General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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In a given fantasy world, I need a deadly (yet not magical) gas that will naturally pool in low depressions and valleys. The level of magic is not high, so I'd like it to be an actual chemical tha...
Mind control is a favourite tool of science fiction writers, it allows us to make certain characters do things that they would normally never do without the hassle of explanation. But hard science ...
I wanted a creature that produces something in its blood to protect itself from SEP (solar energetic particles) and GCR (galactic cosmic rays). The skin of the creature is normally sufficient prote...
Good rulers support invention of useful things. But this question has two sides. Support of invention Prevention of fake inventing Basis: Many inventions arise as side-effects of searching for...
Suppose, that in a particular area of the ocean on an earth-like planet, all water molecules are transmuted into an exotic variety of $H_2O$ that is identical to normal water in every way except wi...
It's a common trope in science-fiction: "scanning for life signs". A few taps on the screen, and you get an instant population count, often with the ability to distinguish species, and even person...
I envisioned a world where people are not bounded by marriage and females are free to choose those who they deem "accomplished" and have offspring with him. The males "occasionally" interact with ...
In building an sentient alien that is unique among the sea of humanoids, I aspire to explore quadrupeds. For a quick visual reference, this is what I have: proportions are definitely off, but in ...
If two planets were tidally locked and shared an atmosphere, as described in this question, what would the weather patterns of the planets be like? What weather patterns would form, and could these...
I am trying to make an original character who is blind and hunts with bow and arrow from a flying mount. (Obviously, no existing animal can fly while bearing the weight of a human, so let's assum...
Does anyone know of any compound/substance one could have access to in a stone prison cell (From food? The rocks? The metal bars?) that could be processed through rudimentary means into a quick act...
What would be the best way to launch space craft/get into space from a northern latitude? Canada, Scandinavia, UK, Russia, Alaska, those sorts of places. I understand that being closer to the equat...
I have a friend who is a really nice guy. The problem is that he was born as a half demon. While he looks completely normal, he possesses a spirit inside him called "Amon". This being forces him to...
Basically, a sun-synchronous orbit is where one side of an object is always facing a star as it revolves around it (much like our Moon is, which is where the phrase 'dark side of the moon' originat...
On a habitable world completely covered in water, with no land above sea-level, there would presumably be storms of biblical proportions. Suppose this world has oceans so deep that the deeper layer...
I'm imagining a world populated with a species of intelligent, social, and "modern" (in terms of technology) humanoids. For the purposes of this question, they and their world can be near identica...
My fantasy world is medievalesque in technology. While healing magic exists, most centaurs do not have realistic access to it. Centaurs are your archetypal human torso, horse body. How long would i...
I recently came across a game called dead space and a certain main antagonist species inside of the game. In this game you play as the main character who is trying to protect humanity from sentient...
In this world you have access to computers powerful enough to decipher messages as long as the method used to encrypt it has at least one theoretical weakness (those computers cannot defeat an impr...
How likely would a habitable world be that orbits a gas giant that itself is orbiting a larger gas giant? Assuming one exists, what are the likely conditions?
Premise The goal is to implement a bronze age version of blockchain in ancient Egypt to introduce a layer of security for the royal tombs. Tomb raiding was rampant, and at times even the legitim...
How long can a man survive underground without going insane? A traveler is buried under stones in a cave system. His only sources of food are mushrooms and creatures that live in the caves. Some o...
I'm trying to think of a scientifically plausible reason for humanity to be forced to abandon earth that would leave animals and plants largely untouched. Is there any natural disaster that would h...
Is there a possible scenario in which once a year a celestial body can be seen from the surface of the Earth-like planet for a short period of time? With it being big enough for early civilizatio...
In a distant future, a spaceship was investigating a gravitational anomaly somewhere within a chartered sector in the Andromeda galaxy. A disaster strikes and the spaceship was found marooned on a ...
You all probably know what a starfish is. When a starfish is ripped in half, if each half has part of the central disk, then it can regrow into two starfish. Worms can do something similar, if they...
There is something that can stand that much temperatures ? or that kind of Welding can evaporate or melt everything ? I read that nothing could stand more than 7000 ° C, but i want to be sure, als...
Is there a way to make retractable tusks anatomically plausible in a creature design without relying on an articulated bone structure? Basically, relying fully on musculature instead of articulatio...
Imagine a planet of roughly the same size as Earth with the same amount of land, the same atmosphere and the same proportion of water (other planetary parameters may vary from Earth like) that has ...
From Wikipedia: By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. For example, would humans be able to survive ...
This question basically boils down to this: What would be the places on a given continent where one would find mountains? I have seen maps from games, movies, board games, books etc. where it would...
One commonly cited problem with invulnerability-style immortality is that you watch the people around you wither and die while you survive. On top of that, even though you don't deteriorate, at som...
This is my first question on this site, which I recently found and can't get enough of. In many time travel scenarios, the machine is static in space. My question is how to explain this. For exa...
Assume these homo super-dwarf aka fairy and homo sapiens come from a common ancestor, and somehow they evolved a pair of wings and can do vertical takeoff. The average adult is approximately the ...
What would humans look like if they were genetically suited for life under a giant orange star like Iota Draconis ? These would be people who were genetically indistinguishable from humans from ear...
I was thinking in a character who has a...kind of Steam powered Chainsaw, and a sword, what make them special is because the blades of the chainsaw are one-dimensional, same with the sword, they ar...
Magic has recently become possible in my story, and singing is the mechanism by which humans use magic. A totalitarian regime wants citizens who can speak, but not sing in any way, even poorly. (Th...
This question began due to a certain fictional monster. Where it was stated to be able to secrete explosive goo activated by its saliva, which would coat its boulder-like arms and explode when smas...
The thing about organics is that they can very precisely build themselves up, from a molecular level. They can take various, otherwise useless stuff like goethite and chitin and, through the power ...
Can I use nanotechnology to make the strongest possible non-nuclear explosive (when compared to the equal amounts of other explosives) or are we already at the peak-level of what can be achieved wi...
I have an idea for an extremely crackpot engine design for a future society I may incorporate into my story. What would happen is individual antihydrogen molecules injected into the center of car...
In the near future on our own planet of Earth, an odd plague has descended from space. It affects glass. Any glass whether natural or man-made turns into powder. The chemical elements are the same...
Around Earth's equator, there's a band of low pressure called the Doldrums. 30 degrees north and south are bands of high pressure called the horse latitudes. Finally, there are more low-pressure ba...
I've read comics in which someone with pyrokinetic powers was able to block bullets with a sheet of fire. I have three questions How hot would the fire have to be to melt a bullet passing through...
I'm playing around with the idea of making a world heavily based on one of my favorite childhood book series. (basically a fanmade rewrite of sorts). The series is called Warriors, and is about ta...
Let get this straight being lonely is different from solitude, human is arguably one of the most successful animals ever to walk on two. The secret lies in social interaction, the early humans hunt...
So, Anon has had enough of the DM abusing his poor creations (the chromatic dragons). Wanting a better fate for them, he wraps the DM in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a neutron star, a...
As far as I am aware, female mammals cannot produce eggs (as in ova) after a certain age/maturation. How could the female produce eggs for an unlimited amount of time, resulting in a 'queen' mamma...
I'm working on yet another iteration of a world map project. I'd like to ask for some opinions on the sea temperature map I've done: I also have a few specific questions about some areas on the...
I've answered a few questions with this process but I wanted to see if I could bounce/refine this off the communities more biologically adept members. Basically, it goes like so: As a means o...
