General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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So I put JDlugosz's answer, the MJOLNIR Mark VI and the utility fog into a blender to get 100% pure AT-Field (copy). How does this work? Small nanites make up the shields intercepting part. T...
A common trope in zombie mediums in to base the virus off of rabies. While this choice does have some obvious reasoning to it, it has been long over done. Relatively recently, The Last of Us came o...
Biradial symmetry occurs in ctenophores: the body plan consists of two halves which independently display radial symmetry. Spherical symmetry occurs in Volvox algae: any cut through the center of t...
Imagine an Earth-like planet with a moon that is closer to the planet than ours with a lunar cycle of 18-19 days. I am trying to imagine how this different cycle would affect human beings and anima...
I am imaging a world in which a minor plot device is that there is a strain of dogs that were genetically engineered so that they are even more loyal than ordinary dogs at first, but at some point ...
Because water ice is less dense as a liquid than a solid (as an aside - this is due to the basic structure of the oxygen atom) it floats when frozen. Without this property ice would sink, basica...
I'm attempting to write a story, in which the main character needs to be in stasis for a couple hundred years. Upon researching the idea of cyro-stasis I have found that there is really no way to p...
In the creature type I asked about in my last question, there are some lower caste members who seem to have metal limbs. However I don't think they would waste resources to build the legs for lower...
Something I was working on in the past involved a species of sentient insectoids. The idea was the two sexes usually live in two very different environments and rarely come into contact with the ot...
I was thinking of an organism that lives its entire life in interstellar space It eats, defecates, moves, grows, ejects eggs, attracts mates, and has sex in interstellar space. It has skin that p...
An ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) has come to the conclusion that we humans should be put in a simulation. It has also decided that it would rather not turn the Earth into computronium. Fortun...
What could cause the majority of a rocky Earth-like planet to have to have persistent extreme weather at least for part of the year? By extreme weather I mean cyclones, lightning storms, tornadoe...
Thanks to the recent discovery of handwavium "¡ filaments that can in principle be extruded to any length, we will be able to build space elevators sooner than most people would expect. The inte...
Our perception of time is steeped in the rhythms of our world, and blended with the most ancient of superstitions, decrees and mathematical conveniences. Thus we have days that track our world's ro...
How long would it take for the earth's crust to move in such a way that we, as a species, will be forced to migrate to other different lands than the ones we inhabit today? The result being that ou...
I am trying to figure out the climate on my planet. If there is an asteroid ring around the equator will it cool down the equator? And if it does cool down will the planet still be habitable? My ...
Picture a planet identical to Earth, but with rings. It has a satellite similar to the moon, except smaller; I'm not sure how big it needs to be but distance from the planet is more important so ...
In my world, I have a reptilian overlord theme, with humanoid slaves. The planet revolves around a binary star system. What are the basic requirements of the climate and the ecosystem, for the rept...
How would it be possible to have a planet with two defining surface features, ocean and mountains? Such a planet would have to be habitable for humans who arrive there, though it does not need to s...
Let's say we have a wild rabbit that can see a few minutes into the future. Being a non-sentient animal, it barely registers these abilities, and largely uses it to find food, avoid predators, save...
Note before I begin: I am aware that this might be a Math-heavy question that might be better suited for the math.se Goal: I'd like to use n-dimensional geometry as a method for effectively travel...
Imagine someone putting a battleship over a country, always in sight, in order to threaten them to not try anything funny. Imagine tech that allows to suspend the ship is not a problem. How high i...
Most fantasy worlds have large creatures living in a world with humans and other races. In Tamriel, the province of Skyrim has giants, mammoth and even dragons roaming freely. The Lord of the ring ...
Pretty self explanatory question...can the Cube Earth described at the link below support a spherical core and a magnetic field? How would a civilization that has been living on a "cube" Earth di...
What are some circumstances that would require a mammal or a reptile to grow another pair of limbs?
Xenomorphs are one of the most dangerous, deadly aliens in movie history. They breed in massive numbers, live in an ant-like society, and have blood that doubles as concentrated acid. Most of tho...
I understand this is a broad topic that to a degree was answered in previous questions. What I'm trying to do is to create a plugin in Unreal 4. I'll start by creating a day/night system and a sk...
Many half-human mythological creatures follow a few common anatomical schemes. Some consist of an animal with a human face, such as the sphinx, naga and manticore. Some consist of a human anterio...
I have devised an alien species for a universe I am working on. They originate from the same planet as my high-pressure creatures (What would happen to a high-pressure creature in a low-pressure at...
Accelerating a person's perceived sense of time is a fairly common subject in science fiction, and to keep a long story short, I was wondering just how far you could stretch time out when you're wo...
I'm writing a story set in a Middle Ages type setting (Game of Thrones, LOTR style). In the story, I have a race of people who are "faeries", based off of Celtic legend and lore. They're associa...
Mars and Earth's moon already feature in a lot of fiction about space colonization. After these two planets, and assuming that other solar systems are too far away, what is the best place within th...
The purpose of the machine was obvious from the elegant cruelty of its design: The seat restraints and the seat's solid, one-piece, gold-colored metal structure made it clear that whatever it did...
Back in my story, organic beings and AIs fight together against a frightening enemy, one that threatens everyone's freedom and chance to overcome their flaws and achieve a peaceful world. However, ...
To err is human. That's what probably led us to the verge of extinction in the near future unless we can develop an intelligent algorithm that can make the most logically and accurate prediction ...
Coriolis' force is the cause for winds and water streams to bend while they travel North-South along the Earth surface. This force is inversely proportional to the rotation speed of the planet: the...
We're in a military space cruiser, designed for in-system patrolling. We're selected to test out a prototype FTL drive. The initial tests are supposed to be short-ranged in-system hops. A disaster...
"As I was going up the stair I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away" Antigonish by William Hughes Meams Paul Billson makes his living in...
I am making a game folowing the development of civilizations on an alien planet, however as i am almost done with the geography of this planet, i have come to realize that my continents which are s...
For purposes of this question, assume whichever body position and/or axis of acceleration is most likely to provide a successful outcome. And if it is not possible at all, what is the maximum lengt...
Listen. You hear that crunching, cracking noise? That's the marrow adders. They're all around us. Tiny, timid, pretty much harmless. If you break open one of the larger bones left behind by the bo...
In some environments (think of the Faerunian Underdark for a fantasy example, or a planet orbiting a pulsar for sci-fi folks), high-energy (UV and up, but I'm mostly concerned about UV and very sof...
I'm (slowly) working on a semi sci-fi world, set in a WWII-ish tech level (Semi sci-fi being how they got to this world). Except in this world, aircraft have developed significantly later, and batt...
I'm writing a book about a man traveling on a Desert planet (colonized) and I need help with some of the species he might encounter there. I'm focusing on animals right now. I need to know what ada...
I'd like to make a sentient plant species that can perform tasks such as communication and problem solving. My Definition of Sentience When asking this question, I mean sentient as in able to...
This is a follow up to What would physics be like in a wrap-around universe? PyRulez commented, "Will gravity still make sense? (Namely, will it converge or not)?" This was bantered about in the c...
Let's assume that I managed to create a wormhole, only problem is,that I have to observe it with microscopes (it's so small), but I can keep it open. Also, I have a dyson sphere. I want the power ...
Bradypodidae is the family consisting of the three-toed sloths, the one we most associate the word "sloth" with. As far as we know, they exist only in the tropical forests of Latin America and nev...
A bit of background on what I'm developing: I'm trying to develop a language for an alien race with completely different biology to humans. It's still in the very early stages, so the exact form is...
The setting is present day Earth as we know it. No Magic, and no technologies which do not already exist. Let's say there is all-out nuclear war and much of the existing infrastructure is destroy...
