These represent just a few examples of common biological misunderstandings encountered by teachers of biology from elementary school to college, as well as those promoting the understanding of science among the lay public. Biology instructors tend to perceive these challenges as unrelated and grapple with them in the classroom individually, as misconceptions in need of correction. However, these ideas may be more closely related in their origins than they initially appear. Specifically, all of these conceptual challenges relate to students’ need to answer the question of “Why?” in their studies of biology. Cognitive psychologists have shown that our minds are strongly biased toward causal explanations