Worldbuilding

Questions tagged [medicine]

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For questions about treatment methods as well as substances used to heal wounds and cure diseases.

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20
votes
13answers
5k views

How do I ensure that two characters survive the black death without making them naturally immune?

Everyone in my community is collapsing to the ground and dying painfully. My husband, he is one of the few remaining men to bury the dead and I worry that soon I'll be left alone. How do I ensure ...
4
votes
2answers
102 views

Metal set of teeth and fingernails at a medieval time

I was wondering if it possible to have a set of teeth made of metal (i didn't chose any metal in particular, it could be silver, gold, what ever), and if so, does it have to remove every tooth and ...
2
votes
2answers
87 views

Transportation of a Heart in a Survival Setting [closed]

I'm writing a story and doing my best to keep it as medically accurate as possible. If you were stranded on a snowy mountain trying to deliver a heart to a transplant patient, what could you use/do to ...
1
vote
2answers
119 views

What are the realistic limits of human drug enhancement? [closed]

Assuming fairly plausible technologies, what is the most fairly simple drugs could do? In The Expanse there is a focus drug used by a Martian interrogator that allows him to be better at reading ...
9
votes
1answer
819 views

Placebo-worthy drug?

Are there any medicine out there specifically used to treat serious illnesses (it could be something as simple as painkillers to something for a very rare chronic illness) that could be swapped out ...
0
votes
1answer
166 views

Time travelling virus anno 1900

One of the most well known, but commonly ignored issues of time travel is this: Due to the fact that viruses and bacteria constantly evolve, diseases that we are today resistant to have never before ...
3
votes
3answers
230 views

Cheat sheet for recovery times after injuries

People in my story are always getting themselves injured. Adventuring is dangerous and weapons are bountiful. I want to write this ~1300s fantasy as "realistically" as possible, which includes ...
24
votes
16answers
7k views

How can a modern medic help medieval patients

My modern doctor has been time-slipped to a medieval city, without any equipment. She has the patronage of a powerful, rich noble, so being accused of witchcraft is not a problem. She will be ...
19
votes
4answers
3k views

What would a corpse of a person who drowned in mercury look like?

I want to use a mercury based golem as a enemy in a murder mystery P&P story. The golem flows through cracks and under doors and envelops its victims until they are dead. Let's assume that the ...
10
votes
3answers
392 views

Happiness is Mandatory

Happiness is mandatory. Unhappiness is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Are you happy, citizen? - Friend computer. Welcome to Beta Complex, the little brother of Alpha Complex. We ...
2
votes
4answers
123 views

How could a medical crisis unite two countries which once bitterly hated each other?

How could a medical crisis unite two countries previously at odds and usher them into a new era of peace, prosperity and perhaps even unity? Think of South and North Korea, or Israel and Palestine. ...
3
votes
2answers
104 views

False Teeth Made of Obsidian?

How feasible would a set of false teeth made of obsidian be? Assume technology has to be no more advanced than the mid 1800s. If implausible for full time use, would such a set be practical enough to ...
2
votes
2answers
67 views

How could a mutation of an engineered virus initially be undetectable?

Doctors have found a way to identify the initial strain of this lethal, engineered virus. Most mutations have been easily identifiable by an AI-supported system. Is it plausible that a mutated ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views

Terminal Disease in a Teenager [duplicate]

I’m trying to find the disease/condition my character is going through. She has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, most likely genetic, though not necessarily. She is in high school, so 15-17 ...
15
votes
5answers
1k views

Substance that counteracts one poison but accelerates/exacerbates the effect of another?

Is there an example of substances interacting with each other in the following way? A is a lethal substance, killing within minutes to hours when orally ingested; anti-A is an antidote for A (or at ...
5
votes
3answers
223 views

The cure for all bacteria-caused diseases

Which minimal order of magnitude is required to simulate single cells and microorganisms in cyberspace? In an utopian future, people will be possibly able to rapidly design new cures, be their ...
9
votes
4answers
2k views

Modified stem cells as a resuscitation serum after death by cyanide poisoning?

In large doses, the body's ability to change cyanide into thiocyanate is overwhelmed. Large doses of cyanide prevent cells from using oxygen and eventually these cells die. The heart, respiratory ...
4
votes
3answers
501 views

Are there Drugs which Prevent Unconsciousness?

When torturing people or executing them in slow and painful ways, your victims sometimes fall unconscious, which ruins the point of the exercise. After all, if they aren't feeling the pain, then what ...
4
votes
5answers
174 views

What system could incentivize medical care to keep all people as healthy as possible? [closed]

I want a world where doctors are incentivized to keep all people as healthy as possible with the budget society is willing to spend on healthcare. It should also be a world where people would like to ...
2
votes
2answers
200 views

Surgically interconnecting two people’s intestines

In my fictional dictatorship, a high-profile prisoner needs to be observed at all costs lest he harms himself or attempts to flee. Thus, the Ministry of State Security has devised a method of making ...
71
votes
16answers
6k views

How to give a rationality-inducing drug to an entire software company?

I'm a genius inventor who's managed to come up with a drug that increases the occurrence of rational behaviour over 400% among human beings. This drug makes humans more likely to communicate ...
16
votes
7answers
9k views

How long could a human survive completely without the immune system?

If the immune system of a healthy human just shut down completely and instantly (magic, nanotechnology, whatever), and after a certain time period it went back to normal, how much time without the ...
4
votes
3answers
224 views

Can mithridatism be used to create immunity/anti-toxin for others?

Say there is a plant-based toxin that causes what is essentially a state of deep sedation but has no other real effects. In this world there is one animal that is immune to this toxin (the plant is ...
2
votes
2answers
264 views

How to inflict as much pain as possible with the injection of a syringe? [closed]

A character of mine is supposed to be tortured to death. Most of the pain will be inflicted by nanotechnology injected into her, however the guy injecting her is a real sadist and likes the personal ...
3
votes
1answer
101 views

How would it be to be revived from voluntary death? (cryostasis)

Cryostasis, suspended animation, cryo-preservation or cryosleep (the marketing guy's prefer this last one as "Oh yeah, we gonna kill you in a manner we that will hopefully make it possible to revive ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views

Could a simple hospital oxygen mask protect from aerosol poison?

I'm writing a story in which a character has to make it through an area filled with aerosol poison...or something along those lines. He starts out in a hospital area, with access to equipment. Is it ...
6
votes
5answers
976 views

What would be the next technological step after advancing from cybernetic body parts to nanotechnology? [closed]

Technology in 2019 has many ways of augmenting the human body, for example: hearing aids, pacemakers, artificial hips, breast implants, artificial spine discs, coronary stents and even artificial eye ...
25
votes
15answers
4k views

Why is transplanting a specific intact brain impossible if it is generally possible?

In the near future Science Fiction novel I am writing, the personality and memory of a person are transferred to an artificial brain after a fatal accident, creating an artificial intelligence with ...
4
votes
5answers
258 views

How useful would a pharmacist be in ancient times [closed]

Would a modern pharmacist be able to improve life expectancy of the known world by a huge margin if they traveled back to ancient times with none of their equipment preferably around 1500bc Egypt
25
votes
8answers
5k views

Where to place an artificial gland in the human body?

An artificial endocrine gland is cultured in the lab and is to be inserted in a person. This gland functions by secreting special substances in the blood stream. It needs to be placed in a position ...
15
votes
4answers
4k views

Is surviving this (blood loss) scenario possible?

So my character (16 yr old girl) got a deep cut (inches across) from a dagger across her torso and is knocked unconscious. (She falls onto her back) She had just enough time to contact her friends ...
15
votes
9answers
4k views

How would the law enforce a ban on immortality? [closed]

I'm writing a fantasy story where magic is common and wizards follow a strict code of conduct. One of those tenets is "never stray from humanity and do not seek immortality or godhood." While I admit ...
2
votes
0answers
86 views

Equipment needed for comatose/bedridden persons outside a hospital? [closed]

I'm still working on a short story series revolving around a resistance cell who fight against an oppressive, dystopian government. To make a long story short, they use a popular hotel chain as a ...
2
votes
2answers
167 views

Injury to the lower jaw - what would be the consequences?

One of my characters suffers an injury where a spike pierced his lower jaw and severed his tongue. Ignoring the fact that he may not have survived this wound under normal circumstances (eldritch ...
5
votes
4answers
228 views

Nanobots that search and destroy cells with damaged mitochondrion [closed]

I read somewhere that scientists are trying to create nanobots carrying functional mitochondria to search out cancer cells and restart apoptosis. Instead of trying to create nanobots with a fully ...
4
votes
3answers
177 views

Mechanical/Cybernetic Replacement for Eye and Optic Nerve

My character has a prosthetic, or technically you could say a bionic or cybernetic, left eye. For one reason or another, the replacement eye couldn’t be connected directly to the optic nerve. Instead, ...
6
votes
3answers
701 views

Realistic Bacta Tank Fluid

Ever since I watched Star Wars I have always been fascinated with the Bacta Tank: that tank with the funky blue liquid Luke Skywalker was submerged in. But now I'm wondering could it become reality? ...
7
votes
2answers
407 views

A deadly disease, 95% of the population dead, suppresses or alters memory in unpredictable ways

Whilst not strictly relevant to this question, the questions and answers may interest the curious: this is the 4th in a series of question here - 1, 2, 3. My population (in excess of 500,000) ...
6
votes
5answers
526 views

Would it be possible for someone with ice powers to stop or “freeze” a wound to their heart?

I have characters with ice powers. I was planning that they could freeze an injury and prevent it from progressing. An arrow is shot at their heart, but I could possibly change the location to make ...
3
votes
1answer
956 views

How long to recover from muscle atrophy?

For context, I'm currently working on a short story series centered on a young man living in a dystopian America. This U.S. government keeps its 'undesirables' in medically-induced comas (long story ...
7
votes
1answer
149 views

Is muscle plasticity the same thing as when muscles regenerate from wear and tear?

Information I am writing a fantasy sci-fi, that is almost the same as our reality, the only difference being humans in this world are capable of using drugs (serums in their world) to improve their ...
7
votes
8answers
3k views

Need a suitable toxic chemical for a murder plot in my novel

I need ideas for a chemical or disease which kills the victim upon holding it in the palm for about 4 or 5 seconds. The death isn't necessarily immediate, as it might take days to kill the victim in ...
7
votes
3answers
398 views

Are healing potions scientifically plausible?

As clarification we're talking about those common fantasy healing potions that recover health over time and their scientific plausibility. Here are some results from my research on the subject: ...
2
votes
2answers
181 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
155 views

Modern technology in an ancient China-like world

My character has transmigrated to a world that has some magic. She is looking to bring some basic surgery and investigation methods from her earth-like world to this world, which is roughly ...
8
votes
2answers
205 views

Security against “truth serum” by means of a drug poisonous in combination with sodium thiopental

The secret police of my fictional country (unoriginally) uses sodium thiopental in medical interrogations, usually in combination with various forms of physical torture. An antagonist (a courier of ...
2
votes
1answer
124 views

Surgery Procedure for Installing a Cybernetic Vocal Cord

It’s your favourite grenade hugging (soon to be cyborg) buddy Joel. Who is back on the cutting room table today for some new and (unwilling) invasive surgery. You see when Joel was taking a stroll ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views

What would it take to create insulin in the post-apocalypse?

In post-apocalypse fiction, diabetics, if they are ever even mentioned, are typically portrayed as utterly, irrevocably screwed. In fact there was a pretty cynical example in Dies The Fire (a book ...
13
votes
14answers
2k views

Potential causes for generational deafness in space colony

I'm working on a sci fi story which heavily integrates themes of varying alien configurations and how they shape society, culture and language. As part of this theme, I want to have some of the human ...
10
votes
10answers
4k views

Aliens performing successful medical procedure on humans at first contact?

So, humans have finally figured out how to build a solar-system crossing ship. On the way to the first exo-planet to be colonized, an accident happens, and a few people wind up floating through space, ...

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