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Origins of Life Abiogenesis article in Wikipedia. The Origin of Life - Abiogenesis, a youtube video produced by Chuck Kopec.  A Simpler Origin for Life, an article by Robert Shapiro in Scientific American. The Miller-Urey Experiment article in Wikipedia. RNA and the RNA World Exploring the New RNA World, an essay by Thomas Cech published on the Nobel Prize website. RNA Video Clips from the HHMI website that include demonstrations of catalysis and interviews with Thomas Cech. A World Apart, an HHMI article about RNA World reseearch and the role of RNAs in medicine.  RNA World article in Wikipedia. Protocells The Emergence of Cells During the Origin of Life, an essay by Irene Chen published in Science.  What Came Before DNA? an article published in Discover featuring Jack Szostak and Steven Benner.  The Szostak Lab Astrobiology The National Astrobiology Institute, established by NASA to study life in the universe.  The SETI Institute, studying the origins, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.  Astrobiology: The Search for Life, a website hosted by the Exploratorium.

 Trilobites may be the archetypal fossils, symbols of an archaic world long swept beneath the ruthless road grader of time. But we should all look so jaunty after half a billion years.

With moving personal stories from India, Japan, Kenya, and China, "World in the Balance" gives an up-to-date global snapshot of today's human family, now numbering 6.3 billion and likely to increase to nearly 9 billion by 2050. Paradoxically, the world is now careening in two completely different directions

Because the gene-enzyme system forms a closed loop, it presents us with a classic chicken or egg conundrum: Which came first, genes or the protein enzymes they code for? While the details are still not fully worked out, discoveries over the past few decades have lead researchers to a surprising possible solution: What really came first? Genes that act as enzymes! The RNA World Hypothesis is the idea that before living cells, the genetic code, and the gene/protein cycle ever existed, chains of a chemical called RNA were forming naturally. Once formed, some of these chains were able to function as enzymes, and were even able to evolve by making copies of themselves with slight, accidental modifications.

In 1674, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked at a drop of lake water through his homemade microscope and discovered an invisible world that no one knew existed. His work inspired countless microbiology researchers, including HHMI investigator Bonnie Bassler, one of the narrators of this animated feature. Leeuwenhoek was a haberdasher and city official in Delft, The Netherlands. He started making simple microscopes and using them to observe the world around him. He was the first to discover bacteria, protists, sperm cells, blood cells, rotifers, and much more. 

Across the globe, as economies grow, so too does the incidence of colorectal cancer. Lifestyle changes are to blame, and in this Nature Video we see how increases in colorectal cancer are affecting many countries around the world, and what this could mean in the future to a world that is still developing.

This lesson follows a flipped learning model where teachers don't stand before the class and lecture.  Instead, students become grizzly bear scientists and "discover" the answers to real-world research questions through scientific inquiry. Using real-world demographic data collected over 30 years on grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, students work individually, in three Science Teams, and as a class to determine whether or not this grizzly bear population is biologically ready for delisting.

Science Forward is a new type of undergraduate science seminar, helping students to see science as a lens on the world, a way of approaching questions and challenges. The course focuses on the critical thinking skills in use across the scientific disciplines, which we have summarized as the "science senses." Starting with critical issues in the contemporary world, from climate change to the social and economic implications of artificial intelligence, the course encourages active learning and inquiry-based instruction.

Life sciences focus on all things living, exploring the patterns, processes and relationships of organisms. The goal of life sciences is to demonstrate how unifying principles can help us to make sense of the natural world and solve problems in the world we live in. High school life sciences extend student knowledge of topics such as organisms, ecosystems, heredity and evolution, integrating a long history of scientific research from multiple fields. In high school, students will build on their conceptual understanding of life sciences by investigating and witnessing the relationships among structure and function, matter and energy, ecosystems and natural selection. Students should be able to effectively communicate facts and findings, as supported in the science literacy skills covered in the Common Core State Standards.

Human and animal disease are often caused by viruses or bacteria. Over the past two hundred or so years, vaccines have eradicated some of these diseases. Others have returned to haunt humans with new and ever-mutating strains. Communicable diseases may spread in different ways: through blood, air, feces/urine, food, or water. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) keep constant watch over the most potentially dangerous diseases and the most likely threats to various world populations.

The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists and nature enthusiasts from around the world. On more than 10,000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about biodiversity, the characteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history (phylogeny).

Our bodies are home to approximately 100 trillion bacteria living inside us and on us-a vast community known as the microbiome. The Secret World Inside You explores the rapidly evolving science that is revealing the complexities of the human microbiome and reshaping our ideas about human health, offering new perspectives on common health problems including allergies, asthma, and obesity. 

In 2012, the World Health Organisation classified colistin, the most widely used polymyxin, as being critically important for human health. But that didn't stop farmers around the world, especially in China, from using large quantities of colistin to fatten up pigs and chickens. Now Yi-Yun Liu at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou and colleagues have discovered the first known resistance gene for colistin that is able to move freely from one bacterium to another.

In the deep, dark ocean, many sea creatures make their own light for hunting, mating and self-defense. Bioluminescence expert Edith Widder was one of the first to film this glimmering world. At TED2011, she brings some of her glowing friends onstage, and shows more astonishing footage of glowing undersea life.

Student friendly online "your world" magazines, on a variety of topics.

With support from the National Science Foundation, we assisted in developing bioinformatics curriculum for high schools and popular bioinformatics tutorials that are used in both college and high school classes. We have shared these materials at several Bio-Link workshops, and at workshops sponsored by CCURI, Tulsa Community College (SEEDBed award), and DelMar College.  Digital World Biology is also partnering with the Amgen Biotech Experience at Shoreline Community College to assist in providing professional development opportunities for high school teachers.

Technology-corner blog covers all latest real world technologies that offer useful information for people like electronic, green technology, laptop, Microsoft, mobile, robotics, science, security, web and internet etc.

Hank tells us the stories of three experiments in biology that, with creativity and luck, changed science & the world with it in their work to solve the mysteries of the universe.

The following six lessons enable students to use different features of the site to explore trends in population, the environment, and human well-being over the past 2,000 years, as well as projections of future growth. The lessons are designed for high school science and social studies classrooms and address current national and state standards, as well as content for several Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Links to standards and AP course outlines are available in a searchable database.

infographic on vision including color blindness