Feasibility of creating an explosive life form

Question

My race of space-going sentients want to weaponise a life form which is explosive in an oxygen-rich environment.

To do so, they have access to any planet they care to use, terraforming, and the ability to change the atmospheric makeup of the planet.

How would they go about creating and breeding this life form?

The solution that I have found so far is boranes:

Boranes are dangerously explosive in Earth's atmosphere, but would be more stable in a reducing environment. However, boron's low cosmic abundance makes it less likely as a base for life than carbon.

This is from Hypothetical types of biochemistry. Would a multicellular organism built from mostly boron be able to support life? Would exposure to oxygen be possibly fatal due to the risk of igniting? How would it respire, if oxygen is a possible danger to it? How would it be maintained? What would it look like?

Any life form goes ? Do you want hard-science or just science based ? — Liquid Same, Jul 28 '17 at 12:35
@AlexP sorry, had to update the question. I know that it's theoretically possible, but i'm asking how they would do it. — Aric, Jul 28 '17 at 13:15
@LiquidSame Science-based please. It needs to sound plausible, even if it is extremely unlikely to work. No need for citations — Aric, Jul 28 '17 at 13:17
Borane (makes no sense) or boron (makes little more sense)? To me "life based on something other than carbon" always sounds to me like misunderstanding how chemistry works. Saying "life is based on carbon" has absolutely no meaning if you ask me, but anyways. Do you want to replace all carbons in an organism with boron atoms? Do you want to introduce some boron atoms some place? Do you want completely new molecules? And what exactly are you asking, are you looking for molecules, how their enzymes work, what their cells look like or what such an animal would look like macroscopically? — Raditz_35, Jul 28 '17 at 14:32
@Raditz_35 I want a life form which is based on boranes. The only requirement is that it is explosive in oxygen. — Aric, Jul 28 '17 at 14:36
Comments are always too short. The 3rd option would be that you are asking for an organism that has "some" borane in it to detonate (I would argue other explosives might be way better for that job). I don't think it is clear. I also think your backstory is kind of lacking because who would commit to an almost impossible task that will demand heavy resources and decades to win a war that they are already losing now ... — Raditz_35, Jul 28 '17 at 14:37
@AricFowler Sorry but you absolutely have to explain what you mean by that because to me it makes absolutely no sense. Did you maybe confuse it with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borazine ? — Raditz_35, Jul 28 '17 at 14:38
I know that it's a stupid idea, but i just wanted to know. If you want, i can update the question to "Is it possible to make a life form which is explosive in an oxygen-rich atmosphere" — Aric, Jul 28 '17 at 14:38
I am just commenting on the general concept, sometimes people give good feedback to that because they haven't thought about it like that yet, you have to decide if you like the input or not. I'm not against unlikely and crazy ideas btw. But I still think you need to explain what you mean by that borane thing, and by life based on it and what you want to know and ask about = biomolecules, biochemical pathways, macroscopic properties, the process of engineering such a species ... — Raditz_35, Jul 28 '17 at 14:41
Why not just build bombs? The timescales involved in creating artificial life forms with the desired properties are on the order of millions of years, at a minimum. — Draco18s no longer trusts SE, Jul 28 '17 at 15:18
Am I the only one who thought of Fleeblebroxians when reading this question? — can-ned_food, Jul 29 '17 at 06:26
@MichaelKjörling I realise now that I should have created a meta post before making new tags. In essence, it's the result of a discussion in the comments of "Orienting a pilot": https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/87778/orienting-a-pilot-inside-a-space-fighter — Aric, Aug 02 '17 at 14:49
Generally, these days I'm largely against meta tags. Also, open feels like a bad name for what you're trying to capture; it just isn't discoverable. Please strongly consider removing it from this question for now (as well as any others where you might have added it; I haven't looked), and put it up for discussion on [meta] first. It may or may not turn out to be a good idea after proper discussion, but it certainly shouldn't be created on the basis of a few comments on an unrelated question on the main site. — user, Aug 02 '17 at 14:52
@MichaelKjörling can you remove the open and framework tags for the time being or does it require moderator attention? — Aric, Aug 02 '17 at 15:12
I can't. Unused tags are purged from the system periodically, I believe nightly. It's possible that a moderator might be able to do it immediately, but I doubt that's warranted here. — user, Aug 02 '17 at 15:18

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 28 '17 at 22:10

This is not about boron-based life, so ignore it if you're set on that, but it could maybe help if you're open to other mechanisms. I was thinking of violently exothermic reactions and remembered two, one we know in reality and one employed in fiction.

The bombardier beetle: about 500 species of beetles of the Carabidae family are known to repel predators by means of a hot chemical spray.

The spray is produced from a reaction between two chemical compounds, hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide, which are stored in two reservoirs in the beetle's abdomen. When the aqueous solution of hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide reaches the vestibule, catalysts facilitate the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide and the oxidation of the hydroquinone. Heat from the reaction brings the mixture to near the boiling point of water and produces gas that drives the ejection. The damage caused can be fatal to attacking insects. Some bombardier beetles can direct the spray over a wide range of directions.

This is neither an explosion in the sense you were imagining, nor very powerful, but it shouldn't be that difficult to engineer a larger and more violent bug.

The explosive plants on Hal Clement's The Nitrogen Fix. In this classical SF novel, Earth's atmosphere has lost all almost of its free molecular oxygen and new plants have evolved to fill the vacant niches. Their metabolism is based on nitrates. This makes them somewhat prone to explode. Lightning, for example, will readily blow up a large patch of forest, though it will of course not set it on fire (because there's no free oxygen!).

Maybe you could go for a mixture of the two: a large animal that could synthesize and store explosive nitrogen compounds within its body, with some natural device that allows it to destabilize the compounds.

See also autothysis for ideas on how some insects kill themselves "explosively".

Don't forget the plants that disperse seeds by explosion. – rytan451 Jul 29 '17 at 07:15 — rytan451, Jul 29 '17 at 07:15

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 28 '17 at 15:49

Here is just some ideal, you can turn it into hard-science or fiction as you wish.

Main idea: A creature only Explode when they are triggered (by the creature, or by implant devices). They are not easy to get explode (safety)

Ex1 Mix-trigger: creature contains chemical A and B. Both A and B are not danger, unless they are mix (triggered). (A= Boranes and B = Boranes , perhaps). But there must be some safety precaution so they are not going a chain reaction (which accidentally kill all in breeding ground)
Ex2 atom level trigger: chemical A is harmless until exposed to radiation/specific wavelength/a neutron (atomic bomb are triggered by firing a neutron into uranium)

Some problem you concern:

Would a multicellular organism built from mostly boron be able to support life?

You don't need to built organism contains mostly explosive chemical A, B. Let everything be normal as native creature. Then let the creature carry a container of explosive chemical (explosive chemical are not participate in daily life functional, just stock there for last moment). Look at baneling in Starcraft 2. They carry a big bag of green thing.

Would exposure to oxygen be possibly fatal due to the risk of igniting?

Solution 1: make A and B not native or battlefield (oxygen for your case) Solution 2: seal A and B in container that cannot contact with oxygen (in case A or B is oxygen)

How would it respire, if oxygen is a possible danger to it?

Even if A or B is oxygen, the creature can functional if they well-seal their explosive container. You may develop from native creature, then add a biology bag of chemical.

How would it be maintained?

Give them food to eat as you raise sheep. Their DNA can make explosive chemical protein. So you only need to include ingredients in their meal. If explosive chemical only contain C-H-O then everything would be easier.

What would it look like?

From Starcraft 2, Baneling (ground) and Scourge (air)

Feasibility of creating an explosive life form

2 Answers2