General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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On a distant planet covered mostly by water a species of highly intelligence cephalopods have evolved and even developed space travel. The problem? Most other species are land dwellers and the cep...
On my previously asked question about the biochemistry of life on my ammonia. it leads me to my next question to ask. First things first, the life on this planet is boron based. They breathe me...
I have created a life form that is based on the element boron. As a substitute for DNA it instead uses Diborane as a building block. I've come across a problem however that I can't seem to get arou...
In my research on how I could get elves to live the time spans I wanted them to live, I came up with this solution: Every elf generates while still developing inside the womb of the mother copies ...
In my book there is a tribe and one of the characteristics I describe is that they can achieve great speeds, something like 80km/h (50 mph) for 2 minutes approximately. How could it be?
Let's say that I've developed a new engine that can accelerate at 1G continuously. Within about a year, I'm nearing the speed of light. Naturally, I recognize the danger of collisions with gas and ...
I've got an image in my head of a world where it's just normal that the star is black with a golden halo around it - in other words, where the planet is in a state of perpetual solar eclipse. Are ...
In my story, there is a puppet master who uses disturbingly realistic marionettes in his theater. His goal is to create a marionette that is wholly indistinguishable from a real person, aside from ...
My main antagonist is an infant Great One that's been imprisoned below the Moon's surface and I want its influence and physical form to have a weakness to direct sunlight which, I think, gives me a...
Here's some rough WIP pixel art of the planet I'm trying to create just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about color wise. I'm referencing the dark blue that you see at the poles of the plan...
Spiritual energy, or jing, is a powerful substance that forms the essence of who and what we are. It is the primal energy of our life. Jing is the deep foundational energy reserves of the body and ...
Is it possible for an artificial satellite (in this case, an unmanned communications platform) to maintain a stable orbit directly around the barycenter of a Binary Star system, as in well inside t...
In my world I would like to create a pit on the Moon filled with air. How deep would the pit need to be to get 1 ATM of pressure Could the pit maintain the air or would it be lost to space? If i...
I have a scenario where a spaceship has been badly damaged and now the normal vibrations of the power supply are becoming amplified through the damaged hull, and threatening to tear the ship apart....
Could a moon or planet with otherwise no atmosphere maintain gas pockets in sufficiently deep craters, and could it be habitable by humans without pressure or space suits? I found this similar que...
According to Natural nuclear explosions natural nuclear fission reactors could occur. Could it happen that a primitive alien civilization has its social, economical and technology evolution trigg...
Description : Even in the ⅩⅩth century, biological warfare was studying only existing diseases. But recently we're able to modify viruses in order to cure genetic impairments. Would it be pos...
Recently, pictures taken by the New Horizons space probe were released depicting the unusually-shaped object Ultima Thule. Now, suppose there was an world the size of the Earth, but in the shape o...
I'm trying to build an underwater ecosystem under the ice crust of Ganymede. I know Jupiter emits a large amount of ionizing radiation and synchotrons and thought that would maybe be able to replac...
I've been building a world that has a thicker atmosphere than that of Earth, about half the gravity, and twice the amount of oxygen. My reasoning behind these features is mainly to support the grow...
As the title says. I need to have at least 3-5 habitable Earth-gravity worlds (preferably with atmosphere, nitrogen oxygen) as many smaller, lifeless moons as possible, and a planetary ring. (i.e. ...
I'm designing an alien race that hasn't developed electricity yet. Now, one thing about their species is that they haven't discovered fossil fuels on their planet to use, like coal, oil, etc. (The ...
We know that Gor, or Counter-Earth, is not stable in a long-term sense. Let's handwave that away, or assume that we are dealing with a temporary span of time in which the instability is immaterial....
I'm trying to create my planet orbiting a red dwarf, honestly I've thought other scenarios but it's like every answer opens new questions. I'll just say what I want my planet to be and I'd like you...
The question This question has a few parts: 1. Is it possible for a river to naturally form in the shape of a spiral? 2. If not, would an artificially-formed river, in the shape of a spiral, reali...
I was thinking of a situation in which an Extra Terrestrial plant life form evolves a nervous system and eventually a brain. This plant diversifies into a variety of different life forms with some...
Humans have some genes that allow for a precise sense of smell, but they were turned off millions of years back, just like in many other primates. To name an exeption, lemurs are primates with a de...
Without changing a planet from being habitable for humans and keeping a similar ecosystem why could intelligent races never access electricity? What in society or behavior could stop people from ...
Ok so I've been going around on the internet trying to figure out whether or not when 2 earth like planets of similar densities and makeup collide is it possible for them to bounce off of each othe...
In a previous question - How might kinetosynthesizing "plants" look? - I introduced a worldbuilding thought experiment of mine centered around a habitable moon, heated by tidal forces, which orbits...
It was disputed in the 1940s-50s whether Venus had a hot surface and cool cloud layer or a cool surface and hot cloud layer. As I recall, both were considered at the limits of plausibility a...
Im trying to find the equation to the the size of the resulting crater created by meteor strike when I have the mass, volume, diameter, density, velocity and kinetic energy of the meteor Can an...
I have an Earth-like planet that has no frozen poles. It is very similar to a Cretaceous Earth. Is there any sort of odd, yet reoccurring weather event, that could cause freezing air from the upper...
Lets say for arguments sake, that a world, with maximum population of 5 billion, the common Joe gets reincarnated a few hundred times since the creation of humankind. This type of reincarnation is ...
Are there any chemical elements dangerous to fungus/mushrooms that wouldn't threaten the human species. The chemical elements I'm looking for would be in the periodic table of elements. It doesn...
As we know just because a person has more mass that doesn't mean they can lift more weight or punch harder as those actions are more about training your technique. My story is a martial arts / supe...
Without changing a planet from being habitable for humans and keeping a similar ecosystem why could intelligent races never access electricity? What systems need to be erased from the planet to ...
This may seem similar to this question but my goal is for one: The bird does not die and secondly to get more exact solutions. The ultimate goal would be to create a bird which can ignite itself...
Premises: red dwarfs tend to have violent sun storms in their early years, thus are expected to strip atmosphere of planets that may be in their habitable zones; water worlds (including planets w...
The Limbo People (who are hominids with intelligence somewhere between chimpanzees and humans) have long survived by hunting wild boar. They use spears with wooden hafts and flint tips. They are a ...
For a Matrix-type future I want to feed people via solid food. This is to keep all their internal organs working properly. The idea is to feed them an endless kebab that is held together along its...
The planet has a slow rotation around its axis, taking 384 hours for a full day and night cycle at the equator. There is one large continent which takes up around one third of the planets surface. ...
Without going into great details for the reasons behind it, people in The City travel everywhere by bicycle. There are no stairs or lifts (elevators) in high rise buildings and no safe parking spa...
In the wake of this, my answer to this question about where to put a Dyson Sphere an apparent issue came up. And it needs some good resolution: What are we going to do with all that heat the syste...
I spent my life, my fortune, my family connections... I sold my children into slavery and my soul to Ilnarren... Wanted posters hang from from the Abyss of Shrondir to the expanse of d'o (most bea...
Key setting elements and questions: In this scenario, A large majority of the population: Supports spending more money on religion than on the space colonization program. They are middle class:...
According to multiple reputable sources, the idea of "photographic memory" in humans is a myth. While some people may be unusually adept at certain things involving memory - like remembering the la...
First, the argon is a chemical element and the third-most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere (approximatively 1%). And I know that when someone inhales a large amount of argon, there is a risk...
If you take all of earth's food and cuisines, which ones would be the mostly logically adapted to be made and eaten in a microgravity-freefall environment within the following constraints. Let's a...
In response to a question about an asteroid filled with degenerate matter, Ender Look suggested that using matter from a black dwarf would be better than using matter from a white dwarf since black...
