Questions tagged [allowed-questions]
This tag should be used when a meta-question is debating whether a question is on-topic or not
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Are questions about creationism or intelligent design on-topic here?
Our first creationism/intelligent design question https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/649/is-cell-division-irreducibly-complex#question has received a lot of downvotes, some close votes and a ...
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Voting to close a question as off-topic because it is based on a faulty presupposition
Over the last maybe 6 months or so (I haven't really been keeping track), I've noticed a number of questions either nominated for closure or actually closed with some variant of this custom close ...
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Clarifying our scope with regards to medical questions
There is a rather large amount of overlap between biology and medicine, and as we get more questions that are rather far on the medical site it is time to revisit the issue and clarify where exactly ...
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Not all questions featuring something biological are biology questions
Something I think we need to clear up in terms of what is and is not on-topic, are questions where the user asks something that is not a biological question and then attempting to justify it being ...
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Where do we draw the line for questions about medicine?
There is a large overlap between medicine and biology, a lot of medical questions are in the end questions about human biology. Where do we want to draw the line on medical questions, when are they ...
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Homework Policy for FAQ
The answer to this question explains how to ask your homework question here on Biology and have it well received by the community.
Related:
What is the policy regarding homework questions? (Old)
Are ...
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is this question about epidemiology on-topic?
Having a small comment-debate about this question. All I can find in What topics can I ask about here? is that this site is for
[questions about] biology and closely related fields, including ... ...
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What to do with Bioinformatics programming questions
This recent question on Bioinformatics is an example of pretty hardcore programming questions. An excerpt is given below. Apparently 'Owl' is used for gene sequencing, but I had to google it up with ...
AliceDMod
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Edible species identification
Recently there was a few questions asking for identification of potentially edible species:
What is the species of these mushrooms?
What kind of fruit is this?
I think that there is a similar ...
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Reminder: questions about biological mechanisms behind medical conditions are explicitly on topic here
Every once in a while there are some close votes of human biology questions that are explicitly on topic here. It came up again today here. Not the best question, I'll admit, but it shouldn't be ...
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Plant Identification Questions
Regarding this question: Help identifying the following plants, it seems like we should set a meta precedent for dealing with such posts should they arise in the future.
Update
The question was moved ...
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How much should we enforce background research?
The first point under "How do I ask a good question?" in Help states that:
Search, and research
Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? Sharing your research ...
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Policy on health questions
We already declared personal medical advice as off-topic, I'm wondering if we should do the same for all health questions.
By health questions I mean all questions of the type "Is eating X healthy?", ...
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Should questions about the history of biology be considered on topic?
Should we allow questions that are directly related to the history of our understanding of biology, rather than the biology itself? Where do we draw the line on historical questions? I don't have an ...
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Questions about teaching biology: Off-limits?
Are questions about how to teach/explain biology (so called soft questions) on topic here. I've noticed that some sites allow it. As an example I've noticed that Math SE allow question like, how to ...
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Species Identification Questions
Similarly to the discussion of plant identification questions, we now have examples of identify this animal type questions. What should the position be as to whether such discussions are on topic?
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Should bioinformatics related questions be considered off-topic?
I know there is biostar, which is specific to bioinformatics questions. However, I feel that there are quite a few parts of bioinformatics that have a lot of biological relevance. Perhaps we should ...
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Wild stab in the dark questions
After looking at this and the further misinformation it led to here, I really feel like the first question should have been closed.
I don't feel it's the same as help me ID this species and here are ...
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How much research is generally required for it to stop being closed for homework?
This question was closed for being unresearched homework.
I am not sure why this is the case. According to the Biology FAQ:
What should I do before I ask the question?
Research it yourself - ...
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Is it OK to ask if a recorded sound was emitted by a bat?
Note: the question is now posted on Biology.SE.
For fun, I tried to record sounds emitted by bats in an area where bats were flying all around.
By doing a few manipulations with the audio record (...
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Creationist "canard" refutation type questions?
Let's just say that proponents of creationism and "intelligent design" have a ready stable of canards and distortions out there. Would it be appropriate to post such canards here as questions, and ...
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Are questions on zoologists bio on-topic here?
Can I ask questions about famous zoologist and biologists biographies or lives here, if they have very little or actually no impact on actual biology?
For example, I'd like to know why Edward Turner ...
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Are questions about language interpretation on-topic?
Recently, I've provided answers to questions about the meaning of plain English words in a biological context.
What does the term 'glycogen mobilisation' mean?
What are the stretch of amino acids?
...
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If a question has no scientific findings available for answering, is it okay to give a general opinion?
This question is in regards to this post, and more specifically, the answer provided by @Remi.b. I'm not quite sure where to begin (this is my first post in a meta.*.SE site), so I'll just start by ...
user22020
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Is Biology more like "expert answers to your questions" or more like "expert answers to your expert questions"?
When I open the Stack Exchange app on a mobile device it quickly shows a view with the following motto:
Expert answers to your questions
I have recently raised a question that got more attention ...
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Does there exist a substantial guide for how to write questions on biology.SE?
We can find that people ask if a specific topic is "on topic", and how they can improve their question. There are of course the children sites of help center, and a small list of general rules have ...
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Are bioethics questions on-topic?
I have a question that relates to bioethics and I'm wondering if it's on topic for this site. This particular question could potentially be asked in the "Intellectual Property Law" or "Laws and Legal ...
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Is it right to close "easy to look up" questions as homework?
A lot of times we get questions like - what is a bacteria etc.
Typically "homework" questions that we get are mostly MCQs (because in contemporary schools nobody asks a homework question like - ...
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Are palaeontology/palaeobiology questions allowed?
I figured I'd want to ask fossil-related stuff, but I'm not sure if this would be within the purview of this SE site. Can I ask questions about, say, dinosaurs or pre-Holocene mammals?
user132
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Are protocol recommendations on-topic?
We just had the first question asking about which protocol would be best for purifying DNA. We're likely to get more questions of that kind.
Should we consider questions asking about which protocol ...
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What is the most appropriate forum for Biochemistry questions?
I'm interested in hearing opinions about how questions that could potentially be answered in multiple stack exchange forums should be answered. The following question was asked on the main biology ...
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What to do about polarizing questions?
I recently answered a one-line question. This question appears to have (very modestly) polarized the Bio.SE community: it has been up- and down-voted once each (not counting my upvote just now). My ...
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Would all questions from the Cell Culture Area 51 proposal be on topic here?
The proposal for Cell Culture was created a couple of days ago. From their description
Proposed Q&A site for anyone involved in the use or research of plant, animal and microbial cell culture ...
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Are Fermi questions welcome?
Science does not always aim for exact numerical precision. So-called Fermi questions (questions that can be answered using Fermi's estimation technique) have been answered by science (not necessarily ...
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Is "Stackoverflow modding itself out of existence"?
The title belongs to a blog post is trending today on Hacker News. Thousands of people are looking at it as I write this.
I often feel that biology.se is destined to be a minor player compared to ...
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Why this question is closed as "health advice" and "medical advice"?
I have a question about my Biology Stack Exchange post: How likely is a rabies virus from dog saliva will enter a human body through this kind of finger skin?
This question is closed with following ...
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Are questions on abiogenesis acceptable at this site?
As I often point out to many people who have a tenuous grasp of biology, evolution deals with everything that happened after abiogenesis. And also that abiogenesis is a rather young field that we are ...
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Are questions about specific animals on-topic here?
I recently created an area 51 topic titled Animals, which I intended to be used for asking questions about specific animals and their habitats, life expediencies, behavior patterns etc.
Are such ...
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What is Biology anyway?
I've seen a few questions removed recently because some people feel that the site was not getting questions about Biology in a pure enough sense and that these people should go somewhere else.
E.g. ...
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Is it within the realm of this SE to ask for a "critique" of a paper?
This is a certainly a real problem for biologists. One reads a paper but they aren't sure how to fully understand or interpret a paper or a series of papers. Good question along these lines would be: ...
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Should we allow questions related to specific, experiment-related technologies?
I noticed this question, which has accumulated quite a few up and downvotes. My immediate thought was that it really doesn't have anything to do with biology and would be off-topic.
Having said that, ...
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Where is a question on Radiobiology and Dosimetry going to best be answered?
I want to ask a purely theoretical question (Radiobiology and Dosimetry) on the Bragg Curves (plots of the energy loss of ionizing radiation (KeV/μm usually) on the y-axis during its travel through ...
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Should questions related to results from 23andMe and other Gene services be On-Topic?
In the past week or two I have seen a two posts asking questions related to information obtained from 23andMe or similar services.
I previously expressed that I thought it was not a good idea to ...
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CogSci has changed its name
As of yesterday, Cognitive Sciences has been renamed into
Psychology & Neuroscience
There are various reasons for this. The most important reasons, imo, being that we wish to attract more ...
AliceDMod
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Philosophy of science questions
As per title, I would like to hear your opinion on question that could be classified as part of the philosophy of science.
I know that there is a Philosophy SE site, but I think it is important to ...
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Can you ask questions about equipment recommendations?
This is pretty simple. I heard through the grapevine about a feature on a common piece of lab equipment (in this case a liquid N2 freezer). There are so many vendors so I want to simply ask if anyone ...
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Should questions regarding Artificial Life be made off-topic for Biology SE?
Based on a recent set of questions asked about Artificial Life, it appears that it is a subject that is primarily Computer Science-based.
It also does not appear that in the manner that the questions ...
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White vs Brown adipose tissue
I have been looking for a reference that compares and contrasts brown and white adipose tissue (in humans) in a concise (preferably tabular, but that's not completely necessary) manner. I haven't ...
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Grantsmanship about Biology/NIH/NSF on Topic?
Would questions about grantsmanship pertaining to biology be appropriate here, or would Academia be the only location that was appropriate?
Strict grant questions certainly go over there, but how ...
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What's our stance on asking for articles that google won't find?
What's our stance on asking questions of the form "I looked for an overview of X for a while on google, and couldn't find it, anyone else have any luck?" or "I saw this article once about X, but now I ...
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