General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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Is there any practical g-limit for unmanned spacecraft, or could you theoretically push a missile to significant fractions of c in hours or minutes while pulling hundreds or thousands of Gs? I need...
Picture this, a highly volcanic island sitting in the middle of a temperate or sub-arctic sea, the heat generated by the magma beneath the island and the volcano heats the air enough to generate a ...
This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series Gargoyles are a staple of Gothic architecture and I've decided to give these creatures the time of day. Gargoyles are closely related to Ny...
If humans have evolved from apes, what if another species have already evolved from humans but left the planet millions of years ago? If this is true, in the future, if humans are advanced enough ...
This came out of a discussion of an all female colony world, but I'm interested in the more general version of this question. Is there any function in society that requires male levels of strength ...
So... I'm fiddling with Yet Another Bipedal Digitigrade Species. There is tons of material on the legs, but seemingly not so much on the hands. Short Version So... I'm wondering; is it possible t...
Okay so i have this world that is inhabited by an alien race that outwardly is basically undistinguishable from an ordinary earth-human. Due to the specifics of this planet they live on they can br...
We are in a far future setting where humans (or transhumans I should say) achieved two things: be able to modify themselves genetically to the point where they can have completely different organ...
In the near future a man-made virus was released which caused a world wide epidemic in humans and animals , the virus completly shutsdown all cognitive functions in the brain leaving the host in a ...
I think that robots in the future will have to have a system similar to adipose tissue that would have similar functions of those of people and animals. I believe that if an android is supposed to ...
I recently read that not only would a creatures digital DNA need to be stored but its mitochondria and microbiomes DNA needs to be stored. A previous questions answers mentions epigenetic structur...
Recently I got the idea that my humanoid race should have hydrophobic skin, because it sounds cool, and perhaps would help to maintain hygiene. However, on the second thought, I am not so sure. Wo...
Continuing in the theme of bringing creatures from video games into the Anatomically Correct series is the Chocobo of Final Fantasy lore. Put simply, a Chocobo is a large bird. It is unclear whe...
Body: Boron-based lifeforms that use ammonia as a solvent and respires methane & hydrogen, with an atmosphere of mostly methane, hydrogen, nitrogen and in smaller percentages, acetylene & ...
This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series How would you evolve a harpy? A harpy is defined by Wikipedia as a flying creature with: Long, human hair Human faces Feathered bodies C...
So for this question there's a Mad Scientist/Dark Lord that wants to engineer a race that can out breed mankind and carry him to victory. He has access to sufficiently advanced genetic engineering...
So there is an Antarctic like continent in my setting; and just like Antarctica it is the largest and most inhospitable desert in the planet due to how absolutely cold it is. But what if there wa...
This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series Kappa are creatures from Japan said to lurk in rivers and lakes. They are described as small humanoids resembling a cross between a monkey,...
The muroids are a superfamily of rodents consisting today of mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings and gerbils. There are at least 1750 different species of them, proof apparent of their environme...
We have, perhaps, all experienced those 'heat' packs wherein a local disturbance causes a crystal structure to rapidly dissipate through the medium, releasing heat in the process. Nothing really 'm...
Wendigo fever is a Prion (credit goes to SE is too politically correct for the idea) which is spread by the consumption of tainted meat. the main problem I have is to my knowledge Prions are solely...
I've heard there was no upper limit for the size and weight of a ground effect vehicle. In my world, the people there wanted to design a quick response aircraft carrier that could reach anywhere...
Starting at the most basic of theoretical questions, is it chemically possible for these minerals to be deposited by an organic enzyme? I'm particularly interested in diamond because it's pure carb...
So there's this man that was born 1,000 years ago, but today he's still living and he's (biologically) 28 years old. He just stopped aging at that age. He is not immortal. He has been hurt in wars...
There is a planet called Galileo with life on it. The life is getting extremely complex, in fact, with some of the life on Galileo beginning to form tribes and clans and learning language. Humans w...
Here a laser raptor Pew Pew'ing in its natural habitat and timeline. (From the Kung Fury movie) So I want to know how a biological organism can develop to spew laser beams through their eyes. W...
The story takes place in Alpha Centauri, with this binary orbiting just over 1 AU from Rigil Kentaurus. The star system will tightly packed, but following the 10 Mutual Hill Radii separation setup....
I'm creating a fictional world which includes tree dwelling octopuses that thrives in swamps and tropical rainforests. I'm wondering what evolutionary pressures could lead to the rise of such crea...
It's the future. The setting is about as "hard-ish sci-fi" as it is possible to be, with the one big exception of a viable FTL engine. Humans have began spreading out into the galaxy, colonising n...
This question on space stack begins to tackle how a bird could fly inside an O'Neill cylinder, https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/27665/can-birds-fly-inside-an-oneill-cylinder. Here is the ...
Previously, I asked about the plausibility of a sulphuric acid dragon. As it turns out, the answer was right on Wikipedia, namely a. thiooxidans and the snottie Snottites are highly acidic biof...
After centuries of careful search and travel, some intrepid extraterrestrial explorers have finally found another inhabited world! Elated with their discovery and exhausted after their long journey...
bucking the trend of mermaids I've decided to take a different approach with my mermaids. A long time ago a group of Australopithecus diverged from us taking to the sea. some characteristics of the...
So I was recently inspired by the answers that I saw on this stack exchange to the following question: Feasibility of H.G. Wells' Continuously-Exploding Atomic Bombs And it occurred to me that you...
I'm thinking to build an island by pouring lava into the ocean, with the advanced technology, around 40 years later, by making a special pipe connected to the ground (maybe near volcano/es) since t...
From what I know about the periodic table, in order to add a new element it would have to be above the current highest element. And up there this new element would be unstable. But could I just re...
Would it be possible for an alien species to have liquid nitrogen for its blood? What would be required for that to work? What kind of environment would it need to exist in?
I was thinking about the progress that has been made in terms of energy usage for e.g. transport purposes and noticed how the prominent source of energy had changed over time: first muscle power, t...
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and copper is a significantly more abundant metal in the Earth's Crust, at about 70 PPM compared to tin at 2 PPM. Because tin was the limiting factor in bro...
I've read super-earths might become archipelago planets. Picture shallow seas, under a thick atmosphere that alternates between muggy and clammy. Because a bigger share of the surface would be cont...
After reading this thread from a bit under a year and a half ago about the most cost-effective means of travel on Mars, where one of the answers mentions rail as the best option, I started wonderin...
In my story, all the fauna in the planet (basically Earth) has been instantly killed, leaving only flora and fungi. How long will it take before the effects start to show, and how long until all th...
Is it possible that life could come about on land if a planet has a dense atmosphere? (This applies to non-carbon based life as well).
I'm interested about whether or not and how gravity would be affected on deformed planets. You could think of this as whether or not mega-asteroids would be able to sustain life? If so, would diffe...
If you found out a way to produce a smooth icy surface on an ice moon like Ganymede, Enceladus, or Callisto, what kind of challenges would someone face if they tried to start ice skating? I figured...
In my story, a planet of low-tech natives in the midst of war are abruptly brought into contact with a much more advanced empire. There are many historical precedents for this kind of event, and oc...
Planets that are larger and have higher gravity tend to have thicker atmospheres, since it is easier to hold onto gases. Higher air pressure leads to a higher air density, and therefore, a greater...
Living in polar climates can be quite difficult, and staying warm can often be such an issue. But not anymore with the heat sponge! This nifty little organ draws heat from even the coldest water to...
A domestic terrorist organization has come to light due to recent terror attacks that they claim responsibility for. This group has developed a biological weaponized plague that attacks the nervous...
I searched the site and found answers saying hard light can't exist. Apparently in the three years since the last question was asked, scientists started making inroads on making solid light a reali...
