39,327
edits
No Biochemical Barriers: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 10:
* '''[[Half-Human Hybrid]]''' - the most blatant offense against conventional biological wisdom. See that entry for examples.
** '''[[
* '''[[Alien Lunch|Alien Food]] Is Edible''' - Humans and aliens are able to share food and drink. As an extension of this, humans or aliens shown as being able to derive sustenance from utterly alien animal or plant life. ([[To Serve Man|Aliens eating humans]] also falls into this category.)
* '''Cross-Species Disease''' - Humans or aliens affected by alien pathogens or parasites that should not have had time to adapt to their physiology. This in spite of the fact that on Earth there are huge numbers of viruses, bacteria, and parasites that only affect a single species or a few related ones, and that so-called "zoonoses" have generally only been a big deal amongst livestock, which we've intentionally cultivated in close proximity for ages.
* '''All Atmospheres Are Equal''' - While species that breathe something other than oxygen are sometimes seen wearing protective gear when moving in oxygen-based atmospheres, species that are capable of breathing an oxygen-rich atmosphere are never shown to be hampered or even affected at all by the other gases (nitrogen, for example) that constitute the air familiar to humans. Nor do they suffer any problems related to the ''air pressure'' -- presumably, [[All Planets Are Earthlike]].
Line 34:
* In ''[[Tom Strong]]'' #16, it's established that while unaltered humans can eat Devil's Footstool food, the opposite is ''not'' true. (With a few exceptions, such as coffee.)
* In the backmatter for the second volume of ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', this is a problem for Alice of all people after she returns from [[Alice in Wonderland|Wonderland]] through the looking glass. Her whole body is reversed left-to-right, so her hair part is on the wrong side - as is her heart. Then, she mysteriously dies of malnutrition, despite eating normally for a while. It's not explained in the text, as Victorian science wouldn't be able to figure it out, but the science-minded reader might conclude that the reversal extended all the way down to the molecular level, and that Alice's amino acids were backwards compared to those in her food.
* ''Green Lantern''. The human Green Lanterns have problems getting good food at the Oan cafeteria. The chef just isn't that skilled.
* In ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' [[The Greys|the Vilnius]] and late-stage transients (humans turning into Vilnius) can't eat human food, which helps influence the transient secession movement in the first volume.
Line 68:
"[[Never Live It Down|You're never going to let me forget it, are you?]]"<br />
"Not a chance, Green-Eyes." }}
* Averted in ''[[Fallen Dragon]]'' by Peter F. Hamilton, where alien ecosystems are completely incompatible with human biochemistry -- meaning the first step in colonizing a new world is to kill all the native flora.
** Played straight in his ''[[The Nights Dawn Trilogy]]'', where many exotic foodstuffs are imported from alien planets, and earth plants are genetically tweaked to grow on other worlds; the best alcoholic beverage in the Human Confederation is made from the water accumulated in the flowers of Norfolk roses. A short tale describes how some of the first scientists to land there, while inspecting the local flora, tasted said water. Norfolk was cleared for colonization days later as a result.
* Apparently, anything in the universe they can get a hoof into is edible to the [[Animorphs|Andalites]]. They absorb nutrients, not consume them, so presumably they avoid anything they don't need/want. This deprives them of a sense of taste though, so [[Hilarity Ensues]] whenever they [[Sense Freak|morph into humans.]] Ax also complains at one point about accidentally eating snails when he grazes since as a herbivores it's probably quite disturbing to him that he just killed and ate an alien creature.
Line 100:
* Played both ways in the [[Vorkosigan Saga]] by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]. The wildlife on the newly discovered earthlike planet Sergyar is edible, but has to be well cooked because native parasites might find humans edible as well. On the other hand, the native flora of the world of Barrayar is hostile to its human inhabitants. Most of the plant life is some shade of red or brown, is completely inedible (and often poisonous to humans), and produce enough environmental toxins that mutation can be a real problem on the planet. Especially during a centuries-long period of isolation from the galactic community leading to the loss of modern medicine. Barrayarans developed a very Sparta-like attitude towards birth defects and deformities as a result.
* Averted in ''Courtship Rite'', by Donald Kingsbury, where humans on an alien planet can eat nothing but the ""sacred eight" organisms which survived their arrival. There is some talk of being able to process a few of the native plants to make them non-toxic, and of carefully selecting the edible bits of other native species. Some groups of humans have deliberately selected themselves for greater resistance to the poisons in the native organisms. The available foods include honey bees (I think the only animal) and wheat. Cannibalism is part of the culture, [[Refuge in Audacity|with baby's tongue being a delicacy!]]
* Averted beautifully several times in the Ender's Game ''Speaker for the Dead'' trilogy.
** A human colony on an alien world has to grow their own crops because alien plant species are either inedible or nutritionally useless. They are also trying to genetically alter the local plant life to make it a food source for humans.
** The humans have to genetically engineer their own wheat crops in order for the the natives to be able to eat it.
** The locals on the colony world can eat one of the native grasses and it acts as a pain suppressant. Several major plot points revolve around the fact that {{spoiler|the grass has no effect on humans}}.
** The planet is ALSO home to the most deadly virus-like diseases in the known universe (it has a nasty habit of "ungluing" DNA, splitting the helix into two useless strands and killing the cells in a horrifying and painful manner). It turns out that not only is this disease rapidly "learning" to overcome what protective measures the human colonists have devised {{spoiler|it is also essential for the life-cycle of every native species on the planet}} meaning any attempt to simply eradicate it would essentially be {{spoiler|[[Title Drop|Xenocide]] }}
Line 124:
* A mild aversion in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. In the Season 4 episode "Small Victories", Sam is taken to the Asgard homeworld to help them defend against the Replicators. When she asks for food, Thor beams in some colored food bits and recommends the yellow one. Carter finds it disgusting. Thor presumably knew she could eat it just fine, but probably didn't take taste buds into account.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' is a flagrant and persistent violator of this one. Humans who like Earth dishes are in a distinct minority. In fact, almost any foodstuff mentioned is prefixed with an alien adjective ("Rigellian cheese", "Centauri trifle") while Klingon food gets its own vocabulary and a legion of human devotees. Practically the entire crew of [[Deep Space Nine]] seems to subsist on Raktajino (Klingon coffee). At least some examples may be cases in which Earth-derived foodstuffs are merely prepared using techniques introduced from other worlds.
** It's subverted in one episode of ''The Next Generation'', where Doctor Pulaski gives herself an injection before drinking some of Worf's tea, and the Klingon tea is also poisonous (though not 100% fatal) to Klingons, as the point of the tea ritual is that "Death is an experience best shared". Most Klingon food is just fine for humans. The barrier? Most of it is still moving. Humans have a problem with that.
** It was also subverted in one of the paperback novels, where Riker has to go to sickbay after having lunch with Worf and accidentally eating some items which were explicitly listed as indigestible to humans.
** Episode "The Way To Eden" in TOS averted it. The plant life of Planet Eden was toxic and corrosive.
** Used as a plot device in one episode, "Allegiance". When Picard and a group of three different aliens are captured for a 'rat in the box' type experiment, one of the aliens cannot eat the food provided. Given that he is a predator of other species and very violent, this becomes a reason to escape.
Line 133:
** Averted in [[Star Trek: Voyager]]. When Neelix and another person beam down to look for what the ship scans say are edible flora despite slightly harsh atmosphere (only slightly toxic, if a human (or Neelix) are exposed to it for too long could cause a rash and then after about three hours get seriously ill), they instead find nothing. The atmosphere actually also has amino acids and other nutrients in it that the local sentient but primitive live on, and it's slightly toxic to other species.
** Played amusingly straight in an early episode where a large portion of the crew beams down to a planet to forage for food. One crewman locates what appears to be an apple and is about ready to bite into it before Neelix explains that it's highly toxic and will cause all sorts of unpleasant reactions. This despite the fact that by this point Neelix has known of the existence of humanity for maybe a month and definitely doesn't have the medical knowledge required to know what would happen to human physiology if they ingest the fruit. He then goes on to recommend a less tasty but much more suitable plant instead...
** In TNG, it was revealed that the transporters have a "biofilter" that is capable of removing pathogens (but to look at it sardonically, it basically doesn’t ever work any time an episode is about bringing a plague onto the ship).
Line 140:
* Averted in ''Centauri Knights.'' The surviving Centaurian ecosystems on the space colonies are home to incompatible foods and creatures, but a biomod is available to change a character over from Earth food to Centauri food permanently, with no mix-and-match. The planet itself has no ecosystem left, as it was wiped clean to the bedrock by [[Nanomachines]] thousands of years before, and thus humanity is able to begin [[Terraform|terraforming]] it without contamination.
* In a [[Played for Laughs]] subversion, school dietitians in ''[[Teenagers From Outer Space]]'' react to the arrival of thousands of new and weird alien species in a unique way: they keep serving the same stuff they served all along. After all, it wasn't quite meant for ''human'' consumption anyway.
* Averted in a sourcebook for ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' dealing with werewolf physiology and behavior. The book makes it very clear that becoming all fuzzy when you've got chocolate, caffeine or drugs in your system can mess you up something fierce (as chocolate and caffeine are trouble for canines, and... well, the drugs should be fairly obvious, shouldn't they?).
* "Alien Wars", a Military SF setting for [[Hero System|Star Hero]], features the Xenovore race, which can metabolize ''any'' meat regardless of which planet it comes from. [[I'm a Humanitarian|Sentients]] are the tastiest, but they'll eat nonsentients if that's what's available.
* The number of half-X, half-Y creatures in [[Dungeons and Dragons]] borders on mind-boggling. Depending on the edition and setting, you could encounter a half-elf, half-orc, half-dragon, half-demon, half-devil, half-angel, [[Buffy-Speak|half-robotic-thingy]], half-undead, half-eldritch abomination, half-god, half-halfling, half-giant, half-fey, half-chaos frog thing, half-elemental, half-djinn, half-dwarf, half-furry, half-golem, half-mutated egg-laying cousin of humanity, half...oh, you get the idea. Most of them can eat and drink the same things (if they do indeed eat and drink.) And the idea of the act bringing some of these creatures into existence ranges from hilarious ([[Biggus Dickus|half-giant]]) to pure ''[[Squick]]''. [[Double Entendre|Sometimes]], [[A Wizard Did It|a Wizard]] [[Double Entendre|really did]] it, and how!
Line 154:
** Furthermore, although it's mostly [[All There in the Manual]], it's explicitly stated that although terrestrial plants take to Chiron like flies to honey (or perhaps more precisely vinegar) humans must wear oxygen masks and filter their water with ozone lest they die of nitrogen narcosis.
* Averted in ''[[Mass Effect]]''; turian, quarian and volus biology is such that they cannot eat the same food as most other species. Turians and quarians both [[Mirror Chemistry|require dextro-amino acids in their proteins]] and can't derive nutrients from levo-foods, and at best the food will pass right through, providing no nutrients, as opposed to humans, salarians and asari, who all use levo-amino acids. Volus, meanwhile, have an ammonia-based biochemistry, which is utterly incompatible with everyone else's.
** A human in the [[Expanded Universe]] got sick off alien food designed to resemble earth origin food. Whether this is due to biochemical barriers, or a lack of competence on the aliens' part is unclear.
** Subverted on Noveria. Most human foodstuffs will make turians deathly ill, but they can eat doughnuts with no adverse effect. Presumably because doughnuts have no nutritional value to any species. See also [[Rule of Funny]]; it's a turian [[Donut Mess with a Cop|rent-a-cop who makes the comment about craving them]]...
** In the sequel, there's a [[Optional Sexual Encounter|romance]] path for either a turian or a quarian, depending on PC gender. {{spoiler|In the case of the Quarian Tali, she actually contracts a mild allergic reaction to the male PC (but it was worth in in her opinion), while with the Turian Garrus, a female PC is cautioned by the ship's doctor not to... ingest.}}
** Also in said sequel, one mission involves a group of Alliance soldiers that crashed on a planet and started eating the local plant and animal life. The food caused gradually increasing neurological damage in those who consumed it.
** Likewise, Grunt claims that the krogan equivalent of alcoholic beverages goes through humans "like broken glass". Shepard can survive having a Krogan drink in one of the hub-world bars, but then (s)he [[We Can Rebuild Him|isn't 100% Human anymore]]. It's also fairly understandable why this is the case; the Krogans have evolved to the point that only a few very strong chemicals can likely affect their biochemistry, and dextro-proteins can still wreak havoc on their systems -- the asari bartender of Eternity on Illium casually mentions that, about 600 to 700 years ago, she saw a krogan drink liquefied turian (that is, a turian that had been blended into liquid) for a bet. In her words, "nobody came out of that one looking pretty". She also warns against the red nuts, as they are for turians and quarians, and will only give humans cramps.
** You can also overhear a conversation between a Turian salesman and Human customer at a restaurant, in which the Turian explains (And not for the first time, judging by the tone of voice), that you cannot mix spices with the wrong chirality in human cooking, because it will kill him if he eats it. Cut content [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGKQhuDW6B4&feature=related here] shows the Turians don't make much in the way of booze and they are amazed at what wonderful alcoholic drinks they make. Most of the stuff Turians drink for booze stem from Quarians.
Line 174:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Averted in ''[[Ben 10]]'' of all things. Ben feeds an alien chocolate, and nearly kills him in the process. This particular alien was a pastiche of [[Superman]], thus making chocolate his ''[[Weaksauce Weakness|kryptonite]]'' and only ate it because Ben offered, and he didn't want to seem rude (though neither of them seemed to KNOW that this would happen).
* Completely averted in ''[[Invader Zim]]''. Water is caustic to the eponymous alien, and meat actually fuses to his flesh. He does attempt to build up a tolerance, but GIR, being a robot, can (and does) eat anything.
** There was one Earth food Zim discovered he ''could'' eat (to his own surprise) in the episode [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Zim Eats Waffles]], [[Lethal Chef|except the ones made by GIR]] because he put peanuts and ''soap'' in them.
Line 201:
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'', Goku apparently contracts a disease while on the planet Yardrat, weakening his heart and which would have eventually killed him. He's saved by a vaccine brought over from an alternate future where he ''did'' die. Of course, while Goku is an alien himself, the Saiyan biochemistry is identical to a human being's as far as [[Big Eater|nutrition]] and [[Half-Human Hybrid|reproduction]] are concerned.
* It is speculated that the parasite behind the [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Hinamizawa Syndrome]] actually came from another planet. Then again {{spoiler|the person who said that is also the one who wanted to turn it into a bio-weapon, so it's questionable how trustworthy this is}}.
* ''[[Crossbone Gundam]]: Ghost'' has an alien microbe that the villains plan on releasing on Earth, which the heros are trying to prevent. The logic is that since the microbe has a completely alien biochemistry, nothing on Earth will be able to defend against it, and it will spread like wildfire and wipe out any life it comes across. This totally ignores the fact that the opposite should be equally as true: the microbe should be just as defenseless against Earth's microorganisms. Or, in the most likely case, absolutely nothing happens, and the alien microbe dies due to lack of its native environment.
Line 211:
== [[Film]] ==
* The Facehuggers in the ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' films are somehow able to impregnate species (like humans and dogs) that would not have been encountered in the environment in which they evolved or by the species that engineered them (the backstory is unclear on which is the case) as long as it is warm-blooded and alive. This is [[Hand Wave|unsatisfactorily explained]] by claiming that it is capable of adapting itself to the DNA of the host and incorporate features of said host into the Chestburster it produces, but this does not account for how it is able to do so with a completely unknown species with a vastly different biology. If we suppose it was engineered rather than evolved, it seems likely that its creators would have designed it to target a specific species, because making it so adaptable that it could infest completely unknown species would surely mean that it could adapt to infest the species that created them. (Which, according to some sources, is exactly what happened...) As far as in-movie canon goes, ''Resurrection'' makes it clear that the Alien and host's DNA are somehow mingled, even in the host's own blood. Of course, that's still crazy from a biochemistry point-of-view (why would aliens even ''have'' DNA?), but at least they try to explain it.
** Somewhat justified by a suggestion that the Xenomorphs were created as either a bioweapon or a terraforming construct (which is basically the same thing, when you come down to it). Step 1 of any biosphere replacement is going to be getting rid of the existing biosphere, and my aren't these efficient at slaughtering things... This idea presupposes that a simple, but non-obvious, kill switch exists in the Xenomorph biology allowing some easy-to-handle chemical to kill them all. Now imagine a strain that mutates so that it doesn't WORK any more...
Line 223:
* In [[X Wing Series|The Krytos Trap]], someone engineers a biological weapon that affects many sentient species other than humans. At least partially justified -- it's shown as a difficult task, requiring time and ingenuity, and he mostly targets species ''groups'' that apparently share a common origin. The disease is quite horrific, but the same adaptability that let it spread to other species also meant that it quickly became less lethal.
** Later in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], an engineered bioweapon was developed for use against the Yuuzhan Vong, who were ''extra-galactic'' -- there were significant amounts of DNA they had that no known organism in the galaxy far, far away did.
** Medically, bacta seems to work on just about anything, but other medicines and treatments vary from species to species, as illustrated in the [[Med Star]] Duology, a [[Star Wars]] novel that serves as a medical drama.
{{quote|'''Jos''': "Giving a Devaronian two cc's of plethyl nitrate will cure a lobar pneumonia and open up his congested lungs with virtually no side effects. Give that same dose to a human and it'll drop his blood pressure into the syncope zone. Give it to a Bothan -"
'''Bariss''': "And he'll be dead before he hits the floor." }}
Line 251:
** [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E10 The Girl Who Waited|The Girl Who Waited]] plays with this; the 'One Day Plague' only affects species with two hearts, so Time Lords and Apalapucians are at risk but humans are fine. Also, when Amy is trapped in a quarantine facility, the Doctor instructs her not to accept any medicine from the robotic staff; they can't comprehend that she's a different species to the rest of the inhabitants and any medicine they give her would be lethal.
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' had an episode where a disease that was apparently a universal infector was used as a sociology experiment by an alien race that had surpassed physical existence -- they wanted to see what cultures would do if infected by an incurable airborne alien virus that killed quickly.
** The Star Trek novel ''Uhura's Song'' was all ''about'' finding the cure for an epidemic striking both humans and the catlike Eeiauoans, complicated (among other factors) by the fact that nobody on the planet that should hold the solution recognized its symptoms.
** The [[Star Trek: The Original Series]] novel ''The IDIC Epidemic'' concerned a highly virulent and rapidly mutating disease that infected everyone living on a mixed-species treaty world. Originally a Klingon disease, it would affect everyone with similar blood chemistry (iron-based, copper-based, silicon-based), and leap from one blood chemistry to another via mixed-species children. In the end, Romulans (copper-based blood) were immune, and the Klingons (iron-based blood) had an ample supply of the cure, and mass inoculations saved the day.
* Averted in an episode of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''. The fleet stumbles across a Cylon basestar where all the Cylons on board are either dead or dying. It turns out that they've contracted a disease that humans became immune to millennia before due to {{spoiler|a probe from an Earth that had been populated by Cylons (the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol). So in reality they contracted it from an earlier form of themselves}}.
** Unfortunately played straight when {{spoiler|the fleet reaches a second planet they dub Earth. Yes, it's our Earth, and humans have magically evolved there too. However, that's the ''least'' of the problems both scientific and dramatic with the finale...}}
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': In the opening three-parter of the third season, the [[Monster of the Week|Repellator]] is briefly afflicted with Kimberly's cold after she sneezes on him a couple times. Lord Zedd's reaction is hilarious.
Line 260:
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The Life-Eater virus in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' fluff can scour entire planets clear of life in minutes, no matter what kind of life inhabits said planet. Even Eldar (with ''[[You Fail Biology Forever|quintuple helix]]'' DNA) and Tyranids (which may have local DNA salvaged from corpses, but the race as a whole comes from a ''different galaxy'').
** The fluff implies that it's a sort of [[Grey Goo|nano weapon]].
** The Tyranids are a special case. Given what they are - a horrendously adaptive [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] implied to have devoured entire ''galaxies'' - they will go through several evolutionary cycles ''in a matter of weeks'' to adapt to a local ecology.
** Nurgals Rot is another fluff based disease that can effect all life, justified because the disease is also [[A Wizard Did It|created by the god of plague.]] it does not kill you but rots your body and soul in order to drive you to despair.
Line 272:
* Played with in ''[[Mass Effect]]''. The quarians have impaired immune systems and have to wear suits so they don't get sick. At first appearance, that's this trope, however, Tali explains in the sequel that it's not really an infection: it's an allergic reaction as their body tries to adapt to the foreign substance in their system, the quarians having evolved on a world where all microbial lifeforms were at least partially beneficial and so their immune systems evolved to assimilate the virus, not destroy them like in other species. To use chicken pox as an example, if she were exposed to it, she wouldn't catch chicken pox. She would have an allergic reaction, with similar, flu-like symptoms. They can also take antibiotics and temporary immune boosters to fight infections if their suit gets ruptured (or if they want to take it off to have sex).
** In addition to the nature of their home planet's fuana, Quarians have spent the past few hundred years in the completely sterile environments of the Flotilla's ships, and so their immune systems have only continued to grow weaker. In the third game {{spoiler|in the best ending of the Rannoch quest, Tali indicates that the Geth have started working with the Quarians suits to boost their immunity, so soon they'll be able to walk around their home planet without suits}}.
** In the first game, the ship's VI makes a point of decontaminating the crew every time they come aboard. This is actually justified, since there are humans at most of the planets that Shepard visits, and there is the possibility (however small) of a cross species disease.
** Used as a plot point in Mordin's recruitment mission: everyone you speak to in the plague zone knows the disease ravaging the area has to be an intentionally released bioweapon precisely because it's infecting every species except humans (and vorcha, but they're [[Healing Factor|immune to everything]]).
** Also used humorously in a throwaway line by Mordin on the ''Normandy'', where he mentions he's trying to figure out how a "Scale Itch" infection got on-board... considering it's an STD carried only by varren.
Line 292:
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Several diseases can do this. The most notorious include rabies, mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, and the infamous avian flu. There's also distinct possibility that virtually all notable human diseases originated from livestock vectors. Smallpox and anthrax are of bovine origin, influenza of avian and porcine stock, the common cold may be from horses, HIV a variant of SIV from African green monkeys, etc. The only ones that don't show strong relationships with livestock are STD's, with the exceptions of HIV (as above) and syphilis (originally limited to sheep). But on the whole, these cross-species diseases are still fairly limited. Rabies, for instance, is stunning in its ability to cross species lines, but is still limited to infecting mammals. It would be unlikely to be found in a reptile, inconceivable in an octopus, and beyond ridiculous in an alien.
** Mad Cow, more correctly known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, is a special case as it's not caused by even a rudimentary lifeform such as a virus. BSE is a prion-based disease. Prions are mis-folded proteins that are nonetheless stable enough to interact with a biological system, and several are known to causes diseases. Since proteins are one of the most fundamental building blocks of earth life, it wouldn't be surprising to find prion-based diseases capable of infecting a ''wide'' range of earth lifeforms. BSE itself is known to have variants that can infect cows, horses, sheep and humans.
** Even stranger are Bunyaviruses, Reoviruses and Rhabdoviruses, which can infect both animals and plants.
* As reasonable as the assumption that Space Germs Are Incompatible With Terrestrial Life Forms may be, it remains a hypothesis until we actually find a Space Germ to use in experimental verification. Since, ideally, one doesn't want to use the entire Terrestrial biosphere as the lab for such an experiment, NASA has a long tradition of quarantine periods for returning astronauts. They also do their best to thoroughly sterilize any outgoing space probes, to avoid contaminating fragile ''extraterrestrial'' biospheres. A new host may not have adequate immune defenses against a new infection or infestation, but the parasite/pathogen won't usually be pre-adapted to attack the new host, either. Sometimes the invader won't find anything useful to "eat", or will be defeated by environmental factors such as higher body temperature, but if it survives it may just as easily be able to pig out on undefended tissues. Of course, at this point we still have only Earth organisms to base studies on. Parasitic and bacterial infections are more likely than viral ones, as the former are (in a sense) basically "eating" parts of the host. Viruses "eat" cells only in a far less literal sense, requiring a certain degree of DNA compatibility to replicate.
Line 308:
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Inverted in ''[[The Scrameustache]]''. [[Human Aliens]] wear protective gears on earth ''because of our pollution''. But those who spend too much time on Earth adapt.
* A [[Fantastic Four]] comic has The Thing and Mr Fantastic visit a alien space station with an acidic atmosphere. After having his helmet broken it turns out The Thing can breath the air, it just tastes awful.
Line 356:
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Averted in ''[[GURPS]]: Space'' most of the possible atmospheres are both suffocating and toxic.
* Averted in [[Dungeons and Dragons]] when traveling the planes. Depending on the plane you go to, problems may include but are not limited to: having the life sucked out of you, too much life being crammed into you, obscenely high temperatures, obscenely low temperatures, lack of atmosphere, poisonous atmosphere, or in some extreme cases whatever the DM feels like screwing the players over with.
Line 390:
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Fish, squid, etc. can extract oxygen from water just fine, while humans and any other animal with lungs can't and will drown. On the flipside, dry/collapsed gills cannot function. And they dry very fast. There are species of fish that can survive prolonged exposure to air, and just a slight chemical difference in the water can kill an organism with gills. And never transplant a saltwater fish to a freshwater, or vice versa. Unless it's a salmon, and even then they can't move directly from salt water to fresh water or vice versa; they need time in an area that is a mix of the two.
* Humans can tolerate all kinds of pressure and gas differences, as long as whatever we're breathing contains an approximate partial pressure of 3.0 psi oxygen. Of note, heliox (helium-oxygen mix, containing no nitrogen at all) has long been popular with technical divers at extreme depths, as the lack of nitrogen removes one possible avenue for pressure toxicities. On the other hand, oxygen toxicity becomes a real problem at those kinds of depths, so you have to carry multiple mixes, in separate bottles with separate breathing rigs. And God Himself can't save you if you breathe from the green bottle (100% oxygen) at deeper than about 20 feet of salt water.
** Even breathing from liquids isn't impossible if they contain sufficient amounts of oxygen (ala ''[[The Abyss]]''), although usually only with mechanical assistance as human lungs don't have the power to move the necessary amount of liquid substance to get enough CO2 out and enough oxygen in, and if you spend too long in the oxygenated fluid your diaphragm will eventually tear from the strain of having to move the much denser (compared to air) liquid in and out of your lungs.
| |||