Search
In marine mammals, there are two different body types for two different niches: A long, strong tail for all-marine whales... ...and all four legs modified into flippers for pinnipeds that fee...
I'm writing about a setting where building technology is quite advanced, but elevators have not yet been invented, so the limiting factor on height is ergonomic. What would be the maximum practica...
So, in my research and preparation for the question I asked immediately before this one, I was introduced to the concept of "fluffy" gas giants, gas giants with significantly lower density than wou...
I was trying to figure out the early geological/biological history of the world I'm creating, and I was wondering about the development of early life. Basically, I've envisioned a world where Eukar...
Ko'dor are an octopus like species that arise from the swamps of the planet Luvwa. They have the ability to transform their bodies into any form or shape they want. When a Ko'dor wants to infiltr...
How large, referring to weight, could a Dandelion seed become before the wind was no longer able to carry them away? Assume the physiology of both the seed and plant remain the same besides being s...
This is a second question about the same world described in this question about human reaction to an alien world. So here's the idea: human beings travel to and land on an Earth-like world with th...
I have created a species that is basically a sort of land coral covered in a thick carapace made of rock. They live on an Earth-like planet (Class M as they say in Star Trek) and behave like cora...
In recent years, the search for the origins of life is becoming complex. It turns out that oxygen is NOT a requirement for multicellular life to thrive. As stated in this BBC article, poriferans ...
So some magical human-like creatures called Altum come from another continent (in my book) to this human populated continent (both are about the size of Europe). They want to help humans become a b...
Obviously, current oxygen levels should last us years, so we are talking about a long-term solution. Also, in this hypothetical scenario, plants have stopped releasing oxygen but haven't stop prod...
I'm trying to create plausible scenario under which we could colonize Venus. Is it possible that Venus could be hit by a planetoid and the impact strips its atmosphere and makes it spin faster? ...
I'm creating a post-apocalyptic world several centuries into the future. After the nuclear war whatever is left of humanity has regressed into the dark age. Society: The offspring of those few w...
I'd love some science advice and facts for this question: If they use wind power to bring up water from the ocean in the day time and spray it on prevailing winds going into land (i.e. 10-15 km fr...
I saw a movie where oil companies stumbled upon these fictional underground aquatic deep-sea animals that survived on eating and digesting the oil where they lived. They had squid/octopus-like bodi...
So, in my story there is a species of aliens, called the Ko'dor. The Ko'dor are a species of shape-shifters, who can change their forms at will. Naturally, they are four-eyed, green octopus like cr...
Background Hi all, I'm revisiting my musings on plausibly strengthening the human skeleton to better withstand the stresses of combat, melee in particular. If y'all don't care about background, sk...
The selected answer on this question provides an extremely good, and detailed, description of what is generally accepted to be the main (only?) way a terrestrial planet can form, i.e. through accre...
The terrestrial "vertebrates" of my planet must breathe air, and therefore must have lungs of some kind. They are descended from fish-like creatures, which breathe through gills. However, I would ...
Popular science fiction is full of examples of people and objects being shrunk down to the size of insects or smaller. Let us assume that everything is shrunk. Thus an animal would still contain t...
tl;dr : the earth has been gradually flooded, over the course of a few hundred years. Also, there are now large lumps or ice raining out of the sky (not very often), causing massive tsunamis. I ha...
The concept I have is merfolk that don't breath underwater and preserve a very human appearance from the waist up. I need to keep human (or at least very human-like) hair, skin, and eyesight in...
In my story there is a full size (Island Three) O'Neill cylinder, 5 miles in diameter and 20 miles long. It doesn't have windows, but is lit internally down the center of the cylinder with a 20 mi...
I'm creating a creature that possesses an outwardly Chelonian-like appearance. However, the creature is bipedal. Specifically, the creature possesses upright, pillar-like hind limbs, as well as a K...
Basically, it's a continent that wants to be really hard to find (you can find it if you try really, really hard). For example, if you got in a ship and wanted to sail to it you wouldn't be able to...
