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Q&A

General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.

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How fast would strange matter conversion go?

Background: So this Kurzgesagt video talks about quark stars, and how two of them colliding could send strangelets flying towards Earth or the Sun. Now it's been said that since, theoretically (as...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Nierninwa‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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Could there be something like the Higgs field which gives particles their energy in a similar way to how the Higgs boson gives particles their mass?

First of all, in no way do I have advanced knowledge of particle physics, quantum mechanics, or any other necessary scientific concept for a full understanding of this question. Secondly, this is p...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Aeroan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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What is the most efficent way of killing prey much larger than yourself?

The title sums it up pretty well - I'm basically trying to envision the ultimate predator of much larger prey. A couple of requirements: The predator must weigh 44 kilograms or more (Megafauna) ...

14 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by SealBoi‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by KalleMP‭

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How can the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram be used in star building?

As you can probably guess from the title, I have some questions about the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, especially how to use it to make plausible stars. Some questions: Can stars exist in the bl...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Sam Coutteau‭  ·  edited 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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Exploration of a 50 mile high mountain

My friends and I are building a world with a 50 mile high volcano on it. The mountain is the result of some bored god deciding to play a joke on everyone. Or, some other god got angry and decided ...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Green‭  ·  edited 3y ago by Canina‭

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What impact is required for a visible (from Earth) ejecta plume on Earth's Moon, and would the Moon survive?

Take the Earth-Moon system as we know it. Now, something causes a large rock to be lobbed in the direction of our moon. Exactly how that happens is deliberately left unspecified; it could be everyt...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by Canina‭

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The evolution of neon kittens

Given the existence of neon kittens with: the internal properties and mentality of normal kittens bioluminescent fur. What evolutionary process outside of intentional human breeding/gene manip...

5 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Green‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by Green‭

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What if the Planck constant was exactly zero?

I was thinking of a parallel universe in which the Planck constant has an exact value of zero. How would this effect the physics of that universe and how would it effect the development of that un...

3 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Anders Gustafson‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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How do seasons work in a binary system (planet orbits one star, not both)?

I have a planet orbiting one star in a binary system. When the planet is exactly between the two stars it will experience a double day; when the primary sun sets the secondary one rises, no overla...

5 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Monica Cellio‭

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Interstellar internet use cases, or "What if the internet was mail-order?"

This question builds off Information Exchange In Space and How would interstellar internet work?, and specifically uses the communication system I developed here because of this. In a summary of t...

5 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by AdamHovorka‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by AdamHovorka‭

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How could dragons be explained without magic?

Dragons are a grand classic of fantasy. For this question, let's assume we're talking about the following stereotype: hatches from an ostrich-sized egg and can grow to mountain size if nothing l...

18 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by celtschk‭

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Are geographically typed planets realistic?

In many science fictions we see planets which are designated by a particular terrain type. For example, Dagobah is a swamp planet, Tatooine is a desert planet, and Kamino is an ocean world. Howeve...

5 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Liath‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Canina‭

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How to Convince Humans to Allow a Machine Take-Over

In a lot of stories there are fights between man and machine; rogue AI that has decided humans are inferior in some respect and chooses to wipe them out. What if the only chance for any remnant of...

8 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Varrick‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by celtschk‭

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PVA glue curing process

What happens when PVA glue sets? I am curious about the white PVA glue that is commonly used for bonding wood and paper. Although an Internet search find lots of articles they mostly seem to be ne...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by chris-barry‭  ·  last activity 7mo ago by Mithical‭

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If this earth were cube shaped would it be possible during Magellanic era using a float ship to figure out that the earth is cube shaped?

If this earth were cubed shape would it be possible for Magellan to prove that the earth is cube-shaped without going to space and looking at earth? It might seem strange to think that earth might...

13 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by mvr950‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Pastychomper‭

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Large-Scale Biosphere on Mars: Interior Weather

I've been researching the idea of spreading out vast sheets of aerogel across regions of Mars. This would theoretically have the effect of both warming whatever land is under the sheet - thus melti...

0 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by ajderxsen‭

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Determining a Practical Bridge Design for a Wide River and Heavy Traffic

Hello everyone, I am thinking yet again about infrastructure. (my calendar project recently asked about... well, that's outside my expertise, I'll get back to that eventually) And I am thinking of...

2 answers  ·  posted 11mo ago by Bianca_Railway‭  ·  last activity 10mo ago by dsr‭

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Human elytra flying off a cliff

I imagined a person who's scapulae is overly developed and extruding outside the shoulder girdle like an elitra or fixed plane wings. They can be moved by shrugging the shoulders or rotated by rai...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Rhea‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by dsr‭

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Making a hair cream without using any lipids/oils

Making a hair cream without using any lipids/oils, is it possible? What will be a fundamental composition of such a cream that it is easy to wash from the hands?

0 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by deleted user  ·  edited 3y ago by deleted user

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Creatine supplementation as enhancing the natural production of Carnosine and vice versa

I understand that both Creatine and Carnosine are amino acid derivates abundant in Animalia muscle tissue and are both occasionally taken by non-aerobic exercisers to enhance performance. The huma...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 3y ago by Pastychomper‭

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Keratin biosynthesis and human hair straightness/smoothness

Some people straighten their head-hair with what's named: Keratin straightening Keratin smoothening Keratin rebonding Keratin treatment It is an external hair straightening procedure in wh...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 3y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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Effects of not growing up?

Let's say I have a bunch of pre-pubescent children (circa 8-12 years old). Let's also say I subjected them to some drug/process/whatever that caused them to stop growing. In particular: Whatever...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Matthew‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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Would caves in general be practical lairs for a dragon?

So, I was writing an outline for the battle between a dragon and a bunch of humans. However, a key component of the humans' battle plan was to place a hidden stash of ballistae near the entrance wh...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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Could my leviathans exist?

Leviathans are closely related to hydrophis spiralis. Some characteristics of these leviathans include: continuing to grow until they die and are able to grow almost as large as a blue whale are ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by icewar1908‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by icewar1908‭

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Can a galaxy be formed from a black hole?

I'm writing creative text and I'm curious to know, just as possibility, can a galaxy by any chance be formed out of a black hole?

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by 01e5Dk‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by 01e5Dk‭

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biologically or anatomically is there a problem with this type of double mouth or jaws?

i am not talking about xenomorph or moray eel type of jaws or multiple mouth or lower jaw inside the mouth. but this type of mouth/jaws or i called it double chin jaws where the chin also work as ...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Li Jun‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Li Jun‭

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What needs to be changed about the plate tectonics of my world?

So, after trying to make a few different world maps and not really feeling satisfied with them, I decided to attempt making a world a bit more from scratch, by adding in plate tectonics. Now, I did...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by devendoo‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by devendoo‭

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How feasible would gliders or the like be on a flat plain, with no cliffs to launch from?

How effective or possible would flying machines that are not powered by a machine be on a flat plain? I have a setting where much of the world is a relatively flat grassland, and the people have n...

6 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by AlexT‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by AlexT‭

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What would make a star good for star lifting?

My civilization is planning to being starlifting, mining a star by heating up portions of its surface and using a powerful magnetic field to channel the matter away from the star and into storage u...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by HDE 226868‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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Is radar better than visible light in deep space?

On the earths surface, radar is pretty sweet. It apparently penetrates the atmosphere well and bounces back and can be detected. I think this has to do with the wavelengths absorbed by our atmosp...

8 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Willk‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Willk‭

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Could habitable planets form in an ultracompact galaxy?

I am wondering if habitable planets could form around stars in super dense dwarf galaxies. There are some super dense galaxies such as M60-UCD1 and M85-HCC1 which can have a typical distance betwee...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by RandySavage‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by RandySavage‭

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Roughly how long could an 'Oumuamua type object get?

Roughly how long could an 'Oumuamua type object get if created naturally or if created artificially using fused rock? What would be the limiting factor governing the length of such objects? Oumaum...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Slarty‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Slarty‭

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Would Alcubierre Drive Technology Allow for Artificial Event Horizons?

So, my understanding of how Alcubierre drives would theoretically work is not particularly complete. I know it involves compressing and expanding space, but I don't really have an intuitive grasp ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by FlyingLemmingSoup‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by FlyingLemmingSoup‭

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Adjusting to the Sound of a Waterfall

Suppose, for instance, you lived in a world filled with nasty monsters and other creatures of the night, all of whom wanted to kill you and eat you in various ways. Now, the good news here is that ...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Halfthawed‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Halfthawed‭

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Could ocean and wind currents form on a tidally heated body

The moon is similar to earth but orbits around a gas giant, the sun has ended its life cycle and so the only energy received on the moon comes from tidal interactions heating its core. On earth an...

0 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Samantha Clark‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Samantha Clark‭

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Can the color of an alien sky be calculated solely from atmospheric composition and the star's (or stars') spectral type(s)?

What exactly are the relevant numbers for such a calculation, and can it account for the color of the sky? By sky color, I mean the day to day hue that humans (or something else with very similar ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by John O‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by John O‭

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Procedurally generating a galaxy's worth of names

Background I am investigating the practical utility and limitations of a procedural-generation-based naming scheme for stars and other notable or significant interstellar structures (e.g. nebulae,...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by rek‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by rek‭

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Could power be generated using the temperature difference in venus's atmosphere?

On Venus the surface is around 467 degrees Celsius. At the top of the atmosphere it is much cooler, and at around 60 km above the surface the temperature is around 40 to 50 degrees Celsius. This is...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by meaninglessname‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by meaninglessname‭

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Could my fungus exist naturally?

My fungus starts out as an extremely small spore, this small spore will bury and implant itself near the spinal cord and cerebellum, and will then secrete an enzyme that hijacks and later puts it i...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by RotNDecay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by RotNDecay‭

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Consequences of hitting a Pluto-like planet with a highly luminiferous meteorite?

While the intended end state is that this planet can support space-faring lifeforms, the solution under question needs a sanity check. I cannot commit to many numbers with how speculative this all ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by CAE Jones‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by CAE Jones‭

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Why do flying saucers have to spin while flying?

Set during the Cold War period, the then-president rented five (5) flying saucers from the extraterrestrial aliens and a few training exercises were conducted in the air space above Roswell. My fat...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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How would you design Turn-Signals on a Flying Car?

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...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Woodlum Hoodlum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Woodlum Hoodlum‭

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On our way to Mars: how do we do the laundry?

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...

13 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica‭

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Anatomically Correct Vanara

Apart of the Anatomically Correct Series Vanara The Vanara is a group of people who lives in the forest in the Hindu epic "Ramayana." In there, it describes them as human-like, with reference to...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by TGCF ‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by TGCF ‭

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What would happen to a gas giant during a supernova?

Fairly straightforward question. Imagine a gas giant planet, like the size of Jupiter, in orbit around a massive star. The star goes supernova. What happens to the planet? Is the energy of the su...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Geroditus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Geroditus‭

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Using planetary/stellar media for lasing

The technical challenges for Breakthrough Starshot list the huge amount of power required for accelerating a solar sail to interstellar travel speeds and the precise targeting of laser beams of tha...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Adrian Colomitchi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Adrian Colomitchi‭

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Bleeding as the bodily equivalent of a positive pregnancy test, Plausible?

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, ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Caters‭

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The Earth and Moon resolidify under a bluer star, their outer layers evaporated and burned away. What do they look like now?

(This is the third in a series of questions, starting with Moved into further orbits to protect them, how much damage do Earth and Moon take when the Sun expands? and How soon does the Earth's surf...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Astrid_Redfern‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Astrid_Redfern‭

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Inverse orbital direction

Is it possible that a planet/moon will have inverse direction comparing to the rest orbiting material? For example Mars would go in counter direction comparing to other planets in solar system. I...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Zavael‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭

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Can velocity drift be used to calculate a radio wave source's distance from Earth?

If you're studying radio signals from Earth, is it possible to calculate whether a radio source is 'near' as in near Earth or 'very far away' as in somewhere far out in space from velocity, or velo...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by zeno‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by HDE 226868‭