General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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This question is intended as a follow up to this one: Naturally occurring wheels - do the 'mech' vs. 'tank' comparison apply to organics? I agree with the arguments against wheels evolving in plac...
Background Several hundred years from now, humans have successfully terraformed the Moon. It has become a fad for the rich and powerful to have exotic residences built in exotic locations. The ri...
Set in the 22nd century CE, space explorations reached maturity and the farthest human colony is on one of the moon of Neptune. So far the only voice from space that we have heard comes is our own,...
Could life survive on a diet of dust or some other substance that is both abundant and that we don't place any value on?
Question 2 of Semiliquid atmosphere - Is my premise/conclusions correct; and will it get the result I want? Atmospheric effects - As mentioned before, I prefer it to be visually very similar to o...
Some scientists discover that plants have humanlike feelings. Now it becomes unethical and immoral to have mass production farms for plants as it is yet for animals. As there are animal-right activ...
In my story, some aliens try to conquer humans by slowly copying their mind into humans heads. This copy process is called "enlightenment" by the ones who undergo the transformation. For example, b...
I'm trying to picture life on a planet sized moon of a huge planet in a one-star stellar system. It would be tidally locked, which could do some interesting things. It has an iron/nickel core for t...
Assume that Uranium is vastly available, as are the building materials. Can you build this device? The fuel tank stores uranium at a high temperature so that it remains liquid. The fuel injector/s...
Most parts of the observable universe are generally extremely cold and has no air. So if some organism can survive naturally in space, and thrive near 3 Kelvin temperatures without any form of air,...
DISCLAIMER: This question was closed on Astronomy Stack Exchange as off topic, so I'll try my luck here. I'm trying to understand the climatic effects of the far future scenario of an Earth-like p...
Let's say my terrestrial planet has a stable circumbinary orbit around two suns similar to the Kepler-47 system, in the habitable zone, with an orbit similar to Kepler-47c. The challenge here is th...
We love turtle worlds. We already have a question about turtle planets : How do I prevent my turtle from collapsing under its own gravity? but let's scale it down. I would like to have a waterball...
In an alternate universe there is a force known as the emotion force although the force has nothing to do with emotions. Anything that interacts through the emotion force has an emotion charge tha...
Part of this story I'm writing involves a human subspecies who are adapted to extremely high altitudes -- as high or higher than our real world's Tibetan population, let's say. I've done research t...
Question is ultimately asking why would we do this? A few parameters first... Technological: Our current knowledge of physics is correct and there is no such thing as faster than light travel, ...
So, as the title suggests, I have a reptilian alien species capable of human-tier thought. Anatomically, they are centaur-like (four legs on the ground, two manipulating limbs up top), standing sli...
A group of robbers in the Old West (of America) are planning a daring heist. They intend to rob a newly commissioned train on its maiden trip across the country. This train will have an upper-class...
One of the planets I am building has a very large crescent shaped continent that I want to say came about when a super continent split and the areas below sea level flooded. Could this have happend?
I have a bipedal, primate species that I want to be able to move quickly for short periods of time. In other words, rather than possessing the "perseverance" of humans, I want this species to work...
In countless series of the world of science fiction we see something that we all accept as realistic but makes no sense. Holographic controls. We simply say that since it's the future that it makes...
Science fiction often depicts humans visiting alien planets which have unbreathable atmospheres. No problem; they are shown wearing atmosphere suits including a helmet with a transparent visor/face...
In a world where most grid electricity energy is from solar (with wind, hydro etc only supplying small amounts), you would need to balance out the load somehow. One idea I've had is to use "reverse...
Definition: Interlunar adjective Of or traveling between moons. I'm (as far as I can tell) inventing the term interlunar to describe travel between moons in a single planetary system. Travel b...
In the answer to this question, it is said that that is needed to be done to make the solution feasible is to increase the growth rate of human hair. But the problem is that I cannot think of any e...
So I have a planet that the size of our solar system(magic/white hole/whatever keeps the planet on 1G despite having the weight of a neutron star). So the planet is very earthlike in terms of soil,...
It looks human, feels human, can walk and run like us and can even argue with us, but it do not possess DNA. Is it possible to create this homunculus?
What's the biggest building we could build on the world? 90% of it must be air pockets that we can fit humans into Going underground is allowed, but you can't allow your building to turn to liqui...
For my Science-Fantasy WIP I am considering using a single artificial planet (roughly the size of a Dyson Sphere) and its moons (of which only three are large enough to exert any real influence) as...
Much like how certain cultures have adapted to live at extremely high altitudes, what would be the evolutionary effects if humans today were taken to a planet with atmospheric pressure not unlike a...
Gauss's Law states that the electric field enclosed by a sphere, or any other surface is the same as the charge divided by the electric constant. What if in another universe Gauss's law was, "The ...
I am a staunch believer that any near-future permanent colony on the Moon or Mars should be built underground, at least the living spaces, due to the harmful effects of radiation. What is the grad...
What would the implications be for a humanoid species to excrete only gaseous waste from themselves instead of solid or liquid waste? Public bathroom facilities would not be needed, but how would ...
Melanin is what causes the color to appear in the skin, hair and eyes. But in humans there seems to be a limit to this. For example human hair can be orange(gingers) but not green or blue. iris's c...
I've created a world where science has developed a new species of bird (kind of a bird, it's like a Basset Hound with wings) to be used purely as a utilitarian species. (Carrying of small loads, me...
I have to make a map for two planets. For booth two I already have an idea about what they look like, but I don't know how to draw them. They don't need to be really clear, however they should make...
I have an organization that I want to have some kind of HQ without being in a country. I was reminded of Sealand (Thanks Joel), those platforms off the coast of the UK. I want something similar, ...
In many famous alien species you see that the iris is so large that it almost appears that it replaces the sclera. What evolutionary history would support the irises growing to that size. The only...
An alien life form is found that has a pattern of stripes on its back. The pattern is black, red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta, black, and so on. It is found that for each series of dif...
I'd like to be able to see from my Earth-like planet, a very bright nebula that can even be seen during the daytime. I question, however, whether that is possible, because in order for it to be co...
Let's say that in my planetary system there is a gas giant around the size and distance from the Sun as Jupiter. I need the planet to be similar enough to earth to be able to be inhabited natural b...
Lets say you have a small group of space colonists. They were screened for sickness, viral and bacterial, as thoroughly as we knew how before being sent off to the colony and all were found health...
In 2053 a manned mission to the moon, using seismic sensors, discovers that it is not a natural satellite*. The moon is actually an egg of Vespula ludicrousmegagiganto. Note that the name is not ...
Tidally locking a rock or metal moon isn't too hard and the understanding of how a solid moon behaves while tidally locked is relatively well understood. However, can a water moon be tidally locked...
Hey guys so I've posted on this site before and I've finally made an account so I'd like to ask again about mine and my friend's webcomic WIP. Biology wise, I've made three main groups of animals, ...
I've wanted to work out a world where summers are extremely hot except for two weeks in the middle of summer. Winters would be extremely cold except in the dead of winter when there would be two we...
In mammals - and that includes us humans - the lungs make up 7% of the total body volume. This allows us to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, thanks to the pulmonary alveoli. But bird lungs...
I am wondering what are some of the major concerns/designs an intelligent flying species would have in designing a starship? Generally we consider space to be a premium and crew living space is al...
Picture, in a near future, that we build cities vertically rather than horizontally. Need a new city block? Add another few floors. Disregard for the moment any physical construction problems this ...
Let's say that a gas giant (around the same size and distance from the sun as Jupiter) has a moon that supports life. The moon is around the size of Mercury (if this is too large please let me know...
