General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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So it's been a while since I've seen the Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's come up in my thoughts recently. Or at least one specific background character. (Source) This character is apparen...
Here I began exploring appearances of binary stars when standing on a planet. The planet orbits both stars. I've established through the help of this community that there are times that the two s...
A while back I saw this video talking about the habitability of double planets and Rocheworlds. I haven't seen any questions about the latter case here, so I decided to take a swing at it. For so...
I want to turn a planet fully covered in ocean into something Earth-like. The planet is completely submerged in water with no land above the sea level. The ocean itself is quite deep. The planet ...
The current topic challenge is apocalypse, so I figured I might as well come up with a question about surviving one. A man named Noah somehow learns that there will be a large flood within one yea...
It takes the Earth about 365.25 days to orbit the Sun on its current elliptical path. That means it moves about 30 km/s, 2×π×(149,600,000 km)/(1 year). So, given that, how high could Earth's...
I've been pondering for some time an alternate-history story where the Earth as we know it is replaced by a Rocheworld, of the canonical variety introduced in the eponymous Robert Forward novel whe...
I think the idea of radially symmetric alien organisms is really exciting in the questions it raises about function and design. For those who don't know, humans are bilaterally symmetrical. If you...
You are on a generation ship in interstellar space, between star systems. We know that there are rocks whizzing around out there - escaped asteroids, bashed planets, we have even put a few artifici...
Inspired by this article about the Kepler-enabled search for life-supporting moons, I came over here to learn more about the concept. I found this very complicated answer to a very complicated que...
A couple days ago, I posted this question about what it would feel like to walk on a Rocheworld. For some background, a Rocheworld is a double planet system where the two planets are so close toge...
In a world where there are strict controls on "computational and instruction following machines" (all calculation machinery are basically none reprogrammable and limited to specific narrow tasks - ...
1 of my stories involves a pride. But not just any old lion pride. No, my story involves a pride with 3 different big cat species. I don't know if I should put character histories here or whether t...
If a flourishing planet was cracked into several parts by some external force like a weapon of mass destruction, would it be possible to put it back together again? What possible ways can be used t...
Following on from my previous question about how to consolidate my fantasy setting with science that was successful (thanks everyone!), things have been progressing well in my world design; and my ...
Soft sci-fi uses inertial dampeners. Harder sci-fi uses stuff like advanced crash couches, robotic exoskeletons, or (my personal favorite) drug cocktails filled with stimulants and other medication...
It is still a myth as far as our modern civilization is concerned, Atlantis located somewhere within the devil's triangle and it's inhabitants had struck down many planes and vessels daring to dist...
I have a species with mostly avoidant and introverted personalities. They prefer to stay in small, nomadic groups and flee when the surrounding population becomes too large. The criterion for "too...
A follow up question for What is the method to produce food within a volcano caldera? How can a plant harness magma's heat to "photosynthesize"? It is very different from an animal, which can move...
Inspired by A.C.A.C's comment, how can the metabolism of an animal that is harnessing the heat from magma or lava be explained? I'm thinking of conventional "eating lava or magma", but it could be...
Imagine a spaceship constructed for merfolk and it is completely filled with oxygenated water instead of air. Since they can swim around effortlessly in the water, do they even need artificial gr...
Our Heroes are a small group of people around the level of the heroes of The Skylark Of Space. Operating on a budget of maybe ten million dollars, they've built a spacecraft with a mass somewhere a...
I am writing a story (well, developing one) in which a humanoid intelligently genetically engineered species is effectively immortal. The creature maintains its lifespan through a thick-shelled see...
I just asked myself what is the role of the mountains on Earth? Well there's a well known role for the climate and weather. But is there a kind of physical or geological role? What would happen i...
Towards the end of this article (https://io9.gizmodo.com/what-would-the-earth-be-like-if-it-was-the-shape-of-a-d-1515700296) there is mention of the different kinds of orbits the moon of a Torus wo...
Imagine a world in which you have all the creatures from the game franchise "Monster Hunter"... Screenshot from the upcoming Monster Hunter World game ...and when I say all the creatures I mea...
In the world I am building I wanted to design a race on a planet which get more full the more calories they eat and then stopping when they have had their daily caloric requirement. I have an idea'...
I'm trying to create a world that has a equator-like climate in the north pole and the same arctic south pole. I have done some research already but there are a lot of things I don't know but the h...
According to this list mercury only makes up 6.7×10-6 % of the Earth's crust (by mass, I believe; though even if it's by number of atoms it's still tiny). I'd like to make mercury sufficiently c...
I'd like for this to be how a small species communicates with a giant species. I was assuming a series of tunnels would carry the sound like a pipe organ.
My world - basically Earth all along, unless told otherwise - is populated by humans and few fantasy-based "races" (actually, species - any interbreed offspring, if possible, is infertile): elves, ...
The Scenario: A technologically advanced mother culture wants to manage mass outbreaks of virulent disease in its technologically regressed colonies, who are inclined to resist most of what the mot...
What could I "use" to cause a population wide long-term memory loss. So far all chemicals that I have read about cause future memory loss. That is to say, if you are exposed to it today, tomorrow ...
So I am aware of this question, which deals with large plants (trees) and animals, but I am interested in adaptations present in smaller animals on this planet, and how those might be stretched in ...
I was reading an article that said pulsars could be used in the far future, by travelers, by acting as "lighthouses" in space and aiding in interstellar travel. In a galaxy wide civilization, would...
I'm working on a universe where FTL exists but arrival times can be unpredictable to say the least. On average FTL trips are conducted at 4C but ships can take much longer to arrive than that speed...
I've been conceptualizing a species of intelligent insects. They would have 6 limbs, they can fly, but they walk bipedally. I've been thinking of having them get down on all limbs of they need to g...
It's a fairly well-known fact that reptiles are ecotherms, meaning that they require outside sources of heat to stay warm and metabolize. However, being too hot can cause heat sickness (not fun), a...
My question is about unusual hereditary traits in humans. I'm new here and this is my first question - apologies in advance if I've accidentally messed this up or covered existing ground. I'm writ...
I want to design a creature capable of surviving long periods without drinking water, but I am not sure how that creature could store water. These are my ideas but I am looking for something more e...
As some of you have pointed out, the only universal problem of stun guns is their "dosage", as some people may survive getting hit by a lightning bolt... seven times, others get themselves killed b...
Following up on my Martian canals theme from this question and assuming the canals can be constructed, I would now like to ask what level of technology is required to do that. The basic problem Th...
There are many stories of converting one element into another (such as the story of the Philosopher's Stone), but to actually mutate one material into another (at least with our our current underst...
In my world there are humans who have undergone a mutation from being exposed to a certain kind of magic. They have not realized they have been mutated until they start noticing that they have the ...
The Resident Evil franchise is obviously the last place you want to take away any lessons on biology, pathology or virology from. However the new(-ish) Molded enemies from Resident Evil 7:Biohazard...
Really can't believe I have to edit this in, but this question has no bearing on our current use and generation of nuclear energy on Earth. There are dangers to nuclear energy generation, or we...
In some science fiction and fantasy settings (mostly fantasy) there are sometimes things like rock giants or rock golems. Basically, what I'm getting at is rocks forms with, sentience in some cases...
I was working on a relatively near future time-line (20-30 years), and there is a scene in which the POV character has to sabotage the local power supply. Now my initial guess was that it'd be a ...
Whenever people discuss mammalian-type merfolk, I usually see them be modeled after cetaceans like dolphins and whales. This is perfectly serviceable, but there is one piece of anatomy that I canno...
Superheroes! Everybody loves them! (Though maybe not as much as magic.) The point is, I have a world with super heroes in it. I have a pretty good system of power granting, and have basically divid...
