Questions tagged [medicine]
For questions about treatment methods as well as substances used to heal wounds and cure diseases.
141
questions
3
votes
1answer
81 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
916 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
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
249 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
4k 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
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 ...
14
votes
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
votes
0answers
85 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
138 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
209 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
156 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
257 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? ...
6
votes
2answers
316 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
307 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
271 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
137 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
324 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
161 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
146 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
181 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
107 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
613 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, ...
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
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
votes
2answers
314 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
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
votes
3answers
219 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
votes
4answers
257 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
vote
1answer
184 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
347 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
166 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
197 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
votes
1answer
490 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
473 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
500 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
286 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
438 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
125 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
997 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
350 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
627 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
143 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
181 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
6k 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
363 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 ...
