Unsolved Problems in Biology/Grist

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Guidelines for this page.
- Try to edit this page as little as possible.
- The purpose of this page is to collect questions about biology that are on people's minds.
- Questions posted here can be copied to other pages where they can be categorized and serve as the basis for new chapters in the book.

Explain the Paradox of the plankton. How the high diversity of phytoplankton seems to violate the competitive exclusion principle.

What are the current drawbacks and adverse effects to telomerase bio-genesis inhibition technology?

Is natural selection capable of producing the major innovations we see in the living world, or only minor variations within species boundaries?

Why age? Why must all organisms die? Why do cells of different organisms age on different time scales?

Is the biology of chimps enough like that of humans that we should grant them human rights?

Does it make sense to think about moving living organisms from Earth to other planets like Mars or Venus in order to terraform them?

Can you engineer a tree so that it makes electricity.....so that you could have a tree in your yard that would be able to charge a chemical battery?

What is the upper limit (if any) on how long a human can live?

Will it ever be possible to transfer a human mind to a robotic brain and body?