Posts by Cyn
Reproduction We're on Earth, in an area whose weather is cold and dry most of the year, with a short summer and long winter (and brief transitional periods). We have a mammal, around the size of ...
Our bodies are 1-3% bacteria by weight. Bacteria is vital for our functioning; killing it off has consequences. All cultures (except our very modern one) have special foods and activities that su...
You'll want to start with technology that produces light suitable for growing crops indoors. Grow lights exist of course but they're awfully energy intensive. With near-future technology you'll h...
It's a retrovirus A retrovirus is a type of RNA virus that inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. Such viruses are ...
No. The mass extinction you're hoping for"”no plants and only microscopic animals"”is impossible from these conditions. At the point that humans left the planet, it was possible for animal and pl...
With substantial training and practice, a tongueless person can learn to speak again. Intelligibly. Your characters may choose not to do that though. Also, I frame challenge your assertion that ...
Mutism is the inability to speak, not the inability to make any sounds with the mouth. Your character could become mute from a variety of causes. Willk suggests a laryngectomy, which would certai...
Pig skin Pig skin is already used on humans as part of skin grafting. It is generally only used as a temporary graft until a more permanent one is ready. From a 1964 article, as the process was ...
Muscle plasticity is not the same thing as regeneration. Muscle plasticity is defined as the ability of a given muscle to alter its structural and functional properties in accordance with the...
The spring emerges from a local cave which has been filled / caved in by a past civilisation, since the water is secretly heated by engineered means. Any society that can create engineerin...
Humans already are able to have ears halfway there. In most people, protruding or prominent ears are caused by an underdeveloped antihelical fold. When the antihelical fold does not form ...
Allow bloodline proxies Adoption is the obvious choice for most male and many female couples. But if bloodline is important in a particular family, allow for a proxy. For example, if a female co...
Elemental Mercury Okay, this doesn't really meet your requirements. Not much is absorbed through the skin. But mercury in your hand is fun to play with and your victim might keep it on longer th...
Start off with a safe village/colony. People living in the parts of rural Africa with wild lions will surround their villages with thorn bushes the lions don't cross (for example, acacia thorns in...
Intestinal worms Intestinal worms are properly called "helminths," which most dictionaries will tell you are parasites. Exploiting their hosts, draining resources, sucking the life out of t...
Stem cells Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of ...
Hand out prizes at the annual town fair. This is, in fact, how craftspeople and inventors rolled out new things. Most medium to large towns in Medieval Europe, for example, had 1 or 2 fairs a yea...
A combination of signed language and vocalizations is your best bet. Because both hearing and sight can be compromised under water, a redundant system allows for maximum communication in a variety...
Ballet slippers. That 10mm layer of teflon has similar thickness and properties to Marley, a vinyl floor covering used in nearly all serious ballet studios and performance spaces. Also good for o...
The two hormones that can change height in a growing prepubescent child are: Human growth hormone Testosterone With HGH, it is often given to children who have Growth Hormone Deficiency or to c...
Genetic genealogy testing can already identify people as belonging to various minority ethnic groups. Some are better than others. For example, Ashkenazi (generally, Jews with Eastern and Central...
Follow the lead of many many Science Fiction movies, TV shows, and books that create aliens or fantasy creatures as real beings and give them the ability to "possess" human beings and control their...
Eternal youth and immortality are two completely different superpowers. Eternal youth bestowed at the moment of birth is a curse. While the person could learn things, the lack of motor control an...
The planet orbits its star normally but it has a moon whose orbit is such that the moon is visible from one side of the planet but not the other. The planet's day is long enough that the moon does...
Just tweak their physiology so something about doing it on the journey makes things dangerous. Or it takes too much time. Or maybe it's because of predators tracking them. Things are safer in ...
