Questions tagged [biology]
For questions about the biology of life and organisms in works of science fiction and fantasy. Always use in conjunction with the relevant work tag. Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms. With regards to science fiction and fantasy works, it is generally associated with the practicalities of invented forms of life or life-supporting habitats.
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Infection by dead Things
Based on John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing and its 2011 prequel (also titled The Thing), is it possible for someone to get infected by a dead Thing?
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To what extent can Magneto harness Earth's magnetic field to recover faster from injuries?
It seems that Magneto can use Earth's magnetic field to recover faster from injuries. What are the extent, potential, healing rate, and limits of this ability?
In X-Men The Animated Series, after hard-...
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Where a father, who is being brainwashed by terrorists, is searching for his missing daughter who is working at growing replacement body parts
Looking for the title of a sci-fi novel I read, where a father is looking for his presumed missing daughter, he later has a realisation about the real circumstances in her leaving. In the plot a ...
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Title of story about living a long time by cleansing cellular mutations?
What is the name of a sci fi book about a man who gets his cellular damage/mutations reset? His wife cannot get it done because she had radiation for cancer when she was younger. Consequently, she ...
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What's the situation between Sugar and Monet?
I say situation, because I don't think it's merely a question of how they're related.
The main confusion is that they are sisters, according to the fandom wiki, but Monet is a harpy, and as far as I ...
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How do Human-Twi'lek hybrids work in Star Wars?
So, Twi'lek hybrids have appeared in Star Wars Canon in two mediums. The animated Clone Wars and the recent live-action Ahsoka TV series. In the Clone Wars, a clone trooper deserts and marries a pink ...
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What does a Synth component do?
We know the component isn't needed for the android to live because Harkness had his removed, and we know it's not required to program the android because the recall code still worked with Harkness, so ...
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Did elves shed hair?
Us mere mortals have hairs that fall out everyday. Lucky ones have new hair grow back. But what about elves? This could have led to Feanor like scraping a couch Galadriel sat on. Wouldn't be hard to ...
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Can the transporter remove alcohol from a body?
As seen in Picard S3, the transporter can alter a subject's DNA on "reconstruction". So if I get drunk, can the transporter remove all the alcohol from my body?
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How do female Comonwealth citizens continue to have kids after rejuvenation?
In the Commonwealth saga, where as humans get older they start to seek rejuvenation to return to their biological twenties and effectively live forever, and in the Void trilogy where Biononics allow ...
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Poison on Xenomorphs -- was it ever attempted?
In the scene where Ripley gets a lot of support for her idea of nuking the aliens from space, the first suggestion is to use nerve gas. (Which is not really embraced by anyone -- nuking is "the ...
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Tribble dislike of Klingons and other aspects of their biology?
In the STOS episode, there is some evidence of tribbles not being completely simple "eating machines": They react to Klingons and in fact this is how Kirk discovers a surgically-modified ...
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First story about parasitic egg-laying aliens?
I distinctly recall discussing Alien right after I had seen it in a movie theatre when it first came out. Someone said something like, "Nature is just as cruel..." and of course anyone who ...
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Book about a group of kids that were cloned from criminals
I remember, as a kid, reading a book about a group of kids, who were cloned from tissue samples taken from violent criminals. I am pretty sure that all of the adults are in on it, if not most. It was ...
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Did/do the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park reproduce asexually or did some turn into males?
I remember them saying the dinos were all female to prevent reproduction, but that they reproduced anyhow because of frog DNA used to make them. I thought at first this meant some turned into males to ...
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Why do the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only have 3 digits on their hands and feet instead of 5 (or more)?
I understand they are mutants so it not really too much of a stretch, but it seems more likely that they would have at least 5 finger and toes on each hand/foot as all but sea turtles have 5 digits on ...
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What was the first story wherein an artificial plague is created for therapeutic reasons?
In Miri from STOS, I do not think specifically an artificial virus or artificially-modified virus is mentioned, but Wikipedia says, "The party find a medical research laboratory and look through ...
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First story to deal with increased human intelligence?
I know that some stories have dealt with humans or other beings that are "wiser" (I think even the concept of intelligence separate from knowledge is a fairly modern one) than normal humans. ...
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Identifying this artwork source (and artist) of a 'future human' (NSFW)
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I am trying to find the source and artist of this particular grotesque vision of what a future human would look like. I have reverse searched this ...
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Identifying/remembering project about speculative evolution on another planet
Another specbio/specevo related question, though not so much about SF/F proper but a real world project
As a kid I had a copy of the Dorling-Kindersley book 'Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide' ...
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Westworld: Is the "biology" of the Hosts ever explained?
I became less familiar with the show after season 2. I believe one character reflects on the way the Hosts used to be and the audience is shown a sort of steampunk version of the robots with actual ...
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Dragon's egg -- fear of heights?
Not sure this can be answered, but I recall and the synopsis in Wikipedia mentions the extreme fear of heights that creatures who live in 67 billion Gs have.
It is reasonable that such creatures would ...
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Why did Superman relinquish his powers before pursuing a sexual relationship with Lois?
In Superman II (1980), and I am guessing in some other sources, Superman relinquished his powers prior to engaging in sexual intercourse with Lois Lane. Why though? Was it because he couldn't have had ...
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Are the humans in the Star Wars Galaxy really humans?
Related: Why are there humans in the Star Wars Universe?
This is a subtly different question because I'm not asking whether there's a historical relationship between the two lineages.
I am asking this ...
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How do the Dune sandworms move?
The sandworms of Dune are huge and powerful. But how exactly do they move beneath all that sand? They don't necessarily skim above the surface as they apparently only raise smallish (relative to their ...
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Are there the equivalent of chimpanzees, etc. on other worlds with humanoids?
I mean, on Vulcan or Chronos are there "primates" that resemble the humanoids that correspond to humans on Earth?
EDIT: Reading about Klingon evolution it seems very possible that during the ...
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Book about a genetically engineered virus that causes prion disease
This book had a few arcs there.
Firstly, a government lab is experimenting with creating viruses that use a type of xeno-nucleic acid that contains some iron compound as its genetic code instead of ...
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Infection & Immunity in the Matrix- How did Neo not get sick upon leaving?
For context, I've only seen the first film, and only all the way through at a social event.
When Neo is unplugged, he's leaving a sterile or at least very isolated environment, getting dunked in ...
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What function do Xindi cheek holes serve?
All 5 of the extant sapient Xindi species have the same holes (and a line of bumps) on their cheeks, as can be seen below:
Has it ever been explained what purpose they serve, or how such different ...
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Story Identification: Carnivorous Pack-Hunting Chipmunks
I recall reading a short story back in the 80's that featured some biologists who ran across a pack of carnivorous chipmunks in a national park.
They would gang-up on larger creatures, like owls, and ...
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Short story or book in which a man turns into a giant and is climbed by another man
Looking for a short story or book in which a man turns into a giant and is climbed by another man, who runs into interesting flora and fauna on the giant, and even resorts to eating a mite on the ...
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What Star Trek humanoid species has the longest natural lifespan?
I don't mean due to advanced medical technology, cryogenics, stasis, time travel, etc.
I don't mean due to being a Q or a Borg or some other non-corporeal lifeform or a totally alien biology.
Which ...
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What was the name of this horror/science fiction story involving orcas/killer whales?
I'm looking for a horror/science fiction story involving orcas/killer whales. It was written by someone who was either a marine biologist or someone who used to work with cetaceans, and in their ...
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Why are Vulcan lips Human-reddish instead of green?
We know that Vulcan blood is copper based instead of iron as in Humans, making it appear green instead of red. This is shown when bruised or bleeding as well as in Bones' insults to Spock.
The lips ...
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Force Sensitivity: How much potential in the Force can a human be born with naturally? (Legends or Canon Material)
Ok so... I should probably break down what I mean - take Anakin Skywalker, has what is widely considered the greatest potential in the Force of all time, he was quite literally conceived by the Force ...
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What about biochemistry in Stephen King's Autopsy Room Four? [closed]
I have just listened to (the Polish version, if that matters) of "Autopsy Room Four" by Stephen King. Either I am missing some part or something obvious or the whole story is simply ...
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Do Vulcans lose muscle and bone mass after living long term on Earth?
It was said that Vulcans are stronger than humans because the planet Vulcan's gravity is 1.4G (according to Memory Beta), which requires stronger muscles to move around. But we also know that humans ...
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Biologist tries to clone dead wife
I remember a movie in which a biologist/scientist tries to bring his wife back to life after she dies in a tragic fire accident at her studio (she was an artist).
He has a junior colleague who helps ...
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How do Togrutas hear?
I was watching Ahsoka videos when it suddenly dawned upon me that she has no ears. After doing some research, it seems neither her horns nor her tentacles serve an auditory function. The other ...
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How does the Space Slug (Exogorth) breathe in the vacuum of space?
Whilst answering this question, an interesting question came to mind.
In the chase through the Hoth asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, the Millennium Falcon takes refuge in a cave, which ...
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Does a xenomorphs acid blood make it vulnerable to water, or any other base/buffer solution?
For humans, a sudden change of blood pH from 7.4 to say 7.5 would be quite significantly harmful https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkalosis this is because of all the highly specialised proteins in the ...
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Why do the Walking Dead zombies stop decomposing?
Zombies must have a half-life. They exibit signs of decay as soon as they transform into the undead. Their rotting flesh would attract decomposers, like flys and beetles. Those insects should be able ...
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What is the earliest example of an accidental origin of life or civilisation?
The trope
The essence of the trope goes like this: Somebody creates a new biosphere or civilisation by accident, such as leaving some sandwich lying around. Often, the product is microscopic with ...
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What is the physical difference between a male Moclan and female Moclan?
At the beginning of The Orville, we are told that Moclans are an entirely male species. However, the third episode reveals that, in rare cases, Moclans are born female and that corrective surgery is ...
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What color is smurf blood?
Is it known whether smurf blood is red or blue?
I checked the UNICEF ad (an ad where the Smurf village was annihilated by warplanes), but couldn't spot any blood in the ad.
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Where does the energy come from in the Dune ecosystem?
In Frank Herbert's Dune books, the planet Arrakis has an interesting and well thought-out alien ecology. As summarised in this answer, the sandworms eat sandplankton (which consists, at least in part, ...
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Is it known what conditions caused the Gungan species to diverge morphologically?
It is well known that the Gungan species is divided into two races, the Otolla and the Ankura, even to small children. However, the astonishing biological diversity of Naboo seems a subject still in ...
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Short story about mis-delivered cloning kit from the future
Short story about mis-delivered cloning kit from the future.
Subject man clones himself using scanner and ingredients from the kit (add water), agent arrives (from future) to reclaim the kit, but ...
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Has human child-bearing age been extended in Star Trek?
We know that life expectancy has been radically increased due to significant medical advancement. For example, Dr. McCoy lives to be at least 137 per his depiction in "Encounter at Farpoint"...
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What is the energy source for the spice-sandworm cycle? [duplicate]
The lifecycle of the Maker apparently contains stages when it produces spice (actually its precursor), and stage when it feeds on sand plankton, which are said to consume spice.
Where is the source ...
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