General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
Filters (None)
For some time I've been working on a universe with non-instantaneous Faster-Than-Light travel, but I've decided to open a new universe with instantaneous travel. So I'm working on the differences t...
Building on this question: Settings formed by Uncontrolled Terraforming of Venus and Mars via Portals My government, the Great Council of Duhurang1 has authorized the Minister of Astronomic Scienc...
An absolute madman of a scientist tractors the Moon from it's orbit, and carefully lowers it through the Earth's atmosphere and gently brings it to rest upon the Earth's surface. There is no reentr...
For story reasons, I need my mages to convert a moon on a collision course with their planet into a ring around the planet. The only thing they can do is hold the moon still. They can't do so indef...
In my story there will be animals that are incredibly strong and resistant to injury. To better understand how to design my creatures, I'm asking for help understanding how to make the Eurasian Br...
The Background I have a species of intelligent humanoids roughly modelled after bears. They're hulking great grizzly-sized solitary mesocarnivores. Genus Homo and descended from H. sapiens, but si...
What characteristics (compare those of a mountain goat foot: good grip on rocks, doesn't slip off, etc) would the foot of a dog or a wolf need to have to be useful in rocky settings such as mountai...
I have a huge planet with two continents separated by a wide ocean. Inhabitants think that their continent is the whole world because the other side is too far and they never visited it. What if pe...
So, I'm designing an alien race, called the ___________. They live on planet ________. My question is, what type of biology could make creature get effects similar to alcohol, but with sugar?
I haven't been here in a while but I got another question, Would it be scientifically possible for sunlight to cause a zombie to self combust into flames? And if they would only self combust if the...
There is a website called the SCP Foundation which features a variety of creatures, objects and phenomena that border on the horrifying to the just plain weird. This one straddles the boundary betw...
In a world where science has advanced to the point of a healthy understanding of particle physics, scientists have begun working towards remote matter manipulation. In theory, it seems that one wou...
I have an arboreal snail whose diet consists of largely fruit, would it be feasible through its natural bodily processes it turns part of these fruits into palatable alcohol to secrete as a defense...
Redoing an old map from scratch, want to get any problems with the coastline/placement/scaling of the land before I get to work on it. I am looking to make it as believable as possible. Here is t...
Firstly, I'm sorry that this is a rather horrible question to ask! Would it be possible to keep a whale alive whilst harvesting its fat or blubber? These whales would be living in captivity alread...
I had an idea for a race that is humans alchemically fused with various animals. One of the sub-varieties is rabbit-people, who have the famed bunny fertility. How might the bodies of the women be ...
Would it be possible for a planet to have an ecosystem where life lives without ever touching the ground? By this, I mean that the producers (whether by photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, or other met...
In a Victorian society, an engineer has come up with a clever boat lift for his canal, using counterweights. In order to work correctly and most efficiently, the operators will need to know how muc...
Let's say the world is about to deteriorate to an uninhabitable state; and will become fully uninhabitable in 2100AD. Humanity realises that we have to leave this planet and go to Titan1 and the b...
I'm writing about a world that predates most modern forensic techniques, and I am looking for some old-fashioned methods of sleuthing that would have been available at around the 1850-1900. In on...
Would putting a dye on my eyeball to make my sclera (the white of my eye) turn black bring any advantages? I know that wearing black around the eyes reduces glare (as in that functional makeup som...
We currently have jet engine in flighter jet, space shuttle, some race cars but nothing underwater where breaking sound barrier(air) is concerned. I'm imagining in near future many manned electric ...
I'm making a fairly hard Sci-Fi story, and I was wondering what the most scientifically plausible 'energy shield' (for ships and stations) would be. My world tries to remain true to basic physics, ...
In the world I'm creating, a branch of humans from prehistoric earth were castaway to another dimension by reality bending beings. The dimension exists as a large cavern filled with giant Earth art...
I have a temperate rainforest environment within the arctic circle of my planet. What is the feasibility of fungi storing nutrients from dead matter during the daylight hours, then erupting to crea...
Context To revive the Carboniferous period of earth one man and a group of other scientists have been genetically engineering and breeding land arthropods into giant sizes and exotic shapes since ...
I want to know what kind of effect a large circular space station would have on the planet if it went completely around the equator in one giant circle? Would it impact gravity or anything? And wou...
I am trying to develop an alien species that could live on Titan and at first I supposed it would be easy with the species being able to use yellow, red and near-infrared wavelengths of light to se...
Is it feasible for an ectoparasite such as a a Tick to create a symbiotic relationship with its host? The hosts feeds the tick and the tick has some sort of beneficial substance within its saliva. ...
My protagonist is an astronomer in a fantasy world. Ideally, what I want is software where I can specify some properties of this planet, e.g. orbital and rotation period, nearby stars, number of m...
A large comet is quickly approaching my fantasy world. Its impact will spell doom for all life on the planet. Fortunately, there are mages on this fantasy planet who possess a magic capable of shat...
Assuming it were possible to phase through matter/teleport, is it possible within the laws of physics/chemistry to end up stuck/fused to solid materials? Obviously we lack the real world ability t...
This question is kind of hard to explain succinctly, and I apologize for that. Obviously, humans experience acute effects from UV light on Earth in a matter of minutes near the equator (UV index o...
I mean can time be controlled within an area or even a small portion of space? I would like to mention time-bombs, which either reverse time in a radius of explosion or take time forward. Also nan...
What is a flower or shrub back home is a tree in an alternate Earth, and vice versa. That is something worth exploring. For example, Taraxacum officinale can grow from stems typically up to 5...
Bird wings are made mostly of feathers, and there's about a million articles out there on that subject. Bats, on the other hand, have wings made largely of skin and bone. These are flexible, giving...
Detailed Synopsis: I started writing a story wherein advanced technology slowly stop working (starting from most advanced, and progressing until only handmade items function), while the global clim...
I want to write about a planet that has a high average temperature, but low enough to be comfortable. Just because of curiosity, I would also like to know the lowest comfortable. Additional Info:...
I have a clam that has modified its foot to make a flat, net-like structure to catch insects often shaped like a leaf. I wanted to know where this hit in terms of feasibility or if there were any e...
I was just wondering what kind of rule changes court layout etc would happen to have a 'basketball' game in a zero-g arena? I'm assuming the most likely thing to stay is a ball and 2 opposing bask...
What additional difficulties might the inhabitants of a gas giant moon face when attempting to launch spacecraft beyond their moon's orbit, especially beyond the planetary system? I presume that th...
So, awhile back I asked this question Reversing the rotation of the Earth, effects In it I said that, We can probably assume that Dr. Doofenshmirtz wanted this to happen quickly, within a day...
I would like to genetically modify a human being in one concrete case like I did in other parts of my little series of How would it affect a human to suddenly... This time I would like to add a pre...
Question: What circumstances (theoretical or based on actual past events) could lower the global temperature on Earth or an Earth-like planet to an average of 30℉–40℉ (-1℃–4℃)? Conditions:...
If there was a planet half the earth's diameter, for which every other aspect of the earth was changed proportionally to keep the Earth's perfect ratio intact (including having the perfect orbital ...
I request some help with the design of one particular denizen of my fantasy world, tentatively named Boar Troll. It needs to be an ungulate or closely related creature with emerging sentience, and...
Assuming there were no extinction level threats to the dinosaurs, and they never fully died off (and survived the following ice ages), how would this affect the evolution and technology use of huma...
On an Earth analog, assuming all the selective pressures necessary are there, how large can a flower's bloom evolve to be? I'm referring the the vegetative part of the flower, the petals! I have no...
The world I'm building relies on the fact that the whole population is sterile, and all babies are conceived in vitro. They do not have bellybuttons anymore but they still have genitals, and do not...
Where am I? It is so dark around here... Hopefully I have a torch. It looks like I am in a very long corridor. Time passes What? No this couldn't be! I walked straight in front of me d...
