Research. Conducting research can be a satisfying and challenging experience that runs the gamut from the exhilaration of new discovery to the day-to-day tedium of repetitive experiments. Depending upon their interests and place of employment, biologists may engage in basic or applied research. Basic research is pure science motivated by the need to answer questions about how organisms function or evolve. It is often curiosity-driven and it allows scientists to create new knowledge.

In general, biologists earn middle-income salaries that are adequate to support a family and enjoy a comfortable standard of living. Salaries vary, of course, depending upon training, level of experience, and geographical area. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (1996-1997), the typical salary of a biological scientist with a graduate degree was about $37,500 in 1994 - 10 percent earning less than $16,300 and 10 percent earning over $67,000.

To get a good overview of the type of work our biologists are involved in, you are encouraged to "visit" our individual science centers by clicking on the interactive map at http://biology.usgs.gov/pub_aff/centers.html. If you wish to pursue an interest with a specific center, contact information is given at each Web site. All positions with the U.S. Geological Survey are posted on the online Jobs Bulletin http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/a.htm. Federal salaries can be found at http://www.

Yes. The evolution professor e-mailed me twice and asked if I would give him the specific thrust of the talk. And I was hustling to get this prepared anyway and didn't fully know, you know, exactly what I was going to be saying, so I just said, "Well, why don't you come to the talk?" MR. IRIGONEGARAY: Excuse me a second, Mr. Calvert. Pursuant to the rules, I have an objection. This has nothing to do with science standards in Kansas.

Because it is impractical or impossible to count every individual in most populations or communities (groups of populations), biologists measure biodiversity by first sampling the organisms and then extrapolating to estimate the total number of organisms. For example, to compare the number of bird species in different types of forest, biologists record the number and species of individual birds encountered at randomly selected locations within each forest type.

Vegetation provides sources of food and habitat, cover from predators, and countless other functions, such as assimilating nutrients and stabilizing soils. Environmentally, some of the most important vegetated habitats include mangrove wetlands and seagrass beds, both found near Midnight Pass. important step in most coastal dredging projects is to determine and define which habitats may be affected.

Get access to an installation of EMBOSS and/or Staden and get someone to lead you through the tools available. RasMol is a simple, but powerful and elegant molecular imaging program which can teach you a great deal about biological macromolecules; try a tutorial. Get out on the Web and do some productive surfing for a change :-) . The best starting point is the Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre's "GenomeWeb". There's so much stuff out there -- and most of it is free to academics.

The following response comes from former BQCMB member and longtime Canadian Wildlife Service caribou biologist Don Thomas with regard to a specific example, that of the relationship between Canadian Wildlife Service biologists and aboriginal people during the "caribou crisis" of the 1950s-1970s. "Some anthropologists suggest that non indigenous people can never understand traditional knowledge for they must extract it from its context within the culture.

Yes, I'm aware of a technique known as targeted gene replacement, which is popularly called the knock-out technique. Yes. As a matter of fact, it's a very useful technique. So if one has a gene and wants to know how important it is to function, what one can do is to engineer a targeted gene replacement, a knock-out, and then generate embryonic stem cells -- this is often done in mice -- and those embryonic stem cells are then fused into an existing embryo.