Questions tagged [medicine]
For questions about treatment methods as well as substances used to heal wounds and cure diseases.
8
votes
7answers
2k 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
284 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
158 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
136 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
175 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
85 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
466 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
3k 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
votes
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
votes
6answers
1k 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
votes
2answers
304 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
votes
5answers
1k 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
votes
3answers
205 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 ...
5
votes
4answers
212 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
156 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
333 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
votes
2answers
142 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
vote
6answers
172 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 ...
-11
votes
1answer
383 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
votes
3answers
409 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 ...
5
votes
10answers
440 views
Preventing a Suggestibility Drug from taking over the Story?
I've been developing a species of fungus which creates a variety of drugs with hallucinogenic and increased suggestibility properties. The most useful strain of this particular fungi species can be ...
9
votes
6answers
275 views
Changing hospital procedures to accommodate a Shapeshifting Patient
What would happen if the following happened in a hospital.
(Assume that this is the real world, where magic shouldn't exist.)
A patient in the ER, who was admitted for poisoning, turned into an ...
6
votes
2answers
365 views
Can you use VR on comatose patients to let them dream?
I have this sci-fi story concept where patients in a comatose state can have their brains stimulated with VR. For instance, the VR can be a dream "game" that helps the patient process trauma. I can ...
0
votes
2answers
113 views
How could you improvise a local anaesthetic? [closed]
You're injured (e.g. from a bullet/stab wound) and alone. You can't move around much without dealing with the pain first. There isn't much time; you need to get out of here soon.
You don't have any ...
6
votes
6answers
926 views
A cure, a vaccine, and one tricky disease
FINAL UPDATE: Thank you for your amazing points and answers, everyone! I mixed up all your ideas and posted the final answer as a community wiki.
So, I'm developing a bacterial infection where the ...
7
votes
2answers
324 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...) ...
6
votes
4answers
558 views
Alternative options to change sex-based characteristics in a non-modern world setting?
This question has received a major rewrite and restructuring but is still the same original question.
Please see this meta-post, where I asked for advice on how to refocus this question. While I have ...
1
vote
2answers
128 views
Would there be any bacterial illness aboard a generation-ship? [closed]
Okay, so I know that severe, life-threatening illness such as rabies which has a 100% chance of death without treatment and Ebola which has a 50% chance of death would not be allowed because that ...
-2
votes
1answer
176 views
How would nanobots, once digested, make the neural connections in the user's brain that are needed to learn facts?
Due to advances and growth in science, math, history, literature, and other subjects typically taught in schools (K-12), the standard curriculum takes too long to complete, not mentioning post-...
41
votes
11answers
11k views
Would time travelling to the present be lethal to a person from the 1200s?
John Smith is a time traveller from the year 2018, he goes back in time to the year 1200 and in the process falls in love with a woman of that era. He doesn't want to abandon her so he decides to ...
1
vote
1answer
4k views
Is there a poison that causes a temporary paralysis? [closed]
I am writing a story where characters have been dosed with a small amount of poison, with the result being a temporary paralysis.
The information I need is more along the lines of possible treatment, ...
7
votes
2answers
345 views
Only Three Books: Restarting Medicine in 1801
Famines have dropped the population to 1 billion and global civilization has collapsed. In an effort to save future civilization some time, you want to provide some information to kick start ...
11
votes
7answers
1k views
Plausible Components for Zombie Immunization?
Thank you everyone.
This was certainly not a question with a simple solution, and was far more complicated than I could've imagined. All of you provided so many amazing, insightful responses, ...
27
votes
8answers
3k views
How would industrial civilizations contacting each other for the first time protect themselves from diseases?
In a world big enough for human civilizations as knowledgeable about medicine as ours to develop without contacting each other, how could they initiate that contact without exposing each other to ...
11
votes
7answers
6k views
Can I keep a person unconscious for a long time? [closed]
Is there a reliable and, at least, relatively safe way to keep a person unconscious for a period of at least a year(more would be better)?
It doesn't really matter whether the individual is comatose ...
7
votes
4answers
342 views
Can somebody live being carried a long distance by a flying, predatory creature?
In my story, I plan on having one of my main characters lifted off the ground by a dragon-like creature and carried a couple miles away. Of course the plan involves them surviving the encounter ...
0
votes
8answers
170 views
Where to put a tracking implant? [duplicate]
A small device, the size of a grain of rice, is implanted in a number of individuals to track their movement. These individuals are usually compliant but being tracked is also not exactly in their ...
4
votes
2answers
163 views
Long lifespans and risk aversion [closed]
Suppose in all types of medicine will be sufficiently advanced to enable very long life spans (many thousands of years +). I imagine that a cure for pretty much all diseases, disorders and morbidities ...
-1
votes
3answers
132 views
What is the plausability of biomechanical muscle mass?
So in my story, the protaganist has had an accident where most of his muscles have to be rebuilt. The medical staff do a procedure in which they give him cybernetic muscles, and I'm thinking that they ...
-4
votes
3answers
477 views
Is metal grafted straight under skin possible?
/Edit : so, I would like to create character which is supposed to have some metal grafted under his skin, but by under his skin I mean straight under, like a second layer. This is supposed to be like ...
1
vote
0answers
88 views
Does oxygen have the power to heal people? [closed]
I have come to notice that oxygen is used in medicine (hyperbaric chamber) to support fast recovery of bone's fractures, wounds and even cancer.
Moreover, according some studies and publications ...
-3
votes
3answers
176 views
Did we screw the evolution cycle with modern medicine? [closed]
Just to start I'm gonna clarify that I'm not a sadist or anything like that.
My question is plain and simple. Did we screw the evolution cycle with modern medicine? This is not only important for our ...
3
votes
6answers
289 views
What would be the possible source of a drug that creates a shared mass hallucination ending up in creating a new god? [closed]
I've been thinking about structuring a cult that brews or harvests a liquid drug. That drug is then sealed in jugs and shipped to cities.
The drug gives a sense of complete relaxation but also leads ...
4
votes
4answers
4k views
What's the stealthiest way to knock someone out? [closed]
A sneaky character needs to incapacitate someone. It's a sensitive situation, so this must be done quickly, quietly, and reliably.
The target is a healthy human adult. Killing the target is highly ...
2
votes
1answer
216 views
How long would the orcs take to mutate from humans?
The orcs in my world are humans/dwarves that have been exposed to an airborne mutagen that permanently denatures the myostatin receptors in their skeletal muscles. This stops their muscles from ...
-1
votes
1answer
160 views
transferring consciousness from one person to another person? [closed]
Is the transferring of "consciousness" from one person to another person is possible if a brain transplantation is possible ?
Is it possible to pick memories from the brain by using EEG?
3
votes
2answers
217 views
Vaccines spreading as viruses
Sci-fi is full of examples of engineered diseases that spread as viruses and usually they are so powerful that they kill almost everyone, and the possible cure is always the slowest possible, ...
-2
votes
2answers
125 views
Is making the skin transparent a realistic idea or is it clarketech?
Imagine a gel that could be injected into ones bloodstream, making the skin practically transparent, allowing doctors to see the blood cells. Is this plausible or is it magitech or clarketech?
2
votes
3answers
438 views
How long would a flap of cut off skin last?
So, bit of a weird question here, but let's just say someone has a clan tattoo on their cheek and it was cut off, would the flap of skin last if it was just then sealed in a box? If so, then how long ...
