General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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Follow-up of Could the entire world have been destroyed by the existing nuclear arsenal in 1962? Is it safe to grow food on land that was hit by nuclear bombs? Or will such food kill/fatally s...
I want to have a world when humans got serious about global warming and succeeded in making Lithium Air battery work. Since the lithium air has same potential energy density as gas, and electric en...
I'm working on a story that deals with an inordinate leap into the future and was wondering what leaps and bounds in science the human race may have reached by then. So here's what I'm wondering: ...
I have an idea that the seas of a world are red, not blue. However, the world should also be the birthplace of an intelligent alien species. Would it be scientifically possible to have a world with...
Is it possible for a planet in our part of the galaxy to have a night without stars? I'm looking for some kind of natural phenomena that would hide the stars, but allow the sun to rise and fall as...
The hypothetical world is for all intents and purposes earth or very close to it. So what would the effects be if the magnetic field were either stronger from the start of the planet, or if the ma...
Aqadatio is a planet which is completely flooded. This flood was generated by its own government to get out of debt (long story). The inhabitants of this planet are technologically advanced, more s...
Is there any chemical that is biologically produced in humans, that when impregnated in hair follicles, produces green hair? If current keratin follicles cannot do that, pick another biochemical f...
Let's assume we have a working FTL drive and thus interstellar travel is possible, either by traveling at very high speeds or by instant teleportation (the two main subtypes of FTL drives in sci-fi...
How can a species force an external body to heal itself and speed up the process without the use of magic and technology but by biological means? Sanators are creatures who can force the body of ...
I'm writing a story in which a civilization previously capable of (firmly technobabble-based) FTL travel has become stranded, orbiting an isolated star with no rocky planets. (There was a planet, b...
I am writing a theory for a game that is in an apocalypse. An asteroid is heading for earth and will crash into the earth regardless in this theory. It is 1km in size but due to the YORP effect it ...
Assuming a sci-fi style nebula, like the thick clouds seen in Star Trek, extending several light years and hosting star systems inside, one of which gave rise to intelligent life up to current huma...
How would one go about repurposing a small cargo ship, no more than 50,000 tons, to run on an alternative fuel source/propulsion other than oil? And what alternative source would work best for prop...
I have a bacterial organism called the "World Blight" this creature's life cycle revolves around being introduced to a new planet, spreading across the planet and terraforming it to its liking, and...
This is the second part of a series of questions I'll ask about a self-sustaining colonization ship. I'll keep editing this post as things unfold. If you can, check out the other questions of this...
I am writing a scenario for a game that I am a fan of. It involves an asteroid heading for impact with the Earth in 2027. This asteroid's initial diameter is about 1km, but it is slowly disintegrat...
So I have a race of shapeshifters in my world, and in order to change shape or make adjustments to their body (grow wings, arms, tails etc.) They rearrange the atoms in their body, probably through...
Okay, so how feasible is it- if even possible- to put the Earth under 'one roof'? So here is the premise. The world is heavily heavily over populated, so overpopulated in fact that almost all of t...
So one of the ideas I've come up with for system to system travel, in the early colony stage of my world, is using fuel boosters to start the journey and then to reach the required speed for the co...
I was recently redesigning some mostly hominid Aliens I designed a long time back in high school and felt were a little lackluster, and since they were already Tall, Wiry, and vaguely Shambolic-Loo...
In the South Galaxy, the overwhelming majority of life lives on planets, breathes air, and is carbon-based. All sentient life is carbon-based. However, in the vast reaches of space, there are some ...
I've been thinking of a planet where the day/night cycle is way off to where there 30-35 hour long night period, while there are only near 8-4 hours of daylight. The local biological environment is...
In my universe, there are two ocean-based planets floating in space. I would like to merge them together in a realistic way. What kind of event could cause the planets to merge into a bigger one? (...
So I am building a world but need help with its day/night cycle and the science to make it work. The planet has a 32 hours day cycle, however there is only 10 hours of light a day. This planet is...
My story takes place hundreds of years in the future after global warming has made life at the surface uninhabitable for most life forms. What's left of mankind survived because it became popular t...
How would a mechanism look that allows a person to e.g. turn a crown-sized wheel (from a watch) by any amount (e.g. 180 degrees) resulting in a turntable (from train yards) turning the same amount ...
I'm no engineer, but I was wondering how a steam-powered door would work. I want it to be difficult to open unless you know how (not a simple "twist the doorknob and open"). There is access to plen...
Could a ~150 mile (240 kilometers) crater form from a small object impact? So the object impacting the site of the crater is a human shape and not able to be destroyed. The location of the impact ...
Could one make a smaller eclipse kept stationary on the surface of the earth in order that one may be able to see the stars 24/7 from one site? How could this be achieved? Geostationary satelli...
This is a follow up to a previous question that I thought should be a new question instead of just discussing in the comments of that one. This is an idea for a space station on the surface of ...
Worldbuilding and biology have always been two huge passions of mine, especially when it comes to dragons. So well, at the moment I'm working on a little project in which I'm attempting to make dif...
With the Kuiper Belt being composed of well over 100 million objects - some grand, some insignificant - is it possible to hide an asteroid base from enemy sensors within its confines, combined with...
Suppose a universe with similar physical laws to ours, with the major exception of gravity not existing as we know it, with an analogous force (hereafter called gravity for simplicity) acting as a ...
before I get into my question I wanted to thank everyone for their input in my first thread about the general principles of river drawing. I have taken your comments under consideration and began r...
How many rocket launches are needed to change the axial tilt of the Earth so much that it is noticeable with instruments available today? We can assume that we are talking about the heaviest rocke...
I'm not asking about an exotic species in the modern world we know all too well the havoc that can be caused by the introduction of an alien species into an existing ecosystem. I want to know if a ...
I would like for a civilization to be very good at bio-engineering, but I do not know how they would be able to modify DNA to suit their purposes, with greater things than breeding can bring. For e...
I've already considered that they may file their horns down, but keeping in mind that their horns gradually regrow, it is an inconvenient solution. This is what their horns typically look like: ...
Let's say we have the technology to produce all of the human food in factories without the need for land (i.e. Solarfood, Memphis Meats). Right now, there is about 50% of all habitable land use for...
I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fai...
Assuming that an Earth analog was inhabited by both plants and animals like our Earth. Could the non-animal life on the planet survive the absence of animals (excluding sponges and corals) on the p...
I'm new here but I've been a worldbuilder for the last decade or so. I'm pretty late to the 'mapping out your country' party and I've only been at it for about 8 months, but I'm starting to see som...
I would like to know how close two planetary systems could be without having an adverse effect on each other. My goal is to drastically improve the chances of having habitable planets near enough t...
About 5 billion years from now, the Sun will begin to swell into a red giant. This will cause some problems, because life on a planet orbiting a red giant is hard. Even if Earth isn't engulfed by t...
How could a humanoid race and/or a human subspecies develop eusocial behavior? It's more common in insects like bees, but the naked mole rat is a eusocial mammal, so it's possible, any thoughts on ...
I am trying to fact check a consistent set of properties and applications for the titular unobtainium from the Mass Effect games in order to avoid introducing contradictions. Certain sources I rea...
AFAIK, inanimate bodies and life forms are in the end a large set of subatomic particles (and atoms, and molecules) and energy. Unless my basic knowledge of Physics fails me, you can return a parti...
Ok, so, some quick background... I'm not an evolutionary biologist or anything, but I'm helping a friend with some alien design ideas, and at least one of them she designed and wanted help to someh...
It would be nice if there were an atmosphere on the Moon with oxygen; in fact it could be just oxygen at 1/5 the Earth's pressure. People could live there. Now of course given the Moon's lower grav...
