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The Rankine cycle describes the ideal thermodynamic cycle for a heat engine to produce the best performance and convert heat into mechanical work while it undergoes phase change. Is it possible for...
The platypus do it, so it can and is done, some how. It would be a waste of energy to be lactating the entire time after the egg is laid up until it hatches, so how does my alien race know when to ...
Fantasy tends to have several races that are shorter than humans. With Dwarves, the size is explainable by the fact that they're usually depicted as subterranean-dwelling, and height would be a dis...
I saw this video, and I'm curious what color bark would be if the sun was in one position constantly. The video explains that birch trees are white because of stuff in their bark. The reason is be...
We're all aware of modern-day fertility treatments, like artificial insemination and hormones, but are there less advanced ways to trigger ovulation and/or otherwise boost fertility? What methods m...
(See diagram) Presupposing that a Rocheworld can even exist... I imagine that sunlight would work more or less the same in the atmosphere of any part of an Earth like planet that was tidally lock...
I was wondering if it was possible to potentially grow a plant on a building taller than mount Everest. I mean on as in bottom to top with grass or some other plant. Would the grass run out of oxyg...
I'm currently writing a short story about astronauts exploring a seemingly barren planet, which is covered in steep mountains with large flat areas in between. They soon find themselves hunted by ...
Imagine a world whose sun is swinging like a pendulum above a flat surface. This is a sketch of the diagram. A complete cycle lasts twenty-four (24) hours (from an end to the other and back aga...
Assuming humanity found a planet they could travel to and was suitable for colonization, how would scientists re-engineer the human colonists for life on this new world? Planet details: It's sli...
I am designing a creature for a tall tale I'm composing and I have apparently hit a wall when it comes to envisioning an environment that would promote the creation of an intelligent race of arachn...
OK, let's say that you have an interstellar human population. You've got people who live on different planets in various systems, but you also have people living in space stations in different syst...
Assuming a civilization has the capacity to build space vessels designed to travel from one solar system to another, what is the technological difference between traveling at 50% light speed and tr...
What sort of biological challenges and modifications would it take to create a snake with a head on both ends? Assume that said snake is created by a deity and thus some complicated evolution path...
Ok I have a moon, or cored out moon, that is a generation ship. I really do: I built it by mining out one of the rock/ice moons around my solar systems gas giants (not earth's solar system). Its...
In my story, a colony ship has made landfall on a planet. At first there is not thought to be any sentient life there, but after a while it becomes apparent that this is not the case. The idea I ...
So I have a planet with tectonic plates that are separated by massive canyons that reach all the way down to the mantle. Obviously this means that the planet is very unstable and violent, experienc...
How would a four-legged bird's flight differ from a regular two-legged one? Would it be slower in flight but have more power taking off? The bird in question is modeled on a bird of prey. (four leg...
In my world there's a salt flat like Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia (of different size if need be) (source) Is there a chance a medium- to large-sized forest could have grown naturally in the immedia...
Let me clarify on the title, because this is important. In recent years, people have been feeling less comfortable calling the only natural satellite orbiting Earth a moon. It may not be the larg...
How big could a nebula be? If a spaceship were traveling 300,000 times the speed of light (assuming this were possible and had no other effects, such as time travel or time dilation) is it plausibl...
What are the fastest and slowest gestation rates possible in a humanoid species and/or a human sub-species? What does the gestation rate say about the species and vice versa?
I'm creating a planet inhabited by beings who have a body temperature that is colder than humans. What conditions on the planet would require them to have evolved this trait? Thanks
Would putting a dye on my eyeball to make my sclera (the white of my eye) turn black bring any advantages? I know that wearing black around the eyes reduces glare (as in that functional makeup som...
Hominids lost any tails we had before we evolved away from the rest of the great apes, which is related to why you should never call an ape a monkey. What could lead to a hominid species re-evolvin...
