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Alien and fantasy creatures can be designed in an infinite number of ways. But are there physiological traits that would be common among all tool-developing (technology-building) species? As an e...
Can humans survive by eating only nails and hairs of their own? As they grow they consume their own hair and nails. Hair includes even body hair. What is the maximum number days a human can surviv...
In a "futuristic" society (think Ghost in the Shell or Human Revolution), where you have AI driving vehicles that carry goods in a reliable way, is there any reason to have a human traveling with t...
So I have this character, that has been interred in a bronze statue for a thousand or so years. I need to be able to quickly melt, or get rid of the bronze so he can be released in front of my main...
I recently asked a question regarding whether or not a fictional theropod dinosaur-like creature I created could feasibly raise and lower its head which sported a number of large horns. I receive...
Wondering about a source of vegetable oil for my goblins. Something that produces nuts, perhaps? An underground nut-bush? Or something that produces a lot of seeds, the same way dandelions do? Or c...
I wanted a creature that produces something in its blood to protect itself from SEP (solar energetic particles) and GCR (galactic cosmic rays). The skin of the creature is normally sufficient prote...
The question, Reference to Earth in Intergalactic Universe illuminates the shortcomings of the term "light-year", which defines a distance by mixing the universally constant speed of light in a vac...
The term "light year" is used a lot in futuristic writings that focus on space, but light years are defined based on the length of a single year on Earth. Would that not make the entire measurement...
I'm an aspiring author, aiming to determine the physical realism of certain fictional concepts within a constructed universe identical to our own. There are many contingent ideas which I must expla...
In the science fiction setting I'm working on, one of the factions are supposed to be using naturally occurring antimatter because the systems they reside in have sufficient natural sources of it. ...
In my story, I have two huge generation ships racing each other to another star system. Assume they are on an exactly parallel path, neck-and-neck, about one astronomical unit apart. They are trave...
For us earthlings, the concept of "year" came from the observation that the Sun reaches a minimum and a maximum span in the rise-set path in the sky. On a planet experiencing extreme perihelion p...
Related to a previous question which focused more on surviving on such a world. This presumes a significant advancement in technologies - that is, to 1940s-1950s level technology. There are some d...
In redesigning a large number of my ships, I've decided that having larger ships generate enough power for FTL was too convenient and made balancing the factions varied FTL methods difficult (both ...
I'm thinking of a world where the earth's moon is densely crowded with dark materials. Solar power plants, dark buildings covered with radiation shielding, large dark open pit mines etc. Imagine th...
Scenario: Say we have a massive release of greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere, however much for the ocean around Antarctica to get just warm enough for hurricanes to form during the summer (2...
Sister question to: What's the smallest reasonable natural planet or moon with Earth-like surface gravity? - I want us to have both upper and lower bounds for 1g planets available for authors. We ...
The planet has a radius of 128 kilometres and the surface gravity is the same as Earth's. My calculations have discovered that the planet would have a density of about 50 times the Earth's: $$g_P=g...
I'm not a smart guy, can't find an answer to a question: Everything I see involves a large construct spinning at a slow speed to create gravity. Instead of something large could you not use a, le...
Inspired by this question on putting massive capacitor-banks on spaceships I have been wondering about alternative ways to store excess energy from ever-running reactors. In this question I would ...
Building on this question about space exploration on the slopes of a 50 mile high volcano, I'm curious what would happen when the volcano erupts. The volcano is: 50 miles high, just on the edge ...
The Hoop snake is a mythical creature from the United States and Canada that looks like a regular snake, but has the ability to grab its tail in its mouth and roll like a wheel at high speeds. It h...
The Question What would be an efficient and relatively low-cost solution for collecting and recycling of space junk? The most important criterion of effectiveness is the ability to remove even sm...
I'd like to have a community of humans live indefinitely in space habitats (think space stations supporting mining operations in the asteroid belt). The technology would be "day after tomorrow"-le...
