Posts tagged chemistry
How would an individual in medieval times, the days of castles, knights and horses, be able to make a quick fix smoke bomb, I read out of potassium nitrate and sugar, but I'm pretty darn sure you c...
I have two magical stones. The first one"”let's call it fire stone"”is a stone that able to increase its temperature equal to that of a normal fire. The second one"”as you might already guess, is ...
Let's say our world is set in a hyperbolic space with a curvature K of −1 per 9 square meters. How would crystals be different than those in our world (assuming that the atoms are the same as the ...
What would be necessary in order for bubbles to rain down from the sky, whether they are actually soap or something else? Would it even be possible? Aside from a bunch of little kids (which would ...
In one of the most empty regions of space between the galactic superclusters there is a giant space bubble, with a radius of about 1,000,000 light years. Most of this bubble is one molecule thick ...
Premise The premise is an adept modern chemist is transported back in time and is to serve as the court alchemist to a wealthy prince in the late 16th century. Assumptions: "Transmuting" gold i...
In post-apocalypse fiction, diabetics, if they are ever even mentioned, are typically portrayed as utterly, irrevocably screwed. In fact there was a pretty cynical example in Dies The Fire (a book ...
I am in the process of creating my universe, and have based it on semi-hard science. The universe that I have created is quite extensive, and I thought that it would be unreasonable for the only ki...
We all at some point in our childhoods thought that the moon is made out of cheese. As such, I thought: under what circumstances can a planetary surface form in such a manner that it is edible (and...
My planet is highly volcanic, as such the atmosphere is filled with gases put off by the volcanoes: Like Earth Nitrogen also makes up most of Marhdii's atmosphere at 43%. Also like Earth, Nitrog...
In this paper by Bains et al, an alternative to oxygenic photosynthesis is discussed. Apparently, 4 times the amount of biomass can be produced using hydrogenic over oxygenic photosynthesis. Oxyge...
This is something of a practical question more than anything else. Consider a setting in the modern world, where a large country e.g. the U.S. has collapsed and been replaced by a sort of modernize...
I'm interested in what kind of events / processes would it take to make Titan's atmosphere more or less transparent. The year is around 2150. The technology has progressed, sure, but it's nowhere ...
I have a species of humanoids that spends a lot of time around fire. They are able to spark their own fires, and they have a reasonable fire resistance. One problem presenting itself is smoke inha...
This is the first question about colonizing an alien world; the second question on agriculture on this planet is here. So here's the idea: human beings travel to and land on an Earth-like world wi...
What would be a valid reason for human blood/sweat/body fluids being toxic/harmful/caustic to an alien species' skin? What would the aliens' organic biochemistry be like and what would their DNA b...
This is a second question about the same world described in this question about human reaction to an alien world. So here's the idea: human beings travel to and land on an Earth-like world with th...
For example, a quote from one of the Witcher 3: Blood and Wine's side quests says The eggs themselves are a sight to behold, luminescent. The man (hologram) is referring to giant centipede eg...
So I was designing some aliens who exhale colder air that they take in and one person gave me a really great suggestion, using phase change materials in the creature's make up to absorb the heat fr...
Suppose that there is a moon, orbiting a gas giant, and that gas giant is a rogue planet - it moves freely through the universe, unbound by the gravity of a star. This means that one, the moon will...
In my book series (link here), there is a character named Rhys. Rhys is a highly mutated wasp whose mutation gave him the following benefits: His armor is immune to most of the medieval-style wea...
In my book series (link here), there is a blob creature (lime-green in color, has a radioactive glow, is sentient, has a bizarre and uncanny intelligence level (has the emotional intelligence and "...
Some Context I'm creating a universe where humanity has reached the stars. They've colonized a few star systems and, obviously, FTL drives are a common thing. The part of the story I'm currently...
I was just wondering if it would be possible for a planet to have life that only uses noble gases in their biology. Like for example breathing in certain noble gases like Argon or Krypton for ener...
I am making a universe and I thought that it would be unrealistic for all life forms in my entire universe to be based upon carbon. I am aware of silicon as a possible replacement, but I'm looking...
Here on Earth, Carbon is the base of all life from plants to fungi to animals. The most common alternative that exists is Silicon, but surely out of the over 100 elements other than Carbon and Sili...
First question: Would this simplex ternary system be stable? If that question turns out to be yes, how would an organism based on carbon tetrachloride use the energy types below to provide enough ...
This is my first time using this site and i'm excited to get answers to roadblocks that have prevented me from finishing my writing in the past. However, you may have to excuse some mistakes I make...
What examples are there in science fiction of molecular shields that can cancel out or "eat" certain molecules--and are they plausible? Is it hypothetically possible to create a giant levee that is...
What I "want": My fantasy world has lots of volcanos. Deep under the surface there is a root-like form of life predominant. It grows in big bundles and searches for important minerals, gases, flui...
Continuation question from this: The Biology behind a slime that uses hydrofluoric acid to disable and digest prey. I've designed a slime that has a bunch of acids and non reactive polymers in its...
Drug abuse is becoming more and more serious in my (made-up) country. A researcher team is now working on a new drug called Biological VR which has the following properties: The drug is a psychoa...
I am a fictional writer and need info on a poison that can be put in food and is undetectable in autopsy. Symptoms also can't be too messy, no specific time in how long it takes to take effect.
What kind of realistic oxygen producing reaction used by life could exist in a carbon dioxide / ammonia atmosphere? There are also many volcanoes, either immersed or not, water oceans and you can e...
I've prefigured a specific setting as being middling in technological progress when compared with its neighbors. This setting does not have access to hydrocarbons, has severe cultural and politica...
In an alien atmosphere, where methane is the main gas instead of oxygen and ammonia is the main solvent instead of water. Similar to how photosynthesis on earth plants work, by taking in carbon dio...
So, I've wound up in jail again (not my fault - I didn't start that fire, honest!) and I need to get out of here before the mayor has a chance to check his safe. Unfortunately, I left my lockpicks ...
Edit: some answerers seem to be slightly misunderstanding the nature of the premise. Remember that the concept here is this; In the Precambrian of Earth, bacteria evolve to extract the abundant chl...
I'm making this whole other alien world and I made it an ammonia world, so there is a lot of nitrogen in the atmosphere. Would nitrogen be a good gas to breathe in an ammonia world and would Cobalt...
Everybody has seen superpowers like superstrength, flying, and regeneration. While flying and superstrength are quite straightforward regarding the energy cost, regeneration is not. In this questi...
The drug should have the same effect as heroin, but without being addictive at all. Is this chemically possible?
I've been thinking, could there possibly be an organism that is based on the element of helium? If yes, what would it look like? (Images are welcome)
The average temperature on this world surface is −55 degrees Celsius. 80% of the surface of this world is covered by liquid ammonia oceans. This planet has a surface gravity of 0.75"‰g. The atmo...
What amount of energy would you need to expend to create an arm out of nothing but energy? Of course we have $E = m c^2$ telling us the energy any amount of mass represents. Given the average of a...
Cross-linked polymers are vitally important materials used all the time in modern life. For example, the resins used in composite materials are usually some type of cross-linked polymer. What typ...
Previous questions here: Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 1: Skeleton Creating a scientifically semi-valid super-soldier, part 2: nervous system Creating a scientifically...
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...
It must be ingestable and the victim can't detect by taste or smell, though easily detectable in an autopsy, if performed, but mimics regular illness so the first few deaths won't be autopsied (Due...
Could a cow produce bottled milk? The answer is, of course, no; there is no way a cow could do that; obviously. Perhaps I should be more clear on what I'm asking. Is there any way a mammalian cr...
I was on a beach recently and was contemplating what it would look like if Silicon just didn't bind oxygen very well/at all, perhaps similar to gold. I'm not sure if something else would take the ...
