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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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
56 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
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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
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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
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3answers
204 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
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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 ...
3
votes
3answers
323 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
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5answers
167 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
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2answers
184 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 ...
16
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7answers
8k 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
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3answers
137 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
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2answers
175 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
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1answer
91 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
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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
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5answers
947 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 ...
24
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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
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5answers
254 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
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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 ...
14
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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
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9answers
3k 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
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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
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2answers
156 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
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4answers
214 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
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3answers
165 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
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3answers
368 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
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2answers
366 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
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5answers
410 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
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1answer
675 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
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1answer
141 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
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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
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3answers
359 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
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2answers
177 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
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1answer
153 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
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2answers
188 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
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1answer
114 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
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4answers
798 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
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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
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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, ...
4
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4answers
1k views

In a post apocalyptic world, how long would hospital equipment survive?

In my world some scientists were put in what is basically a biodome, and have been teaching their children/grandchildren science and medicine, ect. there was a bioweapon that went haywire and killed/ ...
9
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6answers
2k views

Fantasy and the germ theory

When developing a medival fantasy realm, especially one with no known healing and restoration magic, one may need to develop the people's understanding of science and medicine. A unique example of ...
4
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2answers
328 views

Procedure for a bite from a fanged humanoid, and resulting effects

I am currently working on a story idea involving vampire-esque fanged humans, they require blood for sustenance once or twice a month, and are willing to pay. It goes through special canals, so they ...
5
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5answers
2k views

Procedure for bionic eye surgery

So there's this guy called Joel who suffers from a case of bad luck. You see, Joel was just minding his own business (in a war zone) when a grenade decided to introduce itself to his face (we all have ...
7
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3answers
239 views

How would crutches and walkers for centaurs work?

In the world I'm constructing, I have equine centaurs. I was going over my research and my notes for centaurs, and I realized that most horses are put down when they break a leg. Now, these centaurs ...
6
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4answers
264 views

How to provide health care in a rugged, vast and low populated country?

Background In a far flung land, there exists the country of Coldesia. It is large, around the size of the US state of Alaska. Most of the country is covered with either barren mountain ranges or ...
1
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1answer
194 views

Surviving *almost* fatal gunshot wounds with minimal medical aid

Okay so I have a world set roughly 50 years in the future. Guns are more efficient by use of liquid ammunition that solidifies when exposed to air (more ammo in a magazine). Bullets are smaller than ...
5
votes
5answers
388 views

How can I use magic to make childbirth easier?

Going through labour is an intense and painful process that can last anywhere from 8 to 18 hours. It was also very dangerous for women during the middle ages. The lack of medicine and healthcare led ...
0
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2answers
169 views

Is there any real-world medication that can make people have ADHD-like symptoms? [closed]

I' want to make a world which is the reverse of our world: Instead of neurotypical people being the majority, people with ADHD are the majority. Accordingly, all those who do not display symptoms of ...
1
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6answers
203 views

Would it be possible to give a person a localized/concentrated seizure?

So, my main character has to fight a group of old friends with have all gone, extremely rogue. They are wreaking havoc like never seen before, and they need to be stopped. He wants to stop them, but ...
-12
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1answer
563 views

How to deal with “menstruation” during the post apocalypse? [closed]

So, there is a post apocalypse, a nuclear one, that destroys most modern day infrastructure, along with factories that produce, ummm, “female hygiene products”. The technology of the world has gone ...
7
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3answers
535 views

Maintaining a hospital after the apocalypse?

Centuries after the apocalypse, this humanitarian group, called O.R.E, (Organization Rebuilding Earth), is running a hospital out in a place called Des (Former Des Moines). They’ll help anyone who ...

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