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I have an idea for a crazy super-organism which could wipe out the human race. Essentially, it is an organism (plant or fungus or bacterium depending on what would be more effective or what would b...
My story takes place on a moon in orbit around a Gas giant. The moon has 0 tilt relative to the sun but the gas giant it orbits does have an eccentric orbit around its parent star. (it has an orbit...
I am wondering about Tatooine, and was reading about binary systems here, which provided a lot of good basic food for thought. My specific question is not addressed at that link, and so I pose it h...
Background A McKendree cylinder is a rotating cylindrical space habitat comparable to the more well known O'Neill model. It was proposed by NASA engineer Thomas McKendree in 2000 as an update of O...
By request, these are the two previous questions in this "series": Low Voltage Lightning and Alien Nitrogen How To Make Lightning I recently asked a question about lightning storms on planets. O...
Believability of a fantasy creature can go so far. Case in point--the title feature. I have first seen it on a Ringwraith's winged mount... ...then on Smaug... ...and finally on the dragons...
So, astronomers discover that ~100 years Earth will be destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by a black hole passing through our Solar System. Governments around the world focus on ensuring Humanity'...
We have 24 hour schedules because the earth rotates about once every 24 hours. But what if humans were on a planet that didn't have 24 hour days? Would their bodies adapt to stay awake for far long...
Certain galactic trade union (the Blue) has a base on a distant planet, where they mine extremely rare unobtanium. They have set up anti-spacecraft cannons and essentially turned the planet into an...
I'm imagining a situation that we can see a star change color periodically: A star and Earth orbit around a black hole The star is very near to the black hole so that it has high orbital speed, w...
Would it be possible for an extraterrestrial humanoid or superhero to increase and decrease their hearing at will, and if so, how? I'm thinking specifically of an alien who can somehow adjust their...
If the Earth had Saturn-like rings going around the equator would there still be a need for a moon? Would the rings be able to take care of the tides because of their gravity? Would the moon become...
I'm not talking about a single alien civilization that is stranded on earth, I'm talking about multiple civilizations that will cause major overpopulation on earth. So this means that the civiliza...
Roughly how long would arthropods have to evolve before they could reach sizes analogous to current day megafauna (like today's mammals)? Assume an alternate earth where tetrapods never colonize...
The rock is spherical. All arthropods are included. They have no time limit and are "programmed" to cooperate, but lack intelligence. While there is no time limit, the insects do this transportatio...
Bobby, a human space traveler from Theta, and has been in space for a couple of centuries. He's been kept alive either through his own biology or some feat of technology. Having no contact with his...
So I have in mind a plot point in mind where my protagonist is elected to pilot a giant humanoid robot with flight capabilities - Kinda like a mobile suit from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise. To ...
My question is: Can a human be used as a living ant hill or bee hive, e.g. have insects living inside themselves under the premise that they (the human) are completely immobilized? "Living hill o...
Suppose you have a planet large enough to support life, with water and air all that, but old enough that it has exhausted its internal heat supply, the core is frozen solid, and there is little to ...
I was reading a question and had a follow-up question with a story idea that I'd like to develop more fully. The idea is a HUGE maze, thousands (or more) of square miles, that has small clearings ...
I have characters in mind for a science-fantasy setting which are mostly what you'd call mechanical/robotic, but that also have muscles in their major limb joints, as well as a cardiovascular syste...
My question is: Could a macroscopic (e.g. visible) plant grow on a living human, provided that the human is completely immobilized?
Relating to this question: Ensuring an endless war, and an endless stalemate In a planet such as our Earth, what climate conditions and/or atmospheric changes would be required for the formation a...
This is a reality check: I want a planet with huge forests and a relatively (to Earth) high level of CO2, but I also want there to be very large areas of grassland, (savannahs) where we naturally e...
I'm working on a science fiction story which includes the following premise: Tony Stark invents an unobtainium reactionless engine, and the protagonists want to build a spaceship around it, big eno...
