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.
123
questions
2
votes
0answers
37 views
Tropical Moon Orbiting Gas Giant [duplicate]
I am asking this question, “How would it be possible for the moon of a gas giant to naturally be habitable for human life?” Specifically, I’m looking at these criteria:
Has a tropical climate with ...
7
votes
3answers
216 views
Can two distinct large isolated life pockets on the planet evolve independently and then merge without driving one another to extinction?
In the geological history of my planet, the plate tectonics resulted in the assembly of a kind of "ring supercontinent", that completely encircled a portion of the ocean and isolated it from ...
3
votes
2answers
131 views
A bacterial organism that survives on the surface of Venus
Yes, you read the title right.
Naturally this cannot be DNA/RNA based, the highest temperature organisms have survived as we know it is 122 degrees celsius and Venus surface is 4 times hotter on ...
2
votes
1answer
146 views
What systems would be needed to keep two halves of a spaceship viable for humans?
A large space colony transport ship (100 colonists) set off for Europa to populate a colony recently built by drones (near future, the 2070s). The six-year flight was going well until unidentified ...
1
vote
0answers
42 views
Life und a Double Planet System [closed]
i am currently working on a CG Short for my Portfolio. It takes place in a Binary system and just tells the Story of a Pilot on one of the Planets.
Anyways, my question for today is how we could ...
4
votes
7answers
503 views
How can we avoid the evolution of inductive reasoning?
Inductive reasoning is one of our most powerful thinking tools as humans. It allows us to find patterns in what we observe and generalize these patterns to predict what will happen in the future.
Even ...
1
vote
1answer
185 views
The Earth is our Moon - A Reality check for a Binary Planet System [closed]
This question is connected to another one I asked about Interstellar Transport Vehicles, but more concerned about what we could expect from a Binary Planet System.
So I want to talk about a few major ...
5
votes
2answers
79 views
How would multicellular organisms evolve in a microgravity ocean?
How would living organisms develop/evolve in a very-low g ocean environment?
The environment would be a small radioactive core surrounded by a small mass of water, less than 100 km in diameter, in the ...
18
votes
3answers
2k views
The cruel life-cycle of biscuits (cookies)
Captain's Log
For some time we have been monitoring broadcasts from a planet that calls itself "Earth". We have noticed that it is fond of placing short documentaries in slots between the ...
asked Jul 4 '20 at 21:12
chasly - supports Monica
39.5k12 gold badges120 silver badges246 bronze badges
2
votes
1answer
81 views
How would plasma-based lifeforms interact with physical matter?
I believe that I had previously wrote about the possibility of energy beings, although it seems that them being made of neutrinos is right out. So I instead thought of them being made of plasma. Some ...
6
votes
2answers
141 views
Is Oxygen necessary for the Sulfur Cycle?
I know that part of the Sulfur cycle requires elemental Sulfur to be oxidized. Every example I've found uses Oxygen and becomes some combination such as Sulfur Trioxide or Disulfur Trioxide. If other ...
1
vote
1answer
67 views
Could complex Precambrian life be possible?
I have a really good question. Could it be possible for complex life to have existed in the Precambrian? I’m aware that only the fossilized remains of bacteria have been discovered from that time ...
3
votes
3answers
727 views
Would scanning solar systems/planets for carbon concentrations be a viable way to search for alien life?
Working on a story about a crew of astronauts on a mission searching for evidence of alien life, either still living or long extinct. Not a biologist or chemist, but from my elementary understanding I ...
2
votes
2answers
112 views
How to plausibly reanimate a person?
What hypothetical scientific procedure could be used to reanimate someone who is brain dead. I am aware that it is possible to bring someone back if they are clinically dead which is where a vital ...
4
votes
2answers
146 views
Bending bones like metal bars
Any person who was once a stupid teen knows how it feels to break a bone and be stupid enough to pretend like nothing happened to hide the injury for weeks on end until their parents notice.... It is ...
1
vote
1answer
81 views
Lifespan of Plutonians [closed]
Honestly, I think my questions about a fictional Pluto are by far the interesting to me, so I have another question.
Now that I’ve got my humanoids pinned down, and what protects them from the cold, ...
2
votes
5answers
217 views
In what way would a regenerating undead be “undead”?
We all know an undead is a reanimated corpse, something rotten and decomposing yet still animated. Normally an undead (if made of flesh) will have an expiration date after which it won't be able to ...
9
votes
2answers
137 views
Could life generate twice on a planet using slightly different materials?
Extremely low possibility, but if life synthesizes from scratch after life has existed on a planet for a few million years, would the two separate lineages be able to co-exist?
15
votes
12answers
3k views
Habitable Planet with Highly Eliptical Orbit
Would it be possible for life to develop on a planet with a highly elliptical orbit? (Similar to a comet, but possibly less extreme.) If so, what conditions would be necessary and what would the life ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Could bacteria survive on a star?
If the right requirements are met, could bacteria survive on the Sun?
The bacteria would spend most of their time in hibernation and reproducing, and when the time comes, they spread out on plasma ...
5
votes
3answers
218 views
Living machines. At which point can machines be considered a life form or organic?
I found this definition of life. Life is a thing that can adapt to its environment, grow and replicate. But mechanical, electrical, and electro-mechanical machines are never called alive.
People ...
-1
votes
2answers
179 views
What would life be if humans had a healing factor? [closed]
The main premise is that since homo sapiens evolved, humanity has possessed a healing factor similar to wolverine, but lesser.
How would modern-day life be different?
1
vote
1answer
89 views
I'm building a fantasy world with three large moons and orbiting a distant sun. I need help with the following: [closed]
1 - What might the days and nights be like, in terms of comparative temperatures and length, with three moons gravity and a massive orbit?
1
vote
3answers
178 views
Reason/Mechanism for seemingly randomly lengthened lifespans in characters in a roughly viking-age world [closed]
So here's the deal. I'm working with the idea that in my world, people can have very different lifespans. Most people live a normal lifespan - the book is set in a fantasy world roughly equivalent to ...
5
votes
1answer
165 views
Plausibility of Hexapodal Aerial Megafauna
How plausible is a six-limbed flying animal roughly the size of hatzegopteryx to be aerial? In this case, an aerial animal will be defined as a creature that solely inhabits the sky. I will call the ...
2
votes
2answers
133 views
How long until land life can return after the impact?
So, it finally happened. The Earth was hit by a comet, and anyone outside of a research station at the bottom of the Atlantic is now dead, or dying. So, here's what we need to know:
How big would a ...
6
votes
2answers
208 views
Hanging World - Trees
Scenario
A civilization is living on an ancient super structure, they don't know much about it, they just live there and have lived there for as long as they know. For our current situation we can ...
6
votes
1answer
106 views
Environment/Ecosystem for a “Sunfall” colony
I've read a lot of posts about moons around large gas giants and I think I have fairly good idea about basics to them. I'm not super great with all the science parts myself but they give me lots of ...
7
votes
2answers
276 views
If humans evolved on Mars instead of Earth, how quickly would we have detected life on Earth?
Suppose that both Earth and Mars was booming with life in a similar way. Except that, on Earth, there was no hominid family, and no humans evolved. Instead, humans evolved on Mars.
Assuming we had ...
4
votes
2answers
544 views
How Would Ammonia-Based Life Evolve? [closed]
EDIT:
The planet/moon has a high mass, and has a similar atmosphere to Jupiter or Saturn. These organisms will be silicon-ammonia based, and breathe hydrogen. There will be very little oxygen in the ...
7
votes
5answers
194 views
Adapting to a sonic world
A planet much like Earth orbits a star much like the Sun, but with one difference: the energy from the star is magically transformed into sound within the planet's atmosphere. There is no longer ...
10
votes
2answers
170 views
Algae using UV light from auroras for photosynthesis
I was reading some questions on Quora and I found this claim:
The polar regions have a very odd reason for them to have so much oxygen production. You see the Polar aurora run day and night in the ...
6
votes
5answers
172 views
Planetary neighbors
Let's say there is another planet in our solar system that harbours sentient life and this sentient life can build castles, buildings, and other such structures.
When would we notice that?
We can ...
4
votes
1answer
130 views
How much of our solar system can you change without breaking the science of life on earth? [closed]
I am making a near-future setting that takes place in an alternate solar system that's similar to ours (one planet with life, a moon, and other planets without life and their associated moons).
And ...
3
votes
3answers
144 views
Planet with two independent forms of life? [duplicate]
Suppose there is a planet fertilized with Earth-like life (characterized by proteins, nucleic acids, DNA, RNA) and a completely independent form of life, but also water and carbon based with different ...
4
votes
2answers
197 views
Born and raised on a world with longer days and years - would it impact life expectancy
If humans found a habitable world and access to it, what would the effects be of a longer day to those who were subsequently born and raised there?
Is there any evidence that a longer day cycle (of ...
6
votes
1answer
188 views
How could a foam habitat support animal life?
Knowing foam is formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid, what could a foam able to support life on an earth-like planet be made of?
This foam ought to be stable enough and large enough ...
2
votes
6answers
216 views
Life on land, sea, and what else? [closed]
On earth there are two main media that support complex animal life. One is the sea, with creatures living both on the seabed and the water; Another is the land, with animals that live both on it and ...
10
votes
3answers
709 views
Appropriate liquid/solvent for life in my underground environment on Venus
Partly inspired by this question
My Venusians are happy in their cloud top city when a small group somehow (with lots of handwaving) crashes to the surface, falls underground, and ends up in a hidden ...
24
votes
13answers
5k views
How would fantasy dwarves exist, realistically? [duplicate]
I've never ever seen even a suggestion of an idea of how dwarves actually can live how they are most often depicted - underground without handwaving or magic (which is just a fancy word for "...
4
votes
1answer
162 views
Would life be possible on a planet that has an axis of rotation that always “pointed” directly at the sun? [duplicate]
Preface: I'll be calling call the orbit described in the question title a "solar-oriented orbit" for the sake of convenience, as "a planet that has an axis of rotation that always pointed directly at ...
3
votes
9answers
1k views
Realistic Necromancy? [closed]
In my fantasy world, necromancy exists and it is considered "evil". I try to base my world on science, so how would realistic necromancy work? Dead bodies decompose fast, and souls don't exist in my ...
3
votes
7answers
762 views
What items from the Roman-age tech-level could be used to deter all creatures from entering a small area?
Please assume the following:
There is a item on the ground and I want nothing but bare earth touching it.
I cannot move the item myself.
The item is impervious to fire.
I cannot afford to guard ...
11
votes
10answers
6k views
Is there enough fresh water in the world to eradicate the drinking water crisis?
Lets assume, by the means of some advanced scientific discovery, scientists find a way to teleport simple matter to any part of the world and use this process to teleport fresh water and/or small ...
1
vote
6answers
297 views
How can one manipulate elementary particles to make a person live forever?
Assuming that a person has the power to manipulate all elementary particles in any way (i.e. changing them from one elementary particle to another, nuclear transmutation, moving groups of them at a ...
2
votes
1answer
180 views
Life evolving on a artificial Floating Island on a ocean world [closed]
I'm having troubles with developing my ocean world. Same size as Earth, same atmosphere and gravity.
The idea is that on a planet with an endless ocean with no continental landmass.
The only form of ...
-1
votes
2answers
132 views
How would gravity affect a torus-shaped planet? [duplicate]
My planet is a Super Earth about twice the mass of Earth. I'm not asking how it formed, although that would be nice to know. I mostly just want to know how long it would stay a torus shape, and how it ...
4
votes
2answers
173 views
Could fruit (specifically oranges) evolve into intelligent life? [closed]
Is it possible for oranges to become intelligent life while still retaining some of their essential qualities such as skin that can neatly be peeled off and reproduction through seeds and growth off ...
5
votes
3answers
225 views
How would a world evolve with regular blizzards? [closed]
Imagine there are severe magical blizzards coming from the south pole at regular intervals.
Since they're magical, let's assume they can cross the equator and don't lose strength over time.
They are ...
2
votes
2answers
184 views
How long a human being could live with stem cells?
I once saw an experiment with mice, where they connected the bloodstream of a younger mouse to the bloodstream of an older mouse. And the older mouse became "younger", or at least healthier.
If I ...
