General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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Real x-ray vision, the ability to (at least) detect X-rays as a 'visible' light (or any other detection system) seems it would be very problematic. X-Rays are a high energy form of electromagnetic ...
*By complex life, I mean something more complex than microorganisms. Something closer to what we have on Earth. Similar to this question: Is it possible for life to evolve on planets without water...
Given a Medieval or Middle Ages level of technology - leather bellows, etc how close could craftsmen come to achieving a near total vacuum in an enclosed space. In context, I'm trying to create a ...
Assuming interstellar travel, and self-sufficient colonies in other star systems, what are some methods of destroying the Earth while leaving minimal impact on the colonies? Context I would like ...
I have an idea for an energy source for a colony on a cold world with not enough solar power. Is my idea workable, or is it debunked as perpetual motion machine? Here is the set-up and my plan: Sc...
I've read a lot of posts about moons around large gas giants and I think I have fairly good idea about basics to them. I'm not super great with all the science parts myself but they give me lots of...
I am creating a culture that has the ability to change between 2 forms. One humanoid (the natal form) and one feral, animal form (you can consider this to be a werewolf). Due to this they evolved t...
Let's consider an O'Neill cylinder with a radius of 3.2km and length of 20km. In the classic O'Neill design, we have three large axis-aligned windows in the shell, alternating between purlins of ha...
Context: Humans have escaped a a super-bacteria, similar in situation to the Bubonic Plague, that they could not create a cure for. They've done this by engineering gargantuan trees and adapting to...
I am designing a 'fairy' that is a relative of primates (essentially a sapient flying monkey). It has a skeleton similar to that of a spider monkey, but with a larger ribcage and shorter limbs. It ...
In the grim darkness of the 22,d century, there is only war. humanity has waged war on itself for decades, turning many areas of the planet into wastelands. With every decade that passes, new weapo...
In my last question about methods of deflecting a rogue planet, there was a fascinating answer from Willk. Willk basically suggested that if you knew the location, mass and velocity of objects in ...
Due to the world being based more on magic than actual science, I have a "planet" with changing season everywhere. A "sun" orbits it roughly near the equator, but it only gives light, it doesn't ch...
The Ressurectinator is a handy machine than can bring back people from death. Unlike the virgin Lord of Light, the chad Ressurectinator does that without human sacrifice and/or permanent scars. Yo...
The following scenario takes place on Earth, sometime in the next few decades. An unethical biotech company has developed a deadly bioweapon that uses humans as a vector, almost like a suicide bomb...
I have been playing with the ideas of electricity generating/attacks for my characters using either electric organs similar to electric eels or some sort of bio battery using bacteria that produce ...
I want to have a two-world binary planet system where both have intelligent life, orbiting a single star. The two planets are assumed to be tidally locked to each other and orbit each other every 3...
I'm interested in coming up with a plausible agent of destruction, virus or fungus or engineered weapon or what have you, that could conceivably wipe out a majority of the human race. What physical...
This question is a bit of an outgrowth of Can you simply scale up animals?, but it does approach it from a different angle. "All else equal" (which it of course never is, but we're good at pretend...
I want to make a superhero that can control all forms of energy. From what I've heard you can do a lot like, manipulate time and space, open blackholes, teleport, shape shift, and manipulate matter...
I've recently read Alastair Reynolds' sci-fi best seller, Redemption Ark, where he explored the concept of manipulating an inertial frame overlaid on the quantum vacuum like many of the other funda...
I am working on a story where I will take the geography of our world but install new peoples, cultures and histories. This will likely include fantastical elements as well as mundane. In working ...
Apart from the obvious difference that liquid ammonia needs a much colder temperature than liquid water (but ammonia-based life forms wouldn't feel that as particularly cold), what would be the mos...
Alright so in my sci-fi a prominent corporation dominated by the Borlak species (Mantis-like Hexapods). The Borlak make their money by mining "dead systems", solar systems without any habitable pla...
I am interested in adding a race that relies on echolocation to sense the world around them in my scfi/fantasy setting. What I'm wondering is, how can a race protect against highly advanced sonic ...
With the potential for an impact event to trigger volcanic activity on the opposite side of the planet, what is the largest plateau of flood basalt physically capable of forming on Earth, post-impa...
Basically, I have a creature that is larger than an average human, and smaller than a bigger shire horse. So, size is adjustable. The bodyplan is similar to that of a horse, except for a longer nec...
On an Earth-like planet, an intelligent species evolved in symbiosis with another species that lives in their digestive system and act as the microbial gut flora in humans do. What implementations ...
I was having a discussion with several people on whether or not a lightning dragon can be biologically plausible, without any magic involved. We came to two main possibilities and I'd love to see f...
I'm currently designing a super earth with a surface gravity of 1.5g and a thick oxygen rich atmosphere. Now since the gravity is higher, how exactly would that affect my world? For example: Geogr...
The cold fusion generator is ready, loaded with tons of heavy water. The scientists stand by ready to measure the energy output of the amazing new technology. They turn it on, and as expected, ge...
I want to create a Mad-Max-esque post apocalyptic setting. Unfortunately after a bit of looking into this, there is one massive issue with the idea of lots of maniacs tearing across the barren lan...
I recently came into possession of a rather large mass of molasses due to a misunderstood Alexa inquiry and since the restocking fee is outrageous, I plan on using it to answer a nagging question I...
If there was a life-supporting planet that was cubical rather than spherical, would it be feasible for there to be a unique but similar civilisation on each 'Plane'? I know that cube planets are i...
How can Bronze Age people make hazmat gear for chlorine trifluoride? The ClF₃ is produced biologically, just as fruits produce acid or capsaicin. This alternate world just happens to have bacte...
I wanted to have characters that can control energy and matter, so Dr Manhattan came to mind as a great example of a character that does that. Information on him says that he has complete awarenes...
With the proper composition and mass, is it possible for a planetary body to collide with Earth and embed itself onto the mantle? To clarify, while immense destruction would undoubtedly occur to t...
How plausible are naturally-evolved, biological, fixed-wing flying creatures? Could such a creature plausibly evolve in Earth-like conditions? If so, what method would it be most likely to use fo...
What would happens if due to increased volume and reduced density, the global warming cause consistent loss into space of certain gases of atmosphere? What would we observe?
Just for clarification: when I say "designing", I mean just coming up with the idea of this fungus, as opposed to it being "designed" by humans. I've been very interested in fungi ever since findi...
Firstly, I'm not looking for an organism that gives birth to two separate species (like a human that gave birth to a human baby and a puppy) as I'm fairly sure that is impossible (though feel free ...
I have an idea for an encounter in my world that goes like this... A weary group of adventurers are trekking through a great ancient forest. This forest is avoided by most due to strange tales of...
I'd encourage you to take about 4 min to read the whole post. Multiple masses of parabanic acid appear at random around the world (but see Context and constraints), displacing any matter in their ...
When building a city, one must consider why one is building a city. It's all very well imagining a city perched on top of an inaccessible mountain peak, but a believable world requires that we cons...
My world has two races of mammalian mermen, one of which are somewhat monstrous and I'll call them "Abyssals" in this thread. I really want the Abyssals to 'breathe' underwater, as well as being ab...
I'm building an alien world for an artistic project. The world circles an m-dwarf star, and so the flora have evolved to photosynthesize longer wavelengths of light than on Earth, primarily in the ...
In my fantasy world, there are several species - both sapient and non-sapient. They all originally evolved from a group of insects that, after millions of years of isolation and no competition, hav...
To Whom It May Concern; I'm going to be blunt: I'm terrible at formal letters. I've just recently arrived at our new home. I find it amazing! The city design leaves something to be desired, but I ...
Are there any holes in the following reasoning? Black holes form gravitational lenses. So they bend light. Is it possible for an observer to see his own past image as a result of light bending aro...
In my world, alien 'reactors' are discovered that are very efficient at creating power (around 1000x better than fission), as well as requiring little fuel, making them the perfect power source. H...
