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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How small can an organism get?
In my world, I am attempting to design a primitive organism to be the ancestor of life on an artificial planet with all chemicals necessary for life. I want the organism to be as small as possible (...
user15036
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Does all life have to use Proteins?
I understand that Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen are the source of a lot of great cheap chemistry and I understand why aliens could be made out of those elements. I don't understand though why ...
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Alternatives to DNA
I am in the process of creating my universe, and have based it on semi-hard science. The universe that I have created is quite extensive, and I thought that it would be unreasonable for the only kind ...
user15036
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Making Beaks More like Hands
For a highly intelligent avian dinosaur whose grasping and manipulating appendages have all but vanished, there are options : for the species to evolve beaks that are better fine manipulators, or ...
user15036
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Could mammals and dinosaurs coexist as the dominant animal group?
The title is a bit different to the question, but there's a reason to that. I am currently in the worldbuilding stage of creating an alien planet, mainly the wildlife, and I may have run into a ...
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Microbial Civilization Precursors
Would a creature similar to semi-aquatic slime mold living on a mostly freshwater planet with shallow seas be able to build technology to the extent that modern humans do? Assuming that each ...
user15036
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Thermosynthetic Life-form
As recommended by another user, on a different question I asked, I pose this new question under the following criteria:
The creature I'm trying to create has evolved, though it may not have been ...
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Could complex, macroscopic life arise and exist without cells?
For the purposes of this question only, I am making the following definitions:
Cell: a microscopic, membrane-bound subunit of a living organism.
Living organism: an entity composed primarily of ...
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Increased intracranial space
The brain is 1 major developmental difference between us and these humanoids.
These humanoids start off with larger brains to begin with and so brain development in the womb happens at about the same ...
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What environment would support an electric alien species?
I was thinking, and I came up with an alien race, which enthralled me. I was just wondering if these creatures would plausibly evolve this way. (Info dump time
These aliens are humanoid. While they ...
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What would happen to a high-pressure creature in a low-pressure atmosphere (50atm)?
Answer this question:
"What would happen to a high-pressure creature in a low-pressure atmosphere?
The hypothetical creature has evolved on a planet with an atmosphere that's much more pressurised ...
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What would happen to a high-pressure creature in a low-pressure atmosphere? (3atm)
The hypothetical creature has evolved on a planet with an atmosphere that's much more pressurised than that of Earth. It's humanoid in appearance, in that it has two arms and two legs as well as a ...
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Is it illogical to have a species that goes through two metamorphoses and ends as an asexual being?
I came up with an alien species that has the following reproductive life:
They hatch out of eggs, tended by their mothers, and by the end of the first year (about two Earth years long) they are ...
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What metal or compounds will make blood silver?
I have a race of people who have silver blood. Thing is, I'm really trying to keep it as realistic as possible despite this being a fantasy world. The blood has raw magic energy in it as well, but ...
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How do mermaids' ears work?
Whales and dolphins surely do not have ears similar to ours and yet they can pick up ultrasound underwater without fear of water pressure damaging the eardrum. Any idea how the mermaids with ears like ...
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Could plasma be a building block for life?
I'm talking about ionized gas not the plasma in our blood. I have been reading science articles about plasma and they keep hinting at the idea of plasma based life.
Here is my first example and an ...
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Eutectic Iron Life
I was reading about the rogue planet PSO J318.5-22 which is thought to have molten iron rain and things like that, and I vaguely remembered from uni that almost all iron mixtures have a slushy ...
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Alien Griffin Design
Another question for my comic: my friend has made a demand that I give one of her characters a flying mount, preferably griffin-like. I have some designs but I want them to be plausible:
How bulky ...
- 3,577
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Endothermic or ectothermic? Alien biology
Hey guys so I've posted on this site before and I've finally made an account so I'd like to ask again about mine and my friend's webcomic WIP. Biology wise, I've made three main groups of animals, a ...
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How to evolve biological radios?
Radio Thinkers
Creatures that communicate by biological radio pops up in science fiction occasionally and it's a fun idea. However, there are some practical concerns with regards to evolving a radio ...
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Pharbohydrates vs Carbohydrates
Question: Are there are any serious biological or evolutionary plausibility issues with separating the energy storage/production function from the production of structural/regulatory biomass?
...
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Unusual reproductive method for a particular species
Basically, it starts as a variation on the seahorse, once the ova are fertilized within the mother the embryoes are drawn back into the father who then carries them to term (there's actually a second, ...
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Life on a small Neptunian/big super-Earth planet?
I want to create an alien life for a planet which is at about 6–8 Earth masses. It has a thick atmosphere made of hydrogen, helium, methane and nitrogen. I want that life to evolve slowly and be quite ...
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Non-Eukaryotic multi-celled life?
All multi-cellular life as we know it is composed or eukarotic cells -- cells with a nucleus. Some single-celled organisms are eukarotic, some are prokaryotic (cells without a nucleus, such as ...
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Xenotaxonomy: the Science of Categorizing Extraterrestrial Life
On Earth, we use taxonomy to organize biological organisms into an identifiable hierarchy in which organisms that are evolutionarily related are placed in close proximity. This evolutionary approach ...
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How to become accustomed to an alien environment
There is a really obvious problem with going to a planet we have deemed "habitable". Even if the temperature is perfect, the air composition is perfect and the terrain is perfect we still have the ...
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Suggest online sites/forums to get technical support with Xenobiology
Those who have read my recent questions posted here will have noticed that my questions are often related to hardcore biochemistry, atmospheric processes etc. While I have had some good answers to ...
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Hydrogenenic Photosynthesis: Strategies for animals
Hydrogenic photosynthesis reduces methane and water to build biomass ($\text{CH}_2\text{O}$) and releases hydrogen:
$$\text{CH}_4 + \text{H}_2\text{O} + \text{photons} \to \text{CH}_2\text{O} + 2\...
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Could We Simulate Alien Life?
Imagine that, without any aliens having been ever found, we get to a point where we can build sub-atomically precise simulations of reality, spanning at least something the size (if not the likeness) ...
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Mycolaria: How can radiotrophic fungi symbiotically assist an animal species to mitigate effects of solar radiation?
Mycolaria is my working name for an alien planet featuring a much more visible role for fungi of all kinds, large and small. There are also animals and plants on this world. This is the second in a ...
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