Q&A with a focus on more stringent analysis. Questions and answers should be well-researched, clearly explained, and supported with references, equations, or empirical evidence based on current, widely-accepted science. Please read the category guidelines.
Filters (None)
I'm spitballing a story where the main character goes through a monstrous transformation. Part of the conceit / my enjoyment is that she's an oncology researcher and will be tracking the transform...
Can electricity be generated directly from nuclear decay? It occurred to me that in alpha decay two protons fly off rapidly, leaving their associated electrons behind. If the alpha particle was ca...
Could nuclear energy be a basis for energy storage with foreseeable technology? One approach would be to use excited nuclear states, but I suspect they would be too unstable to ever be useful. Al...
Do {any, some, all} {unicellular, multicellular} plants require free oxygen? For example, would a cabbage asphyxiate over night, or even in daylight, in an oxygen-free atmosphere?
When water is electrolysed with graphite electrodes some of the oxygen reacts immediately with the anode to produce carbon dioxide. Does a similar reaction ever occur at the cathode, producing meth...
Quantum Computers are considered a more powerful type of computer than so called 'classical' computers. While a typical classical computer could be considered as a black box that can solve Polynomi...
This is a multi-species animal army with predators of all shapes and sixes, foxes, lions, bears, tigers, leopards, wolves, lynx, eagles, falcons and so on. The herbivores have been excluded from t...
In my story, I have a small extended family of 30 to 40 individuals ranging in age from 0 to 50 who are on the run from Chinese and Japanese forces in 1400AD. No place in Asia is safe for them. By...
The known charge-conserving decay modes of free neutrons all involve the production of a proton, an electron and an electron antineutrino: $$n\to p^++e^-+\bar{\nu}_{e}$$ This beta decay is why, out...
I've had a number of interesting conversations with people about how the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will evolve in the future. The CMB is the sea of photons left over from the epoch of recom...
For the purposes of my story, seen here someone who went through a similar procedure involving parallel dimensions (see here), becomes nearly indestructible , invulnerable to damage related to exce...
I am trying to understand if it would be possible for organisms to evolve by different means other than random mutations and natural selection. Eukaryotes were predicted to be formed by fusion with...
In many fantasy worlds, giants are as intelligent as human beings and others races that they either avoid stepping on or step on regularly. However, due to the square cube law, giants have a limit...
Due to reasons of magic an alien god that is about to takeover the earth in one year and can only be stopped by being shot through the entire earth. Assuming modern day Earth (no magic other then ...
I did some research recently for a story on the physical feasibility of some aspects of living in the Saturn cloud deck, and wanted to share it. Please, however, if you have alternate approaches,...
Sort of two questions here, but very related. One about whether a mammal-like animal could evolve to have a chitinous endoskeleton, I guess. Then a question of whether, if they grow horns, that ske...
I've been working on designing how an ammonia-ocean world might work and I've settled basically everything except one. I cannot for the life of me find any sources that actually provide a decent wa...
Often, when I'm building a world, I want to start out by determining some of its key properties. Maybe I'm trying to calculate a habitable zone, or figure out how long a year would be on a particul...
So the mass of air around the earth has doubled. How it doubled isn't part of the question, but for the curious let's say a space station floating around earth processed all the nitrogen, oxygen, c...
So far I've been using Artifexian's How To Build A Star YouTube video. The problem with this video is that it's quite old and thus outdated. The things I've noticed to be particularly weird are the...
Assuming all the primary hurdles in building a space elevator are overcome, would it be structurally feasible to attach intermediate stops along the length of the tether (between the planet and GSO...
In many sci fi universes that don't have handheld energy weapons, they instead use solid projectiles that either go big (Warhammer 40k) or really small (Mass Effect). The former I have a pretty go...
I have a planet around 11242 km in diameter. It is very similar to Mars, with most surface water trapped at the poles. For this, I want the polar temperature below 0 C, but the equatorial temperatu...
No, this is not not about courtship displays or dominance figths. (even thought I know that that is also part of mating) This is more of "What their genitalia would look like" and how they would "...
The fluff: I have a humanoid who's about to breach a door. He's got some upgrades to his body and can pump some stimulants through it to boost his strength, resiliance and speed to ridiculous prop...
I have seen a variety of outer space megastructures across sci-fi and the minds of most astrologists, such as Bishop Rings, O'Neill Cylinders, Bernal Spheres, and much more. What most of these inte...
Effectively what the title says; What would different observers experience while travelling through / seeing one travel through the tube, and how could they be used to cut travel times? (Just answe...
I'd like to be able to determine the appearance of the night sky from an Earth-like planet, in a solar system with multiple other planets, moons, and other bodies. Here on Earth, we can directly me...
First time posting here but I would like to get some help with an issue I have. I have a planet that has 30% more gravity than earth. I have terrestrial animals with an exoskeleton, they stand at ...
Right now I'm currently trying to calculate the average surface pressure at sea level of an atmosphere, but I'm having a struggle finding the relevant formulae with which to determine this number. ...
My question is: What needs to be added or improved in the human body so that my genetically modified people can fully withstand temperatures of several degrees below zero ( "” 40 ° Celsius) for a ...
Humans are not the fastest mammals on the planet, but for very long distances (more than 40 kilometers) we can overtake any species living on land. Except some dogs. The best runners on ultra-long...
My planet is tidally locked, airless, and has no magnetosphere. It's located close to a flare star (5% solar mass, 11 Gyr old), and is in it's habitable zone. The strongest flare ever detected on E...
Respirocytes are an artificial analogue of red blood cells. Tiny sapphire capsules that can absorb oxygen in the lungs and release it in the capillaries. From the capillaries to the lungs, they, in...
Normally, the human retina contains four types of light-sensitive receptors: three types of cones and one type of rods. The receptor proteins contain the chromo "” iodopsin in the sticks, the rhodo...
A thought occurred to me, and I wondered if it could be made practical... This video talks about the possibility of electrical battery powered planes, and in short, while it may be practical to bu...
My question is: I need to improve the muscle fibers and nervous system of my genetically modified human so that it has dexterity and physical responses 4 to 10 times faster than the average human.Â...
Inspired by many questions that make use of utility fog. Utility fogs are not, as the name might suggest, fogs, but rather lattice solids. Cells of the foam are pollen-like micrometer-scale mach...
Let's assume a world where humanity managed to stabilize the climate again and maybe even reversed the effects of the current climate change. (So that we can ignore the current global warming in th...
My question is: what needs to be changed in the body of my genetically modified people so that they can safely drink toxic water ( most often industrial wastewater is contaminated with industrial w...
So, somehow, I have discovered a process that makes an objects mass negative. Not its weight, its mass (although, I guess that the weight would also become negative). The thing is, before I try it,...
I am currently brainstorming a hard (like the hardest possible; everything that occurs in the story must at least be theoretically possible) sci-fi story which will take place far in the future. I ...
Contrary to popular belief serpentine dragons are not in fact magical or related to the European wyvern but instead are descended from the Chrysopelea. some common characteristics of serpentine dra...
Prosimians on average are not as intelligent as their simian counter parts with the notable exception being lemurs which live in semi large groups. what I want to know is could a group of prosimian...
What needs to be changed in the structure of the human stomach so that a person is almost completely immune to poisons and toxins ( especially interesting regarding the poison of puffer fish, Gray ...
I know this question has been asked in similar places, but I'm after a specific part of the problem. Assuming the following: Perfectly flat, infinite world Earth's atmosphere Sun directly overhea...
This is my first world and I want to build in a way that is physically possible (if this is possible, otherwise make the necessary changes) for my civilization (which is mostly fleshed out) but I d...
Counter pressure spacesuits allow, in theory, a wearer to not be in an air tight space suit and work in a vacuum. What is the minimum such suit that could be used in a survival situation, on a shi...
Stun-wizards specialize in blinding and deafening opponents at a distance. To do so, they can exert their magical power to manifest a spherical region of vacuum by essentially "telekinetically" pus...
Most animals that glide are rather light and small. Flying squirrels, Colugos, and sugar gliders all weigh but a few ounces. The largest gliding predators are snakes of the Chrysopelea genus. Agai...
