Posts tagged biology
This is for a science fiction story I'm writing. Are there ways to transport information like a book, or a computer program, within the human body (not in the brain)? Say, by storing the informatio...
So, I have a character who has an interesting quirk: they cannot wear flat shoes or boots (i.e. where the heel is at the same level as the ball of the foot or approximately so, within 1.27cm or so)...
Ignoring how this sort of atmosphere would come about, what are some things that happen regularly on Earth that would be altered by this sort of atmosphere? Example: Would firearms still ignite nor...
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 t...
I read on the cooking.stackexchange site that all natural salt on Earth was created by seas and oceans, starting with primordial oceans four billion years ago. This got me thinking about my fiction...
I seek a realistic method, either by genetic change or other scientific method that doesn't require magic or future tech, to obtain naturally occuring two tone hair for a race of humanoids. My id...
Would humanoid sized insectoid lifeforms be relatively slow considering that their exoskeleton would have to be rather heavy since it takes more 'armor' to get the same relative protection? Genera...
I have a group of settlers that live on top of an animal, and I want his skin to be their mode of communication. In the morning, information is transmitted through chromataphores in the skin changi...
I was thinking of an organism that has evolved to get its energy through nuclear fusion. It has its own fusion rector inside its body that is capable of fusing hydrogen to helium to derive energy....
Sorry if this sounds stupid and/or messed up. So I'm writing this goofy splatter story in which my protagonists are fighting zombies. I'm trying to make the fighting as over-the-top and ridiculou...
Sperm whales can go 90 minutes at a time without needing to surface. I am interested in an idea for a creature that is air-breathing, but spends a lot of time at depths of (100m to 300m) and some...
Somewhat related to this. I've already decided that both orcs and humans are subspecies of homo sapiens (homo sapiens praepotens and homo sapiens perpessio, respectively, because both species are a...
I'm trying to describe an effect (in this case, a magic spell) that affects the mind, similar to caffeine or alcohol, but not a "substance". I want to use the correct scientific language if possibl...
All life we know of to date (presumably) formed on a rocky planet (more precisely: earth). Fiction has been written about life in more exotic locations. Though as far as I know, these lifeforms wer...
This is for a novel I'm writing. The basic premise is that massive networks of mycelium running under the soil combine to form a decentralised intelligence that has been managing life and condition...
Carbon-based life planet with a plenitude of infinite energy crystals. Could it exist? Somehow, when my planet cooled down, there were crystals that output a fixed amount of electromagnetic radiat...
Let's say I have a roughly humanoid race (similar size, form, activity level, etc.) that spontaneously generates any energy that they need via Magic. However, they still need to eat some materials ...
Given ideal circumstances and a type 4 or 5 Kardashev scale level of technology to set the system in motion (but not to maintain the motion over time): How many planets 1/4 of the Earth's mass co...
Say you were to drop a (bunch of) human(s) at some past era of our Earth. I'm assuming they might encounter a few problems such as the composition of the air not being breathable, the water being t...
A modern day Earth nation is at war with another. That other nation is extremely advanced but they are also pacifists. Instead of killing peoples their gun rounds and shells have the effect of worm...
Cerebrospinal fluid is a thin layer of liquid that helps use avoid being knocked out (among other uses). Creatures with a thicker layer have more trouble being knocked out. I want my humanoids to n...
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 bact...
I am mad scientist and I captured Average Joe, who is not average only in one remark: He is person not to be missed (I double checked). Otherwise he is healthy male, around 30 years old, with no fo...
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 eute...
Could life survive on a diet of dust or some other substance that is both abundant and that we don't place any value on?
Most parts of the observable universe are generally extremely cold and has no air. So if some organism can survive naturally in space, and thrive near 3 Kelvin temperatures without any form of air,...
Part of this story I'm writing involves a human subspecies who are adapted to extremely high altitudes -- as high or higher than our real world's Tibetan population, let's say. I've done research t...
So, as the title suggests, I have a reptilian alien species capable of human-tier thought. Anatomically, they are centaur-like (four legs on the ground, two manipulating limbs up top), standing sli...
I have a bipedal, primate species that I want to be able to move quickly for short periods of time. In other words, rather than possessing the "perseverance" of humans, I want this species to work...
It looks human, feels human, can walk and run like us and can even argue with us, but it do not possess DNA. Is it possible to create this homunculus?
Much like how certain cultures have adapted to live at extremely high altitudes, what would be the evolutionary effects if humans today were taken to a planet with atmospheric pressure not unlike a...
An alien life form is found that has a pattern of stripes on its back. The pattern is black, red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta, black, and so on. It is found that for each series of dif...
Lets say you have a small group of space colonists. They were screened for sickness, viral and bacterial, as thoroughly as we knew how before being sent off to the colony and all were found health...
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, ...
In mammals - and that includes us humans - the lungs make up 7% of the total body volume. This allows us to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, thanks to the pulmonary alveoli. But bird lungs...
Let's say there is a species of intelligent beings who are indistinguishable from humans in every way - except on average they can jump twice as high as the average human, based on Earth gravity. ...
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 ra...
In the limit, how small can a brain get and still host an identifiably human-like consciousness? Obviously, they can be smaller than an adult human's, since children (with smaller brain volumes) a...
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 seco...
Mars' gravity is 38% of that of Earth's. Supposing a human born and raised on a Mars colony traveled to earth later in their life, would they be able to survive the increased gravity? For example...
I have got a big rotating space station (radius is 5 km and length is 30 km) which provides its occupants the luxury of full terran gravity and atmosphere. The biggest part of the cylinder's inner ...
This concept is relatively simple. There are many animals which start mobile, but become sessile later in their life history, all of which are simple and primitive. And I was wondering this: what i...
In Ribbontails Series Aman5 there are creatures called Kuutamian animals. These animals are sapient and can have any form. The creator uses the excuse that they have three DNA strands, but how real...
When creating humanoid races or species or just normal individuals, I sometimes want to describe a certain body measure and thus have to estimate a reasonable value. How do you do that? Are there a...
Today's dinosaurs--the birds--have a uniquely avian piece of anatomy called the syrinx, located at the base of the trachea. Because it is located at a point where the trachea branches to the lungs...
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\...
The Biblical story of the Flood describes how over a period of 40 days the earth is flooded so that the peak of the highest mountain is 15 cubits/22.5ft/6.858m below the new mean sea level. The fl...
Let's assume that Captain Bob Tiberius Kirk has been injured in a space battle. The universe does not have FTL travel, and the nearest hospital where Bob can be treated is 5 years of space voyage a...
I'm aware that deep sea fish don't actually "explode" when brought to the surface but any air sacs in their bodies would expand and cause them possibly fatal damage. However, what other physiologi...
