Search
First, putting all morality issues aside, IQ can be well defined, and in fact it is, by current intelligence tests. For the purpose of this question simply divorce yourself from the notion that the...
The Coriolis acceleration is $$\mathbf{a}_c=-2\mathbf{\Omega}\times\mathbf{v}$$ where $\mathbf{\Omega}$ is the angular velocity vector of the cylinder and $\mathbf{v}$ is the velocity vector of the...
Requires no exotic dimensional physics. For the same reasons we humans never visited either the North or South poles, until we developed the technology to do so a few hundred years ago. It's too ...
Have you tried this thing as a kid, when you are swimming in a pool or at a lake, where you take a small bucket, turn it upside down, and competed for who could push it down the farthest? It is ha...
What worries me about the bromothymol blue proposal is that it doesn't appear to be an organic chemical, i.e. no living organism produces it. This means that it's not possible (or at least unlikely...
Electrical failure. The ship's communication system is, presumably, powered by electricity. Interrupt that supply, and boom, comms are down. If the same electrical supply is used to power a bunch ...
The answer, as far as I can tell, is that there aren't any existing drugs that would do what you want. Drug-induced amnesia is, of course, a real thing. In your question, you alluded to drugs that...
You could imagine arranging the brain lobes like the segments of an orange. The spinal chord could depart from the center, with the brain lobes arranged vertically in the skull. There would need to...
They want people to strive for a better position and sort the weaklings out By making the lower ranks wear red they incentivise people to get better. After all everyone knows that Redshirts die mo...
Sexual Selection Downward facing ears can be a problem. Thinking about Beagles long floppy ears can mean that there is not enough air circulation and the ears can get infected. If something makes ...
A synchronized orbit like you described is, simply put, not possible. For every orbit, there is a set speed for that orbit. No faster and no slower. Gaining or losing speed changes the orbital pro...
How much gold are we talking about? Well, let's use the approximation $$\Delta V\approx4\pi r^2\Delta r$$ If $r$ is about the radius of Earth and $\Delta r$ is $1\text{ meter}$, then $\Delta V\app...
You might consider adding luminol to the creatures' bloodstreams. When mixed with an oxidizer (like oxygen) and a catalyst, it becomes luminescent. It turns out that the iron in hemoglobin is a ver...
It is a trade-off between benefits. Large settlements allow more efficient collective action, trade, etc. It is easier to dig one water well than 10 water wells. If I want all settlements to be ...
It would be very easy to have an indicator in the window or door that raises a flag any time the pressure on one side changes. Some sort of membrane perhaps, that would move away from your room if ...
Yes. For large animals, octopuses are a possible source of inspiration. They have neurons in their arms, which lets them have a very large brain-to-body ratio. This does let their arms move withou...
Use a chain of ships. I'm imagining a pyramid setup, in a sense. Take $n$ ships. Send out the first one, of relatively low mass - Ship $1$. Then send out Ship $2$. Ship $2$ is now directly propell...
Let's take a stab, and say that your creatures look something like this: Those are pretty dog-like, don't you think? Now, let's look at where that one came from, evolutionarily speaking (its cl...
Safely stored in the cold caves under a glacier in the North pass, lie the dart tips made by a rod of white Phosphorus covered by a layer of Gallium, the latter in the shape of a harpoon tip. The g...
I am surprised I didn't see this before (only saw it now because of a link in chat) but I'm even more surprised no-one mentioned my solution, especially in the era of fidget-spinners... Simply add...
If the dark green is supposed to be forested area, it seem unusual to me to have a desert border it so tightly in the lower left quadrant. In my experience, desert transitions to mountain or rock, ...
You are incorrect. There is no "terminal velocity", that is a term used with air resistance (or it can apply to fluid resistance) when the amount of acceleration (due to gravity) is matched by the...
Get hold of some poison dart frogs. Careful when handling them: they're among the most poisonous creatures on the planet. Get hold of some dead sheep/cows/virgin females/whatever your dragon's pre...
Heavy Metals. The heavy and rare elements can be produced in Supernova; things like Gold, Platinum, etc. There are other ways, but precisely how isn't important. But, they can produce them in mas...
Pheromones. Simply put, the child gives off the Pheromones. Spending time near the child, such as via raising, would cause the parents to undergo these sorts of changes. Once the child matures, th...
