Questions tagged [diseases]
For questions related to a disorder (illness, disease and sickness) that affects the function or structure of an organism.
258
questions
11
votes
8
answers
5k
views
How to prevent humans from being killed by alien diseases?
Humans build big rockets and fly generation ships to extrasolar planets to settle. There’s already sentient alien life on that planet, but the humans has none of the immunizations and natural ...
-1
votes
1
answer
133
views
A genetic disease that is characterised by both gigantism and intellectual disability [closed]
In an Of Mice and Men parody I want to write, Of Rats and Women, there is a 30 years old woman named Léonie Petit (her surname is ironic, because petit is a French adjective that means small/little/...
- 4,254
4
votes
2
answers
261
views
How would a lysosome based disease be defeated?
Essentially, in the human world of 2024 (current day tech, but no more COVID), how would humans find a way to prevent a disease that targets and destroys lysosomes, so that only animals are affected. ...
-4
votes
1
answer
120
views
A genetic disease that makes humans of any origin have epicanthic folds (slanted eyes) [closed]
I imagined for a future film, a 21 years old human of French nationality and citizenship named Thérèse Arielle Huguette Flavie Alexandre (Alexandre can be both a given name and a surname, in this case,...
- 4,254
3
votes
1
answer
135
views
Could HIV-1 evolve to successfully infect rats?
In my world that is set in a far future, a mammalian species from the Euarchontoglires superorder descended from brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) evolved to become sapient.
One of the deadliest diseases ...
- 4,254
0
votes
2
answers
175
views
A synthetical virus created by a racist [closed]
In my science-fiction story, there is a vile scientist that creates a synthetical virus, because he wants to kill all humans of British and Irish ancestry all over the world.
This virus ONLY affects ...
- 4,254
20
votes
9
answers
3k
views
What's a reasonable environmental disaster that could be caused by a probe from Earth entering Europa's ocean?
I'm working on a story involving life on Europa (or at least a place just like it) being upturned dramatically by contact from a probe sent from Earth. Found this community while researching, and have ...
- 261
1
vote
1
answer
98
views
Heterozygote advantage against pork tapeworm
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
- 4,254
1
vote
4
answers
272
views
A dementia that develops ONLY in humans under 25 years old
In my story, there is a 24 years old human who, despite being an adultescent (aged between 18 to 24 years old), shows Alzheimer's-like symptoms: he forgot the name of his best friend forever, he is as ...
- 4,254
8
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Disease that rapidly kills and replaces cells - severity of symptoms
I have conceptualized a disease that rapidly kills cells in the human body and replaces them with modified copies over a period of 7-10 days. After this time, every cell in the infected person's body ...
- 331
0
votes
1
answer
169
views
A genetic disease that makes genetically and biologically male humans unable to grow facial hair (the opposite of hirsutism)
In a live-action musical film I want to direct, Le Président et Moi (I want the film to have French as its original language), there is a character named Édouard Wang. They (Wang is a closeted non-...
- 4,254
2
votes
4
answers
340
views
How could a pandemic trigger a renaissance? [closed]
In all this gloomy pandemic reporting of the last 3/4 years nobody ever noticed that one of the worst pandemics in known history happened at the beginning of the renaissance and it did not stop it. It ...
- 2,818
8
votes
4
answers
793
views
How to overcome the hygiene issues of prehensile mouthparts?
Currently, I am designing a sapient species whose only dextrous appendages are their prehensile mouthparts.
I am aware that there are some issues with this, but I can think of ways to avoid or ...
- 1,492
1
vote
1
answer
151
views
A genetic disease that makes humans have much more brown fat than the average human being
I wonder if the disease I invented is realistic or a total fiction.
In my story The Transcendence of Adolescence, there is a 17 years old homosexual (or lesbian if you want) transgender woman named ...
- 4,254
4
votes
2
answers
491
views
A genetic disease that makes humans unable to produce adrenaline
I wonder if the disease I invented is realistic or a total fiction.
In a white drama/lighthearted tragedy (the opposite of black comedy/dark humour) web-series for a teen audience in mind I want to ...
- 4,254
1
vote
2
answers
90
views
How to built a molecular timer into a bioweapon?
Following COVID and having watched far too many zombie movies, I started thinking about an optimal design for a biological weapon. Symptoms wise I believe a modified version of rabies sounds ...
- 15.9k
4
votes
4
answers
218
views
How can a disease increase the likelihood of stillbirth in male infants?
In the ancient world, maternity death rates were very high due to lack of medical knowledge and understanding, as well as life-saving technologies. As such, it was a toss up to whether the woman and ...
- 38.3k
14
votes
5
answers
459
views
How to protect against a disease that spreads by thought?
Let's imagine we have a disease. Call it the "Thought Plague". It has all the symptoms of a normal disease; in fact, let's use COVID as our symptoms baseline. However, this disease has an... ...
- 3,658
35
votes
16
answers
6k
views
Politics and Zombies: Designing a balanced zombie plague that could realistically destroy civilization due to poor decision-making
As has been pointed out numerous times, zombie apocalypses of the classic zombie-bites-you-and-you-become-a-zombie are stupid and would never work in real life. Biting is a horribly inefficient method ...
- 28.4k
5
votes
2
answers
88
views
What would a heterozygote advantage against the mutant coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 look like?
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
- 4,254
5
votes
3
answers
119
views
How to heal a defective superhuman?
By modifying the human genome an organization in the future created a class of superhumans. Factors that would cause most hereditary diseases have been erased, and the ones in muscle mass, strength, ...
- 49
7
votes
7
answers
210
views
Stopping a Disease from Evolving
Some evil scientist, let's call him... Dr. BBEG, has manufactured a potent, powerful disease. He has full control over the bacteria's genome now, but once he releases it... not so much. However, in ...
- 3,658
6
votes
5
answers
918
views
What condition could cause chronically reddened sclera?
I have a character whose eye whites are bright red, and I'd like to make some attempt to justify why.
This character's species has eyes that generally become bloodshot in the same way and under the ...
- 163
4
votes
2
answers
129
views
What would a heterozygote advantage against rabies look like?
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
- 4,254
-3
votes
1
answer
69
views
Could internal exposure to electromagnetic radiation be contagious or leave a trace? [closed]
This is linked to another question I asked a few days ago but my story concerns an inter-dimensional consciousness that lures children into itself by manifesting as magical wonderlands with wacky ...
- 761
1
vote
1
answer
74
views
How much ionizing radiation would a baby need to absorb to develop acute myeloid leukaemia by the time they were 8?
My story concerns an inter-dimensional consciousness that lures children into itself by manifesting as magical wonderlands with wacky characters (think a creepy Sesame Street or Lazy Town).
The real ...
- 761
12
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Would a somewhat benign "vampiric" virus be doomed to infect everyone?
In one of the books of the The Witcher series Geralt has been told by a vampire (Regis, if I recall) that it was not true that vampirism could be spread by bite. He elaborated that the whole idea was ...
- 1,895
2
votes
1
answer
143
views
Genetic disease that makes thermoregulation voluntary
I wonder if the disease I invented is realistic or a total fiction.
There is a real life genetic disease called congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (or Ondine's curse, if you want). People ...
- 4,254
2
votes
6
answers
876
views
what is a medical condition that makes you weaker and weaker (that affects teens) [closed]
I'm writing a story and one of the characters have a medical condition,
they are 16/17 they're gonna die soon
there's no cure, just treatment
they can still attend school and walk around without ...
5
votes
2
answers
209
views
Would merpeople contract diseases from land?
In working on the merpeople for my story - very basic, classic merpeople - they are humans underwater with fish tails. I've questioned whether they would contract diseases. It seems that they would in ...
- 2,553
5
votes
3
answers
499
views
A genetic disorder that makes people unable to feel itch
I know that congenital insensitivity to pain exists and is autosomal recessive. There is a village in Sweden where 40 cases of this rare genetic disease were reported.
I am writing a story with a ...
- 4,254
5
votes
2
answers
105
views
Heterozygote advantage against influenza/flu
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
- 4,254
5
votes
2
answers
136
views
Is my story's treatment of tuberculosis realistic?
A side character, a sister of my main character, has been stricken with an unidentifiable disease in an early 19th century circa 1800 - 1850 setting. She's had the disease for a few years. Country ...
- 2,553
19
votes
10
answers
6k
views
What would be the average civilian's first hints that a zombie apocalypse was near in a pre-mass internet world?
I'm a big fan of zombie fiction, but one aspect that is rarely touched upon is how things look in the first stages of an apocalypse scenario. If you were an average civilian in the mid 90's when the ...
- 918
10
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How do Roman analogues purify air in a mushroom forest?
The Valyn are a Roman analogue who have been exiled to live in a hostile mushroom forest with daily mist in the vein of a Cloud forest. The air is absolutely brimming with mold, spores, and ...
- 776
2
votes
2
answers
117
views
If the world was perfect, how would we know how to decipher imperfections?
I've always wondered that if everything was always "good", how would we know that there was something "less good" to distinguish the "good" from the "less good"?...
- 23
18
votes
9
answers
4k
views
What disease could my time traveler find a definitive 'cure' for, without recognizing the specific disease
I've been toying with a story of person sent to a alternate reality that mirrors medieval Europe, but not necessarily with identical history/countries. The time traveler would earn the trust/support ...
- 31.1k
6
votes
3
answers
124
views
How species-specific are tropical diseases and parasites?
Following on from a recent question about animals, concerning a group of people traveling sideways in time, to a world that resembles Earth as it would have been had humans never evolved, it occurs to ...
- 4,513
4
votes
1
answer
79
views
Infectious diabetes [closed]
I want to know if the disease I invented is realistic or a total fiction.
I imagined a hypothetical viral disease that causes a contagious form of diabetes. It is only transmitted by blood. The virus ...
- 4,254
4
votes
4
answers
637
views
Can a virus that causes forced evolution exist?
I recently watched a movie called The Cave. In the movie there's a group of spelunkers that get trapped in the cave with a bunch of blind monsters. towards the end of the movie, we find out that the ...
- 413
17
votes
10
answers
5k
views
"A disease killed a king in six months. What disease was it?" Fantasy, some magical healing
I'm currently trying to plot out a novel, the sequel to my Salamander and Brothers. Part of the plot involves a succession struggle. I mention in one of the previous books, set about fifteen years ...
- 179
-2
votes
3
answers
207
views
How could civilization deal with a prion pandemic? [closed]
Prions are misfolded proteins that cause neurodegenerative diseases. They are smaller than viruses and they are the smallest known infectous pathogen. Somehow they could reproduce on their own and the ...
- 1,889
33
votes
9
answers
8k
views
Can we get rid of all illnesses by a year of Total Extreme Quarantine?
Earth-Year: 2618.
Location: Planet Hope, Proxima Centauri.
Terraformation status: 97.8% Earth-like.
Population: 128.596.
The residents of this planet live in a paradise-like environment. The gravity ...
- 919
5
votes
3
answers
275
views
Infectious hemophilia
I want to know if the disease I invented is realistic or a total fiction.
Coagulopathies or bleeding disorders, like hemophilia, and Von Willebrand's syndrome, are diseases in which the blood's ...
- 4,254
10
votes
3
answers
272
views
How can an illness make one's eyes turn green?
I'm designing an illness found in a set group of people. Its effects worsen over time. They suffer from various issues such as nose and mouth bleeding, along with some form of anemia, lingering ...
- 5,681
1
vote
1
answer
143
views
A genetic disorder that makes people look like an elephant and a whale
I want to know if the genetic syndrome I invented is logical or just a total fiction.
There are seven symptoms:
Gigantism;
Truncal obesity;
Alopecia universalis (the complete absence of hair all over ...
- 4,254
3
votes
1
answer
237
views
A genetic disorder that would be the opposite of achondroplasia
Achondroplasia is a form of dwarfism that is characterized by short limbs, macrocephaly, and normal-sized abdomen, torso, and neck.
Could there be a form of gigantism that is characterized by long ...
- 4,254
2
votes
3
answers
98
views
I need a disease or illness in young adults [closed]
I'm writing a story that involves the main character finding out she has some kind of disease or illness and how she deals with it immediately after. She's 20 years old and has been healthy up to this ...
- 21
7
votes
3
answers
301
views
Drop dead disease
Diseases kill people by messing up with some mechanism that is necessary for life. This generally means that they have a progression - for respiratory diseases, you will have difficulty breathing for ...
- 127k
4
votes
3
answers
229
views
How could zombies infect the population of an entire town? [closed]
There is a zombie apocalypse scenario where one zombie appeared in a small town in America. Would it be possible or plausible for them to take over? My problem is that the military would just quickly ...
- 647