General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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I'm writing a JRPG-inspired novel set on a planet with 1.7 Earth masses and 1.4 Gs, but is it possible for life to even develop on such a high-gravity planet in the first place? I tried scouring th...
My world has multiple layers of floating islands, which by itself causes a lot of climatic-involved problems for me to sort out. That being said I stomped into a very simple yet important factor to...
In Warlords Europa is a semi-independent world who's surface is dominated by ice mining companies or colonies dug into the ice, but below the ice thrives the "Hanging Cities" affectionately named A...
So, I'm developing a world for my fantasy setting, but I thought it'd be neat if this particular world had a nebula visible in its night sky. (So, it might not be a nebula like the kind we have in...
After the extinction of all humans and most large animals, what would be the most plausible explanation for arthropods to grow much larger like during the Carboniferous period? Then, the oxygen wa...
Chemosynthesis is the biological conversion of inorganic matter to create nutrients to sustain living organisms. One of the most widely known or popular examples is its use in the Giant Tube Worm, ...
From the movie Tremors, behold the graboid: These are vicious, SUV to bus sized sandworms that have acquired a taste for human flesh. They are known to "swim" through the earth really fast too. ...
The drug should have the same effect as heroin, but without being addictive at all. Is this chemically possible?
In Warlords I envisioned the "outermost colonies" around Neptune and Uranus to be a political faction of their own. Separate from the inner planets (Hegemony) and the Jovian and Saturnian leagues. ...
The Hoop snake is a mythical creature from the United States and Canada that looks like a regular snake, but has the ability to grab its tail in its mouth and roll like a wheel at high speeds. It h...
So many millions of years ago their was a lobe finned lung fish named tiktaalik that led to the evolution of all tetrapods and the diversity they hold today. And I wanna do that again, but instead ...
Suppose a K-II civilization built a terrarium or zoo, featuring life and ecosystems from different worlds as it travelled through the universe. (By K-II I mean in terms of resources and energy bud...
In Warlords poorer families in the belt or some of the colonies are not able (for whatever reason) to pay for 'gravity treatments' or possibly helpful drugs and are forced to live and raise their c...
tl;dr What is the strongest glass that can be concocted from a single reasonably abundant, natural source? (Without nuclear or quantum manufacturing) So I am developing a character for a story. He...
(Not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask this but hopefully I'm right!) I'm writing a novel and the planet this novel takes place on has two, twin moons of approximately the same size....
As requested by JBH, I edited this question to fit the Anatomically Correct Series. The classic zombie is no mystery to anyone: undead, eats people and multiplies by biting humans. Could they ever...
Would it be possible to have a giant, made of stone for example, that would be 40km tall? Would the earth or even his legs be able to hold him? And if not, what would be the tallest plausible heigh...
Can a habitable planet have two separate crusts, both of which can sustain life? I am wondering if through the planet's creation, over time through some form of mantle cooling/erosion combination, ...
I have a scientific research vessel that is exploring an alien galaxy. I would like this vessel to detect and then explore a planet that was not previously known about, which means it (or potentia...
A highly advanced civilization has developed and is about to ascend to become beings of pure energy in a hyper-dimensional universe. Before leaving they restore our universe to a reasonably pristin...
I have a super-earth world. The surface of the world is shallower due to extra gravity, so shorter mountain ranges and less ocean depths. The world orbits a binary star system at a distance of the ...
My world is a 1AU radius, 12000km thick Dyson Sphere with 6 equally spaced holes, 4 filled with water. The two main problems I have are gravity and heat. This question concerns heat and how to stop...
An underwater stone age tribe of merfolk captured 2 baby whales and killed the adult beast for meat. My sea people would like to tame the young whales and use them as transport when the babies rea...
Say an alien civilization came to Earth during the age of dinosaurs and picked up a few raptors to use militarily. With genetic modifications, the raptors have human-level intelligence while mainta...
Let me clarify on the title, because this is important. In recent years, people have been feeling less comfortable calling the only natural satellite orbiting Earth a moon. It may not be the larg...
We're all familiar with the heroes that can't die. Honey-badger (with the claws and the angry voice), Dreadpeel, that girl with the weird cheerleading obsession... Basically they all have the same...
I created the above illustration to help convey my meaning, here is what everything means so that you can read it effectively: E = Earth V = Venus M = Mars The dots in the lower left hand cor...
I have a species that is a descendant of modern humans, but containing superior bioengineered organs. One of these organs would be a small heart-like organ inside the head. This heart connects with...
Quantum physics today tells us that we may not predict outcomes with certainty. We perceive events as random. So is this old philosophical fantasy of an all knowing computer possible? Meaning that...
I am writing a novel. In that novel, humans have settled a tidally locked planet. That planet is positioned at just such a distance from its sun that the sun heats the planet to an average of 25 °...
Antimatter is relatively easy, but heinously expensive, to make using modern technology. I have two universes with the same problem; energy is free and for all practical purposes infinite, this sho...
Other posts from this thread will be posted here: How to make an Earth with 27 suns work (Closed as a duplicate of the follow up, Attempt Two) How To Make an Earth with 27 Suns Work, Attempt Two...
First post, if it isn't completely obvious. I've discovered this site by trying to "google" that question. Here's what I'm investigating: Long ago, pre-deluvian civilizations built ancient megalit...
I've noticed in recent scifi shows/movies such as the Expanse or Star Trek that the lighting inside spaceships have two characteristics: Punishingly blue lighting Dark/dimmed miscellaneous lighti...
I fear this may be too broad, but I am looking for reasons earthborn humans would be considered inferior to those born on various space colonies. For example, it is important to reference the disti...
Background: I have an icy moon on a collision course with my fantasy world. Mages on this world have the ability to slow the speed of the moon gradually. I want them to use this power to lock the m...
The question: What realistic environmental signs would telegraph to the occupants of a floating landmass that their home was slowly losing altitude? The planet: I'm working on a story that takes p...
If a planet were to have a very thin atmosphere how thick or thin would it have to be to allow there to be a daytime and a nighttime given human or near human ocular sensitivity? In other words, ...
In this society, the citizens are given a bracelet-like device that is connected to the radial artery in their dominant hand. The device monitors their health, offers advice, etc and also serves as...
Looking into fleshing out my world story. One of the things I had in mind was an infrequent but consistent shipment of supplies to a planet from Earth. For simplicities sake, we'll use 10 as the nu...
I've a creature that can focus CO2 laser through the len of the unique eyeball as means of self defense mechanism via natural selection. Now using the same natural selection process how can such cr...
My planet - let's call it Penumbra for now - exists at roughly 1.5 AU from it's sun - which was similar to Earth's - but is about a billion years older. It is 15% more massive than Earth, but near...
I rediscovered this article recently and loved all the creative answers on how a mermaid might build underwater. This, for me, brought to mind Atlantis, the kingdom that sank into the sea. I've...
The capital of a country is built on a series of stone hills that gradually lead to the ocean. The stone is noted for both the strength of castles made from it and its unique blue-green coloring. T...
I'm writing a story, and in the story the protagonist designs a way to trigger artificial continental drift that takes place in 50 years, for all the continents to drift in the places he plans. Are...
A lot of worldbuilders that I know and have spoken too, insist that unbacked currencies and items with constantly changing values would be what the economy is based on. I, however, am skeptical of ...
So, I'm an astronaut. I got stranded on this planet, and I found a civilization of ant sized, intelligent beings that thought I was a god! They did whatever I said, no matter the ridiculousness of ...
Assuming that there is a prison somewhat akin to the one in The Dark Knight Rises, except being nothing more than a cylindrical hole in the earth, how deep would it have to be to make escape attemp...
Scenario: A major ecological disaster occurred five hundred years ago, in which large numbers of species (including almost all wild fauna) went extinct. Assume that the environment both before and ...
For a story I require an intelligent [drepanosaur]. But to work with the plot the creature needs to still have traits that don't mix well with classical vertebrate evolution of intelligence. Requi...
