Posts by Cyn
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
It is very possible to sustain a human being (even a physically active one) without them having to eat at all. Gastrostomy tubes go from outside of the body directly into the stomach. But what ...
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...
According to studies on everyone's favorite test subject"”college students"”the answer is: no more than 7 days. Studies on human subjects are rare "” in part because most modern universities ...
Miniature horses for all the things humans would use horses for, only they're small enough to ride and handle. Dogs can ride miniature horses (and your cats are larger than modern cats). (ref) M...
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...
Some plants and animals would focus on the borderlands. While regular shade could exist anywhere, mountains and other large geology would give the deepest shade, enough to change the climate. The ...
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 ...
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...
The real question is, for how long? Short-term: Sure. A few days or even weeks is doable and shouldn't cause any lasting harm. Long-term: Only if you have to. There are consequences to your heal...
The best choice isn't on your list: Mastodons vs Woolley Mammoths. Both, unlike their Elephant cousins, do well in the cold. They represent two distinct species of the Proboscidean family. From...
...once they reach a planet, they do research. Nope. They're doing research all the time. That's their full-time employment. Aside from the usual time off, it's nonstop research. Once they...
Humans are actually very good at recognizing facial expressions and body language. While it's true that large numbers of people are terrible at it, it's only in comparison to the average human. A...
If you want to wipe out 80% of the world's population with a disease that has an 80% fatality rate, then every person on the planet (or close enough to round up to 100%) has to catch it within the ...
Cooking Cooking plant materials takes care of the problem of the grasses being too hard on our teeth or digestive systems. In many cases, breaking down the fibers and so forth will release more c...
