Questions tagged [xenobiology]
This tag identifies questions related to creating an alien biology that may be close to or far removed from Earthly biology, but still reflect what science knows about biology. This tag implies the use of the Science-Fiction tag. Use the Science-Based or Hard-science tags to impose greater scientific restrictions (see warning in tag wiki). The goal of this tag is to answer the question using what science humanity knows.
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Genetically variable cells that through natural selection achieves evolution in a single individual
I posted a question some time ago about how could genetic engineering design people that could adapt to changing conditions beyond what simple acclimatization or activation/deactivation of genes in a ...
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Irrigating the muscles with lubricant blood so it loses less energy to heat
Having a character that has denser tissues means that heat could be a problem, right?
And because I imagine the human body, after millions of years of evolution, already deals with heat through every ...
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Feasibility of genetically engineered human "seismolocation"
So, after watching Because Science's video about spider sensory organs that could enable Spider-Mans' Spider-Sense, where it states that if the slit sensila on the spiders exoskeleton joints were ...
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Would it be possible to have hair/fur that change color quickly (Aka "Chameleon hair/fur")? [duplicate]
I was thinking about replacing melanin with an electrochromic organic material. Basically when you pass a small current in an electrochromic material, it change color depending on the current.
Would ...
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What plants could live on an island in perpetual darkness? [duplicate]
In my book, an island resides in an area called the Scourgesea. The Scourgesea is a place with perpetual storms and almost complete darkness because of the perpetual dark thunderstorms. Altavista is a ...
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Could a microbe draw in dust using electretic quartz?
The microbes reside in the rings around a gas giant, adhering to cosmic dust and feeding on sunlight and carbon minerals. While it seems there should be enough collisions to keep the microbes in ...
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Is there any alternative way to eliminate CO2 buildup than by breathing or even an alternative to cellular respiration that don't produce CO2?
The reason I ask is because I want to create a terrestrial species that hunt fish underwater by holding their breath for hours without having a large lung capacity. In someway they are buffed Bajau ...
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Could biologically generated flux tubes be a thing?
I have a project about organisms that use ammonia as a solvent. The creatures live on such a cold world that chemical reactions are slow and inefficient. Due to the inefficiencies, the organisms move ...
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How does Jimmy Hopkins the giant unicellular organism reproduce?
(Previous Question)
Recap:
Jimmy Hopkins (yes, that's his name) is a extremely weird organism.
For one thing he is extremely large, but on the other hand, he is
extremely weird, because of one thing- ...
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What is the most biological energy-dense fuel for a giant unicellular organism?
Jimmy Hopkins (yes, that's his name) is a extremely weird organism. For one thing he is extremely large, but on the other hand, he is extremely weird, because of one thing- He is an unicellular ...
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Could biological radio be limited to family members?
I have a creature with high-frequency biological radio transmitted via an antenna growing from their heads. However, the creatures can only freely communicate at range with their blood relatives (...
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Can my bacteria survive?
I'm trying to create a hard sci-fi book where the main character uses biophotovoltaic cells to power electricity, my question is: How can I make my cyanobacteria last at least a year inside an ...
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How biologically different would a species that used mercury rather than water be?
I’m currently working on a precursor species who have mercury based blood. They are bipedal reptiloids (similar to the Silurians in Dr. Who) whose skin is covered in iridium/osmium scales. A single ...
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Why would a semi-aquatic creature develop bioluminescence?
Why would a creature with a similar lifestyle as seals, sea-lions and amphibians-living near water and diving for food-evolve bioluminescence?
These creatures are roughly the size of a dolphin or a ...
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Alternative versions of breathing?
(Hoping this isn't another too-broad question...)
I just want a different way for my aliens to breathe that isn't obvious to a human's eyes; it makes them seem like they don't breathe at all, and ...
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Shape and diversity of chemotrophic plants [closed]
I posted a question similar to this but that was about how these plants would work, this is about how they could look like.
So in a tidally locked planet I'm working on there are plants which inhabit ...
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What chemistry other than that on Earth could support life on an alien planet? [closed]
I like designing aliens, similar to how Biblaridion did it on his videos on YT where he establishes the world conditions and chemistry of the world and proceed to create an evolutionary tree from ...
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How would airborne plants work?
For a low gravity planet I'm working on I thought of airborne rootless plants, but there's a problem, how would they get their nutrients?
Plants on earth use their leaves for photosynthesis and their ...
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Reproduction in aeroplankton
I'm working on a low gravity planet, and I've thought that aeroplankton might be able to exist here, floating on wind currents using dandelion-like wings.
I only have one problem:reproduction. The ...
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Can a Pterosaur-style wing membrane attach directly to the exoskeleton?
art by ticklemecthulhu
In my world of arthropod-like creatures (in that most of the creatures have an exoskeleton rather than an endoskeleton), I wished for a group of my aliens to convergely evolve ...
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How can a species be fine with digesting poisons and toxins?
I have an alien species of roughly earthlike anatomy and biochemistry (so they can consume earth food, and humans would be able to digest their foods as well)
These species have a trait that allows ...
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What mechanism for the transmission of signals between neurons can be faster than our sodium-potassium?
I decided to describe the evolution of scientifically plausible alien creatures and thought about how alien neurons can transmit signals to each other and is it possible in theory some mechanism that ...
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Can an animal have a body covered with "hearing" hair?
Since our ears have small hair inside which (at least partially) make it possible to hear, is it possible for an animal to have hearing based on hair on its whole body? Like highly specialized small ...
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How to prevent humans from being killed by alien diseases?
Humans build big rockets and fly generation ships to extrasolar planets to settle. There’s already sentient alien life on that planet, but the humans has none of the immunizations and natural ...
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Giant mole-like creatures. Are more limbs for digging worth it?
The following creatures, in order, are a sandgroper, a mole cricket and a mole, all creatures that are well adapted for life underground:
All of them converged into a similar bodyplan, with powerful, ...
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Stunted evolution on a tidally locked planet around a Red Dwarf?
I was exploring the trope of a non-evolutionary species, and then I realised that what makes species evolve are differences in their local environment. So I thought if there was a way for a planet to ...
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Can a long retractable neck work with an exoskeleton?
In my world mostly composed of arthropods, I wanted one to fill a niche similar to that of a common snapping turtle (an ambush predator that extends its long neck to strike quickly at prey), and ...
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Would hoofed creatures bother with sails on their ships?
So I am working on a species of large quadrupedal sentient beings at a level of technology similar to 16th century Asia. Specifically I was trying to conjure up an image to what their sailing vessels ...
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How smart would my cyborg be? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, how smart could a neuron culture in a petri dish be?
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Is it redundant to have both hearing and "sensory hairs"? [closed]
After watching Because Science's video about spider sensory organs that could enable Spider-Mans' Spider-Sense, I got interested in implementing trichobotria -- the sensory hairs you see on tarantulas ...
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Can we "see" through Thermal imaging through the skin?
I've been experimenting with characters with enhanced senses/extra senses and I wonder if it's possible that, through increased sensitivity or special receptors on the skin, someone could perceive ...
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How could my cyborg live longer? [closed]
I have created a world where the main character is a cyborg, a petri dish with neurons inside a machine, the problem is most neuronal cultures only live for weeks, 60 days or up to 5 years, that's ...
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Would communicating through an external, circular "larynx" be viable?
These aliens live on a planet with a thick atmosphere and light gravity, and spend most of their life in the air.
They communicate through a series of piercing whistles and sound-wave vibrations, and ...
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Do sulfuric acid plants produce oxygen?
In Biochemistry of a sulfuric acid world, I assumed that autotrophs would strip hydrogen from H2SO4 (which is their biosolvent) to fix carbon, just like plants on Earth strip hydrogen from water (...
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Biological mineral storage in an acidic world?
In a world with acidic oceans, shells and bones made of calcium carbonate or calcium phosphate won't work--they just dissolve. As far as shells or structural bones go, that's not a big deal--there are ...
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Does a digitigrade biped need a tail? [closed]
One of my writing buddies keeps insisting that my biped/digitigrade alien species would need a tail to act as a counterweight and shift their centers of gravity. Would a tail be required?
EDIT:// the ...
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Could a human metamorphosis work?
I was playing Resident Evil 6 and I was wondering if it could be possible with the help of a virus to make humans metamorphose.
The girl in the videogame basically turns into a chrysalis and by the ...
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What pressures would force most life to possess external stomachs, and how would they avoid losing moisture on an Arid planet?
The zoology of my setting takes place on a mostly dry planet - it's certainly got rainfall, seas, and wetlands in certain ecoregions, and life exists there mostly, but some things still live in more ...
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Biologically what kind of feet would make the least amount of noise?
I'm designing creatures on my made up planet where animals evolved exceptional hearing and I'm wondering what kind of feet they might evolve to produce the least amount of sound when walking to avoid ...
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Methods to transport CO2 through HCl-rich blood to the lungs?
Situation:
The extraterrestrial vertebrate lifeforms have milky white blood rich in aqueous HCl, using an enzyme centered on aluminum oxychloride nanoparticles to transport oxygen, releasing chlorine ...
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Desert planet with high humidity percentage [closed]
I create a desert world, but I would like to give it slightly different properties, above all, to turn it from a dry environment into a humid one.
Unfortunately, for some time I have been looking for ...
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What carbon-based alternative biochemistries would work in high-temperature, high-pressure water?
For a while now, I've been wanting to design a world where the average temperature is very high (compared to Earth, but nowhere near as high as Venus) but the water does not boil because the ...
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Are there any glaring problems in my alternate biochemistry?
I have been putting together an alternate biochemistry, one that is suited for an environment with lots of fluorine. I have a "model" of sorts for how it works, and I would like to know if ...
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Can my cyborg idea work? [closed]
I'm writing a book where the main character is a cyborg, it's going to be a hard-science book and my idea is like a brain in a jar with the intact brain within a structure that pumps artificial blood ...
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What are the possible attributes of aluminum-based blood?
Situation:
The vertebrate life of a distant planet uses biogenic silica for structural support. However, biogenic silica is soluble in water, but (according to this article) its solubility decreases ...
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Could we create an artificial metamorphosis on humans with genetic engineering? [duplicate]
I'm writting a hard-science book where adult humans with the help of genetic engineering can undergo metamorphosis, could it be possible?
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Fire heat organism [closed]
My organism produce cooled plasma for defense .It lives in planet with very exotic flora and fauna which have super powers . It preys big whales and trex like organism. My question is that how my ...
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Most ''Logical'' location for gills on a humanoid [duplicate]
Whenever people design aquatic humanoids (be they mermaids or other ''mer-folk'' type creatures) that do not breath water with lungs but through gills i often see those gills placed either on the neck ...
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What organelles(parts of a cell) did early cells most likely have?
I am trying to make fluorine-breathing life, starting from the cells and building my way up.
I first am going to make very early and primitive cells, and for this I need to know what organelles were ...
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How could creatures in a zero-G but otherwise Earthlike environment move around?
Humanity has just discovered a massive, derelict space ark containing its own ecosystem. Its artificial gravity has long since failed, and it's been drifting undisturbed for millennia.
Assume that:
...
