Riddles
These started as me studying for a bio midterm...and then sort of...ran away... The first four are all bioology-related, but the third one is actually pretty easy.
1) They say I can be discerned by mere common sense,
But a microbiologist knows not what I am.
If you don’t know I interbreed, then you must be dense.
Just think! Binomial nomenclature be damned!
What am I?
2) Plants use me to great effect
But I make some organisms sterile
And once in a while I help to select
A sympatric change that is virile
What am I?
3) I’m a perfect example of intrinsic isolation
A sterile hybrid loved by cowboys everywhere
Too bad for post-zygotic genetic sequestration
It’s not that I’m too stubborn to find a pretty mare
What am I?
4) I’m a bit like Prozac in that
I don’t necessarily cause depression
But sometimes I get a bad rap
‘Cause I cause heterozygosity regression
You say incest, I say that
Without diseases, I’m not bad!
What am I?
5) How to make two and two equal four
Or when a human’s focus is poor
6) You pattern-loving humans
Have much trouble generating me
Roll dice, shuffle cards, but you men
And women cannot truly _________ be.
Fill in the blank.
7) I am flat, a schizophenic’s face
I cause change with an “a” not an “e”
A common verb vs. noun mistake
On the English section of the SAT
What am I?
8) I occur twice in a week,
Not once in a month,
And once in a year.
What am I?
9) Don’t tell me to think outside the box; I was born in one.
Give me another few lives, perhaps I’ll be born in an alley.
I was worshipped like a god in a civilization baked in sun.
My names range from Munkustrap to Thomas O’Malley.
What am I?
10) I am sexually transmitted, and always fatal.
Come call me a curse, some frolic while they’re able.
What am I?
11) I am light when I’m steady, dense while I flow.
I can destroy rock, but the progress is slow.
What am I?
12) I am the cousin of what awaits all things
The mystery that topples the mightiest being
The bringer of visions that cease with a ring
At the end of each day, to me you come fleeing.
What am I?
ANSWERS
1) SPECIES
2) POLYPLOIDY
3) MULE
4) INBREEDING
5) ADD
6) RANDOM
7) AFFECT
8) E
9) CAT
10) LIFE
11) WATER
12) SLEEP