General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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I made an organism called the Skarlix for a art/xenobiology project called Sagan 4. The Skarlix is a eukaryotic, somewhat amoeba-like organism that "eats" various metal compounds and "breathes" (o...
I've been working on the anatomy of my boron based life using alternative biochemistry. But I've recently came across a problem that I can't solve on my own. In oxygen breathing life on earth, the ...
In my world there is a rogue scientist who wants to wipe out at least 90% of humanity. He's has a sample of measles which are very contagious but he needs something new. Could he merge measles with...
In my previous question, I asked about how close can two stars in a binary system be for planets around them to stay earthlike, assuming that both stars have very sunlike and both planets very eart...
Imagine one day the moon suddenly transformed into a colossal elephant's foot and we need to get to the moon to obtain sample... Could it be done using modern day technology to mine the uranium for...
Suppose we knew of an extinction level event in a few decades, and through a large Manhattan Project-type effort humanity manages to construct a von Neumann probe with a copy of all human knowledge...
In the story I'm making, it is important that there are two suns in the sky, going at different rythms (maybe the planet orbits one of them each year, and the other each four years, for instance), ...
The robot in question is a large, worm-like mining robot built for digging tunnels. It has electromagnets positioned throughout the segments of its body, for the purpose of pulling metals out of th...
In the story I'm writing, three humans with stone-age technology and no knowledge of space accidentally awaken thousands of cryogenically preserved humans. These humans immediately get to work on...
So, let's suppose I finally made it. A creature that's very agile, able to resist most small-arms fire and has a whale-oil breath weapon. Flight is solved with bones, as strong as carbon fiber, (la...
I want to know whether there is a way to make coins that are "swimmable" in the fashion of Scrooge McDuck. My inquiry is based off this Family Guy meme from Pinterest The coins don't necessari...
Imagine a light spaceship capable of traveling at 0.999c is tasked to tow a radioactive cargo containing millions of tons of polonium and radium, however the container holding the radioactive mater...
I had an idea for a new world that included cactus forests, with cactuses the size of a giant sequoia. Is this realistic?
The exoplanet in question is Proxima Centauri b. How might the mid-to-upper-level atmosphere of that planet be dangerously radioactive and full of airborne nuclear reagents, without it being the do...
This is something I'm struggling to find answers for online. I need to be able to explain and justify the biology of a species that capable of surving in multiple environments including changes in ...
I'm considering a scenario where Humans cannot live on Earth anymore, and need to settle other planets. Some physicist I follow on YouTube like to remind us that almost no mater what we do to Earth...
Basic scenario: An abundance of a simple Lipid is introduced to a large body of liquid (water for simplicity), there's some motion; wind or gravity or whatever, and the Lipids bump into one another...
This question asks what if the world was divided into two regions? I'm asking what if the world were split into two planets. Let's say some aliens come to Earth and prank us (apparently they never...
In my story, I have two late renaissance era cultures discovering each other for the first time and I plan for the story to develop into more of how they both understand each other. However, I don'...
An old saying goes that if you have an army, it will want to fight a war. That seems to be true also for our personal army, our immune system: there seems to be various pieces of evidence that man...
What possible evolutionary reasons would there be for insects to increase their physical size over a long period? What benefits would be gained by an insect being larger? For example, say ants in...
As the title: What organs or modifications would be needed to have creature that can eat/digest hair without problem? (Preferably digested normal/quick enough, and they only eat hair.) This inclu...
Gods occasionally visit the mortal realm for particular reasons, such as certain festivals or to do battle against demonic forces in an invasion. In the case of the latter, a god has to be careful ...
The planet is 10 Earth-Radii, with a 1 Earth Gravity value. It is a habitable planet. It has a thin atmosphere. It also has 3 moons and a ring system. The moons are rather large. The largest one i...
One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into Legosi from Beastars. He felt a dull pain a bit above his behind, as he li...
Let's talk about dragons for a bit. Giant, flying, deadly predators with teeth and claws and fire and scales. Unfortunately, "giant" and "flying" don't play together nicely in physics' playground. ...
So, two nations are in a war, land is off-topic as it's filled with zombies and necromancer zombies. The other logical option is the sea. Now, one nation has these creatures, called wyverns. Wyve...
I'm developing a story where humans colonize a few planets. One planet, lets call it Planet A, has similar gravity to earth, air pressure, and solar radiation. You cannot however, walk on the surf...
In my fantasy setting, cyclopses are large (about the size of a rhinocerus), carnivorous humanoids. They have a single blunt horn on their forehead, which is their primary tool for taking down prey...
I am writing a story, in which a mad scientist (based on Ted Kaczynski) wants to kill as many people as possible with an artificially created disease. The idea is, that more complex societies are ...
First, a clarification: Dwarfism is the umbrella term for 200+ medical conditions that result in short stature. Since this is Worldbuilding, my question refers to human beings with genetic dwarfis...
In my world, there are 3 astrological bodies of significance, the sun, the moon, and a 3rd, geostationary object, believed to be the home of the gods. I want all three of them to have roughly the s...
During much of the Cretaceous period, oxygen levels were substantially higher than they are currently, with estimates indicating that around 30% of the atmosphere consisted of oxygen. Obviously, t...
Good day fellers. My question is - how can one decrease the digestibility of consumed food? I mean, if two characters consume the same amount of the same food, the one with such ability will get...
My world is very earthlike and I am looking to create a bird that primarily eats bone marrow. I wanted my bird to crack the bones of the carcasses to eat the marrow inside. What would the ideal bea...
Suppose I want to have a moon with more gravity than ours how large of a moon can I have and what effects would there be.
One thing I like about Attack on Titan are those lovely Omni-Directional Maneuver (ODM) gears! They're the perfect combination of a jetpack and a grappling hook. I love how the thrusters are placed...
Following on from this question. Question Context : Mars second moon Deimos has been converted into a generation ship. A considerable portion of its mass has been shaved off during the process &...
Question Context : Mars second moon Deimos has been converted into a generation ship. A considerable portion of its mass has been shaved off during the process & ejected backwards along its p...
Summary at bottom. I have a character from a homemade alien species. The species has silver/white hair and blue/violet eyes. I know these are traits of a melanin deficiency, but I imagined her hav...
Someone in the comment section of my previous question pointed out the energetic problem of ectotherms with human intelligence (the brain needs a lot of energy). I still want to keep my lizardfolk...
Imagine that when Christopher Columbus sailed West in his Carrack to travel around the world to reach India, he had never made it to land, because halfway across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe a...
Ideally, when I die I want to be blown up; go out with a bang, you know? However, I wouldn't want chunks raining down on everyone. How much TNT would I need to have secured for my funeral to comp...
In my story, something pretty insane happens during the 3rd season. The common conception was that an asteroid strike contributed to the extinction to dinosaurs, but unbeknownst to all it was not...
Many stars, including the Sun, periodically display starspots, cooler areas of the surface associated with higher local concentrations of the stellar magnetic field. They can sometimes be a couple ...
I've been thinking about worlds like Keplar-62e, thought to be covered in deep oceans, and wondering about floating reefs. Could a bio-structure substantially similar to terrestrial coral hold eno...
I want a character to be able to spit/spray from the mouth many different liquids created within the body. Liquids would include a strong acid, flammable liquid, strong poison/nerve agent, a stick...
My story has a few androids and some beings that can manipulate electricity with their bio battery electric organs and I want these characters to have the ability to shoot powerful lasers, plasma p...
Rivers of lava are a staple of fantasy. But in the real world, lava flows are usually very short-lived phenomenons caused by volcanic eruptions. Is there some plausible way on an otherwise earth-l...
Would anyone be able to check some math/ let me know if I'm thinking of this the correct way? I had an idea of the moon appearing basically stationary in the sky, but in fact it orbits just faster ...
