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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Can my bacteria survive?
I'm trying to create a hard sci-fi book where the main character uses biophotovoltaic cells to power electricity, my question is: How can I make my cyanobacteria last at least a year inside an ...
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Food chain based in geothermal heat?
Underground dwarven (and other) civilizations are a staple of fantasy worlds. The obvious question (what do these people eat?) is rarely answered.
As an explanation, I considered a food chain based in ...
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Optimal shape for a humidity sensing organ?
Eyes, ears and nostrils are shaped to facilitate their function. So what is the optimal shape for a humidity sensing organ? A paper about fruit flies (link here) explains that the insects are adapted ...
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Healing gunshot wounds in microgravity
In my setting, kinetic firearms are the handheld weaponry of choice for most people, despite centuries of technological advancement (and stagnation, somewhat). These range from chemical-propelled guns ...
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Would a prison based on an extreme pressure chamber function well? [closed]
I recently read about an oil rig accident where the workers who were put into a pressure chamber over a course of a few months (about 9 atmospheres) to deal with decompression sickness were ...
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Immortality by blocking programmed cell death [duplicate]
As per my understanding of biology, cells (and ultimately humans) die because they are programmed to die, i.e. they secrete enzymes to destroy the cell after a specific time period. For e.g. Caspases
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Why would a semi-aquatic creature develop bioluminescence?
Why would a creature with a similar lifestyle as seals, sea-lions and amphibians-living near water and diving for food-evolve bioluminescence?
These creatures are roughly the size of a dolphin or a ...
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creature pupils, iris color, and eye shape. What would they look like?
There are several species I've thought up for fun. Pure entertainment.
One species is 4-5 feet tall, and lives in very dark caves where the only light source is the luminescence of fauna, the glow of ...
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Why would a near future society struggle to grow crops on a large level?
I have a world where its mostly in ruins. But its run practically by corporations and smaller factions. A large part of the world is recovering from ecological collapse, massive pollution that travels ...
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Would a trait that's genetics have "circular dominance" be plausible?
Okay, so based on some quick research, there don't appear to be any real-life cases in genetics of "circular dominance" where, for example, allele A is dominant to allele B, B is dominant to ...
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Is an atmosphere's oxygen partial pressure or concentration more biologically significant?
I'm confused about the relationship between partial pressure and concentration of a gas, in relation to the biology of respiration. If I have a planet with high atmospheric pressure - maybe like 10 ...
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Alternatives to bone that can be turned into weapons?
In my world (based on D&D) orcs are a pre-metalworking society that clash with various agricultural humanoid civilizations. However, I would also like them to have metal weapons so they are a ...
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Shape and diversity of chemotrophic plants [closed]
I posted a question similar to this but that was about how these plants would work, this is about how they could look like.
So in a tidally locked planet I'm working on there are plants which inhabit ...
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Weaponisation of a dragons wing flap?
Recently, I learned about an incident during the Yom Kippur war in which Israeli fighter pilots in F-4s destroyed low-flying Mi-8 helicopters by using the blast from their jet engines to send the ...
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How many generation will it take for the wild genes of the cows to resurface? [closed]
Cows have been carefully selected in the past 10000 years in order to domesticate them. Except for few cases like the breeds for corrida bulls the unruly ones were the first ones to be slaughtered and ...
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What gene could have a mutation that makes humans have blubber?
In my world, there are three species from the Homo genus that make together a clade named the aquatic humans: Homo maritimus, Homo corpulentus, and Homo gigas (the names respectively mean "marine ...
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How to stop Jimmy’s (self-conscious) limbs from rebelling?
So Jimmy (the collective name for his brains) has this one-in-a-handwavium-amount blessing/curse. Instead of one central brain, his head, each arm, each leg, and his torso have independently ...
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Could any photosynthesis occur at 5.5 AU on a warm planet?
I'm designing a habitable planet orbiting an M-dwarf, which is orbiting a G star at 5.5 AU. The orbit around the G star keeps the "night-side" (not technically an accurate term in this ...
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Can an animal have a body covered with "hearing" hair?
Since our ears have small hair inside which (at least partially) make it possible to hear, is it possible for an animal to have hearing based on hair on its whole body? Like highly specialized small ...
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What struggles would a ten-foot tall humanoid face in daily life?
In the story I am creating the fantasy race I am creating is roughly 10-20 feet tall from the tip of their ears to the end of their tail in water, and out of water 8-10 foot tall from tip of their ...
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Can knowingly and willingly murdering someone interfere with a women's menstural cycle? [closed]
On Peacemaker, Harcourt, one of the characters, mentions that when she first killed someone, her periods stopped happening for quite a bit.
My question is this: Just how realistic is that?
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Could a bird respiratory system fit in this humanoidish body?
I have a creature that has a humanoid torso and abdomen except for it being larger to accommodate air sacs. It has a flexible spine; not rigid like birds. The pelvic bones are like a human's(except ...
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A Massive Organism Living In The Vacuum Of Space
Okay, here me out: I am designing an massive, kilometers-long at the absolute minimum, creature that lives in asteroid belts in the vacuum of space. It hosts an entire ecosystem of living things like ...
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How Could an Organism Evolve "Unintentionally" into a Cyborg?
Let's say there is an ecosystem with lots of familiar organisms. Bacteria, plants, fungi, metazoans.
Then a great deal of high-tech waste is introduced into that ecosystem. First, is there any way ...
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Primitive weapons built from resin?
I have a creature who harvests resin from trees as a building material. These trees are similar to those on Earth, but not identical (I.e. there is biological wiggle room).
I would like the creature ...
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Could a bird respiratory system still work without the same bone structure as a bird?
I have a creature that has a humanoid torso and abdomen except for it being larger to accommodate air sacs. The structure of the posterior air sacs is that it wraps around the organs; this means a ...
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What are potential avenues for firearms and weapons technologies for a biotech-centric species?
In my setting, there is an alien world known as Totaria and an alien race known as the Totarians, who possess a special cell that lets them develop whatever organs, limbs, and creatures they want, ...
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How large does a dragon have to be for a hunter to enter its stomach through its throat?
In a world inhabited by primitive hunter-gatherer humans and dragons, one of the most respected trial by fires is to hunt a dragon by jumping through their mouth and killing it from inside the stomach....
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Physiological consequences of being a brain in a jar plugged into a robot body [duplicate]
In an alterante universe where Nazi Germany conquered the world, an unfortunate soul has ended up like Cliff Steele from Doom Patrol; his brain has been removed from its original body by a mad nazi ...
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I am looking for a program that can help me design the biology of species from my world [closed]
Over the year or so that I've been working on my world I haven't ever been able to make an official reference sheet on the internal biology of my species due to my lack of art skills. I would really ...
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How could dryads realistically grow plants out of their body? [closed]
My fantasy world includes non-traditional dryads who are pretty much just humans that have a stronger connection to nature, as well as the ability to grow plants out of their skin. Is there any way to ...
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A rinnegan's vision [closed]
The Rinnegan has an array of powerful abilities.
But im more interested on it's actual visual capabilities.
The rinnegan has multiple irises outside of its first one,
And multiple limbal rings ...
3
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Carnivorous humanoids & the quest for a balanced diet
My fantasy world has a species of hominids that evolved to become semi-aquatic - their lifestyle is similar to that of seals & sea lions, spending much of their time in the water.
Now - given that,...
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What would the recovery period for a five year coma look like? [closed]
So, I've been kicking around a sort-of "return from another world" idea for a bit now. Basically, the MC gets the crap kicked out of him and ends up in a deep coma with very little brain ...
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A species that is warm-blooded when a juvenile, but cold-blooded (or at least lukewarm-blooded) when an adult [closed]
In my world, there is a species of squamates from the Toxicofera clade named dragons (their scientific name is Draco draco). Some of their characteristics include:
In comparison to human beings, they ...
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What are the distinct functions a body orifice could have? [closed]
Different types of animal have different sorts of orifice with different functions. One commonality between them is that multiple different functions (often the same functions across multiple animals) ...
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Would a genetically engineered animal with wheels be a viable species? [duplicate]
There have been several discussions both on this website and others about the viability of wheeled animals and why there are no current biological examples of it. A big issue with an animal evolving ...
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How smart would my cyborg be? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, how smart could a neuron culture in a petri dish be?
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Is it redundant to have both hearing and "sensory hairs"? [closed]
After watching Because Science's video about spider sensory organs that could enable Spider-Mans' Spider-Sense, I got interested in implementing trichobotria -- the sensory hairs you see on tarantulas ...
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Can we "see" through Thermal imaging through the skin?
I've been experimenting with characters with enhanced senses/extra senses and I wonder if it's possible that, through increased sensitivity or special receptors on the skin, someone could perceive ...
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Is it biologically plausible for a land animal to drink saltwater and not drink freshwater?
I'm trying to come up with a land animal that can drink saltwater but for some reason cannot drink freshwater. The advantage of drinking saltwater would be that they can get drinking water straight ...
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What type of diet would be needed to sustain the Seadominians and keep them thriving
I created this fantasy race called Seadominians, they are basically merfolk. They are mostly bipedal, have scales covering all over, and live all throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, also the ...
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Adaptations necessary for a big feline to be rideable?
I imagine they'd need to be much larger than any extant cat (like ligers, Panthera atrox, or the ginormous cat mounts they have in World of Warcraft) and need more rigid spines, longer legs, and more ...
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How could my cyborg live longer? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, the problem is most neuronal cultures only live for weeks, 60 days or up to 5 years, that's ...
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Biology Question Ovoviviparity in Mammals Mammal/Brid Hybrids [closed]
I am not sure where to ask this question at so I hope this is a good place.
I also am not sure where I ever got this idea, but I wanted ask what possibility it had.
Considering the reproduction of a ...
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How can I tie an individual's general appearance with the season they're born in?
So basically the elves of the setting have varying appearances depending on the season they're born in, but they're entirely biological and while the setting does have magic I don't want there to be a ...
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Would paper pulp or resin be preferable to build giant beehives?
I have a hive-based, man-sized creature based on a honeybee. It still builds combs and produces/consumes honey, but (I think) honey wax isn’t strong enough to support the massive increase in hive size,...
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Could a very light humanoid creature throw a javelin?
My story has a creature that is vaguely humanoid in shape and lives on an Earth-like planet. However, the creature is smaller (dingo-sized) and only weighs around 35 pounds.
Like humans, these ...
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How to eliminate male on male competition? [closed]
What behavioral and biological changes would be needed to make males not fight each other over females and for females to fight each other for males and to not make males expandle and extremely ...
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How do we Ride Wolves?
In fantasy stories, wolves or even large dogs are often depicted as mounts, and in the recent Monster Hunter Rise game, canid-like monsters called Palamutes are used as both companions and mounts. ...
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