General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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On Earth in 2017, finding oil or coal deposits is a tall order. However, consider a science fiction scenario where we find a habitable planet that hasn't hosted an intelligent species in at least a...
A common feature that we consider to be alien is the eyestalk and rightfully so. To my knowledge the only vertebrate that even comes close to having eyestalks is the hammer head shark (if you can e...
I want to contrive a scenario in which 23rd century humanity faces a dire crisis due to an extraterrestrial von Neumann ecology that rapidly consumes Nitrogen as a part of its life cycle. So rapidl...
Ceraon is a moon with advanced megafauna and flora. The moon is pretty small, so gravity is only about one fifth of that on earth. Much of the life-preserving atmosphere is retained through a gre...
In the (relatively new) Star Trek movie Into Darkness, we see Dr. Bones and Captain Kirk in a world composed mainly of red plants. Obviously these are just eye candy with no real basis behind it, b...
In one of my more recent questions, one Xandar The Zenon commented that a mutation that creates the gene for red or orange pigmentation on the human skin is more likely than green, blue or purple. ...
I am working on a solar system for a world where I intend to place my stories. This world should work by the laws of physics as we understand them so that, even though magic is a thing that exists ...
For the purposes of this question, "teleportation" refers to Star Trek style teleportation: a body is diassembled in one location, and reassembled with an exact (perfect) replica of the entire cons...
Lets indulge in a bit of Mad Science, here. Assuming the world described here: Making the Enterprise Fly (60% of earth's gravity, 50% denser atmosphere) what is the wingspan needed to allow an ave...
I am currently trying to design a kamikaze goblin. This goblin would drink explosives and have some sort of storage area within their abdominal regions. How would this goblin be able to have these ...
Bobby, a human space traveler from Theta, and has been in space for a couple of centuries. He's been kept alive either through his own biology or some feat of technology. Having no contact with his...
This question is specifically about the mechanics of an alien creature swimming in highly viscous magma, the unlikeliness of life surviving at magma temperatures etc isn't relevant. Just imagine it...
I have designed an alien species similar to octopi (Tetrapus Sapiens) who live in the tropical waters of a fertile, lush world known as Iridia. The octopi (more like tetrapi) have moved past the hu...
I need a planet where the day cycle is short, in particular 16 hours. I read What determines the length of a day on a planet? and Is it physically possible for a planet to have seasons of different...
In this world, there are a small percentage of humans with "special" abilities. The source of these abilities is alien genetic meddling for their own cryptic reasons (though the characters don't kn...
I was looking at these two questions: Expanding Occupied Underground Habitations Safely Does Living without access to Sunlight have known Physical/Psychological effects? And in a story I'm writi...
Basically I'm considering the physiology of eyes and camouflage might look like on an eyeball planet; tidally locked to the sun so the sun is stationary in the sky. At any point on the habitable tw...
I'm designing a world similar to Earth (liquid water, temperate climate, there is an atmosphere, oxygen and complex life everywhere). The only big difference is that there is a giant (not glowing!...
Traditionally, a Cyclops has one eye, as well as some other aliens in fiction. My question is simple: Would there be any situations, Earth-like or otherwise, where a creature would benefit from h...
Liquefaction of gases is physical conversion of a gas into a liquid state (condensation). I found that liquefaction is used to get liquid air and then split it into liquid compounds O2, N2, CO...
So, I understand that human skin color is based on the distance from the equator, but would it be possible to evolve skin to be a non-natural color such as green, pink, blue, purple, ect? Perhaps i...
So I've created a map of a fictional world using the guidelines established in the Creating a Realistic World Series. However, like all creative endeavors, the first few (hundred) maps are not goin...
In a parallel universe, death is physically impossible so nothing can ever die but this universe has lots of life. It is also physically impossible for any life form in this hypothetical universe t...
I'm imagining a situation that we can see a star change color periodically: A star and Earth orbit around a black hole The star is very near to the black hole so that it has high orbital speed, w...
Premise After an unfathomably powerful mass extinction event ALL life (fauna, flora, even extremaphiles and microbes) have died off. The Earth was then sterile for an undetermined amount of time. ...
I'm not talking about a single alien civilization that is stranded on earth, I'm talking about multiple civilizations that will cause major overpopulation on earth. So this means that the civiliza...
Certain galactic trade union (the Blue) has a base on a distant planet, where they mine extremely rare unobtanium. They have set up anti-spacecraft cannons and essentially turned the planet into an...
We have 24 hour schedules because the earth rotates about once every 24 hours. But what if humans were on a planet that didn't have 24 hour days? Would their bodies adapt to stay awake for far long...
This question about genetics (not required reading) contains the phrase "science of a Type II civilization." This got me to thinking: although we intuitively know what this means, does this actual...
I'm in the process of writing a speculative evolution book which is based on the natural history of the nine tailed foxes that suppose form a structure for a novel series I'm also doing (rather as ...
In many stories we hear about people whose genetic structure is modified after they're born (Spider-man, The Fantastic 4 and practically any other superhero you care to mention). However current sc...
Would it be possible for an extraterrestrial humanoid or superhero to increase and decrease their hearing at will, and if so, how? I'm thinking specifically of an alien who can somehow adjust their...
Suppose we have a Branching Timeline paradigm, in which time travel into the past creates a new timeline. Is it fair to assume that any probabalistic events which might occur might be very differe...
So, astronomers discover that ~100 years Earth will be destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by a black hole passing through our Solar System. Governments around the world focus on ensuring Humanity'...
If the Earth had Saturn-like rings going around the equator would there still be a need for a moon? Would the rings be able to take care of the tides because of their gravity? Would the moon become...
The rock is spherical. All arthropods are included. They have no time limit and are "programmed" to cooperate, but lack intelligence. While there is no time limit, the insects do this transportatio...
My question is: Could a macroscopic (e.g. visible) plant grow on a living human, provided that the human is completely immobilized?
A different form and function of a Dyson sphere. It is fairly far in the future and the residents of a D-type spherical asteroid (similar in size to Deimos, ~6km radius). They've been living in ha...
I'm working on a science fiction story which includes the following premise: Tony Stark invents an unobtainium reactionless engine, and the protagonists want to build a spaceship around it, big eno...
Star A Mass: 1.2 x Sol Radius: 1.157 x Sol Luminosity: 2.074 x Sol Temperature: 6,444 K Star B Mass: 0.63 x Sol Radius 0.691 x Sol Luminosity: 0.158 x Sol Temperature: 4,378 K Semi-Major ...
It is a known concept that if ships were to be constructed in space, it would save a lot of fuel and allow for larger ships. My question is, what would be the best location for an orbital "dockyard...
Using the following dimensions (and assuming any material characteristics necessary to maintain structural integrity), could a Standford Torus-style artificial habitat achieve the necessary spin to...
I was reading a question and had a follow-up question with a story idea that I'd like to develop more fully. The idea is a HUGE maze, thousands (or more) of square miles, that has small clearings ...
Since fire doesn't burn under water aquatic alien sophonts will use alternative technologies. The question is, which alternatives to fire can they use? I am interested in all aspects of fire, (hea...
Relating to this question: Ensuring an endless war, and an endless stalemate In a planet such as our Earth, what climate conditions and/or atmospheric changes would be required for the formation a...
The Inflatable Hedgehog or Zamba Zaraa is a creature, reported from the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. It is described as looking something like a hedgehog. When threatened, the animal strikes its tail ...
In novels (SF and FF) that hint at being earlier in Earth's history, such as Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time, in which period would such a story need to take place to plausibly and realisti...
Humanity is an advanced civilization, and has long, long since took to the stars. Their resources are seeming boundless, and their technology is fantastic. For some reason beyond our 21st century u...
In many scenes you see something like this: If I was designing a world for a culture living in a rain-forest and their land was cut through by many vast ravines then what sort of spans could the...
