For the past 5 years BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES has brought our web site visitors a unique contest testing your biology knowledge. It's time now to end our colourful contest. As of March 2007, we are bringing you a new feature to challenge your biology knowledge (sorry, no prizes in this challenge). Each month we will post an interesting image on our front page. Your job is to figure out what it is all about. This month's challenge is provided by our colleague, Peter Prince, who filmed a young Great Horned Owl at the local wildlife rehabilitation centre. This fascinating footage shows the nictitating membrane found in birds and many other animals.

This video requires the free QuickTime plug-in.

To learn more about nictitating membranes, click here.

January 2007 Unknown (Our final Mystery Organism Contest) - Chains of Simple Powerhouses

The photosynthetic cyanobacterium - Anabaena

Microscope Photo by Bruce Russell

For a richly-illustrated instructional program covering cyanobacteria use our DVD, Branches on the Tree of Life: Viruses and Bacteria. Another of our programs covers the concept of "algae" - what they are and aren't, what groups can be called algae, and a variety of detailed explorations of these groups to provide a comprehensive lesson on algae. Look for this instructional program in our series: Branches on the Tree of Life: Algae.