General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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Background info During physical examination A physical examination may include checking vital signs, including temperature examination, Blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rate. The healthc...
Human evolution has a reasonably complete fossil record pointing to the fact that we and apes evolved from a common ancestor within the last 10 million years or so. But I want a world where it coul...
I'd like to explore some details on a so-called water-ball planet (i.e. a planet in the habitable zone of a sun, covered by a 100 km deep ocean). I am particularly interested where life could devel...
Hello everyone, I finally forced myself to sit and draw a landmass. Is pic-related a somewhat realistic representation of a landmass? The dot is a meeting point of 3 tectonic plates (the less vis...
Assumptions One habitable world in each system (blue sun system and yellow sun system). The two worlds are fundamentally Earth-like. The native humanoid species on each world are genetically comp...
Could something similar to a naval battleship main gun work in the vacuum of space? Let me set the stage: A turret of 2-3 large caliber guns, loaded with an explosive shell. Artificial gravity...
Your people have been displaced by war, and have wandered for many months looking for a new home. Yesterday, you came across something truly marvelous. You are camped at the edge of a huge ravine, ...
One of the worlds I'm building has three moons in 1:2:4 resonance, with the full moons syncing up once a cycle, meaning all three are full at different times but at the same time when the moon with...
I am working on a story and came up with a doubt regarding an explanation given for time travel using wormholes as portals. The below given is taken from Wikipedia link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org...
I'm building a sci-fi world set a couple hundred years into the future. If humans were to suddenly discover FTL space travel (which are handwaved away as generic sci-fi warp speed or something) in ...
I'm making a continent with a large valley, "the Great Valley is like a wound in the continent". Swamps are the dominant biome in this valley. It is surrounded by cliffs and inside of it I want the...
I have a character who ends up jumping backwards in time by 24 hours. Essentially nothing else changes, but the character has their jPhone in their pocket at the time of the jump. How functional sh...
I have a superhuman character with the ability to fire tightly packed "bullets" composed of electrons at very high velocity and over a distance, say a few meters at a minimum. I know that normall...
Carnivorous plants live in nutrient-poor, highly lit habitats, such as bogs or rocks. For example Earth's biggest carnivorous plant, Nepenthes rajah, lives on mountain-tops with high concentration ...
I got pulled into 1885, just like Doc and Marty (Or I'm one of them, assuming I can get IP rights :)). I need to go back to the future, which means that I need to get my Ford Pinto time machine up ...
On another world, there is giant ravine leading into a cave where a sentient species live (Let's call them Cavers). They have limited access to materials; the only resources they have are rocks, m...
Assume we are dealing with a society similarly advanced to our own but thanks to finding some data-stores of advanced technology are far more capable at genetic engineering. With that extra geneti...
If the moon were three times the distance from Earth would it still be visible? I mean: how far away would it need to be to fade out into the darkness of space? My guess is that it would no lon...
How would a horizon inside of a ring or a toroid look like? As if a planet's surface was concave, instead of convex, how far away would the horizon appear? Im trying to get a handle on what the in...
In a previous question, it was established that antimatter could be "mined" through positron-emitting isotopes. By gathering positrons from decaying positron-emitting isotopes (potassium-40 and al...
Recently I was pondering mermaids and was wondering how their respiratory systems work. Most importantly, how could their vocal chords continue to function? Secondly, how would they draw the water ...
Picture the future, where man kind has spread out across the galaxy. What would be the most precious and sought after materials? Today it is metals like gold and platinum that are most sought aft...
...It's paradox. They left us these technological marvels, yet with all their might and knowledge they failed to prevent their own doom... Excerpt from a lecture by the High Historian of Berli...
I'm developing fictional technology for "perfect recycling." A large plant that takes in water and every cubic millimeter of waste humanity can produce (in the local area, of course). It disinteg...
I'm making five habitable planets the size of earth as moons for a gas giant the size of Jupiter. Then I want to add many more smaller moons, Our Jupiter has 67 moons, I want as many small moons...
I've seen multiple posts on destroying the Earth, but is it possible for humans to reverse the spin of Earth? In order words, considering modern technology at our disposal, is it possible for hum...
Below is a diagram showing transverse cross sections of skulls representative of the two subspecies (A and B) of the Trilateral* species. Is it plausible that such obvious differences "“ noting the...
In the near future humanity discovers a spatial anomaly at a point located somewhere between the orbits of mars and earth. This anomaly quickly induces delirium in anybody who approaches it and eve...
In regards to questions on artificial-intelligence, it seems like there is always usually an immediate opinion that the goals an AI is tasked with is going to end up with the opposite effects than ...
Aside from very simple or colonial organisms, all animals on Earth have only one mouth for eating. Many organisms have multiple spiracles or even multiple anuses, but not mouths.
I am looking for medically viable reasons why we might discover it to be more difficult than expected to bring pregnancies to term in space. This is for a society based approximately 75 years in th...
So I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and one of the effects that is used through the game (and the series really) is that ether (the game's version of mana) can often be seen floating in the...
Setting: Earth, 5 million years in the future (see note 1). Continents are still recognizable but sensibly altered by tectonic movements. Climate is drastically changed. Civilization does not exist...
Plain and simple: could your offspring's offspring be genetically identical to you? What conditions would this be possible under, if any?
Around the American Civil War period, TNT and nitroglycerin were discovered. This made me wonder... what if a more effective recipe for TNT was developed, and efforts were made to manufacture it? ...
Many worlds have an apocalyptic/cataclysmic event. If mine is a Great Flood, how long would it take for much of the world to be habitable land again? Keep in mind, by the events of the present, the...
If a modern Day tank suddenly appears in 14th century Constantinople; in perfect condition, along with all the ammo, fuel, and components needed for it to run. How much of the technology in the tan...
We know that the inner and outer core of our planet is made up of heavy, valuable metals in high concentrations. So, what if a technologically advanced, space-faring civilization wanted to mine tho...
Alien and fantasy creatures can be designed in an infinite number of ways. But are there physiological traits that would be common among all tool-developing (technology-building) species? As an e...
Is there a real life chemical or compound that exhibits the characteristics of stereotypical movie acid? From what I know of most acid, it is usually clear or just a little cloudy, but I'm looking...
Imagine we had an easy way to produce antimatter, we could use it for interstellar travel, deadly weapons or more; but I've thought: How could we use it to produce electricity? As Antimatter annih...
For a species I am working on, there is a specific genetic trait that I want to introduce into the population. The exact nature of either is not important for the purposes of this question, but the...
Premise I would like to create a world that is rendered nearly impossible to navigate by natural circumstances. In my particular world, a thick jungle covers the whole planet from pole to pole; th...
I am envisioning an apocalypse scenario where a majority of vehicles and electronics are disabled and a vast majority of Grid infrastructure is destroyed. The Carrington Event in the 1800s produced...
The question, Reference to Earth in Intergalactic Universe illuminates the shortcomings of the term "light-year", which defines a distance by mixing the universally constant speed of light in a vac...
Jane was different from the other kids. While all the other kids were playing with fire, Jane played with ice. Now, Jane has grown up and is an accomplished scientist or engineer in your discipline...
By active night-vision I mean that it emits light in a wavelength other animals can't see, but it can perceive that wavelength, so it can see even in zero-light conditions. Being able to emit lig...
In the science fiction setting I'm working on, one of the factions are supposed to be using naturally occurring antimatter because the systems they reside in have sufficient natural sources of it. ...
So I have this character, that has been interred in a bronze statue for a thousand or so years. I need to be able to quickly melt, or get rid of the bronze so he can be released in front of my main...
What would happen to a planet if its core suddenly disappeared? I'm talking instantly and without warning, gone. I'm not concerned with how scientifically accurate this would be, because I'm absol...
