two broad phases of the cell cycle are:
1️⃣ Interphase, during which cells grow, replicate their DNA and organelles, and prepare for division.
2️⃣ Mitosis, a process of cell division that results in two genetically identical daughter cells from a single parent cell.
ℹ️ The term “mitosis” was coined by Walther Flemming (1843-1905) in 1882 while documenting the process of chromosomal division in salamander larvae. The term comes from the Greek word ‘mitos’ meaning ‘thread,’ referring to the thread-like appearance of chromosomes during mitosis. Other names for the process are ‘karyokinesis’ (Schleicher, 1878) and ‘equatorial division’ (August Weismann, 1887).
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
How scientists were discovering the cell?
While the invention of the telescope made the Cosmos accessible to human observation, the light microscope opened up smaller worlds, showing what living forms were composed of.
🔬 The cell was first discovered and named by an English “natural philosopher” Robert Hooke (1635-1703) in 1665. Using three lenses and a stage light, he improved the design of his compound microscope ⬆️, which allowed to see tiny pores in a piece of cork. Hooke came to call his discovery “cells”, “small rooms” in Latina, because they reminded him of the cells in a monastery. However, Hooke didn't realize at that time that “cells” could be alive.
🔬🦠 The first man to witness a live cell was a Dutch scientist, often called the “father of microscopy”, Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), who, in 1674, described the algae Spirogyra and also protozoa and bacteria that he called “animalcules”. He was also the first to observe and describe spermatozoa in 1677.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What are key eukaryote features?
Plant and animal cells ⬆️ are examples of eukaryotic cells.
They have a true nucleus and membrane-bound compartments with specific functions – organelles.
Here are key eukaryote features ⬇️
Nucleus: contains DNA and oversees all cell processes
Nucleolus: site of ribosome biogenesis
Plasma membrane: encloses the cell
Cytoplasm: region between the nuclear and the plasma membranes
Cell wall: supports and protects plant, algae, and fungi cells
Centrosomes and Centrioles: play a role in cell division
Mitochondria: provide chemical energy
Chloroplasts: traps energy for photosynthesis in plant cells
Lysosomes: digests excess or worn-out organelles, food particles, and engulfed viruses or bacteria
Ribosomes: perform protein synthesis
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER): synthesizes proteins (rough ER) and lipids (smooth ER)
Golgi apparatus: sorts, packages, and processes proteins
Vesicles and vacuoles: membrane-bound storage and transportation sacs
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What are intracellular molecules’ functions?
Intracellular organic molecules include:
🧬2️⃣ Nucleic acids contain and help express a cell's genetic code.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains all of the information required to build and maintain the cell.
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) has several roles associated with expression of the information stored in DNA.
⚪️ Proteins are made from chains of smaller molecules called amino acids, and serve catalytic and structural functions. E.g., proteins called enzymes convert cellular molecules into other forms that might help a cell meet its energy needs, build support structures, or pump out wastes.
🔴 Carbohydrates provide energy and can be of 2️⃣ types:
✔️simple carbohydrates are used for the cell's immediate energy demands
✔️complex carbohydrates serve as intracellular energy stores and also play a crucial role in cell recognition.
🟡 Lipids are components of cell membranes, involved in energy storage and relaying signals.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What drug made 2023 a revolutionary year for weight loss?
✔️ Wegovy, initially prescribed for diabetes, emerged as a revolutionary weight-loss drug. Never before has there been an approved weight loss medicine that is so effective and yet also considered reasonably safe.
✔️ Wegovy is the newest glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA). Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is an incretin, a metabolic hormone secreted from the L-cells of the small intestine and colon and specialized cells in the brainstem within a few minutes of eating.
✔️ In a two-year trial, Wegovy participants shed 15% body weight, dwarfing the control group's 3%. Trials also hinted at its potential benefits like reducing heart attack and stroke risks and aiding addiction treatment.
✔️ However, Wegovy's side effects, like nausea and a potential risk of thyroid cancers, caution against unbridled optimism.
ℹ️ Global obesity affects 650 million adults, surpassing undernourished populations at 735 million.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What are 2023 remarkable climate highlights?
🔴 2023 is confirmed as the warmest calendar year in global temperature data records going back to 1850.
🌐 2023 had a global average temperature of 14.98°C, 0.17°C higher than the previous highest annual value in 2016.
🔴 2023 was 0.60°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average and 1.48°C warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level.
🔴 Almost each month in 2023 was warmer than the corresponding month in any previous year.
🌐🌊 Global average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) reached record levels for the time of year from April through December.
🇦🇶 Antarctic sea ice reached all-time minima in February 2023 and record low extents for the corresponding time of the year in 8 months.
🔥 A large number of extreme events (heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildfires) were recorded across the globe. Estimated global wildfire carbon emissions in 2023 increased by 30% with respect to 2022 driven largely by wildfires in Northern America.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What are the earliest known fortresses in the world?
❗️In 2023, researchers have learned that the earliest known fortresses in the world were built by Neolithic hunter-gatherers around 6000 B.C. in the taiga of western Siberia (modern Russia🇷🇺).
✔️Archaeologists have long been aware that Indigenous people in the region lived in fortified settlements defended by palisades, banks, and ditches, but believed such sites dated to no earlier than the early Iron Age, around 1000 B.C.
✔️New radiocarbon dating of 20 fortified taiga settlements ⬆️ showed that the earliest sites were built some 8,000 years ago, making them the earliest scientifically dated examples of such fortresses in the world.
ℹ️ According to scientists, during the Neolithic period, the number of people living in the taiga zone of western Siberia increased dramatically due to newly mild climatic conditions, and the Indigenous people lived in fortresses because they could be attacked by their neighbors at any moment.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What is the mission that reached the dark side of the moon?
🇮🇳🚀Launched in July 2023 ⬆️, India's Chandrayaan-3 moon lander was the first mission to reach the lunar south pole – an unexplored region where reservoirs of frozen water are believed to exist.
✅ Although the spacecraft went dormant after two weeks of the landing, it did what it was supposed to do -- successfully detected lunar surface sulfur and demonstrated the moon's soil as an effective insulator.
❗️ According to scientific community, the success of Chandrayaan-3 is one of the biggest science stories of 2023.
🚀💰🫰The mission showed the world that not only is India a major player in space, but that a moon lander can be launched successfully for $75m, which is much cheaper than most other countries’ budgets for a moon mission.
🌌 Scientists believe that this accomplishment, marked by diversity, cost-effectiveness, and eco-friendly technology, hints at a transformative era in space exploration on the horizon.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Can Artificial Intelligence create images as realistic as photos?
🔺 An artificial intelligence (AI) image generator from text is an AI-powered tool that takes a text prompt, processes it, and creates an image that best matches the description given in the text prompt.
❗️ℹ️ AI image generation is completely different from sourcing. While image-sourcing tools can be used to search and download existing images, an AI image generator creates entirely new images that do not exist in reality.
🔺 The idea of generating images from text using AI has been around for several decades. But the recent advancements in the field of text-to-image generation have made it possible to develop more sophisticated tools that are able to create high-quality images with different art styles. This has opened up a world of possibilities for anyone working with visual content.
⬆️ Look at these hyperrealistic images created using latest versions of AI image generators.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Why the biological species concept can be riddled with controversy?
✍️In biology, species is defined as the lowest taxonomic rank consisting of organisms that share common characteristics and generally are capable of reproducing to produce fertile offspring.
❗️Recognized by Charles Darwin, the “species problem” is that many organisms do not fit into this definition ⬇️
✔️Asexual organisms have only one parent, so they do not reproduce with each other.
✔️Some organisms can reproduce with similar species.
✔️There can be significant morphological variation between the sexes and even individuals of the same species, making it a very subjective way of classifying life.
Although modern technologies, like genetic analysis, help today’s taxonomists to classify species, all these “rule breakers” make it difficult to clearly define the concept until now.
ℹ️The word species is derived from a Latin word “specere”, which means “to look”, “kind”, “appearance”, “form” (of something).
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Who is the “father of modern taxonomy”?
The Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) ⬆️, also known as Carl von Linné or Carolus Linnaeus, is often called the “father of modern taxonomy”.
With his major works Species Plantarum in 1753, and Systema Naturae 10th Edition in 1758 ⬆️, he revolutionized modern taxonomy.
His works implemented a standardized binomial naming system for animals and plants, which proved to be an elegant solution to a chaotic and disorganized taxonomic literature. He not only introduced the standard of class, order, genus, and species, but also made it possible to identify plants and animals from his book, by using the smaller parts of the flower.
Thus the Linnaean system was born.
Today, every plant or animal name published before 1753 or 1758, respectively, is called "prelinnaean" and is thus not valid. Also early names published by Linnaeus himself are "prelinnaean".
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
How classification system of all matter and life was viewed in the European middle ages?
Medieval thinkers of Europe took account of organisms’ classification on a philosophical and theological basis.
The classification systems used then were Aristotelian systems, including the Scala Naturae (the Great Chain of Being/Existence), a nature ladder used to order organisms in one unit.
The concept of the Great chain of being/existence was viewed by medieval thinkers of Europe, e.g. by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), as an immutable order given by God.
In the hierarchy of the Great chain of existence, God is at the top, above the angels. Angels, like God, are wholly spirits, have no physical body, and are therefore immutable. Underneath is man, composed of both spirit and matter. They are not permanent in nature as they change and disappear. Below are animals and plants. At the bottom is the mineral matter of the earth itself.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
How scientists are classifying life?
✅ It is taxonomy that is essential to classify living organisms into different groups and subgroups.
✅ In simple words, the definition of taxonomy is a branch of science that deals primarily with the description, identification, nomenclature, and classification of organisms.
✅ The term “taxonomy” was developed from two Greek words, “taxis,” meaning arrangement, and “nomia,” meaning distribution or method.
✅ There are in fact different definitions of taxonomy, and based on them, taxonomy is considered a sub-branch of systematics or a synonym of the latter term. It is also thought that biological nomenclature is either a part of taxonomy or a unit of systematics.
ℹ️ Systematics is the consideration to identify the taxonomy of organisms and their nomenclature, classification based on their natural relatedness, and the analysis of variation and evolution among the taxa.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
What is meant by orbital resonance?
Two celestial bodies are in orbital resonance if their orbital periods can be expressed as a ratio of two integers.
It is caused by the changing gravitational forces of bodies which go round each other.
Orbits are usually ellipses, not circular, and as a satellite goes round a planet or two stars go round each other, the gravitational forces can change, sometimes hugely. Also, the planets and stars are usually not spherical. They spin, and vary in their degree of oblateness. This also changes the forces on an orbiting body.
For example, two planets, both orbiting a parent star, are said to be in a 2️⃣:1️⃣ resonance when one of the planets takes approximately twice as long to orbit the star as the other planet ⬆️.
In our own Solar System, Neptune and Pluto are in resonance (in this case 3️⃣:2️⃣), as are many moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
ℹ️ The area of mechanics, which is used for these studies, is called celestial mechanics.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow
Who sleep better: women or men?
💤 In a new study, researchers unveiled insights into the sleep health of middle-aged and older adults in Canada 🇨🇦, identifying social determinants that contribute to disparities in sleep satisfaction, efficiency, and duration.
❗️🚹😴🚺 The study revealed that men report sleeping better than women, and women report lower sleep satisfaction and efficiency compared to men. This disparity persisted across different sociodemographic backgrounds.
👵👨🦳 Contrary to previously held beliefs, the study found that sleep actually improves with age - older adults (aged 65 and above) reported better overall sleep health compared to people from 45 to 65 years old.
💰🏡 Socioeconomic factors like income level and homeownership also had an impact on sleep. Higher socioeconomic status also emerged as a significant predictor of better sleep health. Individuals with higher income levels, those who are retired and homeowners reported better sleep quality.
Subscribe- t.me/askmenow