31
votes
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
Chapter 23 discusses the genetic situation as a method of discovering why magic appears to be getting less powerful. In later chapters he concludes that the simplistic genetic marker is used as a ...
- 1,927
25
votes
Accepted
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
If you assume that Harry is correct, then a Wizard/Squib cross could have either Wizard or Squib offspring, at 50% each; you don't need a Wizard/Muggle cross to get Squibs. However, two Wizards could ...
- 7,775
11
votes
Accepted
Short story about intelligence being only an evolutionary stage to ensure interstellar propagation
The Locusts by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
A colony expedition to Tau Ceti ends up de-volving into apelike creatures.
There are no men on Tau Ceti IV
...
There are things in the forest. They prefer ...
- 50.3k
10
votes
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
If we are talking about gene crossing, as in Mendelian model, then there is something wrong about that chapter 7. I did not read the mentioned fanfiction, so... Let's science.
This is scientifically ...
- 7,944
9
votes
Novel where a pregnant woman carrying a manipulated zygote is spirited away
The Eyes of Heisenberg (1966) by Frank Herbert...?
From Wikipedia:
The Eyes of Heisenberg is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Frank Herbert. Originally serialized as Heisenberg's Eyes ...
- 108k
9
votes
Accepted
ANALOG story about Genetic engineering
"Super Gyro" by Grey Rollins
Review from Stranger than SF:
Linus works in a gyro shop. When gunmen hold them up, a few customers
try and fail to use their genetically enhanced powers to ...
- 13.1k
8
votes
Accepted
On Roshar, can humans have a light eye and a dark eye?
Heterochromia definitely exists sometimes on Roshar. It seems to occur occasionally when a lighteyed and darkeyed person have a child.
In Words of Radiance we meet Redin. (source with spoilers:)
He ...
- 1,850
8
votes
Accepted
How do Human-Twi'lek hybrids work in Star Wars?
Short Answer: Unknown. The ins and outs of such genetic combinations in Star Wars is never directly addressed.
Rather Longer Answer: Star Wars isn't sci-fi, nor is it meant to be. It's a space fantasy ...
- 5,168
7
votes
Accepted
Did the Cheela on Dragon's Egg have twelve-stranded "DNA"?
There is no mention of twelve-stranded DNA in the book.
Cheela biology is described in some technical detail:
The cheela biophysicists would not determine the genetic coding mechanism for the cheela ...
- 134k
7
votes
Accepted
Does a half-blood or Muggle-born have less skill with magic than a pure-blood?
It’s unclear if pure-bloods are generally more skilled.
There are no clearly objective statements in the Harry Potter series on whether pure-bloods are generally more skilled than wizards with less or ...
- 105k
7
votes
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
I am going to bring up what the writer himself has brought up when asked about this:
There is indeed one critical location, as the Mendelian pattern shows pretty strongly - from a Bayesian ...
- 281
7
votes
What evidence supports the idea that Voldemort (or others) could use magic to develop witches/wizards with genetically engineered/enhanced abilities?
Not much
Magical abilities appear to be genetically inherited
Well, they are certainly inherited. Rowling has called it a "gene," but given that she is not a scientist (or mathematician), she may be ...
- 115k
6
votes
Book about a planet where DNA swapping between animals humans and metal eating microbes published in 1995 or earlier
Just in case the comment gets lost, andrewsi suggested Ian McDonald's Chaga (also known as Evolution's Shore).
Optimistic near-future alien-contact yarn from the Ireland resident author of the ...
- 216k
5
votes
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
The only way for this to work would be for magic to be recessive on one gene and then another, unrelated, gene that can prevent someone who should be otherwise able to cast from doing so.
So two ...
- 3,121
4
votes
An OLD anime about a boy with "demonic" powers joins with 2 others to fight aliens who use humans for genetics experiments
This is Touma Kishinden Oni (1995-1996).
From MyAnimeList:
Shuramaru is hated and feared by the villagers for his unusual powers. He thinks he is human, but... is he?
Touma Kishinden Oni is an ...
- 108k
4
votes
Accepted
Are Elantrians' kids Elantrian or human?
No.
Question:
If two Elantrians had a baby, would he be an Elantrian too?
Brandon Sanderson:
What a good question. The answer is no, actually. There's actually a character in the books who'...
- 6,032
4
votes
Accepted
What was abnormal in Hanna's DNA?
This remains a mystery.
From the script all you get is that Hanna's DNA is manipulated beyond what is possible in the human genome. What it does never gets determined but for what capacities Hanna ...
- 2,642
4
votes
Book about a boy (man?) who was genetically modified by his father
Gladiator, by Philip Wylie.
The story begins at the turn of the 20th century. Professor Abednego Danner lives in a small, rural Colorado town, and has a somewhat unhappy marriage to a conservative ...
- 38.3k
3
votes
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
Assuming Harry's genetic model to be correct, there are at least two ways in which a Squib could be born into a wizard family. One is that the Squib's biological father might have in fact been a ...
- 17.8k
3
votes
Science Fiction Series about human scientists forced to live on high gravity planet by stronger aliens
Koban series by Stephen W Bennett
Koban (2012)
The Krall have used thousands of years of combat to select the genes of the strongest and fastest warriors. They are a species determined to dominate ...
- 4,034
3
votes
Does a half-blood or Muggle-born have less skill with magic than a pure-blood?
No. It's Explicit in Chamber of Secrets.
“It’s about the most insulting thing he could think of,” gasped Ron, coming back up.
“Mudblood’s a really foul name for someone who is Muggle-born — you ...
- 24.2k
2
votes
In Assassin’s Creed how can Eagle Vision be passed through the family?
If it's a single gene, then it cannot be tainted or watered down. Everyone has zero, one or two copies of the gene.
If it's a "dominant" gene then one copy is enough to get the full effect.
If Alice ...
- 1,319
2
votes
Can genetics explain the various magical abilities?
Muggleborns have a distant magical relative, usually a squib who married a muggle. This is a quote from Harry Potter wiki:
Muggle-borns inherit magic from a distant ancestor; they are descended ...
- 179
1
vote
Does a half-blood or Muggle-born have less skill with magic than a pure-blood?
The natural response might be to use specific characters to refute the idea that Pure-bloods are better, and indeed Hagrid seems to do this on multiple occasions. In Chapter Five of Philosopher's ...
- 44k
1
vote
Moclan demographics and genetics
Statistics can only be based on data collected, given how shameful being a female Moclan seemed to be, we can easily conclude that the actual incidence of female births is much higher than the ...
- 18.2k
1
vote
Should Wizards be capable of having Squib children in HPMOR?
I'll argue that the wizarding gene, W, must be dominant. Let's consider:
What is the difference between a muggle and squib? Both of them are not capable of using magic; thus, they either don't have W ...
1
vote
How are supernatural traits inherited in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"?
Not all demons were part human only demons native to our dimension I am not entirely certain if there is a canonical list of which demons were native though.
Not all demons were capable of ...
- 2,710
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible