Posts tagged chemistry
First question so hope I'm doing this right! Working on a setting right now where a bio-engineered virus/plague is wiping out a large portion of humanity. Most died upon first exposure. Some surviv...
Malevolent Spirit: Malevolent spirits are swarms of barely visible machines that have accidentally been imprinted with a deceased person's memories. They posess swarm intelligence and communicate w...
In my world, electricity has not yet been discovered, but they have somehow still managed to attain a technological advancement similar to modern times. I am currently trying to tackle the problem...
In my story, there is a type of bee that releases a pheromone during mating season that is visible at night in brightly lit areas. This is similar to how you can see rain more easily at night if yo...
I am in the early stages of planning a story called The Four Flamingos of the Apocalypse. The premise is that the Four Horsemen have manifested on the surface of the earth and are tasked with bring...
Pretty simple (in theory that is) question for one of my worlds. I heard carbon fluorides are intense greenhouse gases but otherwise harmless and didn't lead to large issues (atleast none that I co...
I was thinking of an alien humanoid charcter for my super powered beings story that would be completely black and faceless with similarities to venom and its strings of symbiotic goo but this chara...
Assume a location which is heavily polluted with dust of several types of elemental metals (copper, silver, nickel, cobalt etc) or their respective oxides and salts (whatever is stable in humidity ...
If people were attempting to build a space station beyond the Hill Sphere, (outside of the area where Earth's gravity dominates), and wanted to mine the raw materials for the station from dwarf pla...
In this world, elves developed along similar lines of homo sapiens, with some major differences that allow for a small metamorphic ability. Their epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, can be shap...
If a space station were to be built in the outer solar system, is there an asteroid beyond Jupiter with a ratio of rare earth elements high enough to make it worthwhile to mine for the rare earth e...
First let me say that I know almost nothing but the basics about nuclear fission. I know more about nano robotics but I've got no degree in the matter, just a rather in depth curiosity and a lot of...
I've quite a few alien species that utilize a non-food-based metabolism (one of them being nuclear power). Does a species that has a metabolism not based-on plants or meat (such as using nuclear ...
The idea of a planet where ammonia replaces water as the dominant liquid in the environment is quite popular in science fiction. I tried to develop a scenario where these kind of oceans are plausib...
Hydrogen and oxygen gases can be combined to form water and a lot of heat. As with many exothermic reactions, the heat from this process can provide activation energy to the reaction of more H2 wit...
Why and how could an organism evolve to make its bones or exoskeleton out of a UTH (Ultra High Temperature) ceramic like TiB2, WC, B4C, or TaHfC? Is it even possible?
Once upon a time there was a world called, "The Gone, but not Forgotten Realms", ran by #GamerGate Garry and #ClintonBodyCount Anon. One day, Anon got tired of Garry taking his work for granted and...
I like to take inspiration for new fantasy creatures from my dreams, so I get some weird ideas sometimes. Last night I found this species. If milk gets on their skin, the creature looks as if it we...
So, I had a concept (a bit large for a single question). One of it's parts is nanomachines rewiring the brain of the subject. Since we don't know much about the exact workings of the human brain, ...
Exactly what it says on the tin. Kleeber the warrior is wearing a gambeson and carrying the standard adventurer's gear (leather backpack, 100ft of hemp rope, bedroll, spare clothes, waterskin, dry ...
I intend to write a character that has the ability to turn nearby gasses into plasma for combat and utility purposes. However, I've been studying how plasma works and (as someone who is not as savv...
Inspired from people walking on water using cornstarch plus myths such as monkey king, several gods in heaven/celestial palace, and other fiction works. (image from Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama) ...
Edit: Okay, truth be known that this question was part of a set of 5 related questions that I was recommended to break up into individual posts (in their original form, the comments had no trouble ...
In my setting, a permanent "fog" hangs over the ocean. It is thick, granting low visibility to anyone within it. Instead of water droplets, however, this fog would consist of some substance or comb...
It is a known fact that magnesium is a very important part of photosynthesis and chlorophyll. I have looked everywhere to try to find out this question but I have never really gotten a solid answer...
So I've been working on a low magic world where magic is actually just another form of energy that can be actualized, similar to alchemy in Full Metal Alchemist. Although development has taken a di...
I have a concept for a species of arctic-dwelling organism (let's just call it a polar bear) that evolved an organ that was able to produce microwaves, which it uses to tunnel through ice. If such...
This is a continuation of a question I made earlier! The atmosphere consists of 80% N2, 17% O2, 1% CO2, 1% NH3. I am not extremely familiar with the chemistry of ammonia, but I do know that it beh...
I am currently working on world-building a planet, and I wanted to try to diverge from Earth's atmosphere a little bit, but not extremely. I am planning on still having it be a oxygen-nitrogen rich...
As in the title. We have the modern periodic table: In a potential near (or far) future setting humanity discovers a new element which serves as the basis for a cleaner, higher energy density...
Our empire has been at the mercy of violent marauders who are not working with the Will of Dozin and instead trying to break away from our cosmic union. In our archives, we have found a xenoformin...
I am creating a carbon planet with seas of methanol on its surface, but I am not sure that this is possible. It is predicted that carbon planets are depleted of water, since the available oxygen w...
I understand an interstellar dust cloud as "an accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust in our and other galaxies. Put differently, an interstellar cloud is a denser-than-average region of the interst...
I'm working on a hard sf novel about humans being forced to survive on a metal-poor planet. They have to take dietary metal supplements at first but eventually a bio-engineer rigs the biochemical p...
In my story I have a strain of virus capable of stealing parts of or changing its hosts DNA, so it could copy the abilities in nature for its next host of choice by taking the genes which control t...
Would it be possible to replace water with hydrogen peroxide on an Earth like planet? I know water and hydrogen peroxide are similar, Also if this configuration is possible what may cause an Earth ...
Silicon carbide is a ceramic often used in vehicle and body armor, but could a living creature produce and use it the same way? Assume the creature was genetically engineered.
I had a vision of a creature that touched things, and wherever it touched, it left a mark opposite to the original colour. For example when it walked across the grass the grass had red footprints,...
In this question, I asked about a universe with (amongst other things) 4 large spatial dimensions. In 3 dimensions, we have the familiar periodic table with its familiar arrangement of atoms in th...
I'm building a S-Type binary system where the primary star is a black hole. Yet the system formed as a O + K-Spectral class binary and the 20 solar-mass O giant went nova 2,7 myr after both the sta...
Suppose there exists a magic-based civilization. Their mining techniques are medieval and their understanding of organic chemistry and biology are on the Enlightenment era level. However, they are ...
I am trying to recreate King Arthur's the Sword in the Stone using chemistry. I have a couple ideas how this could be done Would any of these work or how it might work? Arthur removes the sword f...
A planet approximately 70% the size of Earth with a surface pressure of approxiamtely 0.25 bar at sea level. The atmosphere consists of the following gases: Nitrogen (98%) Oxygen (1.5%) Carbon mo...
A homoculus is an artificial human being that is created through the magical science of alchemy. These creatures are born in artificial wombs by a dark ritual that requires various materials, and t...
Based on my reading on some science papers, large, wet terrestrial planets likely exist that are swathed in a thin atmosphere of nitrogen/hydrogen ($H_2$ & $N_2$). If life evolved on such world...
I've been thinking about dwarfs and their depiction in classical fantasy for while now and concluded that I find it unrealistic and lazy. Some research showed me that the current fantasy dwarfs hav...
I know that someone has asked how chemistry would be in four dimensions but I was wondering what would chemistry be like in two dimensions? From what I understand, in two dimensions, particles, ins...
Melange, also known as "the spice", is a fictional drug in Frank Herbert's famous Dune series, which has many benefits (and some drawbacks). In this series of questions, I'll try to see how many of...
I'm creating a world for a webcomic and I'm running into some difficulties "“ namely, my own limitations. I'm not a scientist, and I don't even know how to start asking the questions I want answere...
I'm looking for an existing drug or chemical that most closely matches the following criteria, which will be listed from most to least important: lessening of social and moral inhibitions doesn't...