General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
Filters (None)
A giant pacific octopus has around 250 suckers per arm that it can use to manipulate small items. If theoretically, one of these animals was given human intelligence, and of course proper medical t...
One of many things that differs the pregnancy of my Keplerians and that of humans is that in Keplerians, there is a symptom that is equivalent to a positive pregnancy test. To explain this, first, ...
Sulfur hexafluoride is pretty awesome. It is a gas six times denser than regular air, and thus you can actually make tinfoil "boats" float on it. It also makes your voice deep when you breathe it i...
In my setting there is a civilization that has a decisive advantage in a fundamentally agrarian world; a crop of exceptional yield and nutritional value. Would it be feasible for a plant to have ...
In my setting there is a civilization that has a decisive advantage in a fundamentally agrarian world; it is consistently more efficient in its choices of crops and livestock. Rodents reproduce fa...
Would it make sense to use screw- and fin-like bending surfaces for propulsion (like what eels or the king of herrings have but in the atmosphere) instead of regular propellers or even flapping win...
Consider the following situation: Over the last 2 to 3 years, all the world's birds and bats outside of those in human captivity or domestication have stopped getting sick; sick - even terminally s...
I have this setting, about an advanced city state in the middle of a sparsely inhabited wasteland/grassland type area. This state has the 90's level tech on consumer level, and a wide range from 9...
Ever since Tolkien most, if not all, works of fiction including orcs portray them with tusks. Though this achieves the effect of portraying them as animalistic, what would the real world applicatio...
Assuming I have the technical means of redirecting sunlight from a position in interplanetary space (placing the mirror[s] wherever necessary), how much havoc can I wreak on the planet Venus? Of sp...
I read a theory once which stated that the natural pain, sickness and general discomfort that humans can experience during sex, pregnancy, and childbirth help control the human population by discou...
I have a city which will be completely submerged in water due to a catastrophic earthquake. It is placed on a cliff side, so that it will drop directly into the ocean. Technology is similar to the ...
I have noticed that there is a common theme in science fiction art to depict one or more very large planetary bodies in very close proximity to the surface of the other world being depicted. (you ...
So, me and the boys have decided to take a trip down to Earth for reasons that matter not be it science, leisure or fleeing persecution. It is no concern how we blend in but our spacecraft poses an...
I recently look at a question on this site that questioned if a "world tree" is feasible, Would a 'World Tree' be feasible in real life?. If i remember correctly, it stated that one way to distribu...
"The Dark Knight" is a nickname given by astronomers to the exoplanet TrES-2b, a gas giant with an albedo of one percent, blacker than paint, blacker than coal"”in fact, blacker than anything on Ea...
From 2.4 to either 2.1 or two billion years ago, Earth underwent a surge in a waste product that we know as "oxygen". Before that, life thrived in an ocean rich with iron under an atmosphere loade...
Happiness is mandatory. Unhappiness is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Are you happy, citizen? - Friend computer. Welcome to Beta Complex, the little brother of Alpha Comp...
One of the veggies that my Keplerians grow is peppers. I have heard of some sweet peppers cross pollinating with hot peppers making the sweet peppers hotter and the hot peppers sweeter. However tha...
The Megapodes are a family of birds in the galliformes order. They live primarily in Australia and are notable in being extremely precocial and laying more eggs than any other bird. They build larg...
While reading this question about how non-primate mammals could develop a bipedal stance, I became curious about the broader reasons why animals could evolve to walk on two legs. I found some insi...
I found a way to ensure that even if either the Japanese Self-Defense Force or the U.S Army invades my fantasy world, its inhabitants would still have a fighting chance. Utiltiy Fog Hall thoug...
I want to be able to graph the change in daylight hours across the year for a given latitude, to get an idea of what kind of cycle in available daylight people at that latitude would live through a...
I have a planet where I want all plants to be blue and glowing. I was thinking that they could use something other than light for energy. I want the plants to always glow. The atmosphere is basical...
I want to design a realistic interstellar spaceship that uses centrifugal force for only the crew quarters. But while looking up for designs I found the most common ones are the torus or ring desig...
Sea Wyverns (name not final) nest on small, rocky islands scattered throughout the sea and primarily catch fish going somewhat below the water. Basically, wyverns ingest a piezoelectric crystal whi...
Imagine a huge salt flat like Bonneville or Salar de Uyuni. Due to other logistical concerns, commerce between the economic powers on either side of the flat is forced travel across it. This has re...
Could alien life use nitrous oxide, N2O, as its oxidizing gas, like oxygen on earth? What biochemical reactions would be needed to produce and utilise this gas? I've also heard conflicting messag...
If an extraterrestrial race were to send a signal to earth containing a virus (technological or psychological), how could that signal then infect our technology and then be received by humans?
The human body can create a quintillion variants of antibodies. Â Resistance to infectious diseases is mainly carried out by the methods: White blood cells (white blood cells) and phagocytes. Whi...
A long time ago during the last ice age an early hunter gather human encounter an unknown entity (likely a alien) who granted him the power of immortality with him living at least up into the middl...
I've been thinking of having an underwater structure in a world with ice, but I would think water from currents would melt the ice. Would there be any way to keep it frozen and have an underwater ...
so in my world the rivers and lakes (not sure about the sea yet) are made of blood that'll never dry up. The blood maybe fresh or not (I still haven't decided yet,probably both anyway) i also haven...
(Edited for focus; see history for previous version) Following up on this question, let's say I have a "coastal" mesa (relatively flat, high land not far from an ocean) with taller mountains behin...
I'm writing a sci-fi story, and there is a giant autonomous computer planet that constantly gathers resources from around the universe using drones. It stores a super weapon at the core of the plan...
I am writing a story, in which I would like to have three locations within about a half hour to an hour driving distance (assuming population, road systems and automobiles on par with the contempor...
A long time ago, Yi Qi diverged into three main groups: Cockatrices, Drakes, and Wyverns. Some characteristics of Wyverns include: They are tetrapods/quadrupeds They are covered with feathers The...
Phoenixes are a unique type of wyvern not only due to their colorful feathers (which resemble flames) but also how they reproduce. Phoenixes lay 7 eggs which require a lot of heat to hatch. Unfortu...
In medieval times, news of dragons attacking the outskirts of the villages is flooding in. The King is losing patience. According to witnesses, these dragons can lift cows and occasionally elephant...
This is a submission towards the Anatomically Correct Series The leviathan, (in biblical terms), is describes as being a colossal serpentine like creature, it's back is covered in scales that are...
In my world there's a salt flat like Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia (of different size if need be) (source) Is there a chance a medium- to large-sized forest could have grown naturally in the immedia...
I want to create a world where humans can live outside (perhaps with some protective clothing) but where very high winds exist in almost all potentially habitable areas making life outside impossib...
I am creating a humanoid species for my setting and I thought of the idea of "‹"‹making it that can rotate its joints with a 360 angle and can bend its limbs in any direction. Sort of like owl's 27...
Can a world exist where the atmosphere is actually thicker at some altitude than at sea level? If so, what mechanisms would be involved?
I am making a fish folk race, and I want to figure out if tattoos/ piercings could be possible. My ideas for piercings would be on the flesh itself or on the fins. If they had piercings in these ar...
I think it will be possible in the far future to take a single person`s cells, genetically enhance and change them using genetic engineering and synthetic biology using new genes, and put it in a 3...
Humanity has discovered entire worlds filled with creatures that would question their understanding of biology, but one creature, if it can be called, has brought up many many questions. Appearanc...
Imagine an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star in the inner halo of the Milky Way. As a halo star, it will likely be somewhat metal-poor, having formed early in the life of the galaxy, but o...
I'm wondering whether it would be possible for humanoids to evolve from bears. bears share many characteristics with primates such as being amazing tree climbers and having the ability to use too...
I'm writing a fictional story where non-primate mammals (and marsupials) evolved into different species of humanoids which roamed the earth. In my world humanoids have evolved from animals such as...
