Questions tagged [viruses]
For questions about infectious agents that alter existing systems in order to reproduce.
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Can we get rid of all illnesses by a year of Total Extreme Quarantine?
Earth-Year: 2618.
Location: Planet Hope, Proxima Centauri.
Terraformation status: 97.8% Earth-like.
Population: 128.596.
The residents of this planet live in a paradise-like environment. The gravity ...
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Could a virus that just kills plants be the end of us all?
Skip to Info if you can't be bothered reading
(Story Plot)
There are two super powers in a "cold war" scenario. One side decided that nuclear war wasn't the only thing they could use to hurt ...
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The everybody-hates-everybody virus. Can humanity survive?
Aliens that are weaklings and have no physical weapons as we know them, want to conquer Earth because their home planet is dying. They sow an everybody-hates-everybody virus throughout Earth's ...
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How do scientists know whether a virus is man-made or not?
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The alien want to make some new virus (or editing the gene of existing virus) to increase human death rate, and they don't want human to know the virus has been edited. I have read some ...
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Can a person be immune to all diseases and poisons
I have an OC, who was born with this one-of-a-kind condition. His immune system is abnormally strong, invincible really.
He's incapable of getting sick, or dying of bacteria, viruses, venoms, poisons, ...
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A Plague that Causes Death in All Post-Plague Children
The backstory of the world in the story I am writing tells of a deadly plague that significantly depopulated all of humanity. Years later, as the survivors began to recover post-plague they noticed ...
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What pandemic could keep the world in isolation near indefinitely?
What kind of pandemic could keep nations on severe lock down for at least long enough to necessitate irreversible changes to culture and the economy (preferably a decade or longer)? Such as fast-...
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Keeping the horde of nanomachines at bay?
So, there are three major powers in the setting that can be reasoned with, and a fourth that is just there to destroy. I have a problem with balancing them.
The so-called nature spirits are creatures ...
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what makes a disease deadly?
I am writing a story, in which a mad scientist (based on Ted Kaczynski) wants to kill as many people as possible with an artificially created disease.
The idea is, that more complex societies are ...
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How would a virus that only kills one sex work?
There is a popular movie trope of the near-total elimination of a sex (often male) because of a virus/a plague. This got me wondering :
How would such a virus work?
I'm not sure if it would be ...
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How could a seemingly-harmless virus become deadly at a predetermined date and time?
A secret group of environmentalist ultra-extremists has engineered a virus (or virus-like pathogen) with the purpose of making all of humanity extinct (yes, including themselves). They are aware that ...
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Likelihood that a superbug or lethal virus could come from a landfill
Landfills seem like disgusting, nasty places that could be breeding grounds for all sorts of viruses and bacteria. What is the likelihood that the next lethal superbug or virus (like Ebola) could ...
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Virus extinction at the snap of a finger. Can life on Earth continue to exist normally? [closed]
An entity comes to me in my dream and says I now possess the power to exterminate any biological entity of my choice on Earth at the snap of a finger. Without giving too much thought, I decide to ...
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Would a virus be able to change eye and hair colour?
The basic idea is that a small group of people, that were infected by the virus but managed to survive, has their hair colour changed to white and their eye colour changed to green. Said traits would ...
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Low or absent pathogenicity viral agent
Pathogen virus work in a simple way: they inoculate their genes (DNA or RNA) in the host cells and let them replicate huge amounts of the attacker while hampering the host vital functions. As reaction ...
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How credible is an extremely lethal virus dying out due to genetic inheritance patterns?
As a preface, let me apologize to knowledgeable people if things I say make them wince, I have no genetics or virology background whatsoever and my science-speak is taken straight from Wikipedia.
The ...
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Enclosed space colony and spread of common viruses
Cold and Flu, are common viruses which normally infect us in the cold of winter. Ironically, those people who always keep themselves warm, stay less out-of-the-house and office, keep their windows ...
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Could a "multicellular" virus exist?
When I say multicellular I mean it's made of more that one viruses. Basically it's a bunch of viruses that act like viruses but use the viruses made by infected cells to build a "multicellular" ...
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How would an unethical corporation go about extracting resources from a nation unwilling to co-operate?
In the 22nd century, resource depletion is a serious problem, as most of whatever we had left has been stripped bare. A large multinational corporation, let's call them Deus X, is searching everywhere ...
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How can a demonic viral infection spread throughout the body without being noticed?
Demonic possession occurs when an evil spirit hijacks the biological system of an organism, corrupting it and taking control of its functions. Although powerful, the possession eventually breaks down ...
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What would be the easiest way for a personality-altering bioweapon to be transmitted?
So this bioweapon is a genetically-engineered microscopic parasite used by a certain government in a sort of revolution-turned-war. It works by making its host more paranoid, stressed and non-trusting ...
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Radio controlled sheep
A worldwide pandemic has killed the world's dogs and their cousins the wolves.
In sheep farming countries, dogs have been and still are an invaluable aid to sheep farmers. Some breeds will herd the ...
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What is more plausible, viruses in a host brain or a viral colony becoming conscious?
In my story I have a strain of virus capable of stealing parts of or changing its hosts DNA, so it could copy the abilities in nature for its next host of choice by taking the genes which control the ...
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What are my "viral" humans harvesting from from my uninfected humans?
The following scenario takes place on Earth, sometime in the next few decades. An unethical biotech company has developed a deadly bioweapon that uses humans as a vector, almost like a suicide bomber ...
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A virus that causes adipocyte degeneration
In my world, there is a virus that causes acquired degreasing body syndrome (also known as ADBS) (sorry, the original French name of this disease is syndrome de dégraissage corporel acquis) (the ...
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Is it possible for thermophilic viruses to infect humans?
I'm writing a short story that focuses on an area with high thermophile activity, like a hot spring. There are known thermophile viruses, but thermophiles aren't able to transmit these to humans ...
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If we were to discover an alien ecosystem that has a D-configuration of proteins, how would it react to our L-sided biology?
I'm working on a hard-sci-fi story where a scientist discovers microorganisms in our solar system with disastrous results. I was thinking about how any cross-contamination with an alien ecosystem ...
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Identifying an engineered virus
I'm about halfway through a novel about a very advanced alien civilization that is systematically wiping out other species using engineered viruses.
I am hoping to have the protagonists test samples ...
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Can a virus that causes forced evolution exist?
I recently watched a movie called The Cave. In the movie there's a group of spelunkers that get trapped in the cave with a bunch of blind monsters. towards the end of the movie, we find out that the ...
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Creating a plausible Wendigo fever
It is believed that Wendigos are supernatural beings with an insatiable hunger for human flesh, or humans who are selfish and commit cannibalism and while the latter is more accurate, Wendigo fever is ...
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Creating chimera virus by rogue scientist
In my world there is a rogue scientist who wants to wipe out at least 90% of humanity. He's has a sample of measles which are very contagious but he needs something new. Could he merge measles with ...
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How can I make gene therapy using a retroviral vector go wrong and mutate into an airborne contagion?
I've been reading about viral vectors and am looking to incorporate it into my setting. From what I can see, it's possible to use viral vectors as a form of gene therapy, and retroviruses can work ...
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1
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Virologically Correct Wart-Causing Toad
It was once believed that warts could be caught from a toad. At first glance, this seems like something that could plausibly be true
Unfortunately, warts are caused by HPV, the human papillomavirus. ...
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Is it possible to create rage virus from 28 Days Later?
In 28 Days Later the Rage Virus causes uncontrollable aggression and changes in personality. Is such virus even possible in principle? I'm not talking about rabies but rather about a genetically ...
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Heterozygote advantage against influenza/flu
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
5
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What would a heterozygote advantage against the mutant coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 look like?
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
4
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4
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Would measles make a good apocalypse?
Let's say terrorists wanted to release a bioweapon that could deal with most of the world's third world population, and they developed a chimera disease that was essentially the measles, but with ...
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Feasibility of a virus that causes its host to crave sex?
In the near future a man-made virus was released which caused a world wide epidemic in humans and animals , the virus completly shutsdown all cognitive functions in the brain leaving the host in a ...
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Virus within a virus: possible?
Is it possible that there might be a virus (of the giant, ancient, frozen-in-glaciers type) that is, for lack of a better explanation, double-layered? As in the first layer affects the host and then ...
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How do I preserve my Wendigo Prion?
Wendigo fever is a Prion (credit goes to SE is too politically correct for the idea) which is spread by the consumption of tainted meat. the main problem I have is to my knowledge Prions are solely ...
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Designing the properties of a biological agent that could wipe out 90% of the population without being stopped
I'm interested in coming up with a plausible agent of destruction, virus or fungus or engineered weapon or what have you, that could conceivably wipe out a majority of the human race. What physical ...
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What would a heterozygote advantage against rabies look like?
Some heterozygote advantages in humans are:
People with sickle-cell trait are resistant to malaria, but people with sickle-cell disease tend to die young.
Depending of the source we believe, people ...
4
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1
answer
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Infectious diabetes [closed]
I want to know if the disease I invented is realistic or a total fiction.
I imagined a hypothetical viral disease that causes a contagious form of diabetes. It is only transmitted by blood. The virus ...
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Covid-19 disappears, how long would it take to notice?
Covid-19; We all know what that is, a contagious pandemic that has caused an immense amount of loss and devastation and has effected tons of people all over the world
You are chilling in your cozy ...
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How many species does a virus need to infect to destroy life on Earth? [closed]
Okay, let's say that there's a virus that can infect multiple species, is very hard to cure, extremely contagious, can linger asymptomatically for long periods of time, and likely to be deadly. It ...
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Could a virus be used to terraform planets?
I came up with a society of insectoid aliens called Ebline, based on ants. Their class structure and stuff are very interesting, but their coolest tool is a virus called Cuulaziu. When they find a new ...
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Is it possible for a bioaerosol/virus to be quickly detected?
Context:
In my world, there is a lyssavirus strain with a long and complicated history that was accidentally developed into an extremely contagious bioaerosol; a doomsday biological weapon. Primates ...
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Could HIV-1 evolve to successfully infect rats?
In my world that is set in a far future, a mammalian species from the Euarchontoglires superorder descended from brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) evolved to become sapient.
One of the deadliest diseases ...
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4
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What would be the most effective way for a parasitic alien lifeform to spread and grow on a post-apocalyptic Earth?
The background is that Earth is the victim of a massive comet strike, that wipes out a large portion of humanity (let's say 80-90%). Let's say that the comet was carrying an alien parasite that's a ...
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Completely antiviral resistant, possible?
My Viral TB virus I made is completely antiviral resistant. It can and will infect every single part of the humanoid's body. Here is just a minority of what it causes:
Pancarditis(whole heart ...