No Biochemical Barriers: Difference between revisions

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* Averted in ''2061'' by [[Arthur C. Clarke]]. A spaceship lands on Europa, one of the crew is killed, and the corpse is eaten by a large water creature. Said creature promptly dies, because the biochemical differences means that human flesh is poisonous to it.

* Averted in the ''My Teacher is an Alien'' series: when a human on a space ship full of thousands of species goes to the dining hall, a couple of crewmembers analyze his biochemistry and hunt through the menu/database for something that they're ''almost'' certain will not make him vomit or drop dead.

* Averted in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[~~Ring World~~]]'': the protagonist mentions that he once survived an attack by an alien beast because it stopped to swallow the chunk of him it had already ripped off and promptly curled up and died, poisoned by his biochemistry. And Justified in the case of those lifeforms that evolved from abandoned Slaver foodplanets, like Earth and Kzin.

* Averted in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Ringworld]]'': the protagonist mentions that he once survived an attack by an alien beast because it stopped to swallow the chunk of him it had already ripped off and promptly curled up and died, poisoned by his biochemistry. And Justified in the case of those lifeforms that evolved from abandoned Slaver foodplanets, like Earth and Kzin.

* Touched on in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]; though most species apparently have comparable digestive systems, a few unusual species, such as the Gand, enjoy foods that would either be indigestible or outright poisonous to others.

** In another example, an Arcona, snacking on ammonia crystals, covers his plate when a human reaches for the salt, explaining that sodium chloride is a dangerously addictive drug for his species.

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** Bota, called "an adaptogen that can cure anything but a rainy day" does something different for every species, anything from medicine to nutrients to incredibly potent drugs, and briefly raises Force-Sensitives into something very like [[A God Am I|godhood.]] Everything on that planet is said to have similar mutagenic power, but mostly what it does is make people sick. By the end of the duology, bota has mutated itself into uselessness.

* Avoided in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' short story "Madness Has its Place". When the protagonists begin preparing for combating the incoming Kzinti, biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons are suggested. The main character promptly strikes down the first one; there was no guarantee that a bio-weapon that worked against humans would work against eight-foot tall war cats (if anything, they should capture some of ''their'' biologicals).

** Also averted in the ''[[~~Ring World~~]]'' books, in which inter-species sex (called ''rishathra'') is common, and it is explained that STDs aren't an issue. Disease transmission would be a little more plausible in this case than in most of the other examples, because {{spoiler|the humanoid inhabitants of the Ringworld are all distantly related to each other, and to Earthlings as well}}.

** Also averted in the ''[[Ringworld]]'' books, in which inter-species sex (called ''rishathra'') is common, and it is explained that STDs aren't an issue. Disease transmission would be a little more plausible in this case than in most of the other examples, because {{spoiler|the humanoid inhabitants of the Ringworld are all distantly related to each other, and to Earthlings as well}}.

** [[Science Marches On|Apparently nobody had told Niven]] that new diseases could evolve from common soil bacteria, when he first introduced ''rishathra'' to the Ringworld's cultures. Until ''The Ringworld Throne'', he'd claimed the {{spoiler|Pak}} simply didn't put any pathogens there, V.D. included.

* In [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''Before Eden'', astronauts discover lithovore slime-like life on Venus... only to wipe it out by inadvertently introducing pathogenic microorganisms from Earth.