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Questions tagged [genetic-engineering]

For questions about the fictitious in-universe genetic engineering found in works of speculative fiction. Questions purely concerning real-world genetic engineering are off-topic.

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3 votes
0 answers
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Short story about gene editing

Only details I can remember include first-person narrator, a teenage boy. The household next door has a girl 6 feet 4 inches with blue eyes. She was gene edited.
Tony Lima's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
154 views

Story or book from the 80s or 90s that had genetically created humans who could grow teeth and eat people

I ran across this story or book from the 80s or 90s while staying at a hotel/ski resort, and I've recently started re-reading old sci-fi books. All I really remember is that there were some people on ...
Mack TheMouse's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
832 views

Book about a girl who lives in a world with genetically-modified humans and runs into a girl who looks exactly like her

I recall reading a story about a young teen girl who lives in a world with genetically-modified humans and non-modified humans. On a school trip (rock climbing/hiking?), she runs into a girl who looks ...
Jennifer Beauchesne's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
922 views

Space Invasion story. People get a blister, or pimple on their arm. Treated, they are fine, untreated they die [duplicate]

I recall a novel published maybe 20-30 years ago. I don't know if the aliens are actually on the planet (like the "V" series) or alien visitors are spreading plagues. People all over the ...
NJohnny's user avatar
  • 13.5k
2 votes
1 answer
356 views

Why did the Federation ban DNA resequencing? [duplicate]

It makes no sense that the entire Federation and group of many planets would ban DNA reseqeuncing just because of a horrific experience the humans had with it. Other members of the Federation may ...
Lucas Winslow's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
456 views

Science fiction book about a world where bioengineered animals are used for common functions

A novel/book from the 90's. Society used genetically modified animals to perform basic tasks. For example, birds were genetically modified to be large enough to carry passengers like our passenger ...
RoboPa's user avatar
  • 153
19 votes
1 answer
2k views

Disease of too-much concentration

I read this in the early 2000s I think in Asimovs or F&SF. The main character has a friend who thinks he would have done better in life by not being so distractable, and instead concentrating on ...
Andrew's user avatar
  • 60.5k
16 votes
1 answer
924 views

Human like animals are modified to become more intelligent. One is adopted by humans.The fight for their rights

Short story or novella.I read this about 2005 but it seemed to have been written much earlier. I remember looking at the publication date and noting it was written before humans were capable of ...
Judith Jones's user avatar
  • 8,535
14 votes
2 answers
8k views

Sci-fi short story about a human ship discovering a lost colony of genetically modified humans who find pleasure in self-sacrifice

I'm searching for a sci-fi short story I read years ago (I think in an anthology) about a human ship discovering a lost colony, possibly on a death world or asteroid. The harsh conditions forced the ...
Bob Johnson's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
187 views

Why don't people have allergies on certain planets in Star Wars?

I recently finished The High Republic: Defy the Storm (Canon High Republic Phase III YA novel) and on pg. 300, something very intriguing is said: Cair immediately began charming everyone with smiles ...
Fred's user avatar
  • 49
6 votes
1 answer
129 views

Trying to find name of book written before 2000 where society can genetically modify themselves

Trying to find name of book where a scientist created a virus that would allow people to rapidly change themselves genetically, including adding animal features, become blonde, musclemen, etc. The ...
user171148's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
126 views

Science fiction novel about a group of genetically engineered young adults that lived in a "pod" or family group

I'm looking for the name of a science fiction novel from the late 90's or early 2000's. The plot revolved around a group of genetically engineered young adults that lived in a "pod" or ...
Long Forgotten's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Sci-fi novel where gene editing becomes a cottage industry

I’m looking for a book I read in the early 2000’s where the protagonist experiments with genetic engineering on himself. Basically, gene editing technology becomes accessible to normal people and a ...
Stars and Swords's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
268 views

Science fiction novel on genetically engineered chimeric embryos in cows, with resulting escaped monsters

The novel is dystopian science fiction, published before 2013, in English. It is set in the US, Canada, etc. It starts with a Chinese (or Asian) woman researcher in a secret laboratory where ...
Fred Tibbals's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
102 views

Was Brave New World the first book that had shaping of human embryos?

I suspect that Brave New World was the first book to have humans develop in vitro, but I am asking if any prior story had the development shaped (especially, but not limited to, by stunting) before ...
releseabe's user avatar
  • 16.4k
8 votes
0 answers
107 views

Clones, hazardous environment, rebirth, human rights

A second-hand softback I read in the early 1980s - possibly written in the early to mid 1970s. Possibly the complete novel, or perhaps two or three stories in the one book, no more than that. Artwork: ...
Jiminy Cricket.'s user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Old scifi book: detective, alien conspiracy, change appearance machine, huge brain in space ship, alien communicates by flashing lights from stomach

I am looking for an old book. People can use a machine to change appearance and genetically modify themselves. The main character is a detective or cop, he follows a suspect into the sewers and finds ...
D.s. reading's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
70 views

Genetically altered seeds escape in Bay area; genetically altered children spontaneously suicide

Read a book in the 1980’s that warns of the dangers of genetic engineering. My memory is very vague as to details, but I seem to recall the book opening with modified grass or rice seeds that ...
Emme's user avatar
  • 51
9 votes
0 answers
124 views

People using genetic engineering to transform their offspring to live on a gaseous planet

I was hoping for some help. I remember parts of a science fiction plot point and I’m trying to locate the story. I’m not sure if it is a short story, a novel, or even an extremely short lived science ...
rg-sci-fi's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
304 views

Book series about human bioengineering with alien animal DNA [duplicate]

What i remember from the plot: Human scientists captured by alien empire, dumped on some planet with no way out alter their DNA with local animals to be on-par with alien captors regarding speed and ...
Christian's user avatar
  • 141
19 votes
1 answer
3k views

Book or story where humans are genetically engineered to act as AI?

I don't remember the title or too many specifics, but here goes: Genetic engineering is ubiquitous. The system for explaining how genetic engineering works has a fixed number of "points" ...
blueberryfields's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
99 views

Has there been renewed interest in Cordwainer Smith's stories about chimeras?

Cordwainer Smith's stories about chimeras (see Definition 4 in this link), i.e., people who were part human and part animal seemed the farthest-out of far-out science fiction when they were first ...
user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
906 views

Book about two humans who genetically engineer themselves to be able to exist in outer space

I am trying to find out the title of a book. I read the book sometime between 2004 and 2010 I believe. It was a science fiction book about genetic engineering. I know in the book they were mixing ...
Ben's user avatar
  • 109
6 votes
1 answer
338 views

Scifi book about superhuman engineered kids with progeria

This was an older sci-fi book, probably from the 80s. I read it as a child in the late 80s or early 90s. The protagonist was a fertility doctor or something similar. He found out there were these ...
Totentanz's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
1k views

Far future SF novel with humans living in genetically engineered habitats in space

I'm looking for a novel I read in English around 1989 or 1990. I think it was written in the 80s. It was a rather thick (for the time) mass-market paperback and I think it had a picture of a guy ...
Gwyn's user avatar
  • 1,847
6 votes
2 answers
289 views

Building a house with mouth cement [duplicate]

So I have a series of vague impressions and a couple of details: Pretty sure this was a book, not a short story. I probably read it in the '90s... maybe earlier. I think the basic plot was that there ...
Vaughn Ohlman's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
195 views

90s biopunk novel about near future genetic engineering

The novel is set against the backdrop of an economic collapse in the near future US. At one point a demonstration for a bailout is used as cover for a terrorist attack. There's a character who's a ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 83
8 votes
1 answer
516 views

Book about genetic engineering to defeat disease that turns children into hermaphrodites

The initial plot was about genetic engineering being used to defeat disease, but something went awry that caused a massive social upheaval, where people in social settings would have a lapel pin or ...
Jack's user avatar
  • 83
7 votes
1 answer
580 views

Gene-modified man has a 2-week period heightened reflexes and constant wakefulness

There are just a few details I recall from a novel I read about 25 years ago. The setting is a fairly unmemorable future space-faring society. I don't recall any major character aliens, but that ...
DavidW's user avatar
  • 143k
5 votes
1 answer
286 views

Novel revolving around genetic engineering

About 20 years ago I read a book that revolved around a future where genetic engineering is so commonplace that people visit genetic engineering parlors much like they do tattoo shops IRL now. At ...
William's user avatar
  • 51
4 votes
1 answer
274 views

Sci-fi book about a genetically modified planet

I read only the beginning of this book, and it was decades ago, but I always wondered about it and wanted to read it. As I recall, the protagonist finds himself stranded on a strange world. I don't ...
ScioMind's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
177 views

YA novel: siblings from a walled city, whose DNA is spliced with animal DNA [duplicate]

I remember a scene where they fly over a wall and land in a forest. They find a huge home and realise that when the world was dying due to overpopulation, the poor were moved to the walled area while ...
sham's user avatar
  • 47
7 votes
0 answers
133 views

Series of short stories about an intelligent bear bred to fight an alien beast the size of a locomotive

I'm looking for a series of short stories about an intelligent bear (or species of such) bred to fight an alien beast the size of a locomotive. I recall only one story that featured a pack of bumbling,...
Michelle Rose's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
381 views

What examples of genetic engineering and/or eugenics are there in Star Trek other than the Eugenics Wars?

Excluding Julian Bashir and the products of the human Eugenic Wars... do we ever encounter any species in Star Trek that have engaged in significant genetic self-modification or eugenics? Basically ...
Murphy's user avatar
  • 3,673
39 votes
0 answers
1k views

Futuristic world where reality is humanity's plaything and God is in a zoo

This is a novel I read in 2015. It was an older book. The cover was black and hardcover. Don't remember any specific details. The book was in English. I believe it was from the 1980s or ‘90s. It was ...
Neo Darwin's user avatar
  • 3,220
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

Web story about aliens who twist humans into various sub-humans

It was hosted on its own page and was written much like a documentary about the rise and fall of the human race from the perspective of an alien narrator. There were plenty of illustrations to show ...
ed fry's user avatar
  • 133
11 votes
1 answer
438 views

What's the name of that comic team with genetically engineered government agents?

The story starts with a family living in a cabin in the woods. There's a mom, a dad, and a boy, but the boy is about twenty years old or something. They're talking, I think the boy is bringing up an ...
Norman Haggett's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
248 views

Book with lasers on pyramids for electricity generation, sun flare ending the civilization, genetic engineering of pets and rebirth of civilization

An ancient civilization uses lasers mounted on pyramids to generate electricity. When a sun flare causes an uncontrollable cascade which ends their civilization, some escape to space. One group, which ...
Cee A Robison's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
652 views

Science fiction novel involving a genetically engineered servant race uplifted from non-human primates

I belive I read this while I was living in Ohio between 2002 and 2006. It was a hardback novel with a dark cover. The basic story is set somewhere a few years into the future, with society not very ...
FuzzyBoots's user avatar
  • 239k
11 votes
1 answer
878 views

Short story about the drawbacks of human telepathy on an alien planet

There will be heavy spoilers in my question. The plot is that a band of humans have been genetically engineered to be telepathic. Unfortunately, the engineered humans made the rest of humanity nervous,...
Nathan K McVaugh's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
373 views

Short story - engineered human terraforming civilized planet

Story is told from viewpoint of planet inhabitants whose planet is attacked by implacable terraforming ship. Turns out spaceship's only crew is giant engineered human whose only mission is to ...
Gail 's user avatar
  • 121
7 votes
1 answer
352 views

90s Novel About Sentient Rocks

The novel had rocks discovered on some planet that were sentient. Humans used them for cell phones. They wanted to be free and enlisted some sort of geneticist sometimes called "a bodybuilder" to ...
Scotsman's user avatar
  • 1,262
6 votes
1 answer
239 views

Late 80s or early 90s book includes genetically engineered executioner with gills

A male main character was genetically engineered, had gills in his throat, and was an executioner in a post-apocalyptic world. He was able to move long distances instantly through something called the ...
David Myers's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
286 views

Identify SciFi story where Genetic Engineering created Fantasy monster like dragons [duplicate]

Once again I am trying to find about a story I read decades ago in translation (I do not remember the title in Italian, either). The main topic was a world where genetic engineering had starter ...
p.marino's user avatar
  • 271
5 votes
2 answers
343 views

Looking for a science fiction omnibus where one of the stories had mock combat games for political purposes

I read this story over twelve years ago. It was published with a lot of other stories (by the same author IIRC). The main story that I remember had to do with some kind of war games using pilots and ...
user76853's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
810 views

In Asimov's The Naked Sun why didn't the Solarians use artificial insemination?

In Isaac Asimov's 1957 novel The Naked Sun it is a plot point that the inhabitants of the planet Solaria are raised to be repelled by physical contact, a fairly common theme in Asimov's work. It is ...
Lostinfrance's user avatar
  • 2,408
10 votes
2 answers
578 views

SF short story where animals are genetically engineered to have hands and hunt hunters with guns

I'm trying to find the title and author of a short story I read about 15 years ago. Some genius genetically modifies animals to have hands and they are given guns. Humans are invited on a hunting trip ...
Tanya's user avatar
  • 117
5 votes
1 answer
10k views

What was abnormal in Hanna's DNA?

In the movie Hanna (2011), DNA was manipulated by the CIA to create super-soldiers. In the this clip, we see at 00:55 a lab report marked "Abnormal". In the lower left-hand corner can be seen the ...
Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_'s user avatar
-9 votes
1 answer
622 views

What evidence supports the idea that Voldemort (or others) could use magic to develop witches/wizards with genetically engineered/enhanced abilities? [closed]

I am seeking additional supporting canon evidence for the idea that within the Potterverse, it would be potentially possible to use magic to genetically engineer/enhance witches/wizards to have ...
beichst's user avatar
  • 26.8k
6 votes
2 answers
814 views

Short story with Genetically Modified pegasus made to order

I had this story in an anthology collection many years ago - the basic premise was that a company - Genetics Inc. (or something along those lines, which may be the title of the tale) were able to ...
SeanR's user avatar
  • 250