Questions tagged [biology]
For questions about living things. Does not exclude aliens, but additional information is usually necessary (consider using "xenobiology" instead).
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How fast can a cylinder spin, with a human on its inner wall, to NOT experience motion sickness?
Context
I'm working on an interstellar Ark made of a few (probably 3 to be more specific) layers of cylinders (modified O'Neil's concept), while trying to get the station to be as compact as possible. ...
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Why would bioluminescence evolve in a Europa-like world?
In my sci-fi universe, I have a planet called Tateos Prime. It is a Pluto or Europa-like world, which orbits too far from its twin red suns to support liquid water at its surface. However, geothermal ...
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Reasons for pregnancy to be difficult in long-term space travel
I am looking for medically viable reasons why we might discover it to be more difficult than expected to bring pregnancies to term in space. This is for a society based approximately 75 years in the ...
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Assuming that most of the human experience is based on the body's biological makeup, what would someone experience if they were just a soul [closed]
In my story the main character has their soul removed from their body and sealed away for a very long time. Assuming that the soul is just a carrier for someone's memories and personality what would ...
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The Great Deoxygenation Event
Assume an Earth-like or super-Earth terrestrial planet in a state comparable to Precambrian or Archaen Earth. The atmosphere is mainly nitrogen and carbon dioxide, perhaps some methane, but very ...
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What is the maximum amount of land (percentage-wise) a habitable planet can have?
Earth is our only example of a habitable planet. The surface of Earth is 29% land and 71% ocean. I am wondering what other land ratios can create a habitable planet.
Half a billion years ago, Earth ...
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What is the most air-tight substance an organism can produce?
Organisms need oxygen, or at least require an atmosphere. The idea is that life with a fraction of earth's atmosphere would have a hermetic membrane that allows them to maintains the optimal ...
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How can a portal that connects two planets affect the environment?
In my world there are two planets within the same solar system, which are connected approximately every seven cycles through a portal that opens for a few days.
The planets are very similar.
The ...
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Is there a scientific explanation as to why aliens should look similar to us?
In almost all science-fiction stories that include alien races, said aliens are similar to humans in many ways: bipedal (and often humanoid), communicate with sounds coming out of a mouth, orient in ...
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Is a naturally all "male" species possible?
The Orville has Mochlans, an (almost) all-male species. They reproduce in some unexplained method that produces a fertilized egg.
The issue here is that if one of the mates lays an egg and the other ...
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Would there be any side-effects of modded humans breeding with vanilla humans
Context
I plan on creating a world with two human populations, one that would have their respiratory and blood systems genetically modified (suited to be more resillient against oxygen poisoning ...
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How long could a levitating fish stay out of the water?
The sky-trout is a magic fish which can levitate and swim in the air. While this protects its gills from collapse, it doesn't help with dehydration
The fish is a type of trout around 2-3 feet long, ...
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Knocking Out Zombies
So basically we have zombies. And they are not just normal zombies... they are walking human corpses reanimated by slime molds growing around their bones! The zombies are moved around like puppets by ...
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Biodiversity through radiation
I was wanting to make a species on an alien planet that reproduce purely asexualy, and their star produces enough radiation to cause common mutations among the children to cause something similar to ...
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Creating a blue-skin look
There are several previous questions on this group regarding blue skin but none of them fit the needs of my world.
I need to allow a group of very pale skinned aliens (albeit with typical mammalian ...
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Is this super-soldier possible in reality
Well, in my story both combat robots and super soldiers coexist alongside the actual armies, now
the enhancements that super soldiers undergo can be divided into three main groups: surgical,
...
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Would an evolutionary predecessor for winged quadrupeds start with four legs and gain wings? Or start with two legs and wings and gain extra legs?
Background
For a pair of games I am working on, I'm trying to work in a VERY basic evolutionary timeline for a lot of the more mythical creatures to set up design language of some of the creatures. ...
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Could bioengineered nanobots be used to grow/develop organs and tissue inside the human body?
Like the title states, could a bioengineered organ meant to produce specially designed nanobots, be placed into a human body, and once properly activated is capable of developing multiple organs ...
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Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system
Part 1 here:
Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton
This question is about a complete rebuild of the nervous system. The question as proposed here: Improving human ...
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How can muscle atrophy due to long gestation in artificial wombs be avoided?
Lebensborn is a Schutzstaffel-led state-supported program led by the Eternal Reich with the stated goal of increasing the number of children who meet the Nazi standards of racially pure and healthy ...
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Reality Check: Decay in Intense Radiation
What would decay look like in an environment so intensely radioactive that no bacteria can survive it for any appreciable amount of time? This is in a bunker that's been hit by a malfunctioning 'dirty'...
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Scientifically Possible Sound-based Incapacitation
Ok so, recently I just rewatched the first Kingsman’s movie (the first one to be released, not the first canonical one) again with my mates for the first time in years and because my attentiveness has ...
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Iron based life
Lately I have been thinking about possible forms of life on planets that would have radically different experiences than here on Earth. I was wondering if life based on transition metals was possible ...
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Why are my Orcs so Big and Strong? [closed]
Here are the usual "Since warcraft 3" Orcs.
Men are between 2.0 and 2.7 meters tall.
In women from 1.7 meters to 2.5 meters.
Almost no fat.
Much stronger than humans "One orc is as ...
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What are the maximum and minimum day-night cycle lengths humans can adapt to?
On habitable planets, rotational period can be assumed to vary significantly. What are the limits of human adaptation to these different conditions while maintaining a normal sleep schedule? The ...
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What's the most efficient way for a living creature to tunnel through wood?
The main creature in question is an intelligent species that stands from 3' to 4' tall on average. They are heavy-set and primarily bipedal, but able to move comfortably on all fours at the same ...
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What is the most efficient design for an IR sense organ
Deep beneath the ice-crust of Europa, lies its famous subsurface ocean. Having existed for billions of years, this ocean now harbours a huge range of life forms on its sea floor.
However, in trying to ...
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Would humans on disparate planets with little to no contact with one another continue to evolve along different lines?
Would humans on disparate planets with little to no contact with one another continue to evolve along different lines?
In this universe, humans left Earth a hundred thousand years before. Or if it ...
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Boss attacks for a purple worm [closed]
I am making a boss fight themed quest in Dungeons and Dragons, and I am having trouble coming up with "Boss Attacks" that would be physically possible as well as add diversity to the purple ...
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Could this animal exist on my planet
Im working on a project where I'm designing a theoretically possible planet with life and I had an idea for a massive sea animal (500-550 meters in length). Water animals get help from buoyancy but ...
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What are the physical symptoms of standing for too long? [closed]
Someone being forced to stand for seven hours give or take with no possibility of shifting position. It would last seven hours a day for about a week as a form of punishment. All I've been able to ...
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Could a gene be added to people that would stop them drinking?
I'm writing a dystopia where the authoritarian state messes with people's biology, like in Brave New World.
Can they do alter people biologically in some way that makes alcohol not a thing in society ...
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With current technology, genetically modified virus able to end mankind
Description :
Even in the ⅩⅩth century, biological warfare was studying only existing diseases.
But recently we're able to modify viruses in order to cure genetic impairments. Would it be possible to ...
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Can a human skeleton be made of cartilage?
I'm working on this new story in which many people have developed "special qualities" or gifts - call it extreme DNA mutations, if you will. There's this character who has several rows of teeth (maybe ...
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What would a crystal-based creature look like? [closed]
One kind of alien concept I want to explore in my sci-fi is Jean Schneider’s hypothesis about a non-chemical crystal biology. According to Schneider, the organism’s primitive ’central memory’ is based ...
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Could a non sentient land animal evolve an innate knowledge for making boats?
I understand that some non human animals build structures that they innately know how to build, such as how birds innately know how to build nests, and spiders innately know how to make webs, and ...
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How would Fair Folk-type elves deal with dietary iron?
One of the real world beliefs about the Fair Folk is that they are repelled or even damaged by iron. For purposes of this question, let's focus more on the latter: namely, how would an elf manage to ...
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Would a sentient species be able to thrive when mating means the death of the male partner?
There is a species that is quite sentient. Its members know about the world, they have hopes and dreams and great aspirations of what they might do with their lives. They are intelligent, creative, ...
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Can my synthetic human grow?
I'm an advanced AI in far futuristic sci-fi setting.
To give you the size of how advanced we are, I'll just drop here a short list of our accomplishments:
We have discovered cold fission-reactors ...
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How to allow a sentient cephalopod to live a long lifespan?
In this alternate earth, during the Permian period, a sentient aquatic cephalopod species evolved intelligence equal if not superior to humans. Unfortunately, there's a big problem to a cephalopod ...
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What life could survive in a backrooms-like enviroment [closed]
you know what the backrooms are, you're on the internet.
for those who somehow don't: the backrooms is an internet urban legend that entails a pocket dimension that you can get to via no-clipping ...
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How large would a tree need to be to provide oxygen for 100 people?
The idea is that a population of beings have a superior claim over others for the privilege of oxygenated air in a city/large settlement.
I wanted to make this work that the other residents in the ...
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How do my genetically altered people survive a smokey environment?
I have a world heavily polluted. A war long ago sustained by automated factories has kicked up a significant amount pollution and debris into the atmosphere. This has caused a permanent mist/fog of ...
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Under what conditions would a society be able to remain undetected in our current world?
So hypothetically, what would be the best "hiding" locations for societies/organizations that seek to avoid contact with the rest of humanity? In other words, where would be the best place (...
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Anatomically Correct Chupacabra [closed]
This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series.
The Chupacabra is a legendary cryptid animal from North American folklore. It is a strange bear-like or reptilian creature that sucks the ...
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Anatomically Correct Elves
This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series.
Elves are a supernatural creature from Germanic cultures. Their appearances and abilities vary a lot in fiction and mythology but things they ...
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How much food/drink would it take to properly feed 6 inch vs 72 feet people if the amount they need to eat stayed proportional to normal sized humans?
So say that a 5'6/6 feet person is shrunk down to action figure size(around 6 inches tall/12x smaller) or comes from a human/humanoid species that is naturally that size, how much food and drink would ...
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Humans breeding with dragons [closed]
Firstly, by dragon I am referring to the type with 4 legs a tail and wings. Their actual sizes vary greatly, from the size of your average house cat to feasting on planets in one bite. Most are ...
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Hydrostatic skeletons on a low gravity world
So I'm working on an inhabited planet with around half the gravity of Earth (assume everything else is the same, just the gravity differs). While thinking about what kinds of terrestrial creatures ...
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How would a group of people inspired by European ethnic groups maintain their lighter skin in a desert climate?
Messing around with different aesthetics and groups for this story, and I'm wondering how to go about this. I wanted to do a setting where a region is full of basically ancient Egyptian inspired ...
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