Simple Animorphs Questions: Ask questions with one possible answer here!

[MoppingBear]

Okay, morphing question.
I know that morphing is based on DNA, and DNA never changes over your lifetime so, here's my question:
Is it possible that they might morph a different age than the animal they acquired?

its gotta be based on more than DNA, Elfangor was probably just dumbing it down for the kids.

[FATELUVR95]

Okay, I almost found incoherency!

[Phoenix004]

This is quite a common issue when it comes to morphing theory. I assume it's something to do with Telomeres, which shorten as you age (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomere)

[FATELUVR95]

1: Morphing hair, it's not based on DNA, so is it possible?

2: In what book did Ax become a controller?

[warren_bearclaw]

@1)... um.. they morph hair all of the time... did you mean like if they were wearing a fur coat or something? And I'm pretty sure that hair does contain DNA, and either way, the plans for producing it are included in DNA. Or are you referring to hair length? Well, there isn't a canonical answer for this in-series, but we theorize that the morphing tech must record some physical features as well, such as hair length, height (which also isn't based on DNA), fat/muscle proportions, etc.

@2) Book #29, The Sickness. He was sick with some disease, and Aftran infested him to find out how to help him, since Ax was de-de-delirious!

[Stephquiem]

Considering Marco's haircut in #10 and Rachel's in #26 both stick, not to mention the others must have gotten haircuts over the course of three years... I think it's safe to say that's factored in.

[Phoenix004]

1: Morphing hair, it's not based on DNA, so is it possible?

It depends what you mean by that. If you mean acquiring something from hair alone, I wouldn't have thought so (as I believe hair isn't living tissue) but on the other hand Ax said in #18 that you could acquire something just from blood. Also they acquired various animals by just stroking their fur, so you never know.

[FATELUVR95]

I ment if you get a haircut your DNA wont change, so it should be variable.(Hair length)

[Phoenix004]

It should but isn't. Rachel points this out in #2 when she fails to reverse a bad haircut, and Marco cut his hair short in #10 and kept it that way. My guess would be that when you demorph you return to the state you were in before you morphed. Except for wounds, which are damaged living tissue (unlike hair).

[rosinbackrider]

question on thought-speak:

im reading book 1 and when tobias morphs into a cat, jake (as a human) can direct his thoughts to tobias. here, look.

          <I did not know I could send thoughts like this,> Tobias said. <Just like the Andalite.>
           "I guess it only works when you're . . . morphed."
            I am talking to a cat! I realized. And I thought Tobias was crazy?
            I wondered if Tobias had heard my thought. I concentrated. Tobias, can you hear me?
          <Yeah,> he said. <I hear you.>
           "Did you hear my thoughts before that?" I asked.
          <No. I don't think it works that way. You have to think at me for me to hear.>

but i dont ever remember the animorphs being able to use thought-speak in their human form. so what i want to know is (without waiting to read the whole series) what is the actual rule? can animorphs thought-speak to other animorphs, human to animal?

[MoppingBear]

They have to be in morph, it was a mistake in the first book.

[FATELUVR95]

I think it was Tobias assuming it might work that way.

[Nar Klawip]

Though Ax did in #s 33 and 35, he relayed info on what was happening to the other animorphs, while he was in human morph.

[Stephquiem]

Yeah, but he was in morph. I'm pretty sure they talked in thought speak while morphing Hork-Bajir, too, and Hork-Bajir are perfectly capable of speaking out loud.

[Phoenix004]

question on thought-speak:

im reading book 1 and when tobias morphs into a cat, jake (as a human) can direct his thoughts to tobias. here, look.

          <I did not know I could send thoughts like this,> Tobias said. <Just like the Andalite.>
           "I guess it only works when you're . . . morphed."
            I am talking to a cat! I realized. And I thought Tobias was crazy?
            I wondered if Tobias had heard my thought. I concentrated. Tobias, can you hear me?
          <Yeah,> he said. <I hear you.>
           "Did you hear my thoughts before that?" I asked.
          <No. I don't think it works that way. You have to think at me for me to hear.>

but i dont ever remember the animorphs being able to use thought-speak in their human form. so what i want to know is (without waiting to read the whole series) what is the actual rule? can animorphs thought-speak to other animorphs, human to animal?

This question has been answered here http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=3322.0