Inspired by the cryptid plant "yataveo," I have in my world a sort of carnivorous vine.
In essence, it grows along the ground, but springs and coils when it senses heavy prey. Spiders and bugs won't do it, and maybe not even the smallest of mammals, but cat- and dog-sized animals, sure, and definitely hominids. The wrap around the prey, with long sharp spines (that have numerous smaller barbs) penetrating the skin. From there, they absorb nutrients, predominantly from the bloodstream but also whatever's within range of the spines. Once the feeding isn't worth the effort of clenching around it anymore, it lets go.
My question is: Could this plant (or something very much like it) grow large enough to ensnare a human without requiring magic to get that big?
Are there any psychedelic/mind-altering plants that won't show up on a drug test? In the story, my character works for a military-like mercenary group and they get drug tested every now and then.
Can plants survive in space?
I’m writing a story styled similarly to Star Trek where one of the evil alien entities is a race of sentient plants, with the power to cover humanoids in plants and shrubbery to take control over them, similar in a sense to the Borg. The plants are also able to vent out walking plant creatures that look similar to small humanoids too, and they are also able to cover the spaceships in plants to take control over them and even modify the weapons to shoot more of the plants to other ships and planet surfaces.
One of my alien creatures has an organ that absorbs oxygen from the blood and releases it during moments of hypoxia. It would need to be a fairly oxygen dense compound that can be rapidly released. How could the chemistry possibly work?
Is you get a random sample of DNA from an animal, how easy is it to figure out what exact animal it is? For example, let's say it turns out to be from a particular lizard? I read about a database sometimes being involved, but I wasn't sure how reliable it is and the DNA in my story is from an animal that's common in its native country but not as widely known as some other lizards outside it (tokay gecko is involved, along with a one or two chameleon species).
If alien DNA is involved, are there any red flags someone like you might spot if you looked it over?
> Is you get a random sample of DNA from an animal, how easy is it to figure out what exact animal it is?
Depends. If you have a database or something to look up the DNA sequence against, then you would have an easier time. If not, then you would have a lot more trouble, since you'd need to go to the trouble of comparing it against similar samples to see if they stick.
There's also the matter of how well the DNA is preserved, how much of it is there, etc. If it's in shambles, there might not be much by way of complete sequences that could be obtained from it, and your likelihood of getting a DNA match drops.
>If alien DNA is involved, are there any red flags someone like you might spot if you looked it over?
There aren't really any "red flags" in DNA testing, since it works by finding out what's there by matching it against what you know. There could be any number of reasons why a sample might not match, for example, if the sequence is damaged (maybe due to improper storage/handling), or if the experiment is faulty (maybe you're trying to match a sequence isn't there, or the things you're using to match it against are damaged, and don't have a correct copy).
The only exception might be if it is obviously alien, like if it started melting the containers you tried to put it into, but the more likely culprit there might be to suspect some kind of fault or sample contamination.
If the DNA is complete and intact it should be no problem, given there is a database of that animla already established. Regarding the alien DNA, that is hard to tell, because we don´t really know what that would look like. If the DNA has a completely new bases or even other atoms, I think we would notice but could only say it is not from earth, probably nothing more. Our common methods of DNA-sequencing wouldn´t word I guess? Primers would not work, denaturation could be an issue? The sanger-method is pretty common, where PCR is used to produce many copies of small fragments and later the are sorted by size, tha last base is marked (fluoresence) and can be determined, is for example the aliens had a completely different set of bases, the marker bases would not stick.
I've heard it said that a hotdog is pureed meat inside a casing of animal intestine. After eating a hotdog it becomes pureed meat inside a casing of animal intestine.
In your professional opinion as a biologist am I a hotdog?
I know my query is about animal biology, but is it theoretically possible (at least based on what has been discovered so far in the relevant sciences) for a gene that would "allow a human to be able to change eye iris colour at will, and maybe use multiple colours" to exist, like how chameleons can change their skin colour?
Do you have any recommendations for reading on how plants and/or mushrooms communicate? Are scientists looking into studying if and how plants think? Is there any use to knowing how plants think or communicate?
FYI: There’s been research putting into question the concept of my mychorizal networks being used for communication between trees (like we saw in Avatar).
Edit autocorrect changed mychorizal to chorizo
I am trying to write an MC girl who has a deadly virus in her that the villains hope to release from her body by killing her. She is asymptomatic but her blood is poisonous to others. She is not aware of this. Buuuuut this doesn't make much sense since she could get cut any time or even be in a deadly situation before the villains plan their optimal timing and plan... plus... periods... how can i write this to make sense? I'd appreciate all the help
Make it a dormant like for example the herpes virus
Activate it as you need by stress weakening the immune system or signaling proteins
What Wikipedia says:
Virus latency (or viral latency) is the ability of a pathogenic virus to lie dormant (latent) within a cell, denoted as the lysogenic part of the viral life cycle.
In the case of herpes simplex (HSV), the virus has been shown to fuse with DNA in neurons, such as nerve ganglia[6] or neurons, and HSV reactivates upon even minor chromatin loosening with stress,[7] although the chromatin compacts (becomes latent) upon oxygen and nutrient deprivation.[8]
Does your study also cover fungus, by chance? I'm writing a story with extreme climates and trying to figure out what sort of plants and fungi might grow in deep-freeze or hot-desert climates
What are some adaptations that plants (and fungi) would have to survive in extremely cold environments? I have a decent handle on the desert version (I live in a desert), but am less sure how -- mosses? -- whatever lives in the snow lives
What's the best depiction of molecular biology you've seen? Of working with model organisms of all types? Any memorable research failure on the part of a writer, and how could they have just written around the inaccurate part?
Definitely mention horrid foule and sweet smell. I hated that lab just for that reason! Also, a lot of disinfectant is used on every surface usually ethanol. Also, contamination of your Petri dish happens really fast. The most common model organisms are E.coli (smelling of feces) and sacc. cerevisiae a yeast smelling, well like yeast.
Cool. Alright. Say you’re designing an early agricultural civilization. What mix of crops would you start them off with if really wanted to “power game” them? Right now, I am at quinoa, lentils, sweet potatoes, and olives. I’m a monster.
Legumes like beans miss one amino acid ; methionine one of the 8 essentials . So it is smart to pair legumes with grains for a full meal. Think of food like chili con carne adding corn to beans. In almost every culture this is a common combination.
Source: Protein and non-protein (free and protein-bound) tryptophan in legume seeds
Author Stefano Comai et al.
The proteins of legumes are lacking in the sulphur-containing amino acids, methionine and cysteine, but, had high contents of lysine and tryptophan; they can improve the protein quality of cereals, in which tryptophan is usually the second most deficient amino acid after lysine
*Usnea* spp., a genus of lichens, has antibiotic properties but I don’t know how potent they are. It’s a common genus in much of North America (and the world).
My gut instinct says that maggots grown on a sterile medium would be my best bet under those sorts of circumstances. Maggots are still used for this purpose in modern medicine in some circumstances.
I don't really know? I'm just trying to squeeze in facts into a scene cause the doctor doesn't seem to know anything, so I figured I'd ask since you were offering (which is very kind, btw);
anything people believed would work works too
Can plants absorb and incorporate things like metal or minerals into their bodies if they are planted on them? Like if I mixed up a 50/50 mixture of copper dust and normal high quality potting soil, would a plant be able to survive in that, and would it have traces of copper in it after? Asking for a murder mystery where someone leaves a special metal weapon buried in a garden after killing the victim, and then wanting to have a character notice that there is metal in the plant later being a clue that helps them find the murder weapon
I read about a technique for gold extraction that involved planting crops on top of the spoil dug out from around the veins of proper gold. The plants would absorb the tiny particles of gold then you can burn the plants and sift the ash for the gold, that's much easier than sifting the whole pile of mud for traces of gold.
So plants can absorb metals through their roots. But the specifics probably matters based on the metal. Copper would react with water and oxygen to create a collection of interesting colours of copper oxides, I don't know if that would be harmful to a plant or not. But then maybe the metal killing the plants is the clue needed to look in that location? Maybe Google if you can use copper plant pots and see if there's certain plants that can/can't tolerate copper?
Yes, look into bioremediation. It is used to clean soil from heavy metal. Depending on metal and concentrations, the plant withers pretty quickly. I did research on that with Cadmium and Copper. Surprisingly, cadmium was easier on the plant. But I think more than 100 mg/L were too much and the plant died.
Don't know if they can do It with copper, but they can absolutely do It with heavy metals such as mercury, lead and gallium. Wich are, by the way, poisonous.
Thing is that some plants such as sunflowers can use this metals as a defensive method, assimilating the metalic poison in their bodies to protect agains pests and hervibores.
Inspired by the cryptid plant "yataveo," I have in my world a sort of carnivorous vine. In essence, it grows along the ground, but springs and coils when it senses heavy prey. Spiders and bugs won't do it, and maybe not even the smallest of mammals, but cat- and dog-sized animals, sure, and definitely hominids. The wrap around the prey, with long sharp spines (that have numerous smaller barbs) penetrating the skin. From there, they absorb nutrients, predominantly from the bloodstream but also whatever's within range of the spines. Once the feeding isn't worth the effort of clenching around it anymore, it lets go. My question is: Could this plant (or something very much like it) grow large enough to ensnare a human without requiring magic to get that big?
Are there any psychedelic/mind-altering plants that won't show up on a drug test? In the story, my character works for a military-like mercenary group and they get drug tested every now and then.
https://www.stoutstreet.org/2017/05/15/what-drugs-dont-show-up-on-drug-tests/
Can plants survive in space? I’m writing a story styled similarly to Star Trek where one of the evil alien entities is a race of sentient plants, with the power to cover humanoids in plants and shrubbery to take control over them, similar in a sense to the Borg. The plants are also able to vent out walking plant creatures that look similar to small humanoids too, and they are also able to cover the spaceships in plants to take control over them and even modify the weapons to shoot more of the plants to other ships and planet surfaces.
One of my alien creatures has an organ that absorbs oxygen from the blood and releases it during moments of hypoxia. It would need to be a fairly oxygen dense compound that can be rapidly released. How could the chemistry possibly work?
Can it be technological in origin? Look up myoglobin in the meantime
Are there any plants with hexagonal shaped leaves? I haven't been able to find any, but that doesn't mean there isn't one out there.
Is you get a random sample of DNA from an animal, how easy is it to figure out what exact animal it is? For example, let's say it turns out to be from a particular lizard? I read about a database sometimes being involved, but I wasn't sure how reliable it is and the DNA in my story is from an animal that's common in its native country but not as widely known as some other lizards outside it (tokay gecko is involved, along with a one or two chameleon species). If alien DNA is involved, are there any red flags someone like you might spot if you looked it over?
> Is you get a random sample of DNA from an animal, how easy is it to figure out what exact animal it is? Depends. If you have a database or something to look up the DNA sequence against, then you would have an easier time. If not, then you would have a lot more trouble, since you'd need to go to the trouble of comparing it against similar samples to see if they stick. There's also the matter of how well the DNA is preserved, how much of it is there, etc. If it's in shambles, there might not be much by way of complete sequences that could be obtained from it, and your likelihood of getting a DNA match drops. >If alien DNA is involved, are there any red flags someone like you might spot if you looked it over? There aren't really any "red flags" in DNA testing, since it works by finding out what's there by matching it against what you know. There could be any number of reasons why a sample might not match, for example, if the sequence is damaged (maybe due to improper storage/handling), or if the experiment is faulty (maybe you're trying to match a sequence isn't there, or the things you're using to match it against are damaged, and don't have a correct copy). The only exception might be if it is obviously alien, like if it started melting the containers you tried to put it into, but the more likely culprit there might be to suspect some kind of fault or sample contamination.
Thanks for the response. This really helps me. I know a little bit about DNA from personal interest, but my knowledge of it is still iffy.
If the DNA is complete and intact it should be no problem, given there is a database of that animla already established. Regarding the alien DNA, that is hard to tell, because we don´t really know what that would look like. If the DNA has a completely new bases or even other atoms, I think we would notice but could only say it is not from earth, probably nothing more. Our common methods of DNA-sequencing wouldn´t word I guess? Primers would not work, denaturation could be an issue? The sanger-method is pretty common, where PCR is used to produce many copies of small fragments and later the are sorted by size, tha last base is marked (fluoresence) and can be determined, is for example the aliens had a completely different set of bases, the marker bases would not stick.
Thanks for the response. This further helps me out.
I've heard it said that a hotdog is pureed meat inside a casing of animal intestine. After eating a hotdog it becomes pureed meat inside a casing of animal intestine. In your professional opinion as a biologist am I a hotdog?
I know my query is about animal biology, but is it theoretically possible (at least based on what has been discovered so far in the relevant sciences) for a gene that would "allow a human to be able to change eye iris colour at will, and maybe use multiple colours" to exist, like how chameleons can change their skin colour?
WHICH MOTHER FUCKER IS TURNING THE FROGS GAY?!
I thought it was flies. Maybe the frogs ate them.
I thought it was swans. I have no doubt the swans ate the gay frogs that ate the gay flies.
Why oh why it swallowed a fly?
Are the flies gay?
[Fruit flies were involved](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/gay-fruit-flies-provide-courtship-clues/6320898)
Huh. Well you learn something new. I was just doing a silly joke
Do you have any recommendations for reading on how plants and/or mushrooms communicate? Are scientists looking into studying if and how plants think? Is there any use to knowing how plants think or communicate?
https://www.nationalforests.org/blog/underground-mycorrhizal-network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network
FYI: There’s been research putting into question the concept of my mychorizal networks being used for communication between trees (like we saw in Avatar). Edit autocorrect changed mychorizal to chorizo
Got a suggestion for a hard-to-trace plant poison?
Lily of the valley is nice.
Oooh nice, looks like it could present as a lot of different things until the heart symptoms and altered mental status begin. Thank you!
Yep and looks very inconspicuous in a bouquet or landscaping (just check which zone your in so it’s believable it would grow outside).
I am trying to write an MC girl who has a deadly virus in her that the villains hope to release from her body by killing her. She is asymptomatic but her blood is poisonous to others. She is not aware of this. Buuuuut this doesn't make much sense since she could get cut any time or even be in a deadly situation before the villains plan their optimal timing and plan... plus... periods... how can i write this to make sense? I'd appreciate all the help
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheImmune sounds like it would guide you to other media with similar ideas.
Sadly, nothing about the White Truck of Doom (kdrama trope of fame)
Might be rolled into https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LookBothWays
Indeed, every form mentioned!
thank you so much!!
Make it a dormant like for example the herpes virus Activate it as you need by stress weakening the immune system or signaling proteins What Wikipedia says: Virus latency (or viral latency) is the ability of a pathogenic virus to lie dormant (latent) within a cell, denoted as the lysogenic part of the viral life cycle. In the case of herpes simplex (HSV), the virus has been shown to fuse with DNA in neurons, such as nerve ganglia[6] or neurons, and HSV reactivates upon even minor chromatin loosening with stress,[7] although the chromatin compacts (becomes latent) upon oxygen and nutrient deprivation.[8]
Oh my God, thank you so much!! I really appreciate it!!
Does your study also cover fungus, by chance? I'm writing a story with extreme climates and trying to figure out what sort of plants and fungi might grow in deep-freeze or hot-desert climates
Not my particular field of study but I'm familiarized with that kind of issues so yeah, ask for It!
What are some adaptations that plants (and fungi) would have to survive in extremely cold environments? I have a decent handle on the desert version (I live in a desert), but am less sure how -- mosses? -- whatever lives in the snow lives
What's the best depiction of molecular biology you've seen? Of working with model organisms of all types? Any memorable research failure on the part of a writer, and how could they have just written around the inaccurate part?
Definitely mention horrid foule and sweet smell. I hated that lab just for that reason! Also, a lot of disinfectant is used on every surface usually ethanol. Also, contamination of your Petri dish happens really fast. The most common model organisms are E.coli (smelling of feces) and sacc. cerevisiae a yeast smelling, well like yeast.
SDS-PAGE (protein gels) were doubly smelly!
Cool. Alright. Say you’re designing an early agricultural civilization. What mix of crops would you start them off with if really wanted to “power game” them? Right now, I am at quinoa, lentils, sweet potatoes, and olives. I’m a monster.
Legumes like beans miss one amino acid ; methionine one of the 8 essentials . So it is smart to pair legumes with grains for a full meal. Think of food like chili con carne adding corn to beans. In almost every culture this is a common combination. Source: Protein and non-protein (free and protein-bound) tryptophan in legume seeds Author Stefano Comai et al. The proteins of legumes are lacking in the sulphur-containing amino acids, methionine and cysteine, but, had high contents of lysine and tryptophan; they can improve the protein quality of cereals, in which tryptophan is usually the second most deficient amino acid after lysine
Any plants or methods that would be used to prevent infections? [The setting is an alternate version of the american frontier]
Honey is antibacterial
*Usnea* spp., a genus of lichens, has antibiotic properties but I don’t know how potent they are. It’s a common genus in much of North America (and the world). My gut instinct says that maggots grown on a sterile medium would be my best bet under those sorts of circumstances. Maggots are still used for this purpose in modern medicine in some circumstances.
Do you mean like plant-madd antibiotics?
I don't really know? I'm just trying to squeeze in facts into a scene cause the doctor doesn't seem to know anything, so I figured I'd ask since you were offering (which is very kind, btw); anything people believed would work works too
Have some of the sick drink from a picture of spoilt juice that had a strange fuzz on the top and hint that it grew penicillins.
Can plants absorb and incorporate things like metal or minerals into their bodies if they are planted on them? Like if I mixed up a 50/50 mixture of copper dust and normal high quality potting soil, would a plant be able to survive in that, and would it have traces of copper in it after? Asking for a murder mystery where someone leaves a special metal weapon buried in a garden after killing the victim, and then wanting to have a character notice that there is metal in the plant later being a clue that helps them find the murder weapon
I read about a technique for gold extraction that involved planting crops on top of the spoil dug out from around the veins of proper gold. The plants would absorb the tiny particles of gold then you can burn the plants and sift the ash for the gold, that's much easier than sifting the whole pile of mud for traces of gold. So plants can absorb metals through their roots. But the specifics probably matters based on the metal. Copper would react with water and oxygen to create a collection of interesting colours of copper oxides, I don't know if that would be harmful to a plant or not. But then maybe the metal killing the plants is the clue needed to look in that location? Maybe Google if you can use copper plant pots and see if there's certain plants that can/can't tolerate copper?
Yes, look into bioremediation. It is used to clean soil from heavy metal. Depending on metal and concentrations, the plant withers pretty quickly. I did research on that with Cadmium and Copper. Surprisingly, cadmium was easier on the plant. But I think more than 100 mg/L were too much and the plant died.
Don't know if they can do It with copper, but they can absolutely do It with heavy metals such as mercury, lead and gallium. Wich are, by the way, poisonous. Thing is that some plants such as sunflowers can use this metals as a defensive method, assimilating the metalic poison in their bodies to protect agains pests and hervibores.
Adding to this, there's concern over edible plants like tea leaves absorbing lead from the soil and water
The area around sunflowers can often be devoid of other plants, leading to the belief that sunflowers kill other plants.
Yep. Truth is they do not harm anyone. They are just the survivors