General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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So, after some advice in narrowing down the topic (used to be what kind of characteristics do animals need in different environments or something like that) I have decided to start a series! Starti...
Back home, the Tibetan Plateau averages 4,950 meters above sea level with its highest point being Mount Everest, 8,848 meters--29,029 feet--above sea level. At such heights, problems are resulted ...
There have been more than a few questions covering Alcubiere warp drives, many about what happens with one at FTL and a few about using them at sub-light speeds. I'm curious about what happens at ...
OK, let's suppose I have a structurally sound ship"”it could take a shaking"”and that space debris isn't a problem. I have access to a high level fusion reactor, which can, for all intents and purp...
Suppose there is a rogue planet. I was imaging what could be its energy source for life, and I remembered that photos of the center of a Galaxy look very bright. So my question is, can a galactic c...
I was imagining a scenario where an 21st century engineer accidentally finds himself transported through time to early Renaissance Europe. Realizing that no help or rescue is on the way, he decides...
I am working on a scenario that begins with an impact event. I have multiple questions, but I'll start with the catalyst for this world. Is there a type of impact event that would not be a global ...
What could cause a planet to naturally have zero caverns with surface openings apart from small impact hollows in the sides of craters and crevices carved in cliffs? To be specific, zero large ca...
Let's assume a human civilization have been living for centuries, nay millennia, in a very large cave, not too deep under Antarctica - deep enough not to freeze, but shallow enough not to die becau...
On earth where we puny humans fight each other on land air and sea we have of a concept of strategic points which are oil fields trade choke points islands in the sea mountains on land places wh...
Question simplified and clarified as requested... thanks for the feedback! If humankind evolved on a planet with a consistent, gentle environment, would it negate the need for them to develop varia...
Composition: Nitrogen 53% Helium 16% Oxygen 13% Neon 10% Argon 6% Hydrogen 2% Pressure: 2.13 bar I think the air should be breathable, but I'm concerned about the effects on flammability and wind ...
For the world I am creating I am trying to have an event like a super volcano explosion in its past. Generations of oral storytelling have resulted in the Norse mythology of Ragnarok making its way...
I see a lot of media describing large space colonies, and am curious as to how they got there. I'll admit, I'm mostly inspired by Interstellar here. So here's the scenario: A group of 600 settlers...
Is it plausible that a planet can be breathable despite the color of it's atmosphere? My story takes place in an alternate reality in which what people thought the Solar System was like in the 50s,...
I've been wondering, would it be possible to achieve levitation of an object in the center of mass of a planet? I ask this because the gravity is the attraction between bodies and theoretically th...
In a world I am building, the day lasts longer than the year, 9 times longer in fact. The native people of this world have been forced to migrate around the world, both avoiding the scorching deser...
In most sci-fi (graphic) novels and films, they often depict the design of the cockpit or captain's bridge in a rather unusual way. A smaller ship such as a fighter or a transport ship usually come...
A century ago, after a catastrophic event on our planet, many of us were were forced to find a new home. There was one world that caught our attention: a tidally-locked blue planet orbiting a red d...
I'm embarking on a fantasy book so I guess in essence you can write about anything but I do want an element of plausibility. Could you have hot desert caps on a planet and an icy/winter equator?
The question Could we still live if Earth's spin speed slowed down by 90% assumed Earth's spin speed slowed down by undefined human activities (as if climate change was not bad enough). One answer ...
I swear I saw this question elsewhere. Let me know if this is a dupe. Photons are great. They're little bundles of energy that Reflect off of nearly everything, allowing us to see faraway obj...
In my world there is a neolithic civilization of people who inhabit earthen trenches. The people first soften the earth with ... fluids ... and dig out 6 - 12 foot deep trench systems that extend o...
I am making a sci-fi web-comic set on an alien world and I thought up an idea for an eye that works much like an eye from a mammal, but instead of moving the whole eye, only the pupil moves. This i...
In this universe, mass and gravity work differently so stable torus planets are possible (donut shaped). How would a torus world orbiting a single star have to rotate in order to have a stable da...
Does anyone know what the relationship is between the range of likely eye colors in animals and the color of the sun on a given alien planet? For example, on Earth we primarily see browns, greens, ...
Let's suppose regular humans (same intelligence and pretty much same features) but they usually have 3-6 babies at a time. To me, many breasts seem like an evolutionary disadvantage. Something you...
A couple friends and I have started a world called Lothaucan. On this world there is a continent called Novara with a circle of islands as its key feature. (seen in the mid-left of the image) I...
I am considering specifically multiple intelligent species that all evolved on the same planet, and whether it is plausible that they will end up in a multi-species society or whether one species w...
(Perhaps termite people would be more appropriate) In my world, the Gbajumo (think race of semi-gods) decide that the humanoid beings of the world have become too cocky and comfortable in their su...
The time: January 27th, 2017, 7:00 AM local. The place: New York City and environs. Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom, has just finished steamrolling New York City into something more closely res...
An octopus is one of the most intelligent non-human species on Earth, can manipulate objects, and has lots of other interesting adaptations (e.g. the ability to change color). But, an average octop...
While the colonization of the Solar system is underway, a new sport emerges: Spatial Rowing. The rules are the following: Each spacecraft has one driver (the contestant) The loaded mass of each ...
This is specifically about the climate, and where on the planet it would be mildest. Imagine Earth, rotating at the usual distance from the sun. Except, it is tidally locked to the sun; a so-calle...
I am writing a story in which a planet has a moon that orbits it about once a minute. In the story, the moon is pretty bright too, so the night sky has a little bit of a slow strobe light effect: 3...
Imagine that the average number of children born per birth without any artificial intervention was three (i.e. triplets were the norm) and that 98% of pregnancies gave rise to 2 to 4 children, with...
If two circular portals of 2 meter (arbitrary) diameter were created allowing uninhibited flow between surface atmospheres of Venus and Mars, what would be the environmental effects on the two plan...
Here, I asked if it's possible to terraform a hot planet. But now, if we have a volcanic active planet, can we use the same techniques to cool it down? Normally, the planet cool off slowly after...
Image people with roughly the same brain and nervous system layout as a human as a first approximation using the same kinds of cells and chemicals, etc. But, these people have organs that can dire...
There is a device in my story that »steals« memories from a person (I had some sort of transmitter in mind, but this can easily be modified, as long as it uses powerful long-range signals to achi...
In the near future mankind could well permanently settle on the Moon. Whether for research or mining or just good old fashioned novelty is irrelevant. The colony includes: Large domed structu...
In a large varied environment where strong winds are the norm and every few weeks or so a huge hurricane sweeps through, how would large land animals (horse- to elephant-sized) evolve to cope? I u...
The world I am designing contains several ancient artifacts that among other things, share the common trait of allowing users to short-range teleport (think the Blink ability from Dishonored). The ...
Another question concerning the Tetrapi, I would like to know if having haemocyanin-based blood (copper-based blue blood) would be an advantage over having haemoglobin-based blood (iron-based red b...
On planets of have different temperatures, conditions and chemical makeup of the lava/magma, what would be the least viscous lava around? (Relevant to an earlier question - What would an efficient...
Suppose you have a planet large enough to support life, with water and air all that, but old enough that it has exhausted its internal heat supply, the core is frozen solid, and there is little to ...
It's 2070, global warming is a terrifying reality. Coastal cities such as New York and Shanghai has already fallen to rising sea levels and extreme weather. In an effort to stem and perhaps counter...
It's common knowledge that the atmosphere of Venus is too inhospitable for a proper landing. The most concerning problem with that is pressure. Venus's atmospheric pressure is said to be 92 times...
How could an earth sized and broadly / liberally earth-like planet have plate tectonics but still experience zero or weak / little earthquakes? How can I have the weakest earthquakes possible while...
Ice is strange, in that the solid form is less dense than the liquid water it freezes from. This causes Ice to float on top of the water. How would our planet earth be different if something chang...
