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.
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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...
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...
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?
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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 ...
I have posted a similar question where I asked how can two realities mix into one reality in which I received many helpful comments. I realise I should've expanded on the details I posted, so I wil...
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'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...
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...
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...
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 "...
I need to know how wide the diameter of a space fountain's* particle stream is in relation to the mass it's trying to support. It would have to lift its mass at least 40000 kilometers. The vacuum...
There are 2 planet sized structures that are artificially made with no means of propulsion. Each structure has the approximate mass of Earth but are hollow inside. The inside area is where the peop...
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 ...
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...
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...
What is required for advanced lungs to filter dangerous chemicals (so to speak, to carry out the detoxification process) and then use oxygen? (It is advisable to take into account the above record,...
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...
I am wanting to make a 3 world lagrange system around a Sol analog star that includes 1 gas giant and 2 terrestrial worlds with large moons. I want the terrestrial worlds to have a similar gravity ...
After what feels like forever and after asking several questions (like this, this and this), I believe I may have decided upon a suitable orbital system for my world: $M_{S}=2.272\;571\;144\;5 \...
This question asks for hard science. All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this req...
Bob the time traveler has a problem. He went to 75,000,000 BC to get some dinosaur eggs (don't ask) and his time machine re-combobulator broke and a big chunk is missing. Fortunately he can still ...
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'm thinking about designing an alien race. The race is carbon-based and evolved on a world with an average surface temperature between 40 and 60 degrees Celsius. Now, on Earth, almost all lifeform...
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...
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...
I'm considering adding a particle based weapon within my setting. It would be used in atmosphere and utilise [electrons] (http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php#id--Particl...
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,...
In FTL-free universes, interstellar travel is often done by vessels capable of continuous acceleration (the drives themselves are often magitech), which can use the effects of relativistic time dil...
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...
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 ...
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...
I have a layman's (re: not very good) understanding of nuclear physics, and it's pretty cool to me, but I'm quite bad at math. I'm working on a sci-fi book (classic, I know) and just finished a dra...
In the story Wang's Carpets (and part of the novel Diaspora), Greg Egan sketchily describes a high-dimensional universe which contains no analog for light, such that the aliens who inhabit this uni...
For certain reasons I decided to not set my story on Earth. However, the planet is meant to host an Earth-like biosphere (including humans, most of Earth's species (perhaps some that didn't evolve ...
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...
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...
For complicated reasons our hero's blimp in the Venus atmosphere at an altitude of 50 km gets a tear in it and sunlight floods inside (there is no gondola, the blimp is a semi-ellipsoid of breathab...
I want to send a flying saucer (a $\frac{1}{10}$ scale Independence Day City Destroyer - calculated as a sphere cap 112m high with 1.2km segment radius, $\rho$ about 43.3kg/m3) away from the sun as...
What sort of force would a railgun need to produce to have a measurable affect on the trajectory of a large spacecraft? In the scifi book I am working on the primary craft of the story is a milita...
After reading the following question, I know that there are not that many solutions to the 3-body problem, and I know that a ternary system is unstable. The 3 stars all orbit each other in a rotati...
Assume that space warfare is dominated by gamma and x-ray lasers (Wakefield-Plasma and Free Electron Lasers) capable of killing targets several light-seconds away. Stealth in space is possible due ...
What would be the approximate gravity, atmosphere etc. of a planet for a species to never make or use launch vehicles with rounded shapes like tapering cylinders, because they make use of the incre...
We have at most 100 years to abandon earth. The 10-km asteroid which killed the dinosaurs has hit the moon head-on instead. As a result, the moon has slowed down and it's orbit will decay by 400,00...
