🚀 go-pugleaf

hcorbett@garnet.berkeley.edu  writes:
> Preamble: I am a TA for an introductory biology class (college level). To
> spark my students' interest a little, I had them each write questions to
> me, about anything in biology that interested them, and that at the 
> beginnning of each laboratory section I would briefly answer. I got some
> great questions! And with a resource such as your collective knowledge,
> I hope to be able to reliably answer the ones on which I have very
> little background or ideas for more local resources.
> 
> 
> How can one improve memory?
> 

Practice.

> Why can people usually only sleep withtheir eyes closed?

Light stimulation.

> 
> Do alcoholics metabolize more alcohol for their energy source relative to
> glucose than non-addicted people? Why are people addicted to alcohol?
> 

Alcohol is burned as a source of energy at 7 cal per gram.  I'm
not aware of differences in alcohol metabolism in alcholics.  

The addiction issue is one of intense controversy.  One camp
believes there will be an alcohol addiction gene.  Another camp
believes that there will be just an addiction gene with other
genetics factors influencing the type of addiction selected.

> What is the percent (roughly) difference between a mammalian and a plant
> genome?

Plant genomes vary alot in terms of their genome sizes, some
are smaller than humans, others are larger.

> 
> Do men get breast cancer?

Men develop breast cancer at a rate about 0.1% of women.  With
roughly 150,000 cases of breast cancer per year (in the USA),
the number for men is about 1500.

> 
> 	I think I have a handle on the other 25 or so questions, but I
> would appreciate a little detailed help with the above (not just yes/no).
> 
> Thank you!!

Good Luck!