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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Precocial offspring in an obligate carnivore + ambush predator species
So, for an obligate carnivore + ambush predator species, what could necessitate their babies being born precocial?
IRL, big cats' babies are fairly altricial, but I need a reason for them to be the ...
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How large could a tree theoretically become if its trunk and branches were (heavily) pneumatized?
This question is in relation to speculative biology/evolution: A genre of science fiction and hypothetical branch of science which seeks to explore "what if" questions about life using ...
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How plausible might planimals be, and what would they be like?
This question is in relation to speculative biology/evolution: A genre of science fiction and hypothetical branch of science which seeks to explore "what if" questions about life using ...
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Explosive Plant/Chemotrophs [duplicate]
I'm looking for an autotroph that produces an explosive compound for either reproductive or defensive purposes that an intellegent alien could harvest and domesticate for the purposes of producing ...
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Animals with fur that fluoresces under UV, and a star with high UV levels--how dramatic is the affect, and how badly would it mess up camouflage?
I am considering the possibility of giving the creatures on my planet fur with UV-florescent pigments as an extra defense against the high levels of UV radiation from their star, an F3.5V
This planet ...
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What tissue / organ is most vulnerable to an attack from nanites? [closed]
What tissue / organ is the most vulnerable to an attack by nanites?
Assume the nanites are very primitive -- something would could conceptualize today.
Assume the nanites can communicate via the ...
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Can 'prions' help me avoid a genetic engineering temporal paradox?
On the world of Ruquelis, the horrific practise of cannibalism stands on three legs, however, this question is concerned only with Leg #1: Genetics.
In How to have 'easy' sexual morphs in ...
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What kind of physique would a Voswuinian Mastiff need to fight a Voswuinian Liguar in the way described?
Before I start, I want to say that this is not a repeat of my previous question. It’s merely a continuation of the topic, with updates to the nature of both fictional animals involved, with a more ...
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How would burn-proof people react to enflamed alcohol?
The Ardeites are a group of humans who are wholly immune to being injured by heat and flame. Furthermore, they cannot feel pain. All other features (including instinctive reactions to extreme ...
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How big would a dog like the one described need to be to survive an attack by the big cat I’ve described?
The Voswuinian Mastiff has a similar build to the English Mastiff. It was bred to protect livestock from predators such as the Voswuinian Liguar. The Liguar has the overall build and musculature of a ...
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Will my Hydra sink into the bog?
Hydras in my world are much like a brontosaurus in form, but has three heads. Much like a hippo, hydras have incredibly dense bones, and sink rapidly in water. Hydras are almost exclusively swamp ...
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Can nature adapt to life without constant access to sunlight? [duplicate]
I create a world where the sun's rays no longer reach the planet, due to the clouds completely covering the sky. Nature must therefore adapt to life without constant access to photosynthesis. I haven'...
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Can there be habitable moons despite heavy changes in axial tilt of their mother body?
Ok so i created a gas giant with 10 Jupiter masses and like 9 moons between 0.8 and 1.5 earth masses. All exept the most distanced of those moons are tidally locked to the gas giant and their axial ...
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How do human girls who are sterilised at age 9 develop as they mature?
On the world of Ruquelis, there are three genders, men, women, and lilim who are a female sex, with wings and clawed feet. Because of the genetics of this situation, lilim are less fertile and can ...
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How large of an initial population would it take for these new traits to average out into the standard population of the world?
Let's say, many years ago, hybrids between humans and other mammalians were created and introduced into the world for various purposes. They have the same cognitive abilities as the other humans, and ...
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Motivations for creating "brainstar" bioplanets [closed]
I define a "bioplanet" as any single organism that completely covers the surface of a planet. In my scenario, humans pass Kardashev Type I status and build a Matrioshka brain around the core ...
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Help create a huge type of creatures [duplicate]
In my novel, there is a type of massive creature, with the smallest adult member being the size of Earth's moon. The external appearance of this being has not been defined in detail, except that it ...
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How can a moon-sized creature evolve? [duplicate]
I wanted to write the evolutionary history of one of the creatures in my story based on scientific principles. This creature is the size of the moon and can live in space. I initially used the limited ...
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How to support the evolution of a giant creature across generations [closed]
In my story, in which I want to rely on scientific logic as much as possible, I want a creature to evolve to become at least the size of a country and you can live in space.
The means of evolution for ...
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Could You Use Mitochondria to Power Your Cell Phone?
Halfthawed replied to vicky_molokh in 2019 regarding her question associated with External ATP Synthesiser Plausibility. Halfthawed stated:
ATP is kind of already synthesized by battery power. In fact,...
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What features would a creature that could see radio waves have? [duplicate]
What physically apparent features and what organs would a creature that could see radio waves have to have?
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Adaptations for a planet with high atmospheric pressure, to avoid nitrogen narcosis?
I'm building a some hypothetical habitable planets for a book, and one of these planets has a thick atmosphere (around 10 bar). I'm not sure if it's even possible, but I want to figure out how the ...
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Would isolated populations of humans still be the same species after a million years?
Let's say we drop a few hundred thousand people on several different planets. We'll have intentionally picked the planets to be similar in physical attributes (temperature, gravity, etc.), have ...
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Spacecraft Design of a Cold-Blooded Humanoid Race
I was talking with a friend recently and he reasoned that a cold-blooded race would take longer to get to space, but survive more easily once the technology progressed enough. The rationale was that a ...
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Optimal Organ Preservation in a Steampunk World?
In a steampunk world where multiple more-or-less humanoid species (with varying levels of intelligence) coexist, organ hunting is prevalent and authorized (outside of cities).
The harvested organs are ...
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How much could a real world quetzalcoatlus carry? [closed]
This question has been asked in dnd5e, and that is all google is pulling up for me is dnd related. Is there a study or a simple explanation anyone has I can look at? I'm looking to see if it would be ...
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If humans were able to domesticate Azhdarchidae, would humans be able to get them Jurrasic World size?
If humans selectively breed Azhdarchidaes, would humans be able to make them absolutely massive? Could humans breed them to be able to carry a pilot and fly them?
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Living in natural satellite having an orbital period of 90 earth-minutes to a gas giant that covers all light. How would animal hunters thrive?
Imagine a earth-like planet where life is beginning to thrive at the bottom of the ocean. So far it is an elegant carbon-based lifeform, not different than the one that has burst in our earth.
But ...
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What traits would a human have in an oxygen rich environment?
I'm having trouble finding research surrounding this question. If humans evolved in a more oxygen-rich environment, what would their evolved traits be?
For context: I'm creating a post-apocalyptic ...
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Human brain as fluidic computing tubes
A human body where, apart for the musculoskeletal and integumentary systems, there is one, and only one, body system formed by vessels, or tubes, that transfer liquids from one place to another.
It's ...
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An eye that can see all the electromagnetic spectrum from gamma rays to radio waves [closed]
Imagine humans with a brain capable of processing gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation.
Would the resulting image be a juxtaposition of how the image would look for each specific ...
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Birds flying or swimming in space
I had a dream. Imagine the Moon as a bird nest the size of a dwarf planet. Flocks of adult birds travel through space to Earth in order to hunt their prey. (imagine gannet birds swimming in space)
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Alien-friendly decontamination
I'm working on a story that I like to describe as a more hard sci-fi version of Star Trek, set about 150-300 years from now. The human faction cares a great deal about the welfare of alien life, and ...
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How much of a strength boost is my magic drug giving someone if it makes them liable to seriously injure themselves with their own attacks?
In my setting there are various types of magical potions that provide a variety of effects. One of these is a highly potent but dangerous performance enhancer most commonly known by the name of "...
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How many airborne bacteria can I put into the air while keeping it breathable?
I have a setting where I want the atmosphere to basically be filled, heavily and consistently, with a bunch of small, airborne bacteria-like cells/microscopic biomatter. For the sake of keeping the ...
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Is a species that mates by "tribadism" possible?
In real life, there are planarians that are hermaphroditic, which means that they produce both eggs and sperm, however, they have penises and scrotum without clitorises and vaginas. They sexually ...
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Is it reasonable that the people of Pandemonium dislike dogs as pets because of their genetics?
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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Uses for a gastric bypass
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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What would aliens glean from our consumer grade computers? [closed]
David just bought a $1500 grand computer, he put the parts together himself. He was about to play some games on it and aliens just yoinked it to study. Without even looking at David or the biology of ...
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Safety and practicality of a sweating ritual using hot coals
I am imagining rituals for a society that I am developing. I've heard of native american sweat lodges and global sauna culture, and I am considering something similar for my Pandemonic society.
While ...
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Is there an evolutionary advantage for 12.5% of my mammalian species Homo genus to have blue-green colorblindness?
In my world, there is a species of human called Homo hematophagus (blood eating human).
Traditionally, these vampires are a cannibalistic race: In war they often drank the blood from their rivals' ...
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What would happen to a person if their DNA was swapped for someone elses?
If Star Trek transporters actually existed...
Bob and Dave transport down to Earth from their ship. But something goes wrong and their DNA is swapped over! Not their cells as such, just the DNA ...
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Which hypergolic compounds are best suited for dragon fire?
I'm looking for input from chemists, biochemists, and those familiar with rocket fuel propellants. I'm a fantasy world builder, but that doesn't mean everything in my fantasy world is excluded from ...
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Are there any alternative genetic systems which could allow for the development of emergent complexity?
DISCLAIMER: I am an (intensely interested) layman, not a scientist. Please take my summation of the following concepts accordingly.
I'm currently trying to worldbuild a plausible alien species down to ...
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What protein could humans lose to become more carnivorous?
A more developed version of this question.
The Premise
As in the original question, 100k-200k years ago a population of homo sapiens ended up on an alternative version of Earth through a rift that ...
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Can I Achieve Immortality by Controlling Brownian Motion within cells? [closed]
Okay, so I have these beings that are supposed to be able to alter their bodies and do it in such a way that they can make themselves and other practically immortal. But now I am needing to know how ...
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How credible is an extremely lethal virus dying out due to genetic inheritance patterns?
As a preface, let me apologize to knowledgeable people if things I say make them wince, I have no genetics or virology background whatsoever and my science-speak is taken straight from Wikipedia.
The ...
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Can I have a world without females?
In this world, most things that could be considered animals or animal-like reproduce in a genderless, sexless, or asexual manner, primarily through processes like apomixis or other means excluding ...
user104995
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Reality check for egg laying humanoid
I have been doing little research about egg laying. Namely ones involving humanoids. General consensus seem be that those two are bad combination. This and some other information I have gathered, has ...
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Chlorine-breathing insectoid species
I'm trying to come up with a plausible atmosphere of alien world (Callisto moon) inhabited by insectoid race (they live in caverns underneath/inside the ice crust). I read that chlorine is a much ...
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