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If you can lower your mass without changing the surface area, you become 99% resistant to fall damage (like small spiders). So, why not?

In order to do this, I wish to replace bones with kevlar, however, I'm not entirely sure, if an organic being is capable of creating this artificial material.

Would it be possible for an organic being to naturally (without needing human intervention) create this (and other) artificial material(s)?

How would it be done?

I can extend a living creature's lifespan to biological immortality if I want to.

Mephistopheles
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    Isn't Kevlar a fibrous material? How would it replace rigid bones? – MozerShmozer Jul 14 '17 at 17:26
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    Kevlar is a fiber. It's very strong in tension (pulling), but bends like any fiber does during compression (pushing). Bones operate predominantly in compression, so it would not make a good bone substitute. Instead of replacing them with kevlar, you would want to replace them with a composite which contains kevlar. This still requires naturally grown kevlar, of course, but kevlar on its own wont be enough. – Cort Ammon Jul 14 '17 at 17:29
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    It might be easier from a biochemical perspective to use a carbon fiber composite instead. It would have similar physical properties to a Kevlar composite, and would be easier to synthesize. – MozerShmozer Jul 14 '17 at 17:52
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    a big problem is that most of the bodies mass is h2o. Even if you replace the entire skeleton with a massless energy field, you still only save like 15Kg – Paul TIKI Jul 14 '17 at 17:55
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    Isn't "fall damage" something from computer games? Do English speaking doctors say "that wound is (the result of?) fall damage"? And I guess you still get 1% of that fall damage if you are a spider? I also lost 2 HP today because I tripped, but I drank a beer and it gave me +3 HP again. So a spider would only have lost 0.02 HP? Would it also only regenerate 0.03 HP from half a litre of beer? Also I wonder how an organism would naturally create artificial materials. – Raditz_35 Jul 14 '17 at 18:09
  • Chemistry is split into 'organic' and 'inorganic' chemistry for a reason. – Starrdaark Jul 14 '17 at 19:31
  • That skeletal structure change -despite making one more resistant to broken bones, would do nothing for your brain, liver or other organs that are turned to hamburger on impact. – Joe Jul 14 '17 at 20:29
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    Silk worm silk and spider silk are both possible alternatives to kevlar. The main difference is kevlar is woven very thickly and layered. That said, NO you cannot replace bones with kevlar. The properties are too different. Not to mention that kevlar alone still allows damage to pass through. It stops objects, but the force continues. So even having kevlar skin would still make you vulnerable to hits, internal bleeding, and death. Even if it were possible to create a stronger, lighter bone, it would be overspecialized. Hammer on top fine, flick to side broken. It may be impossible to heal. – user2259716 Jul 14 '17 at 21:39

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From Wikipedia, the creation of Kevlar is a condensation reaction done in the presence of very strong sulfuric acid to keep the water-insoluble base ingredients in suspension. This might be something an exotic spider could do for spinning a web, but it poses a challenge for making bones. Bones aren't 3d printed at adult size -- they grow. Growth would require the ability to constantly be adjusting the length of the kevlar fibers. This would most likely be impossible, and even it if it was possible, it would mean your bones would likely have to be inundated with sulfuric acid!

The best chance you might have is a very odd creature which can dissolve sections of its bone away and then re-make the kevlar composite material in that space. This would be more like a crustacean shucking its skeleton, except done internally. I don't know if it's biologically feasible to do such a thing, but it'd be the minimum you'd need to have kevlar composite bones.

Cort Ammon
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Kevlar bones seem improbable. "Kevlar is synthesized in solution from the monomers 1,4-phenylene-diamine (para-phenylenediamine) and terephthaloyl chloride in a condensation reaction yielding hydrochloric acid as a byproduct. The result has liquid-crystalline behavior, and mechanical drawing orients the polymer chains in the fiber's direction. Hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA) was the solvent initially used for the polymerization, but for safety reasons, DuPont replaced it by a solution of N-methyl-pyrrolidone and calcium chloride."

Lifeforms with a biochemistry similar those found in Earth's biosphere would have difficulty accommodating the hydrochloric acid by-product from its synthesis. Possibly organisms with an exotic biochemistry might be able to handle it safely.

One of the main problems for any organism trying to grow kevlar is that it would have to consume large quantities of the monomers 1,4-phenylene-diamine (para-phenylenediamine) and terephthaloyl chloride needed for the polymerization to form kevlar. In our biosphere organisms only to access sufficient quantities of calcium compounds to make bones.

If there was an environment where the base compounds were found in abundance, then it is conceivable that lifeforms capable of growing kevlar might develop and exist. They would be alien organisms with very exotic biochemistries. Unfortunately, this seems extremely unlikely.

a4android
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Artificial materials are usually obtained through processes very different from organic ones. In our factories we routinely use pressures and temperatures incompatible with organic life. Incidentally this is also the reason why a vast majority of artificial substances cannot be metabolized and broken down by ecosystem.

Some of these substances could conceivably be built via enzymatic anabolism, but surely not all. Probably growing carbon fibers would be easier than Kevlar and also better suited to the task at hand (carbon composites are much more rigid than Kevlar ones and You don't need high tensile strength in bones.

ZioByte
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