General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
Filters (None)
Tengu are humanoid creatures with many avian features, including wings and beaks. Now, this is a problem when it comes to disguises. Disguises in this setting work by covering one's body in utilit...
The creature was originally a human, altered by an external agent that basically remade its body (carbon based). The creature is roughly 2 meters and relatively light. It is humanoid and boneless, ...
For a story, I need to find a way to justify the limited cognitive capacities of an entire race that thrives on biomass, capable of eating anything that is inherently biological. This race is dri...
Imagine a spaceship entering Earth's atmosphere, it has lost control of its engines and is relying on its reverse thrusters to decelerate before crashing into the Pacific ocean. So in an attempt ...
I don't know much about hurricane/cyclone and how to created it (nor know the difference much, so bear with me if i make mistake), so I want to know what kind of plant organs or ability need to ach...
I'm curious what factors a terrestrial planet impacting the Earth would require for the impact to cause negligible damage to the larger planet, while destroying the Earth.
How might an enterprising spacer, mining the rings of Saturn, go about quickly measuring/estimating the velocity of and distance to a nearby moving object (asteroid, habitat, pirate, etc)? Bonus po...
This, ladies and gentlemen, is Melalo, described in the Book of Creatures website as "the oldest and most feared of Ana's children." His name literally means "filthy", "dirty" or even "obscene"....
What modification would a plant "” especially tree "” develop in a world where everything is made of sugar, caramel, cake, syrup, soda, etc.? Think of something like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factor...
I've got my wizards, who operate by vanilla human biological laws and metabolism. They've got an organ in the pelvis which has its own mechanism - not breaking the laws of physics - which stores en...
A plot point of my novel is that the pilot accidentally finds a planet that is being purposefully hidden (i.e. been deleted from all star maps). It starts with him arriving at a location that is j...
A human crew of 6 has been sent on mission to Mars The lowest energy transfer to Mars is a Hohmann transfer orbit, which would involve an approximately 9 month travel time from Earth to Mars, a...
I have a solar system containing multiple planets, most having an intelligent species inhabiting it. To keep a common peace, they created a large government system to help stop territorial wars bet...
Scenario: Humans need to create a pull factor for people to move to and establish cities and economies in less comfortable and densely inhabited places, because they're a bit full already. The huma...
My creature, called the Kurbish, inhabits a wasteland-world, in my universe. Recently, I have been wondering; "How plausible is this thing, really?" A description: Large, Elephant-like creatures ...
I've been told that having a thicker atmosphere would make it easier to fly, particularly of heavier-than-air designs, so I'm interested in giving my planet such conditions. I'm mainly interested t...
A magical calamity has wiped out an area about twice as big as Germany. The calamity also altered the climate in the region from one supporting forests and grasslands to a desert similar to the Am...
I was wondering if there is a scientific way to explain how my characters are capable of extreme levels of strength when engaging in combat. My characters are biological but have implants that all...
Please note: I am asking about planet orbiting a star, not a moon orbiting a planet. So I've been trying to get this planet down for a long while now but there are still so many pieces of the puzz...
so i want to know What organs or modifications are need for a biological creature to develop lethal force as a pooping machine gun. something like how skunk spray their stinky odor as defense mec...
So in my world there's a creature as big as a common rodent or as big as a rabbit in size. They live in packs, usually burrowed, but occasionally come to surface to get food. The alpha male is task...
Ecosystems like the african savanna have lots of megafauna which to some extent compete with each other for the same prey/vegetation, but still coexist just fine. So how do I construct similarly d...
You are 70 years old but you look 50, this because you have always maintained good health, mentally and physically. After experimenting with various clones before, you decide it's time for you to ...
So in my setting there is a small and exclusive group of people that have access to devices that work like computers (but which are not the same as computers. They do not use semiconductors and ele...
While I'm working on the Magical Artillery, let's look at another common spell. Mage Light is a very handy invention. When cast, the spell creates an orb, 13 cm in diameter. The orb radiates whi...
Imagine your spaceship encountered a gravitational anomaly and discovered that you are lost in space, your computer tells you that you are still inside the Milky Way galaxy but it cannot find the S...
Pegasuses in most works of media are often depicted as hexapods with four legs and two wings: The only problem is (from what I understand) no vertebrates on earth are hexapods, so I've decided ...
In modern day society, few or many people have been fascinated with integrating robotic parts to their bodies. But sometimes that idea is taken to the next step, in which people want to have their ...
So, in the S.S Portland (The main setting of my story) there is a variety of rooms. A lounge, a lab, etc. so, i was thinking that at some point, the lounge would be changed out for a 0-g pool. A ba...
Don't you just hate when Euron injures your pet dragons and perforates your fleet with a ballista? Don't worry, all you need is a shipful of Wildfire and a very long fuse (or Mehdi Sadaghdar with ...
Atlantis is real. It's just that there's more than one of them, and none of them are actually called "Atlantis". Instead, they consist from the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean to Zealandia,...
A major plot point for my story is the Protagonist stumbling upon a planet that was purposely hidden from the rest of the galaxy (at the edge of the galaxy) as it's being used by high level governm...
Consider a planet with Earth like gravity but an atmosphere that is 10x what Earth has at sea level (atmospheric composition is equivalent to Earth). If the vegetation is similar to Earth's, would ...
We have a variety of ways of describing our location here on Earth. We can refer to a nearby landmark (eg "by the City Hall"), we can describe our location relative to an area (eg "in the South of...
In my setting Dragons evolved on a n isolated continent far from where man evolved. But in the past thousand years dragons have been introduced to the human inhabited continent, which is filled wit...
When designing a flying car intended for congested city routes with slow traffic, should turn signals indicate all possible directions. In most sci-fi, I've seen designs that have no turn-signals o...
In my question: Sustainability of Regular Global Wildfires Due to Oxygen Rich Atmosphere An answer was proposed for a kind of "Boom Bust Cycle". The atmosphere has little CO2 but a lot of O2. W...
I'm making a series where a multi-purpose frigate travels to Jupiter in order to help in the Mars versus Jupiter war. However, I don't know what the colonies would look like. Maybe floating wit...
In a scenario in which all heavenly bodies are flat including earth. How to bring the effect of day and night effect like now i.e when day in japan and night in USA . Considering nobody can live b...
The species I have created looks eerily humanlike, practically indistinguishable from human except for a reptile-like tail and an exposed brain. The top portion of the skull is replaced with a gla...
Imagine a cuboid planet with a thick atmosphere orbiting a star similar to our Sun. The inhabitants are as intelligent as humans and recently discovered the universal laws of gravitation and motion...
Eusociality, is the most sophisticated level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care, overlapping generations within a colony of adults, a...
Given that you can travel back in time and have a baby there, or alternatively, send your baby back in time, would it be possible that this baby one day becomes your own mother (gives birth to you)...
Good day everyone. I've recently finally gotten around to writing a sci fi novel but need help on some of the science of a few concepts I would like to incorporate in the novel. I'll start with ...
The universe is dying because it has exhausted nearly all of its resources. Humans became the last species in the universe because of their resilience and sheer willpower. And yet, humanity still...
Shamelessly inspired by this question, where a race was capable of counting only 0, 1 and "˜many', I have designed a yet more extreme race!! The Continuuoids are a pretty complex race. They can so...
Earth rocks are largely silicates, combinations of silicon, oxygen, and various other trace elements. What would a planets geography look like if the crust was primarily composed of ceramics like...
Reptile reproduction, it turns out, is more flexible than our own. Whiptails, a girls-only species, can lay unfertilized eggs without the need for a male. And Komodo dragons have recently been di...
I am doing some hard sci-fi worldbuilding and really want to get as much correct as I can, but the effects of high sub-light speed travel on the travellers is doing my head in. I've pored literally...
In a distant galaxy, there is a young, yellow-white star. Orbiting this star is a gas giant comprised almost entirely of oxygen-nitrogen, and water. In its core, there is a relatively large nickel-...
