Questions tagged [life]
For questions about the characteristics of living beings in different settings. This tag is not for questions about the daily life of characters.
1
vote
2answers
41 views
Can I make the carbon cycle shorter - by metamorphosis from plant to animal and vice-versa
EDITED to address the above suggestion. See below.
Most animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon-dioxide.
Most plants take in carbon-dioxide and release oxygen.
Waste products from animals ...
4
votes
2answers
79 views
Planet Blob - variable gravity
On the planet Blob there is an unusual phenomenon. It is known to emanate from the planet's core but 2018-level scientists have no understanding of it.
The phenomenon
Gravity isn't constant. It ...
9
votes
1answer
2k views
What amount of forrest-fire in square km or metric tons, would be necesary to bring oxygen levels below 19.5% that humans require to stay alive? [closed]
I read that oxygen makes up 21% of the Earth's atmosphere. I'm guessing it would take a lot of burning to decrease that level, but I am not sure how to calculate that.
The problem is: Roughly 400 ...
2
votes
6answers
4k views
If humans were biologically immortal, but had an average lifespan of 100 years, what would the distribution of ages be?
Let's say that humans were biologically immortal. Once they reach adulthood, they effectively stop aging. Due to disease though, the average lifespan is 100 years. (In practice, your access to ...
3
votes
1answer
90 views
Could this moon of a gas giant orbiting a neutron star support life?
Making the following assumptions:
1. The three moons of the Gas Giant are safe enough distances from and massive enough not to pull each other apart or send themselves careening into the void.
2. ...
1
vote
2answers
150 views
What would happen to us if animals, excluding human being, were mute? [closed]
Most of us live in big cities where we hear unnatural (mostly unpleasant) sounds, created by things we've made ourselves. We hear less natural sounds like birds' songs or other animals making sounds, ...
-2
votes
3answers
115 views
If a human's lungs stretched to the lower abdomen, what would it feel like? [closed]
I was considering a human-like race of aliens, where their lungs are huge. Their lungs would reach to the lower abdomen. Due to the science-magic of the setting, they can survive just fine with ...
2
votes
1answer
99 views
What would happen if all (higher) life magically became sentient and reached human-level intelligence? [closed]
Overnight, all higher life, multicellular life forms from trees and grass to dogs and elephants reached a level of intelligence similar to that of humans. For example, they can communicate effectively,...
2
votes
3answers
241 views
Is it possible for humanoid life to develop on a 1.4 G planet?
I'm writing a JRPG-inspired novel set on a planet with 1.7 Earth masses and 1.4 Gs, but is it possible for life to even develop on such a high-gravity planet in the first place? I tried scouring the ...
0
votes
1answer
99 views
Live Body Preservation…A way to live for many centuries? [closed]
I was thinking that if there was a machine which preserved live human body without aging would that be a way/solution to live for many centuries?
ex- A person at age 40 sleeps in that machine & ...
3
votes
8answers
646 views
Is there a way for the concept of life to be evil? [closed]
I have been formulating this idea where there are two, all-powerful beings that embody the concepts of life and death. For the purpose of this question, I will refer to them as L and D. L and D are ...
24
votes
14answers
10k views
How to kill trees?
In a world where magic energy and life-force are compatible if not equivalent forces, woodcutting can be a problem in regions with high magic potential.
If a woodcutter fells a tree and leaves it, it ...
-5
votes
4answers
204 views
Could a person extend their life by having a living blood supplied organ donor? [closed]
An old person and young blooded close match person or clone to get some youth back? With a constant flow of fresh blood the older person the donor is not just donating blood but adding virtually all ...
0
votes
1answer
80 views
How can death change the magic? [closed]
My world is full of magic, even if it is not distributed equally in all areas. Most of magic is in the Cloudy mountains and their close surroundings.
It is present in every living being (flowers, ...
-2
votes
2answers
95 views
What evidence is there for silicon based life forms [closed]
What evidence is there for silicon based life forms. In writing a hard science book is there much 'science' to support such a notion. Examples of other work would be good
5
votes
3answers
150 views
Could life develop above a planet's atmosphere?
Imagine a planet with extremely low density, and thus low gravity and an equivalently thin atmosphere, but a very active and strong magnetosphere that prevents solar radiation from destroying complex ...
7
votes
2answers
293 views
How long would it take until we realise that suddenly nobody can conceive a child regularly?
Some time ago I asked: "How long would it take until we realise that people stopped dying from natural causes?"
I today realized that similar but much more interesting (and more realistic...) ...
1
vote
2answers
192 views
Can you create a small atmosphere with giant walls?
Can you create an atmosphere on a celestial satellite by using giant walls? Perhaps assisted with some means of technology? In a story I am creating I want to create something different from the ...
1
vote
2answers
145 views
How would life on a planet without seasons evolve? [closed]
This also counts intelligent life as well, but I've been working on my universe more and have been considering planets without an axial tilt (thus not allowing seasons).
What kind of plants and ...
4
votes
4answers
263 views
How do you get a thick atmosphere with less than earth-like gravity?
Basically: I want a highly viscous atmosphere but I want people to be able to walk around. I was thinking earth's gravity * 0.6 or similar.
I was thinking that an atmosphere of Sulfur Hexafluoride ...
4
votes
2answers
655 views
Is a planet able to sustain life without a moon?
Is a planet able to sustain life without a moon? What are the major effects of a natural satellite on a planet and its fauna and flora ?
3
votes
1answer
177 views
Life on a water-ball planet
I'd like to explore some details on a so-called water-ball planet (i.e. a planet in the habitable zone of a sun, covered by a 100 km deep ocean). I am particularly interested where life could develop ...
5
votes
3answers
658 views
Are single-biomed planets (like in *Star Wars*) possible? [duplicate]
I know this may seem like an obvious no, but with the newest Star Wars movie just released, there is a mineral-rich planet called Crait which I have seen make a few debates about whether or not this ...
0
votes
2answers
183 views
Would it be possible to have three planets merge but still allow some life survive?
In my universe a race of humanoid beings caused 3 planets:
Earth
a larger rocky planet
and another earth sized rocky planet
to crash and collide into each other, but still allowed the humanoid ...
12
votes
4answers
556 views
If only the sun's light went out, how long would it take for all living things to die out?
If by some form of magic, the sun went out, but the earth was still warm a.k.a the Earth did not just freeze and kill us all, who would die first, and how long would it take for all terrestrial living ...
2
votes
3answers
212 views
What is intelligent life?
It has been speculated that one explanation to the Fermi Paradox is that humans have been observed by extra-terrestrial life and it was concluded that we are not 'intelligent life', so no contact was ...
11
votes
4answers
423 views
Could a decreased heartrate thanks to better hemoglobin lead to an increased lifespan?
When looking at mammals and their heart rates one can find a correlation between the lifespan of a mammal and their heart rate. Namely most mammals seem to get about 1 billion (the American one) of ...
0
votes
2answers
125 views
Advice on establishing a magical ecosystem? [closed]
A huge cataclysm struck the world several thousand years ago, in which debris from magical meteorites basically screwed up the whole planet, altering its ecosystems to include creatures that evolved/...
29
votes
17answers
5k views
How to explain human life expectancy increase?
What could be most reasonable explanation for rapid increase in life expectancy for all people on earth?
Some points:
Effect can be increased over time: 100 years in 2020, 140 - in 2030.. and so on,...
0
votes
2answers
74 views
Trust and build an alliance with a high-developed and more powerful alien race [closed]
Let's assume humanity meets an alien race who are more powerful and high-developed. What would it take to ally with them and trust them?
Assuming we manage to communicate. Knowing that our leaders ...
1
vote
9answers
1k views
Life On Sale…? [closed]
Let's say that there is world having only one kind of species, in which if one of the living being kills another, the remaining life span of the 'killed one' is added to the life span of the killer. ...
1
vote
1answer
120 views
Surviving on a planet with an eccentric orbit
I have this planet that's 1.8 times the size of Earth on an eccentric orbit around a star that's 0.2 times the size of the sun. Its apses often change due to the influence of a neighboring gas giant.
...
0
votes
1answer
121 views
What happen if 95% of bees die? [closed]
Suppose that in 2 years due to a virus the percentage of bees decreased by 95%. How nature react to this change ? How would the man face the problem?
1
vote
3answers
176 views
How could a parasitic organism spread through humans?
I have an idea for a crazy super-organism which could wipe out the human race. Essentially, it is an organism (plant or fungus or bacterium depending on what would be more effective or what would be ...
7
votes
4answers
462 views
Is it possible to have an underground swamp inside a cave?
Acording to my understanding of the word "swamp", we must have at least 3 components put together:
Water in abundance
Vegetation
Soil for the vegetation to take hold (and eventually to produce mud ...
10
votes
3answers
498 views
Space Whales, how to survive?
We have escaped the galactic government, and now our greatest endeavour yet, life in space. How will these gargantuan space entities eat and survive in space?
The whale or other in question is the ...
6
votes
2answers
323 views
Space Whales, how to move?
We have escaped the galactic government, and now our greatest endeavour yet, life in space. How shall these gargantuan space entities move and travel through space?
The whale or other in question is ...
0
votes
2answers
229 views
How to bring undead back to real life? [closed]
This question is a very close to question How could a mummy come back to life?, but I hope that not duplicate.
Undead = alive, because dead = after death, un = negation. But they are alive in a bit ...
1
vote
3answers
115 views
Hypothetical Terrestrial Moon Atmospheric Composition Validation [closed]
Have been building a game called Rise: The Vieneo Province.
Vieneo is a terrestrial moon (all details can be found here) but we have a Nitrogen (ipp: 2006), Helium (ipp: 578) Oxygen (ipp: 11) and ...
-2
votes
1answer
333 views
2.5x atmospheric pressure + 25% atmospheric oxygen saturation level =? [closed]
So my question is pretty much as the title states, what would be the effects on the human body with these atmospheric conditions? More specifically, how would effect the growth of land mammals, ...
8
votes
6answers
1k views
What Earth animals would be the most logical candidate for uplifting in a science fiction world? [closed]
My world primarily takes place in the 2880s. By now, humans are exploring and colonizing space, and have contacted a variety of alien species. Several hundred years earlier, however, they contacted ...
1
vote
0answers
107 views
How would two moons work on a planet? [duplicate]
I'm planning on making a "new world", in a new planet. This planet would have similar living conditions to the Earth, but two moons (both in the same orbit, so that both can be seen at night), but I ...
7
votes
1answer
165 views
Phonosynthesis - ecosystem where “plants” extract energy from sound, not light
I have an idea about a planet that is cold and dark, but very loud. Constant rolling storms, crashing glaciers and icesheets, earthquakes, volcanoes and so on.
Instead of photosynthetic plants, as on ...
3
votes
1answer
486 views
A world without surface tension
I was wondering: what if a planet (such as earth) suddenly had all surface tension removed (mainly in water, because all carbon based life forms need it.). What would happen?
3
votes
1answer
98 views
Re lifing the life [closed]
There exists nothing in this planet other than the most basic form of life : a simple bacteria, a cell like that.
It isn't the only bacteria in the world to clear things out. There are countless of ...
5
votes
8answers
479 views
How could a creature get off a planet without technology?
Imagine a spacefaring creature, one that colonises star systems, and then shoots some of its kind on to another system (the mechanism for doing this doesn't matter). The question is, how could this ...
-3
votes
2answers
70 views
Can reptiles live a long time in a fake habitat? [closed]
I was thinking that animals in zoo's have better lives but shorter live expectancies. Does this mean that if any creature lives in a concentrated habitat live short lives?
5
votes
4answers
177 views
Energy wiping out beings while preserving planet
I'm aware of hard radiations from space can wipe out life but I believe that would also causes the planet to be inhabitable for a period of time. Is there any other kind of energy that could destroy ...
-1
votes
1answer
77 views
Species on a planet scale [closed]
Because of the huge size of the universe and being that we occupy a tiny bit of it, you could assert that in some parts of the universe (just so happens that not in ours) there is a vast number of ...
6
votes
3answers
167 views
How can a flat sheet of cells develop complexity and even intelligence?
Imagine pond scum: there is an interface between two fluids, and living cells are confined to this 2 dimensional structure. complexity has evolved hierarchical up to the point of having internal ...
